EU Project officer

[Simplified applications will not be considered, please follow the application procedure specified in the offer.]

Euromontana, the European association of mountain areas offers in its Brussels office: 1 year contract as EU project officer (possibility to extend the contract afterwards) from May 2022 onwards.

We offer: an interesting experience to join the Brussels’s office of a well-established European association (25 years) and manage different EU projects (Horizon 2020, Life…)

Our structure

Euromontana is the European association for cooperation and development of mountain areas. Created as a non-profit organisation in 1996, it now has about 65 members in 15 European States, in and outside the EU. Its aims are to promote mountain territories as territories with a future and to improve the quality of life of mountain populations, building on sustainable development models. To achieve these aims, Euromontana represents mountain communities to European institutions (European Commission, Parliament, Council…), conducts promotion actions (communication, events), organises cooperation among its members (networking and projects), and contributes to studies on sustainable mountain development. Operating with a small secretariat (2-4 people including trainees, from different origins), a key priority is to network with member organisations to assemble knowledge from different mountain regions and to make this available to decision-makers and mountain people.

For more info: https://www.euromontana.org/en/

Position: EU Project Officer

You will be under the responsibility of the Director of Euromontana and your responsibilities will include:

• Development and management of European projects: identification of promising project ideas, monitoring of funding opportunities and calls for proposals offering suitable funding sources and development of projects. In the past, project proposals have for instance been submitted on mountain products, rural development, attractiveness of mountain areas, social innovation, mobility… We usually work with Horizon 2020, Interreg Europe, Life, Erasmus+ funding schemes.
• Management of European projects: daily technical and – progressively – financial management of the funded projects, including reporting. Euromontana’s technical role as a project partner is usually the coordination of communication & dissemination activities, the collection of good practices, writing policy recommendations, and desk studies. The successful candidate will in particular manage:
• One Horizon 2020 project: FIRE-RES (December 2021-2025). It aims at developing a pan-European integrated approach to fire management and developing innovations to deal with extreme wildfire events. Euromontana leads the activities on communication &dissemination.
• One Life project, ShepforBio (2022-2026) to develop communication and training for shepherds’ schools.
• Support the finalization of the Montana174 project (2021-2022), a communication campaign coordinated by Euromontana to show how the Cohesion policy supports the daily life of mountain inhabitants.
• Follow-up of thematic themes: follow-up of policy and regulatory developments on relevant themes identified as priorities by the Board of Directors, especially, but not only, in relation with the projects. Coordination of Euromontana network to build policy papers and concrete proposals on these themes; communication to the public through Euromontana media (website and social networks) and to the Board.
• Organisation of events: under the responsibility of the Director and with the Communication & Policy Officer, support the organisation of Euromontana events and project events such as European Mountain Conventions (next one planned in October 2022 on Smart Mountains) and/or project conferences and various seminars and working sessions.
• Network coordination and development: interact with Euromontana members inside the network and with other organisations outside the network, with a view to increase the network’s visibility and develop membership base.

Around 80% of the time of the Project Officer will be spent on the development and management of EU projects, 10% on the thematic work, 5% on other events and 5% on networking.

Profile

You have a tertiary education degree (Masters, 5 years), in domains matching your future responsibilities (such as in EU funds, agriculture, forestry, rural development, innovation or mountain development or EU policies), with previous relevant experience of 6 months to 3 years.

Ideally your previous experience includes monitoring of EU funds and / or EU project management at European level or functions requiring similar levels of relational and analytical skills. A good command of European funding programmes especially of Horizon Europe would be a plus.

You have an excellent professional command of English and some knowledge of French, the two working languages of Euromontana.

You have a good command of Microsoft office tools to be autonomous in their daily use (to prepare PowerPoint public presentations for instance) and Excel (often used in project management).

You have good written and oral communication, analysis and synthesis skills. Open-minded, you have excellent relational skills and can interact in a positive way with counterparts from different cultures and backgrounds (researchers, practitioners).

Dynamic, enthusiastic and motivated, you know how to get fully involved in your function, face unexpected challenges and effectively organise your own time taking into account interaction with other staff members and members of the network.

Comfortable in a small organization (less than 5 persons), you are not afraid of multitasking and are solutions-oriented. You are available to travel for work.

Timing

Start: 1st May 2022

Contract type: VIE (Volontariat International en Entreprise) for one year, renewable for another year. Please note that to be eligible under this contract, the applicant should be under 29 years old when he/she starts the contract and registered in the VIE database before having 28 years old. Please note that all nationals of the European Economic Area are eligible, French nationality is not required. For more information, see here: https://mon-vie-via.businessfrance.fr/en/what-is-the-vie-french-international-internship-program

Job location: Euromontana Brussels office, with frequent travels in Europe.

Remuneration: 1987,70€/month (net fixed rate defined for the VIE contract in Belgium).

Interviews: January – February 2022.

Application to be sent by 10/01/2021 to: Marie Clotteau, Director at: marie.clotteau@euromontana.org – with object of the email mentioning “Your name – EU Project Officer at Euromontana”, including a concise CV (Europass format not compulsory) and a maximum 2-page cover letter explaining why you are interested in working at Euromontana and why you think your profile matches our needs. Only targeted applications will be analysed.

Do not apply if you do not fulfil the criteria to have a VIE contract.

Please use the function «ask for a receipt of reception » of your email if you wish to make sure the email has been received.