Project Cycle Management (PCM) focuses on the relation between the EU-funding Programme and the Projects to ensure overall coherence, objectives alignment, and recurrent improvement in the cyclical learning from the evaluation step, describing who does what in the different steps. EUPM² Guide focuses on how the single projects should be designed and managed, linking the formulation, financing, and implementation steps. EUPM² Guide supports all the organizations that intend to formulate project proposals and implement projects in an integrated and coherent way within PCM.
Fig. 2.2.- The integration of EUPM² Guide with Project Cycle Management
In EUPM² Guide, the project starts as soon as the organization decides to formulate a project proposal in response to a call for proposal. It includes all the activities needed to submit the proposal as well as to implement it after the positive financing decision of the Contracting Authority. EUPM² Guide provides complementarity and coherence with PCM, providing a much necessary standardised project management methodology for EU-funding project practitioners.
2.2 Project Cycle Management: linking EU-funding Programmes and Projects