appeals

appeal

Pursuant to the General Administrative Law Act, a stakeholder may appeal the decision on the grant application. The General Administrative Law Act has made the appeals procedure compulsory as a preliminary stage before going to the administrative court. If you want to lodge an appeal, you send a notice of appeal addressed to the board of the Creative Industries Fund. The Fund has a permanent committee that advises the board on notices of appeal. This appeals committee is appointed by the board, but is independent from the Creative Industries Fund when advising.

The appeals committee assesses the decision of the Creative Industries Fund on formal and procedural grounds. The committee checks whether all applicable regulations have been properly followed and whether the decision and the motivation given are clear. For the record: this does not involve a substantive re-assessment. The appeals procedure is included in the various grant schemes that the Creative Industries Fund implements. Below, some elements from this are discussed. If you want more information about the applicable regulations in the appeals procedure, you can contact the secretariat of the appeals committee. We are happy to help you further if you send us a message via bezwaren@stimuleringsfonds.nl.

notice of appeal

A stakeholder can submit a notice of appeal to the board of the Fund. If you are the applicant yourself, then you are automatically a stakeholder. The notice of appeal is forwarded to the appeals committee. The appeal must be submitted to the board of the Creative Industries Fund no later than six weeks after the written decision. The Creative Industries Fund works with a digital application system. The date on which the decision is made available to the applicant in this system counts as the start date of the six weeks of the appeal period. The notice of appeal can be sent signed (digitally) by email to bezwaren@stimuleringsfonds.nl. The notice of appeal is addressed to the board of the Creative Industries Fund and contains at least:

• the name and address of the appealer (the person submitting the appeal);
• the date;
• a description of the decision and reference number against which the appeal is directed;
• the grounds for the appeal.

hearing

If you want, you can explain your appeal orally during a hearing. The secretariat of the appeals committee establishes a date for the hearing in consultation with the appealer, the Fund and the committee.

The secretariat collects the relevant data for the hearing. Up to ten days before the hearing, stakeholders can add documents to the file. The Fund writes a response to the notice of appeal prior to the hearing. This response is shared with the appealer no later than ten days before the hearing. Stakeholders are invited no later than three weeks in advance. The invitation letter states which members of the appeals committee the hearing committee consists of.

The hearing committee hears the appealer and an employee of the Fund in each other's presence. The hearing committee enables the stakeholder to explain the appeal and asks questions to both the Fund and the appealer. A hearing lasts approximately 45 minutes. The hearing is concluded with the question of whether all aspects of the appeal have been addressed and whether the appealer wants to add anything else.

audio recording

Sometimes the secretary makes an audio recording (without image) of the hearing. This recording serves as a tool when writing the advice or the decision on the appeal. The chair announces at the beginning of the hearing whether a recording will be made. In case of objection to making the audio recording, it will not be made. Once the decision on the appeal has been taken, you can request the audio recording of the hearing.

It may also be that you want to make an audio recording of the hearing yourself. Present this at the beginning or beforehand of the hearing, so that the other attendees, the committee members and present secretary are aware of this. Unless there are compelling reasons not to do this, making an audio recording is permitted. Note: if one of the other attendees asks you to do so, you must share the recording of the hearing with them, so that they too can listen back to the hearing.

Sharing with others outside of this or publishing an audio recording or part thereof, for example on a website or social media, is not permitted. The Fund will not share the audio recording with third parties. The exception is if those who can be heard on the audio recording all agree to publication. When asking for permission, you must clearly indicate whether it concerns the complete recording or fragments.

duty of the appeals committee

Based on the file and the hearing, the appeals committee formulates advice to the board. This advice includes a summary of the positions of the appealer and the positions of the Fund. Based on this advice, the board makes a decision on the appeal. The advice is sent to you as the appealer together with the decision on the appeal. At the request of a stakeholder, for example you (the appealer) or the board, the committee makes the audio report of the hearing available. The audio report becomes part of the appeals file.

decision on appeal

The board makes a decision on the appeal based on the advice of the appeals committee. If the decision on the appeal deviates from this advice, then the board motivates this carefully. The board deviates from the advice if there are compelling reasons to do so. For taking a decision on the notice of appeal, we use a period of twelve weeks, calculated from the day after the period for submitting the notice of appeal has expired. This decision period can be extended by six weeks.

advisory committee for appeals:

mr. G.A.J.A. Trapman (chair)
mr. P.M. Bloemers
mr. C. Hakbijl
mr. L. Kembel
mw. A. Verstegen

secretaries:
Annique Deneer
Chloë Neeleman

questions

For more information about the appeals procedure you can contact us via bezwaren@stimuleringsfonds.nl.

revised application

If you do not wish to raise an appeal regarding the procedure followed but believe that your application did not come out well enough in the assessment and you can put forward new facts and circumstances that may affect your application, or if you wish to adjust your application in response to a negative decision, you may submit a revised application once under certain grant schemes of the Fund. Read more here about submitting a revised application.