EUROPEAN COMMISSION ENTERPRISE AND INDUSTRY DIRECTORATE-GENERAL Call for Proposals ENT-CIP-09-C-N01S005 Europe INNOVA Innovation Platform for Eco-innovation CIP-EIP Work Programme 2009
TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. CONTEXT...3 2. OBJECTIVE OF THE CALL...4 2.1. Specific objectives in Strand 4 and Strand 6 of the Eco-IP...5 3. TIMETABLE...5 4. FINANCING...6 4.1. Co-financing and joint and several responsibility...6 4.2. Award of procurement contracts...7 5. ELIGIBILITY...7 6. SELECTION...9 6.1. Financial capacity...9 6.2. Professional and technical capacity...9 7. AWARD...10 8. SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS...11 9. EQUAL OPPORTUNITY...11 10. PERSONAL DATA...11 11. ANNEX - GUIDE FOR APPLICANTS...12 2
1. CONTEXT In recent communications 1, the Commission points to eco-innovation as one of the main fields that can provide large opportunities in terms of wealth creation and growth sustainability and proposes eco-innovation as an area offering promising prospects for the emergence of an innovation friendly lead-market. The Small Business Act 2 underlines the need to develop new forms of support in eco-innovation to enable SMEs to exploit the opportunities inherent in responding to environmental concerns. In line with all this, the importance of eco-innovation for the competitiveness of the EU economy and the creation of jobs and wealth is widely recognised and emphasised in the renewed Lisbon Strategy, the Lead Market Initiative and the Environmental Technologies Action Plan. The Lead Market Initiative (LMI) as proposed by the Commission in December 2007 is a key priority of the Union s broad-based innovation strategy. The LMI aims to combine different instruments such as regulation, standardisation and public procurement with the view to creating more favourable framework conditions for innovation so as to accelerate the growth of emerging markets. Six potential lead market areas have been identified for an initial stage of the initiative, four of which in the area of eco-innovation: sustainable construction, recycling, bio-based products and renewable energies, together with ehealth and protective textiles. The Environmental Technologies Action Plan (ETAP) 3, adopted by the Commission in 2004, aims at the promotion of eco-innovation and market take-up of environmental technologies. In the last report on the implementation of ETAP 4, the Commission recommends to further develop tools and support to the increase in demand of ecoinnovation, with a particular emphasis on sectors where large environmental yields can be made quickly, such as sustainable construction, food and drink, recycling and waste water industries. The initiative Europe INNOVA of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme 2007-2013/Enterpreneurial and Innovation Programme (CIP-EIP) aims to foster innovation and reflects the approach of the Commission to support high growth companies by improving the quality of the business ideas and attracting as much as possible risk finance at the early stages 5. 1 2 3 4 5 More Research and Innovation - Investing for Growth and Employment: A Common Approach COM (2005) 488 final available at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/lexuriserv/site/en/com/2005/com2005_0488en01.pdf; Putting knowledge into practice: A broad based innovation strategy for the EU COM(2006) 502 final available at http://eurlex.europa.eu/lexuriserv/site/en/com/2006/com2006_0502en01.pdf; Conclusions of the Competitiveness Council of 4/12/2006: http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/intm/91989.pdf European Commission; Think Small First: A Small Business Act for Europe. Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, COM(2008) 394 of 19/06/2008. All documents and information are available at http://ec.europa.eu/environment/etap/index_en.htm Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions; Report of the Environmental Technologies Action Plan (2005-2006) [SEC(2007) 413, COM/2007/0162 final]. Available at http://eurlex.europa.eu/lexuriserv/lexuriserv.do?uri=celex:52007dc0162:en:not See, eg, the Communication Implementing the Community Lisbon Programme: Financing SME Growth - Adding European Value COM (2006) 349 final available at http://eurlex.europa.eu/lexuriserv/site/en/com/2006/com2006_0349en01.pdf. 3
A lesson learned from the first generation of Europe INNOVA is that development and implementation of innovation support policies should focus on creating more efficient links between research, entrepreneurship and finance, with a reinforced international dimension. As a result, in the framework of the 2007 work programme of the CIP-EIP, the Commission approved the launch of a number of thematic and sectoral actions in support of innovation, which are further reinforced with the 2009 work programme 6. This resulted in particular in the establishment of three European Innovation Platforms: a European Innovation Platform for Eco-innovation (Eco-IP), a European Innovation Platform for Clusters (Cluster-IP), both launched following the recent call for proposals EuropeINNOVA-ENT-CIP-09-C-N01S00 7, which join a European Innovation Platform on Knowledge-intensive Services 8 (KIS-IP), launched in 2007. The present call for proposals is in line with objectives of the CIP-EIP established in support of enterprises, particularly SMEs, entrepreneurship, innovation and industrial competitiveness. This call for proposals is based on CIP articles 13 and 14(c) and has the objective to implement the measure outlined within the framework of the Europe INNOVA initiative as stipulated in the EIP work programme for 2009. 2. OBJECTIVE OF THE CALL This call for proposals has 1 action with two strands. Each strand is allocated a separate budget (see section 4). This call for proposal complements the recent call for proposals EuropeINNOVA-ENT-CIP-09-C-N01S00, by calling for further proposals in Action 3, namely strand 4 and strand 6. Action Strand Action 3: European Innovation Platform for Eco-innovation (Eco IP) Strand 4 Sectoral partnerships for the European Innovation Platform on Eco-innovation (Eco-IP) Strand 6 Strengthening the wider ecoinnovation community under the European Innovation Platform on Eco-innovation (Eco-IP) The action reinforces the European Innovation Platform (EIP) on Eco-Innovation (Eco- IP). The overall objective of the Europe INNOVA Platforms is to foster all forms of innovation - technological and non-technological. This will be done through activities 6 7 Please see on http://ec.europa.eu/cip/cipwp.htm Browse to or search for the call Europe INNOVA: European Innovation Platforms (EuropeINNOVA-ENT-CIP-09-C- N01S00) on http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/newsroom/cf/newsbytheme.cfm?displaytype=fo&fosubtype=p&fot=pa&lang=en 8 For further information see http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/funding/files/themes_2007/calls_prop.htm. 4
which develop and test new or better support services with SMEs. Europe INNOVA does not aim to the broad deployment and diffusion of existing solutions already tested elsewhere. Nevertheless, hitherto independently executed support measures can be part of Europe INNOVA if they are reorganised or redesigned and thus evolve in a better tool or instrument. This shall be done in view of leveraging successfully tested support services into wider practical deployment. 2.1. Specific objectives in Strand 4 and Strand 6 of the Eco-IP The principal objectives of the Eco-IP are to support the Lead Market Initiative and the further implementation of the Environmental Technologies Action Plan. This call for proposals is meant to grant two partnerships in two different sectors: without excluding others, suitable sectors for the two partnerships may be those of the LMI and those suggested by the review of the ETAP 9, such as bio-based products and food processing. The notion of sector in the context of the European Innovation Platforms refers to broad market areas, themes, fields rather than industrial sectors as used in traditional industrial statistics Further specific objectives of the Eco-IP are: - to help innovative SMEs to bring new products and services faster to emerging markets; - to foster technological as well as non-technological innovation in services, by addressing market failures and eliminating barriers to eco-innovation; - to develop new or better tools and service concepts for innovation support that specifically addresses the needs of innovative SMEs in this sector with the ambition to grow and internationalise fast. The new tools and instruments shall be tested under real life conditions in the field, involving as many innovative SMEs as possible. Hereby, new forms of service delivery will be experimented. The Eco-IP will closely liaise with the Cluster-IP (Strand 1) as a test bed for new tools and instruments developed by its partners. This will further boost the implementation of the Lead Market Initiative. 3. TIMETABLE Scheduled start-up date for the action: Publication of the call on 26 June 2009 Signature of grant agreements October 2009 The maximum duration of the projects is 36 months. The period of eligibility of costs will start once the grant agreement will be signed by all parties. If a beneficiary can demonstrate the need to start the action before the agreement 9 Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions; Report of the Environmental Technologies Action Plan (2005-2006) [SEC(2007) 413, COM/2007/0162 final]. Available at http://eurlex.europa.eu/lexuriserv/lexuriserv.do?uri=celex:52007dc0162:en:not 5
is signed, expenditure may be authorised before the agreement is signed. Under no circumstances can the eligibility period start before the date of submission of the grant application. 4. FINANCING The maximum budget allocated for this call is: 7,065,000 The indicative amount by project, the indicative number of projects and the EC cofinancing rate of eligible costs are: Action Strand Total indicative budget Max. number of projects Max. funding per project Max. EC cofinancing rate Action 3: European Innovation Platform for Ecoinnovation (Eco IP) Strand 4 Sectoral partnerships for the European Innovation Platform on Eco-innovation (Eco-IP) Strand 6 Strengthening the wider eco-innovation community under the European Innovation Platform on Eco-innovation (Eco-IP) 6,065,000 2* 3,032,500* 65% 1,000,000 1 1,000,000 95% Total 7,065,000 3 *Indicative amount depending upon the final number of projects The budget for all projects is for 36 months. Please note that one project may give rise to the award of only one grant from the Community budget to any one beneficiary. The Commission reserves the right to award a grant of less than the amount requested by the applicant. Grants will not be awarded for more than the amount requested. The publication of the present call for proposals does not guarantee the availability of funds for the above actions. The Commission reserves the right to transfer funds between the strands depending on the outcome of the evaluation. The Commission grant may not have the purpose or effect of producing a profit for the beneficiary. Profit is defined as a surplus of receipts over costs. The amount of the grant will be reduced by the amount of any surplus. As concerns public servants, only costs additional to their routine activities will be considered as eligible costs. 4.1. Co-financing and joint and several responsibility The beneficiary shall supply evidence of the co-financing provided, either by way of own resources or in the form of financial transfers from third parties, or in kind. The Commission may accept co-financing in kind, if considered necessary or appropriate. In such cases the value of such contributions cannot cover all the necessary co-financing. 6
The applicants shall provide an explicit undertaking from each co-financing organisation to provide the amount of funding stated in the grant application for the operation. The applicants shall agree upon appropriate arrangements between themselves for the proper performance of the action. In particular shall they agree on joint and several responsibilities for any amount due to the Commission by anyone of them, limited to their level of responsibility by the special conditions of the grant agreement. 4.2. Award of procurement contracts Where implementation of the assisted actions requires the award of procurement contracts, beneficiaries of grants shall award the contract to the tender offering best value for money, that is to say, to the tender offering the best price-quality ratio in compliance with the principles of transparency and equal treatment. Where implementation of the assisted actions requires the award of a procurement contract with a value of more than 60 000, the authorising officer responsible may require beneficiaries to abide by special rules based on rules contained in the Financial Regulation and determined with due regard for the value of the contracts concerned, the relative size of the Community contribution in relation to the total cost of the action and the risk. Such special rules shall be included in the grant decision or agreement. In-house consultants will need to be categorised as contractors. Core tasks may not be the object of procurement contracts. Please refer to the Guide for Applicants (chapter IV.3) for further details on the awards of procurement contracts. The award of contracts does not limit the responsibilities of beneficiaries. 5. ELIGIBILITY Applicants and applications must comply with the following conditions in order to be eligible: Applicants must be legal entities as defined in chapter IV of the Guide for Applicants and established in an eligible country as defined in chapter IV.1 of the Guide for Applicants; Corporate bodies must be properly constituted and registered under the law; Applications must be signed, dated and complete, in compliance with the submission requirements; Applications must be received before the closing date mentioned; Only applications for projects that are strictly non-profit-making and/or whose immediate objective is non-commercial shall be eligible. Applicants in response to strand 4 must present an estimated budget presenting an EC co-financing rate of maximum 65%. 7
Applicants in response to strand 6 must present an estimated budget presenting an EC co-financing rate of maximum 95%. Moreover, according to article 93 of the Financial Regulation (Council Regulation N 1605/2002) mentioned below, candidates shall be excluded from participation in a grant procedure if: they are bankrupt or being wound up, are having their affairs administered by the courts, have entered into an arrangement with creditors, have suspended business activities, are the subject of proceedings concerning those matters, or are in any analogous situation arising from a similar procedure provided for in national legislation or regulations; they have been convicted of an offence concerning their professional conduct by a judgement which has the force of res judicata; they have been guilty of grave professional misconduct proven by any means which the contracting authority can justify; they have not fulfilled obligations relating to the payment of social security contributions or the payment of taxes in accordance with the legal provisions of the country in which they are established or with those of the country of the contracting authority or those of the country where the contract is to be performed; they have been the subject of a judgement which has the force of res judicata for fraud, corruption, involvement in a criminal organisation or any other illegal activity detrimental to the Communities' financial interests; are currently subject to an administrative penalty referred to in Article 96(1) of the Financial Regulations. By using the Exclusion Form (attached to the Guide for Applicants ), applicants shall declare on their honour that they are not in one of the situations listed above. The authorising officer responsible may however request the evidence described in the Exclusion Form above mentioned. In such case, applicants shall be bound to supply such proof, unless there is a material impossibility recognised by the authorising officer responsible. In addition and according to article 94 of the Financial Regulation mentioned below, grants may not be awarded to candidates who, during the award procedure: are subject to a conflict of interest; are guilty of misrepresentation in supplying the information required by the contracting authority as a condition of participation in the contract procedure or fail to supply this information; find themselves in one of the situations of exclusion referred to in point a) to f) for this call for proposals. Please note that, according to article 96 of the Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) n 1605/2002 of 25 June 2002 on the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget 8
of the European Communities and according to article 133 of the Commission Regulation (EC, Euratom) n 2342/2002 of 23 December 2002 as last modified by Regulation 478/2007 of 23 April 2007, laying down detailed rules for the implementation of the Financial Regulation, administrative and financial penalties may be imposed by the Commission on applicants who are excluded in relation to points a) to h) above mentioned. Applicants may act individually or in consortium with partner organisations for strand 6. All partners must satisfy the same eligibility criteria as those for applicants. All proposals that fulfil the eligibility criteria will be evaluated in the selection phase in order to determine their financial and technical capacity. Strand 4 requires mandatory partner organisations: the applying consortia must consist of a minimum of three national and/or regional authorities involved in financing or implementing an innovation programme. This refers to national and/or regional public authorities themselves as well as to private or public organisations mandated by national and/or regional public authorities to implement innovation support programmes. Partners must be from a minimum of three different eligible countries (see chapter IV.1 of the Guide for Applicants). Finally, any project that directly or indirectly stands in contrast to EU policy or against public health, human rights, citizen s security and freedom of expression will be rejected. 6. SELECTION 6.1. Financial capacity For the financial capacity, applicants must show they have stable and sufficient sources of finance to ensure the continuity of their organisation throughout the action and to play a part in financing it. To that end, they will include in the proposal information on their annual accounts for the last two financial years (i.e. profit and loss accounts; balance sheet). In conformity with Article 176 of the Implementation Rules of the Financial Regulations, the verification of the financial capacity will not be applied to public bodies. Where the proposed amount requested from the Commission exceeds 500.000 per partner organisation, an audit report on those accounts must be provided before conclusion of the grant agreement. For applying consortia, the audit report is applicable to the level of individual organisation and not to the level of the consortium. 6.2. Professional and technical capacity Applicants must show that they have the professional and technical capacity to complete the operation and must demonstrate their capacity to manage a large-scale activity corresponding with the size of the action for which a grant is requested. In particular, the team responsible for the action must have adequate professional qualifications and experience. Applicants will therefore include in the proposal curriculum vitae of the main members of the team that will actually be performing the work and professional references and details of similar past projects. 9
Applicants must be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the action, not acting as an intermediary. They must provide information about their capacity to carry out the expected activities and demonstrate their experience in working with other parties in trans-national projects. The selection criteria specific to each strand are as follows. Strand 4: the applying consortia must demonstrate: (1) the extent to which their partners have experience in funding and/or managing innovation support programmes/actions in the eco-innovation area targeted by the sectoral partnership; (2) as regards, the coordinator, a strong management experience of international consortia of relevant size. This includes the necessary expertise and resources to carry out the proposed activities. As a preamble to the award phase, please take into account that close cooperation between private and public partners and strong interest in transnational cooperation are considered to be an asset. Strand 6: The proposal may be presented by a single organisation or a consortium of legal entities. The proposer must demonstrate to have the following expertise: experience in designing marketing material, disseminating information, organising and animating international workshops; proven excellence in writing and editing papers and news announcements in English (the inclusion of a journalist acquainted with innovation policy matters will be required); experience in extracting project results and making policy recommendations to European, national and regional authorities in the field of innovation; experience in setting up European business communities and collecting feedback from stakeholders. Good connections with innovation intermediaries (especially research centres, business schools, universities and incubation centres) all over Europe as well as easy access to the business environment (enterprises providing knowledge intensive service activities), notably in the realm of eco-innovation. 7. AWARD An evaluation of the quality of proposals, including the proposed budget, will be carried out in accordance with the following award criteria: 1. Relevance /15 2. Visibility /15 3. Impact /30 4. Quality /25 5. Budget and Cost-effectiveness /15 Maximum total score /100 10
If a total score lower than 70 points, or a score lower than 50% for any of the above individual five criteria is obtained, the proposal will not be evaluated further. The complete selection and evaluation procedure is described in point V of the Guide for Applicants. Please note that, in case of award, the beneficiary authorises the Commission to publish the following information in any form and medium, including via the Internet: - the beneficiary s name and the address, - the subject and purpose of the grant, - the amount granted and the proportion of the action s total cost covered by the Community contribution. 8. SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS Proposals must be submitted electronically, using the Commission's Electronic Proposal Submission Service (EPSS). Proposals arriving at the Commission by any other means are regarded as not submitted, and will not be evaluated. You can access the EPSS from the call Web site (http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/newsroom/cf/newsbytheme.cfm?displaytype=fo&fosubt ype=p&lang=en) when the online service will be available. Full instructions will be found in the EPSS preparation and submission guide also available on the call Web site. The most important point is that the EPSS will be closed for this call at call deadline. After this moment, access to the EPSS for this call will be impossible. The final date for submission of proposals is 16 July 2009, 17.00h Brussels time. Reminder: Late submission will lead to the applicant being excluded from the award procedure. 9. EQUAL OPPORTUNITY The European Community has the task to promote equality between women and men and shall aim in all its activities to eliminate gender inequalities (articles 2 and 3 of the EC Treaty). In this context, women are particularly encouraged to be involved in proposal submission. 10. PERSONAL DATA Your grant application will be processed by computer. All personal data (such as names, addresses, CVs, etc.) will be processed in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2000 on the protection of 11
individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by the Community institutions and bodies and on the free movement of such data. 10 Your replies to the questions in the Guide for Applicants are necessary in order to assess your grant application and they will be processed solely for that purpose by the department responsible for the Community grant programme concerned. On request, you may be sent personal data and correct or complete them. For any question relating to these data, please contact the Commission department to which the application must be returned. Beneficiaries may lodge a complaint against the processing of their personal data with the European Data Protection Supervisor at any time. 11. ANNEX - GUIDE FOR APPLICANTS The Guide for Applicants and its annexes to prepare a proposal can be downloaded at the call Web page: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/newsroom/cf/newsbytheme.cfm?displaytype=fo&fosubty pe=p&lang=en The submission set is not published on paper: being the application on-line, submission set is available in the Commission's Electronic Proposal Submission Service (EPSS). You can access the EPSS from the call Web page. 10 Official Journal L 8, 12.1.2001. 12