/ EUROPEAN COMMISSION
Enterprise and Industry
Directorate Sustainable Growth and EU2020
Unit Innovation Policy for Growth

Call for Proposals

Building and Implementing Strategic Roadmaps of Demand-side Policy Measures to boost Demand for Industrial Innovations

Number:68/G/ENT/CIP/13/C/N02C011

Grant Programme 2013

The present call for proposals is composed of a set of Grant Submission Documents, which form an integral part of this call:

The call for proposals,

The Guide for Applicants

The Submission Set

The terms set out in the call for proposals document shall take precedence over those in the other parts of the Grant Submission Documents.

Table of Contents

1.Context

2.Objective of the call

3.Timetable

4.EU Financing

4.1.GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF EU FUNDING

4.2.ELIGIBLE COSTS

4.2.1.Eligible direct costs

4.2.2.Eligible indirect costs

4.2.3.Non-eligible costs

4.3.CO-FINANCING AND JOINT AND SEVERAL RESPONSIBILITY

4.4.IMPLEMENTATION CONTRACTS/SUBCONTRACTING

4.5.FINANCIAL SUPPORT TO THIRD PARTIES

4.6.FINAL GRANT AND PAYMENT ARRANGEMENTS

5.Eligibility

5.1.ELIGIBLE APPLICANTS

5.2.ADMISSIBLE AND ELIGIBLE PROPOSALS

6.EXCLUSION CRITERIA

6.1.EXCLUSION FROM PARTICIPATION

6.2.EXCLUSION FROM AWARD

6.3.SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS

7.Selection

7.1.FINANCIAL CAPACITY

7.2.OPERATIONAL CAPACITY

8.Award

9.Submission of proposals

10.Contacts

11.DATA PROTECTION

12.PUBLICITY

13.Annex 1 Submission Set

14.Annex 2 Guide for Applicants

15.Annex 3 Evaluation Criteria

16.Annex 4 - Agreement

INTERESTED PARTIES ARE INVITED TO READ CAREFULLY THE BELOW INSTRUCTIONS, AND TO USE THE QUESTIONNAIRE PROVIDED IN CHAPTERII OF THE GUIDE FOR APPICANTS IN ORDER TO ENSURE THAT APPLICATIONS ARE COMPLETE WHEN SUBMITTED.

1.Context

The European Council highlighted in its conclusions of the 1/2 March 2012 meeting[1] that efforts need to be stepped up with a view to "creating the best possible environment for entrepreneurs to commercialise their ideas and create jobs and making demand-led innovation a main driver for Europe's research and development policy".

In its recent Communication "A Stronger European Industry for Growth and Economic Recovery" (COM(2012 582 final of 10.10.2012), the European Commission proposes a partnership between the EU, the Member States and industry to give Europe a competitive lead in the new industrial revolution.Investing in the early stages of the adoption and diffusion of new technologies will give Europe a technological lead to ensure the returns from innovation in terms ofgrowth and jobs. To speed up the adoption of new technologies, the European Commission will focus on six priority action lines in order to deliver the Europe 2020 goal of smart and sustainable growth: markets for advanced manufacturing for clean production, markets for key enabling technologies, bio-based product markets, sustainable industrial products and sustainable construction products, clean vehicles and vessels, and smart grids.

One of the accompanying measures mentioned in the Communication to increase the capacity of markets to absorb innovations is to further promote the wider use demand-side innovation as an industrial policy instrument.

In 2007, the Commission had launched the Lead-Market-Initiative as a pilot to develop policy instruments that would lower the barriers to bring new products to the market in six sectors in which demand-side deficiencies had been identified[2].

With this call, the Commission invites stakeholders to propose a set of demand-side projects open to all markets and sectors, which will develop and implement roadmaps for demand-side innovation measures. These roadmaps will contribute to a horizontal action plan for demand-side innovation which consist of three consecutive phases: The first phase was launched end of 2012 and established a toolbox for the assessment of suitable markets for demand-side innovation [link to study will be added as soon as available; the study is factual and the contract ends on 28 February; draft final report has been received], the second phase will be launched in 2013 and aims at developing strategic roadmaps for demand-led actions in various areas. The third phase, in which the roadmaps will be implemented, should start end of 2014/2016. In parallel, an Innovation Demand Monitoring System will be established which will accompany the work and provide a methodology to measure the impact of demand-side innovation policy.

2.Objective of the call

2.1Overall Objectives

The purpose of this call is to shorten the long journey of ideas and research to market by developing measures which could increase the market uptake of innovations. The tool for this task is demand-side innovation policy. Demand-side innovation policy is generally understood as a set of public measures to improve the conditions for the uptake of innovations or to improve the articulation of demand in order to spur innovations and allow their diffusion.

Demand-side innovation policy is aiming at creating a link between support measures for research and development and innovation and the diffusion of an innovation on the market. The effectiveness of policy interventions to supportthe creation of European innovations could be improved to enable the uptake of innovations on the European and the global marketplace. In the past few years, a wide range of incentives have been used to boost private and public demand for innovations at EU, national and regional levels[3].

Demand-side innovation measures can be manifold and differ according to which market, product, service or process they are applied. Different from European Innovation Partnerships (EIPs), this call for proposals targets especially markets and stakeholders which aim achieving targeted results for a or a group of specific products/services/processes and/or which aim at using demand-side measures to complement other European initiatives and/or which want to use this opportunity to get familiar with the demand-side policy approach. Therefore, this call aims at spreading the wider use of this demand-side policy measures in Europe.

Furthermore, interested participants are called on to contribute to the development of an assessment tool for the evaluation and monitoring of demand-side innovation policy measures more generally.

When preparing the proposal, stakeholders are encouraged to (see in more detail section 2.2.):

  • identify a well-defined market of innovative goods (products or services)
  • assess if the market for these innovations is adequate for demand-side innovation policies (please see study “Developing an Evaluation and Progress Methodology”,
  • analyse which demand-side measures could prove a successful tool to improve the uptake of these innovations to the European or international market,
  • cooperate with stakeholders who would need to be involved to ensure a successful implementation,
  • develop a strategic roadmap for the implementation of these demand-side measures.

The roadmaps will become an integral and very visible part of the horizontal action plan for demand-side innovation.

As this is a call under the European Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP), research and development activities are excluded from the eligible costs incurred by the beneficiaries (Refer to CIP legal base article 9:

2.2Specific objectives and Type of activities co-financed:

Each proposal should contain a concise work plan that describes the approach to achieve the following objectives in a period of 12 to 18 months:

  1. To generate a baseline understanding of the market structure:a market or sector shall be identified which has potential for growth and job creation, and a European dimension (the market or sector needs to be relevant for at least 3 states from the list of eligible applicants (see 5.1.). In the course of the project, the market or sector shall be analysed and the bottlenecks for demand for innovations in that particular sector or market shall be identified. The approach for this task should include qualitative and quantitative data or tools. The baseline scenario should also reflect an understanding of the stage of innovation today in this market and an outlook for market prospects. It is not expected that applicants provide a full baseline scenario in their proposal, but data sources shall be identified, a detailed description of the market shall be provided and the main barriers for the market uptake of the innovation(s) shall be explained.
  2. To create a roadmap of demand-side policy actions in Europe that boost demand for innovations in a particular sector or market. Policy measures will need to be identified and assessed during the time of the project duration.The type, sequencing and combination of demand-side policy actions are determined by the (future, anticipated or new) characteristics of the target market. The total duration of the implementation of the roadmaps could then take more time, for example 4 to 6 years, in order to realise measurable (qualitatively and quantitatively) impacts. The roadmapsshould be more detailed for the first years and more generic for the medium-longer term, and will need to be updated in certain intervals.

When drafting the roadmaps, applicants are invited to 'be innovative' and reflect on a broad range of possible demand-side support measures, for example:

  • What would need to be done in terms of prototyping / demonstration to make the product more acceptable to the market?
  • What would need to be done to remove legal obstacles for the market uptake?
  • How could possible launch customers be identified? Good practices?
  • How could the testing or first purchase of an innovation be further incentivised?
  • What would need to be done to identify users' needs?
  • Is a lack of skills responsible for the slow uptake of an innovation with customers or clients? How could these gaps be closed?
  1. To map and engage with potential organisations and bodies (public, private, local, regional, national, EU and international) that coulddeliver the actions foreseen in the roadmapwithin the foreseen timeframe. Therefore, an approach needs to be developed which describes how an engagement of these stakeholders could be achieved over the timeframe needed for the implementation of the roadmap. This is especially important with view to the involvement of public authorities and/or other potential customers. The approach should set out how the participation of co-operation partners based in at least 3 states from the list of eligible applicants (see 5.1.) will be ensured and how synergies with related activities of these organisations are exploited. If applicable, the approach needs to develop synergies with European initiatives (for example the strategies of European Innovation Partnerships, European Technology Platforms, Joint Technology Initiatives, etc.). Given that one objective of this call is to support the wider use of demand-side policy measures, the Commissions aims at a broad representation of organisations from many European states over the 6-10 projects funded with this call.
  2. To propose how the work shall be organised, led, implemented and how progress of the implementation of the roadmap shall be monitored. Depending on the characteristics of the market or sector, the organisational set-up could be led by industry (organisations, federations), by public sector bodies (national, regional, local), public-private networks, existing European legal entities (Joint Undertakings) etc.
  3. To prepare apreliminary methodology to monitor progress, both in terms of assessing progress of the development of the roadmap and of assessing the implementation the actions foreseen in the roadmap. Some tools and recommendations are available here(please see study “Developing an Evaluation and Progress Methodology”, but need to be tailored to the specific needs of the project. The approach chosen must be able to assess quantitative and qualitative progress starting from the baseline scenario established as described in Number 1, for example by using suitable indicators. The methodology must also include an approach for gathering qualitative information. It must include a reporting system with milestones and deliverables and ensure that progress measurement is consistent and comparable over a number of years during the implementation of the roadmap.
  4. To cooperate and provide information to the Innovation Demand Monitoring System project which will be set up to develop a methodology to measure and monitor the impact of demand-side policies in Europe as a whole, and which will support the monitoring and evaluation of the projects during the preparation of the roadmaps and the first phase of the implementation (for more information see DG Enterprise and Industry call for tender “Innovation Demand-side Monitoring System”, no. 276/PP/ENT/CIP/13/C/N03C041). Beneficiaries also need to be willing to cooperate and provide information about the on-going work to the new Business Innovation Observatory (on a case-by-case basis) to create wide stakeholder appeal during the preparation of the roadmap and to disseminate the roadmap (and its updates).

REPORTING to the Commission:

  • A mid-term and a final report shall be prepared together with a financial statement including a consolidated statement and a breakdown between each beneficiary summarising the market analysis, a description of the work undertaken to establish the roadmap including the results of stakeholders consulted. The final report shall be submitted within 60daysfollowing the closing date of the action. It will additionally include the roadmap with milestones, actions, possible actors responsible for the actions and estimation of costs for the main actions to be carried out. The reports must be submitted by the coordinator in English.
  • The participation in a final conference or workshopin which the consortium will present the results.

3.Timetable

Indicative start-up date for the action: December 2013

Maximum duration of action is:18 months

No applications will be accepted for projects scheduled to run for a longer period than that specified in this call for proposals

The period of eligibility of costs will start at the earliest on the day the agreement is signed by the last of the parties. If a beneficiary can demonstrate the need to start the action before the agreement is signed, the expenditure may be eligible as from a date before the agreement is signed. Under no circumstances can the eligibility period start before the date of submission of the grant application.

Stages / Date and time or
indicative period
a) / Publication of the call / April 2013
b) / Deadline for submitting applications / 09/07/2013 – 17:00:00 Brussels Local Time
c) / Information to applicants / October 2013
d) / Signature of grant agreement or notification of grant decision / October 2013
e) / Starting date of the action/ work programme / December 2013

4.EU Financing

Maximum budget allocated for EU financingunder this call: 950,000€

Indicative number of projects (roadmaps):6 to 10 roadmaps

Maximum EU financing rate of eligible costs:95%

Maximum EU financingamount per project: 150,000€

Proposals with an EU co-financing beyond any of the above two maxima will not be eligible.

The Commission reserves the right to award a grant of less than the amount requested by the applicant. In such a case, applicants will be asked either to increase their co-financing, propose other co-financing means or to decrease the total costs without altering the substance of the proposal. Grants will not be awarded for more than the amount requested.

Publication of the call (on the Commission Internet site and/or in the Official Journal) does not guarantee the availability of funds for the above action.

4.1.GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF EU FUNDING

Non-cumulative award

Each action may give rise to the award of only one grant from the budget to any one beneficiary.

In no circumstances shall the same costs be financed twice by the Union budget.

Applicants have to inform the Commission immediately of any multiple applications and multiple grants relating to the same action. The applicant shall inform about sources and amounts of EU funding received or applied for the same action or for part of the action. Applicants shall indicate if they receive EU funding for their functioning during the financial year in which the action takes place.

Non-retroactivity

No grant may be awarded retrospectively for actions already completed.

A grant may be awarded for an action which has already begun,provided the applicant can demonstrate the need to start the action before the grant agreement is signed.In such cases, costs eligible for financing may not have been incurred prior to the date of submission of the grant application.

Co-financing

Grants shall involve co-financing, which implies that the resources necessary to carry out the action or the work programme shall not be provided entirely by EU contribution. EU financing may not cover 100% of the total costs of the action.

Co-financing ofthe action or of the work programme may take the form of:

the beneficiary's own resources,

income generated by the action or work programme,

financial contributions from third parties.

Non-profit rule

EU grant may not have the purpose or effect of producing a profit within the framework of the action of the work programme of the beneficiary.

Where a profit is made, the Commission is entitled to recover the percentage of the profit corresponding to the EU contribution to the eligible costs actually incurred. For this purpose, profit shall be defined as a surplus of the receipts over the eligible costs incurred, when the request for payment of the balance is made.

Balanced budget

The estimated budget of the action or work programme is to be attached to the application form. It must have revenue and expenditure in balance.

The budget must be drawn up in euros.

Applicants,who foresee that costs will not be incurred in euros, are invited to use the exchange rate published on the Infor-euro website available at

4.2.ELIGIBLE COSTS

In order be eligible for funding, costs should be actually incurred by the beneficiary and meet the following criteria:

they are incurred during the duration of the action or work programme, as indicated in the grant agreement, with the exception of costs relating to the request for payment of the balance and the corresponding supporting documents (audit certificates);

they are indicated in the estimated budget of the action or work programme;

they are necessary for the implementation of the action or of the work programme, in accordance with the description of the action, attached to the grant agreement;

they are identifiable and verifiable, in particular being recorded in the accounting records of the beneficiary and determined according to the applicable accounting standards of the country where the beneficiary is established and according to the usual cost accounting practices of the beneficiary;