Faqs

It is the name of the next FP cycle, which run from  2014 to 2020 and which is focused on research and innovation. All relevant details and specific of the programme can be found on http://ec.europa.eu/research/horizon2020/index_en.cfm?pg=h2020.

The “Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development” (FPs) are the European Union’s main funding mechanism for supporting and encouraging interdisciplinary and collaborative research activities. Through FPs the EU offers financial support to research organisations, businesses as well as other public and private organisations of all sizes for collaborative research activities, so that they produce, share and use knowledge addressing common challenges and transform this knowledge into benefits for its citizens, businesses and industry. The FPs outline the EU research priorities for a period of 6-7 years and are structured in sub-programmes, each one addressing a specific research domain, while the financial support follows a “Call for Proposals” procedure.  Currently the 7th Framework Programme is operation (2007-2013), while the next one called “Horizon2020” is under way and the first funding opportunities (namely ‘Calls for Proposals”) are expected  to be launched by the end of 2013. 

Funding  schemes refer to types of project. There are six types:

In FP7, the international cooperation means collaboration of the EU member states and associated countries with countries beyond the EU which are called “third countries”. The cooperation between the member states is classified as intra-European collaboration.

According to the work programme, the EECA countries are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tadjikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan.

While FP7 participants can in principle be based anywhere, there are different categories of country which may have varying eligibility for different specific and work programmes:

Specific international cooperation activities (SICAs) are an FP7 instrument made to enable and encourage the participation of low and middle income countries to participate and get funding in FP7. They are thematic calls in topics of mutual interest and can be found in the 10 different programme areas of the “Cooperation” Programme. The participation criteria for a consortium are usually a minimum of 4 participants from different countries: 2 of them from the target region (or country) + 2 from MS or AC.

All Calls are announced in the EU’s Official Journal  and in annual work programmes, The annual work programmes and full texts of the Calls are published on the FP7 section of CORDIS:

Electronic Proposal Submission Service (EPSS) is the obligatory web based electronic online tool, used as an obligatory channel for submission proposals. Proposals may be submitted at any time after Call opens until the deadline.

All submitted proposals are evaluated by a panel of independent evaluators, who are recognized specialists in the relevant fields. The panel will check the proposals against the published criteria and evaluates them. The key criteria are explained in the Guide for applicants, which is available at http://www.cordis.europa.eu/fp7.

It depends, of course, but usually only a small percentage (10-20%) of submitted proposals is retained for negotiations. Yet this is not like it comes to nothing. Proposal preparation could be the opportunity to widen your network and help you build experience. Encountered problems will teach you more than you would think and the social and professional circle built from the experience will indeed be valuable as you try to successfully submit a proposal again in the future. Be prepared for some unsuccessful experiences and remember that collaboration is process requiring commitments to make a step forward. A number of examples exist when the joint proposal preparation led to the commercial contracts or to other types of research collaborations

Usually takes from six months up to one year from finding consortia until Grant Agreement (GA) is signed.  GA is a contract between European Commission (EC) and project partners. The first step is finding project partners and forming project consortia. Partners get assigned their tasks on the project and write the project proposal.  Usually, the project coordinator assigns tasks and writes the proposal, while other partners may contribute. When the proposal is finished the project coordinator submits it electronically.

The proposal evaluation usually takes around six months or more. When the Call for Proposals is closed, the EC assigns a panel of experts to evaluate each proposal.  Experts, independently of each other, evaluate each proposal. When the procedure is complete, all proposals that passed the Call’s threshold (am minimum score) are ranked. The evaluation process takes around three months.

If a project is highly raked, the project coordinator is called to negotiate with the EC all the details of the project and make any necessary improvements / changes based on the evaluation report.  Once all details are agreed, the Grant Agreement is signed and project partners start the technical work while they receive the first payment (as pre-financing).

So, from the day you decide to enter into consortia, until you receive the first payment, it will take from 6 months up to one year

Applicants may submit their proposal in any official language of the European Union, and it is recommended to include a full translation in English. In any case, an English translation of the abstract must be included in the proposal

Yes, provided that you are eligible for both schemes.

Yes, it’s possible.

The "call fiche" published on Cordis specifies the minimum number of participants: as a rule, for collaborative projects there should be at least three legal entities, each of which must be established in a Member State or associated country, and no two of which may be established in the same Member State or associated country. Beyond this minimum, you have to decide yourself how many and what exactly partners you need for the most effective implementation of a project. E.g., in ICT Programme the STREP consortium usually consists of 6-15 partners, IP – 10-20.

There are several opportunities however none of them is about funding research itself. They rather support R&D activities in different ways. The opportunities to support research carrier development and staff exchanges are foreseen in the “People” Programme within which the followings schemes are available for researchers and R&D centers from EECA:

• - Initial Training Networks (ITN) - both for EECA organizations and individual early stage researchers,
• - Industry-Academia Partnerships and Pathways (IAPP) – for EECA organizations,
• - International Incoming Fellowships (IIF) – for EECA individual experienced researchers,
• - International Outgoing Fellowships (IOF) – for EECA organizations,
• - International Staff Exchange Scheme (IRSES) – for EECA organizations.

More information about participation in the “People” Programme: http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/mariecurieactions/home_en.html/

Within the “Capacities” Specific Programme the most suitable option is “Research Infrastructures” Programme which supports existing ICT infrastructure and, in particular,

• - Integrating Activities - providing a wider and more efficient access to, and use of, the research infrastructures exiting in EU Member States, Associated Countries and at international level when appropriate (including: transnational access, joint research and networking;
• - ICT-based e-Infrastructures - supporting a number of interrelated topics designed to foster the emergence of a new research environment in which ‘virtual communities’ share and exploit the collective power of European scientific and engineering facilities,

as well as new research infrastructure.

Besides, “International Cooperation” dimension of the “Capacities” Programme gives a chance to reinforce cooperation with EU neighbors via supporting their ICT R&D centers within ERA-WIDE calls.

More information about “Capacities” Programme: http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/capacities/home_en.html. Finally, European Research Council under the umbrella of “Ideas” Programme awards grants through open competition to projects headed by young and established researchers, irrespective of their origins, who are working in Europe. The aim here is to recognize the best ideas, and retain and confer status and visibility to the best brains in Europe, while also attracting talent from abroad.

Find more about ERC grants: http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ideas/home_en.html.

The "People" programme is a specific programme of the "Seventh Framework Programme for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration Activities" (FP7). It supports the development of researchers' careers through a range of fellowships and networking activities, commonly known as the "Marie-Curie" actions. The Research Executive Agency (REA) will manage virtually all of the People programme.

The Unique Registration Facility (URF) allows online  allows online registration of newly participating organisations. Once registered, an  organisation receive a Participant Identification Code (PIC), which identifies them in their interactions with the Commission in FP7. This new tool thus facilitates in particular the submission of proposals and the negotiation procedure for grant agreements.

Organisations need to nominate a Legal Entity Appointed Representative (LEAR) to deal with these tools. LEAR is usually administrative person in organisation  central administration. Guidance and forms for appointing LEARs are available at http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/urf-lear_en.html. Further information about the new registration procedure can be found at http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/urf-pic_en.html.

The URF can be found at the following link: Interface for self-registration of new entities.

By sending your request at the following e-mail: DIGIT-EFP7-SUPPORT@ec.europa.eu

If your organisation does not have an FP7 grant agreement, then you should create an account in the Participant Portal in order to be able to register your organisation in the Unique Registration Facility (URF) at the CORDIS webpage. A PIC is provided at the end of the registration process and can be then used for proposal submission after 48 hours. During registration, URF does not check for duplicate registrations; this will be done if your proposal is retained for negotiation.
For further information please see: Interface for self-registration of new entities.

All organisations that have an FP7 grant agreement have received a unique code (the PIC –Participant Identification Code), to be used for identifying the participant in any future proposal in the programmes managed by the "Research Directorates-General". The PIC is being communicated to all contact points for FP7 grant agreements known to the Commission. You will need to find out within your organisation who are contact points for FP7 grant agreements; they will be able to tell you what your PIC is. If you cannot find any contact point within your organisation, then you should ask the URF help desk DIGIT-EFP7-SUPPORT@ec.europa.eu to put you in contact with them. Please note that in order to avoid identity theft, the URF help desk will not be able to provide you with the PIC; From September 2008 onwards, there will be also a service available where every participant will be able to search whether or not his organisation already has a validated PIC. If it is the case then the participant should take contact with the LEAR of his organisation in order to get the PIC. The LEAR or Legal Entity Appointed Representative is a natural person appointed by a legal signatory of a legal entity to perform on its behalf certain tasks in the context of the legal entity's dealings with the Research DGs of the Commission

A participant can submit his proposal without using a PIC in the following cases: Important fields (such as the legal name or the legal status) displayed after entering a PIC is totally incorrect, The participant is a new organization and wants to submit your proposal for a call which closes in less than 48 Hours. The use of a PIC is not compulsory for proposal submission but it is strongly recommended.

If you think that the incorrect data might put at risk the eligibility of your proposal (for example, the SME status is incorrect), then you should submit your proposal without entering the PIC by manually re-entering all the legal and financial data.

As set out in Article II.15 of the model grant agreement direct costs are all those eligible costs which can be attributed directly to the project and are identified by the beneficiary as such in accordance with its accounting principles and its usual internal rules. The distinction therefore between direct and indirect (eligible) costs of the project would be determined by the beneficiary's accounting principles, ie how the particular cost is recognized by these principles. The most typical examples of direct costs would be personnel hired to work for the project and the purchase of the equipment that is to be used in the project. In any case, costs have to be compliant with the eligibility criteria set out in Article II.14 of the FP7 model grant agreement. It is to be noted that the model grant agreement provides that for personnel costs, only the costs of the actual hours worked by the persons directly carrying out work under the project may be charged.

No. Indirect taxes and duties, including VAT, are all ineligible costs.

The consortium determines the allocation of each tranche of the Community financial contribution between the contractors, in accordance with the contract and any relevant decisions of the consortium (to be agreed in the Consortium Agreement). Therefore, the co-ordinator shall distribute payments without delay in accordance with the grant agreement and any provisions in the consortium agreement (the latter cannot contradict the provisions of the grant agreement).

In general, it is discussed and settle among the partners prior to sign Grant agreement. The guide for IPR right can be downloaded from ftp://ftp.cordis.europa.eu/pub/fp7/docs/ipr_en.pdf.

NCP stands for National Contact Point. NCP’s main role is to provide information and guidance about FP7 calls, working programs, events, financial and legal rules, partners, networking, etc. to national researchers. NCP serves as a link between European Commission and national researchers. Each member States and Associated Countries appoints NCPs for particular FP7 theme or programme.