2020 CEF Telecom Call - eArchiving (CEF-TC-2020-2)

Deadline: Nov 5, 2020  
CALL EXPIRED

1. BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE

The general context for this call for proposals is defined in section 3.16 of the 2019-2020 Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Telecom Work Programme1 as published on the call page on the Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA) website.2 The background and rationale for this call for proposals are defined in section 3.16.1 of the 2019-2020 Work Programme.

2. PRIORITIES & OBJECTIVES

2.1 Priority outcomes

The priorities of this call for proposals are defined in section 3.16.2.2 of the 2019-2020 Work Programme.

The objective of this call is to foster the adoption of eArchiving3 solutions and standards beyond National Archives, reaching out to other levels of public administration, public institutions, international bodies, software companies, small and medium enterprises, etc., and to different domains, like cultural heritage, justice, finance, environment, etc.

Proposals promoting synergies with other CEF building blocks and digital service infrastructures, such as Europeana4, are encouraged in this call, in order to benefit from

1 Commission Implementing Decision C(2020)1078 of 28 February 2020 amending a Multi-Annual Work Programme 2019 and 2020 for financial assistance in the field of Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Telecommunications sector

2 https://ec.europa.eu/inea/en/connecting-europe-facility/cef-telecom/apply-funding/2020-earchiving 3 https://ec.europa.eu/cefdigital/wiki/display/CEFDIGITAL/eArchiving
4 https://Europeana.eu

Agence exécutive pour l'innovation et les réseaux /Uitvoerend Agentschap innovatie en netwerken, 1049 Bruxelles/Brussel, BELGIQUE/BELGIË - Tel. +32 22991111

the take-up of eArchiving tools and services. Where relevant, applicants must clearly explain in section 1 and 2.1 of the application form part D of their proposal how their proposed Action will build on and/or differ from the Action(s) funded under the previous CEF Telecom call(s).

Proposals must address activity 1 described below and may also address activities 2 and/or 3.

1. Adaptation of existing digital archives and repositories5 to be compliant with all three of the following specifications6:

1. a)  E-ARK Submission Information Package (SIP) v2.07: The proposal must describe how it will provide evidence of ingestion of SIP packages compliant with the SIP XML Schema.

2. b)  E-ARK Archival Information Package (AIP) v2.08: The proposal must describe how it will provide evidence of preservation of AIPs in the Archive.

3. c)  E-ARK Dissemination Information Package (DIP) v2.09: The proposal must describe how it will provide evidence of being able to generate DIP packages compliant with the SIP XML Schema, which is the same for DIP.

In addition to the above, proposals must address all the following aspects:

• -  Describe the use case of the existing Archive(s), the collections that will be covered, the type of content, file formats used, total volume and per period, as well as any other relevant details, such as linguistic versions for multilingual archives.

• -  Detail the current (as-is) and future (to-be) technical solutions, including the type and geographical location of the archive hosting, but also any hardware, software and cloud services, if relevant. All hosting and hardware must be physically located in EU member states and EEA associated countries. In addition, technical information related to the energy impact (e.g. hosting energy consumption) must to be described explicitly.

• -  Provide a draft migration plan, including a timetable related to the collections migration, existing and added metadata, content and metadata versioning, error handling and any potential format transformations.

• - Provide a draft digital archiving plan compliant with the national legislation applicable to the collections and their retention, and purpose of future further migrations, as well as technical and financial sustainability details beyond the funding period of this call.

At the end of the action, compliance will be tested with the eArchiving Core Service Platform against the latest available version for all three specifications, which at the time of publication of this call is v2.0x.

2. Acquisition or renting of archive hosting, including hardware, asset maintenance, as well as development or acquisition of software conformant to eArchiving specifications, in order to support the implementation of activity 1. Proposals must justify the need and purpose of acquisition or renting of any such assets.

3. Knowledge sharing and training activities supporting the adoption and reuse of the eArchiving building block. Proposals addressing this activity must include at least one of the following activities below, which must be compliant with and agreed with the eArchiving Core Service Platform:

• -  The development and delivery of user-focused training activities, such as webinars, training videos, etc. presenting and explaining the use of eArchiving.

• -  Development of specific tools and technical resources that will assist users in adopting the eArchiving building block.

• -  Writing of success stories, lessons learned, presentations, newsletters, etc.

The use of social media is highly encouraged.

All materials must be produced in the official language(s) of the Member State where the solution is implemented10 and sent to the eArchiving CSP in order to be published. Moreover, all materials produced must be available in English, and the availability in other EU official languages is strongly encouraged through the curated use of the CEF Automated Translation Building Block11.

For the purposes of this call, where justified and appropriate for the use case, eDelivery deployment may be part of the proposals12. An Access Point must be an implementation of the CEF eDelivery AS4 Profile (developed by e-SENS and now maintained by CEF)13 and pass the connectivity testing service14 offered by the eDelivery Core Service Platform.

2.2 Results expected from the financial assistance

The benefits and expected outcomes of this call for proposals are defined in section 3.16.2.3 of the 2019-2020 Work Programme.

With the creation of the eArchiving CEF building block, the number of archives using the specifications is expected to increase. This will bring about multiple short-, medium- and long-term benefits, such as:

- reduced cost of implementing and maintaining eArchiving solutions (e.g. economies of scale), and higher efficiency;
- easier ways for data owners to exchange data with organisations or individuals (which will help meet the data portability requirements in the General Data Protection Regulation);

- better market opportunities and increased competitiveness for IT providers, thanks to easier archival data exchange across borders;
- increased cross-border availability of commercial eArchiving services for the public and private sectors alike;

- the ability to create new innovative services based on archived digital data;
- enhanced training and employment opportunities for staff, thanks to use of a common system;
- improved long-term storage and availability of public and private sector data;
- greater government transparency as a result of improvements in eArchiving capability and public access to archived digital records.

3. TIMETABLE

Date of publication of call for proposals

Tuesday 30 June 2020

Deadline for the submission of proposals

Thursday 5 November 2020 (17:00.00 Brussels time)

Evaluation of proposals

November 2020 – January 2021 (indicative)

Consultation of the CEF Committee

March – April 2021 (indicative)

Adoption of the Selection Decision

April 2021 (indicative)

Preparation and signature of grant agreements

Between May and August 2021 (indicative)

4. BUDGET AVAILABLE

The total budget earmarked for the co-financing of projects under this call for proposals is estimated at €1 million.

Proposals requesting a contribution in the order of €250,000 are expected. The Commission reserves the right not to distribute all the funds available.

The Commission reserves the right to award a grant of less than the amount requested by the applicant.

5. ADMISSIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

In order to be admissible, proposals must be:

•   Submitted electronically in the TENtec Information System eSubmission module.15 In this respect, proposals or part(s) of proposals submitted by email or in hard copy shall not be admissible.

•   Submitted by the deadline for submission of proposals (see sections 3. "Timetable" and 14.2."Submission process").

•   Complete (i.e. application forms (A, B, C and D) are uploaded in the TENtec eSubmission module).

•   Duly signed by the applicant(s).
  Failure to comply with any of these requirements will lead to the rejection of the application.

6. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

6.1 Eligible applicants

In accordance with the 2019–2020 Work Programme and pursuant to Article 9 of the CEF Regulation,16 only those proposals submitted by the following types of applicants are eligible:

•   One or more Member State(s);

•   With the agreement of the Member State(s) or EEA countr(y)ies concerned,

  international organisations, Joint Undertakings,17 or public or private undertakings or bodies established in Member States.

Consortium requirements

In order to be eligible, a proposal must be submitted by at least three entities (public or private), based in at least three Member States and/or EEA countries participating in the CEF Telecom programme.

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