Eureka - Danube region call for projects

Deadline: Mar 28, 2018  
CALL EXPIRED

Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania are announcing the 3rd EUREKA Danube Call for Proposals for joint R&D projects, focusing on developing innovative products and applications in all technological and application areas. Applicants are expected to develop ready to market solutions or projects which have strong market potential for all involved participants.

National organizations listed below will also provide access to public funding for labelled joint projects. The support will be given to each partner by its respective National Authorities in accordance with their national laws, rules, regulations and procedures in effect, on a non-exchange of funds basis, and subject to budgetary availability in each country.

• Austrian Research Promotion Agency 
• Croatian Agency for SMEs, Innovations, and Investments  
• Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports
• National Research, Development and Innovation Office 
• Ministry of Research and Innovation Romania 

Key dates

• Deadline for EUREKA Application: 28 March 2018
• Deadline for national full proposal: 28 March 2018
• Consensus Meeting for Funding Agencies: 09-13 July 2018
• EUREKA Label: 09-13 July 2018
• Project Start: July 2028

Eligibility criteria

In order to apply to the present call, partners must meet the following qualifications:

• The project should include at least two independent companies (for profit) from at least two different countries. Participation of research institutes/universities is welcome as subcontractor of the company or partner according to each country’s funding regulations:
  • In Hungary, the public financed institutions need an industrial partner in order to be eligible.
  • In Croatia, SMEs and large companies can apply for funding while scientific institutions are outsourced.
  • In Czech Republic the public budget is available  for SME´s or Large Companies and for public institutions which needs eligible private partner
  • In Romania, SME only can apply for funding. Participation of Romanian research institutes and universities is welcome as partners.
• All partners must express their will to cooperate, on an equal basis, in the development of a new product, industrial process or service.
• The product, process or service must be innovative and the technological risk is accepted. Projects in Technology Readiness Level 5 are best suitable for funding, or experimental development as defined in Frascati Manual. 
• The project must be equally significant for all partners.
•  The project should have an obvious advantage and added value resulting from the technological cooperation between the participants in all countries (e.g. increased knowledge base, commercial leads, access to R&D infrastructure etc.).
• Prior to obtaining the Eureka label partners are required to present a draft of Consortium Agreement (on the commercialization of the product, process or service once the phase of research and development has been completed which includes the ownership and use of know-how and IPR settlements)
• Both National and EUREKA application are submitted until the 28 of March 2018. 

Any partner whose cooperative R&D project is consistent with the aforesaid criteria can apply to the present call in accordance with the national laws, rules, regulations, and procedures in effect in each country.

Submission and approval procedures 

EUREKA Application

Partners will be asked to submit the Eureka Project Application Form and the national application form on.

The completed Eureka Project Application Form must be submitted to danube@eurekanetwork.org by 28 March 2018.

The form has to be legally signed by all participating companies.

The signatures must be scanned and sent together with the form as an integral part of the application. The forms must be completed in English, signed by all project partners.

National Application

On 28 March 2018 all project-partners should submit also the national funding application as follows:

In Austria: The partners of the consortium should also fill in the national full proposal until. The National proposal should describe in detail the work of the Austrian partner by using the Austrian submission platform. 

In Croatia: The partners need to send full national proposal. Elements of full national proposal are explained in the Manual for Program EUREKA that is going to be available till 15th of December 2017. Previous call documents

In Czech Republic: The partners of the consortium must submit completed national application form to the call. 

In Hungary the partners of the consortium should also fill in the national full proposal until 28 March 2018. The National full proposal should describe in detail the work of the Hungarian partner by using a special support programme that co-finances the Hungarian EUREKA project participants

In Romania the partners of the consortium should fill in the full project proposal and should send the signatures of all participants in the consortium. The full proposal should describe in detail the work of the Romanian partner by using the Eureka Application Form.

Each country will fund its eligible participants according to its national procedures and funding rules laws, rules and regulations

Funding details

Austria

All companies registered in Austria are eligible for funding, universities and research centers can be funded as subcontractors only. In addition to the EUREKA project form the Austrian participant has to submit a separate national full proposal to the General Program (Basisprogramm) via e-Call at the FFG webpage. The evaluation of the Austrian project part is carried out by internal experts. The project must fulfill the national criteria (“Basisprogramm-Leitfaden”). There is no dedicated budget for this call. Funding in Austria is provided on an annual basis only, therefore follow-on applications must be submitted for the max. duration of 3 years. The funding provided by FFG are grants, only if the partner country also provides project-funding:

• max. 60% of the eligible costs for small companies
• max.  50% of the eligible costs for medium-sized companies and
• max. 40% for large companies

Detailed information on national rules and procedures 

Croatia

All companies registered in Croatia are eligible for funding while universities and research centers can be funded as subcontractors only. In addition to the EUREKA project form the Croatian participant has to submit a separate national full proposal (EUREKA Business plan with required documentation). All info will be published in the Manual for EUREKA program on HAMAG-BICRO web pages on 15th of December 2017.

The evaluation of the Croatian project part is carried out by internal and external experts.

The funding provided by HAMAG-BICRO are grants:

• max. 60% of the eligible costs for small companies
• max. 50% of the eligible costs for medium-sized companies and
• max. 40% for large companies.

Czech Republic

The funding in the Czech Republic will be provided by the MEYS under the national programme INTER-EXCELLENCE and its part INTER-EUREKA.

Czech companies – SME´s and Large Companies - are eligible for submitting the project proposal and can be joined by universities and research organizations. MEYS will fund labelled projects by grants.

• SME´s up to 50% of eligible costs of the Czech project part;
• Large Companies up to 30% of eligible costs of the Czech project part
• Max.  up to 150,000 € per year (up to 4,000,000 CZK).

Hungary

The common Danube Region Call will be financed from the Hungarian national EUREKA 2018 call. The Call has a special budget of ca. 1,3 Million euro for the 2018 period and will be published in January 2018. 

The contracts will be concluded with the National Research, Development and Innovation Office as Funding Agency only if the project gets the EUREKA label. The evaluation procedure lasts 2-3 months with the involvement of independent technical and economic experts. In the support programme application of SMEs, large companies, universities and research institutions are accepted, however the public financed institutions need an industrial partner in order to be eligible. The funding provided by NRDI Office are grants:

• max. 80% of the eligible costs for small companies
• max. 75% of the eligible costs for medium-sized companies
• max. 50% of the eligible costs for large companies and
• 100% of the eligible costs for universities and research organisations.

Universities and Research Organisations are eligible for participation and funding only with industrial partners.

Detailed information on national rules and procedures will be published in January 2018.

In Romania

The national evaluation procedure lasts 2 months with the involvement of independent technical and economic experts. In the support programme application of SMEs, large companies, universities and research institutions are accepted, however the public financed institutions need an industrial partner in order to be eligible.

Funding in Romania is provided on an annual basis only, as follows

• max. 80% of the eligible costs for small companies  max.
• 75% of the eligible costs for medium-sized companies and
• max. 65% for large companies.
• The research institutes and universities governed by public law are eligible to get 100% funding from the state budget

The Danube Eureka Projects shall follow the national rules and procedures as for Eureka Network Projects.

Detailed information on national rules and procedures

Participants are invited to contact their national project coordinators before submitting the documents in order to check the eligibility of the project idea and consortium.

Funding at this extent will be provided only to projects positively evaluated by all involved national public agencies