Japan Globalstars call for projects with Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Israel, Spain and UK

Deadline: Sep 10, 2020  
CALL EXPIRED

Time Schedule

International opening of the call: Monday 8th June 2020

Deadline for Eureka application: 10th September 2020

Applicants informed: December 2020

Eureka label procedure and approval: December 2020

Call description

Within the GlobalStars initiative of Eureka, based on mutual consent, Japan, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Israel, Spain and UK are launching a common call. Participants from Japan and the respective Eureka member countries are invited to submit joint project proposals in the research and development of innovative products and applications with a strong market potential.

Scope

The call for proposals will be an open call inviting projects from any sector area.

Qualification Criteria

Partners must meet the following qualifications:

• The consortium should include at least two companies that are independent from each other, one company for Japan and one company from one of the Eureka member countries participating in the call.
• The project partners must express their will to cooperate on a win-win/fair basis in an R&D project leading to a new product, industrial process or service.
• The product, process or service must be innovative, and there must be a technological risk involved for all involved partners.
• The project must benefit all involved partners.
• The project should have an obvious benefit and added value resulting from the technological cooperation between the participants from the different countries (e.g. increased knowledge base, commercial leads, access to R&D infrastructure etc.).
• A signed Consortium Agreement (CA) is required upon approval, before the actual start of the project. It ought to include, amongst others, the ownership and use of know-how and IPR settlements. A draft consortium agreement should be submitted with the Eureka application as an annex.
• The maximum duration of a project may not exceed 24 months.
• No individual organisation, or individual country, can claim more than 70% of the total eligible costs of a joint project.
• Military projects are excluded.

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, on a non-exchange of funds basis, and subject to budgetary availability. The amount of funding available per project partner is subject to national rules and regulations.

Project partners are strongly advised, prior to submitting the application, to contact their Contact Points in participating countries (see below) in order to check the eligibility of their project.

Partners from other Eureka countries or countries outside of Eureka can also participate, but they will not be funded by the participating funding agencies in this call. Subsequently, these partners have to secure their own funding within the deadlines for this call.

Eligibility criteria

Canada

To be considered for funding, applicants must form a project consortium and develop a collaborative R&D project that meets the following criteria:

1. The project consortium must include at least:
   • 1 incorporated Canadian small or medium-sized enterprise (SME)*, defined as a for-profit company with 500 or fewer full-time equivalent employees and
   • 1 eligible Japanese participant

*Canadian organisations that are not considered SMEs may participate in projects, but are not eligible to receive funding through this call for proposals.

1. The project partners that form the consortium must:
   • be capable of implementing the project including funding their respective share and
   • agree in advance on intellectual property rights and a commercialisation strategy
2. The collaborative project must focus on co-developing a product, process, or technology-based service that:
   • is highly innovative
   • has significant commercial potential
   • has outcomes that can be realized within three years of completion of the project and
   • does not involve R&D related to products, processes, or technological-based services with military or non-peaceful applications
3. The collaborative project must demonstrate:
   • the unique scientific and technological contribution that each organisation brings to the project
   • an obvious advantage and added value for each project partner resulting from the collaboration, such as an increased knowledge base, an access to R&D infrastructure or new fields of application or a solutions for commercial needs and
   • an adequate balance and significance for all project partners, with no more than 70% of the project budget contributed by any organisation or country

In addition to the above eligibility requirements, each applicant must meet their country-specific requirements.

Canadian applicant(s) must also meet the following criteria.

1. The Canadian SME must have a technology that is:
   • world-class, differentiated, and protectable, such as a unique or novel patentable technology that may alter the industry or market

To note: preference will be given to existing commercialised technologies in Canada

1. The Canadian SME must be committed to:

• pursuing growth and profit by developing and commercialising innovative, technology-driven new or improved products, processes or technological-based services and
• aggressive growth through global market expansion.

1. The Canadian SME must be ready, and have the resources to:

• make a serious new market entry push, generally measured by having more than 20 full‑time equivalent employees and $2 million CAD in annual revenue and
• complete a collaborative project with international project partners

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 – both SMEs and Large companies - are eligible for submitting the project proposal and can be joined by universities and research organisations. MEYS will fund R&D 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 and in total limited up to 160,000 € per year (up to 4,000,000 CZK).

The evaluation procedure is organised after submitting completed project applications. A “National Green List” will be generated in accordance with results of the Globalstars Call funding partner with candidates to be labelled. Eureka Label is a necessary condition for project funding.

In the Czech Republic, the participants have to submit the national application to the MEYS according to the rules published on the website. 

For more information contact the national Eureka Office at the MEYS.

France

French funding scheme: ADI (Aide pour le développement de l’innovation) requirements:

• Partnerships: Two or more industrial partners (a Foreign company and a French company)
• No country or partner representing more than 70% of the total budget of the project.
• Eligible Beneficiaries: French companies up to 2000 fulltime equivalents (FTE)
• Eligible costs: Industrial research and experimental development (industrialisation and commercialisation costs are not eligible)
• Funding amount: from € 50,000 up to € 3 Million (submitted to financial analysis of the company and financial conditions)
• Duration: maximum of 24 months
• Funding: zero interest rate loan or repayable advance reimbursable in case of technical success

Beforehand, French companies can also request financial support to set up their partnership:

• APT (Aide au Partenariat Tech): grant of up to 20k€ for 50% of your costs related to prospecting partners, feasibility studies, etc. Any payment is subject to a signed consortium agreement.

If selected, French companies will have to submit a funding application form to their Regional Office as well as a consortium agreement in the English language that regulates the terms of cooperation between all partners.

Germany

Applicants who decide to apply for ZIM funding need to respect the ZIM regulations. 

• The fundable costs of a German SME per project in ZIM are 450.000 €, for a participating German RTO the fundable costs are 220.000 €
• The funding –rate for SMEs varies between 40% and 60%, depending on size and location of the company.
• A draft version of the consortium agreement has to be submitted with the ZIM-application. The signed Version needs to be submitted the latest, after the evaluation is finalized and before the applicants submit their first payment request.
• The project needs to be balanced between the participating partners. In a project consisting of two partners, one partner is only allowed to hold 70 % of the person months of the project. For a project with more than two partners, one partner can only hold 50 % of the person months. Participating RTOs are altogether not allowed to hold more than 50 % of the person months of the project.
• The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy intents to co-fund German participants in projects that include at least one partner from Japan and one German SME partner.

Please read the guidelines before you submit an application.

Israel

To be eligible for the Israel Innovation Authority’s support the applicants must be R&D performing Israeli registered companies operating in Israel.

Terms of support:

• The support is provided subject to the provisions of the R&D Law applicable to the relevant incentive program, include the following:

• The product, service or industrial process to be developed within the framework of cooperation should be innovative, suitable for commercialisation in the target markets, and have added value for the Israeli economy and for the project partner.
• The partner companies must have the ability to implement the project and the R&D processes necessary for its completion, as well as the ability to fund their proportionate share in the process required for project realization.
• Research institutes and academic entities are allowed to take part in the cooperation as subcontractors.
• The partner companies must demonstrate that the cooperation between them is necessary for the development of a value-added technology, resulting from the transfer of knowledge between the companies, as well as from sharing of resources, infrastructure or commercial relationships, innovative application of existing technologies to new markets and more.
• The partner companies will sign an agreement to regulate the rights to their intellectual property (IP) and ownership of new IP, which will be produced during the project and its commercialisation. This agreement is to be subject to the R&D Law.
• Please carefully read the complete list of conditions, which specifies the rights and obligations of the companies, as detailed on the Authority’s website.

Funding details:

1. Funding will be provided in the form of a conditional grant from the R&D Fund of the Innovation Authority to the projects jointly selected under the Call for Proposals.
2. The total funding from the Israel Innovation Authority will not exceed 50% of the eligible and approved costs of the R&D for a one-year period, in accordance with the national laws and regulations of the R&D Fund. Israeli applicants are encouraged to reapply for funding for year two project supports in line with the duration agreed between the applicants.
3. When a project results in sales of a product, service or process, the financial support must be repaid to the Innovation Authority according to its regulations (in general, royalties are paid at rates beginning at 3% of sales, depending on various criteria. Royalties are payable until 100% of the amount of the grant has been repaid with interest as provided in the applicable regulations). If the project does not result in sales, no repayment is required.

For more information on funding conditions, applicants should visit the website of the Innovation Authority

Japan

To be eligible for NEDO support, a Japanese applicant must be (or include) R&D performing company, of any size, registered and operating in Japan.

Besides, the Japanese applicant must

• have a R&D base in Japan
• collaborate with at least one company of the participating Eureka members, which doesn’t have a certain capital relationship (20% of voting rights or more) with the Japanese applicant
• conclude Consortium Agreement (CA) with its overseas partners before starting the funded project
• propose a project of which the duration may not exceed 24 months.
• propose a project in any field of industrial technology except for nuclear technologies and pharmaceutical technologies.

Spain

• CDTI will finance industrial research and/or technological development activities of Spanish companies. Universities and research centers could take part as subcontractors.
• It is mandatory that project activities do not start before submitting the funding applications to CDTI.
• Funding conditions for Spanish partners may vary depending on the nature of the project and the beneficiaries. The features of the main funding tool for Eureka projects in Spain is available on the website. 

UK

To be eligible for Innovate UK support, a UK applicant must:

• be a UK based business, of any size;
• collaborate with the Japanese lead partner;
• involve at least one UK based SME, unless the lead themselves is an SME;
• the UK SME in your consortium must incur at least half of the UK total eligible project costs. If your consortium contains more than one UK SME, this minimum is shared between them.

Innovate UK can fund a proportion of the industrial research project costs, this proportion depends on the size of your business:

• up to 70% if you are a micro or small business
• up to 60% if you are a medium-sized business
• up to 50% if you are a large business

Research organisations, public sector organisations or charities can be partners on the project but cannot lead the UK consortium. The UK research organisations in your consortium can share up to 30 percent of the UK total eligible project costs. If your consortium has more than one UK research organisation, this maximum is shared between them.

Subcontracting is allowed up to a maximum 20% of the total eligible project costs of the UK partners.

Each UK partner must carry out the majority of their funded work within the UK. Innovate UK understands that by the nature of this international collaborative project, that there may be occasions where work will have to be conducted outside of the UK. However, this should be kept to a minimum and Innovate UK will challenge your rationale if deemed to be excessive.

Eligible project costs are defined in the general funding guidance. This competition provides state aid funding under the General Block Exemption Regulation.

Any UK business claiming funding must be eligible to receive state aid at point of award. It is your responsibility to make sure that your organisation is eligible to receive state aid. For further information please see the general guidance document.

Organisations from other countries

Organisations from other Eureka member countries or countries outside of Eureka can participate provided:

• they arrange their own funding
• the project meets the eligibility participation criteria
• they respect the deadlines of the call.

Submission

There are 4 stages to the submission and assessment process.

Stage 1: Eureka application

All partners must complete the Eureka project application form online which is available in the call webpage. It must be completed online by 10th September 2020 by 17.00 Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). The form must be completed in English.

The project consortium is strongly advised to read the form carefully, follow the guidelines and complete all necessary elements in the form as requested. You can contact your Eureka National Project Coordinators to get support in preparing the form (see below for detailed information for each funding agency).

The project consortium is requested to submit a draft consortium agreement as an annex to the Eureka application.

Stage 2: National applications

In parallel to the submission of the Eureka project form, all project partners are required to submit a related funding application, if required, to their respective funding agencies, taking into account all relevant procedures and submission rules. The deadline for submission might differ between the participating funding agencies (see below for detailed information for each funding agency).

Applicants from Canada must:

Complete the following application steps:

1. Register using the following link: (link) by July 6, 2020.
2. Complete and submit the Expression of Interest (EOI) form supplied to those who register by July 13, 2020.

Submit a Canadian Application package including the Eureka application form and draft consortium agreement by September 10, 2020, 17:00 Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). Note: instructions related to this submission will be provided only to those whose EOIs have been reviewed and deemed eligible to proceed.

Applicants from the Czech Republic must:

submit the application form by 17:00 GMT to MEYS the deadline, along with the supporting documentation listed in the guidance for applicants.

In addition to the Project Application Form and Annex, project partners that want to receive funding from MEYS need to submit a national application, including a detailed project plan and budget.

It is recommended that the Czech partners contact MEYS before applying, in order to get advice on the national application. The funding application is available under INTER-EUREKA, described on the website.

Applicants from France must: 

• submit the application form by 17:00 GMT to BPI France the deadline, along with the supporting documentation listed in the guidance for applicants.

In addition to the Project Application Form and Annex, project partners that want to receive funding from Bpifrance need to submit a national application, including a detailed project plan and budget.

It is recommended that the French partners contact Bpifrance before applying, in order to get advice on the national application. The funding applied is Aide au Développement de l’Innovation, described on the website.

The national application shall be submitted through Bpifrance’s normal application portal.

Applicants from Germany must:

In addition to the Eureka application, project partners who want to apply for funding through the Central Innovation Programme for SMEs (ZIM) need to submit a ZIM-application to AiF Projekt GmbH by the 10th of September 2020.

Detailed information and forms can be found on the website. It is highly recommended to contact AiF Projekt GmbH in due time to the deadline (a minimum of four weeks is suggested) in order to clarify individual questions.

Applicants from Israel must: 

• submit the required national application forms, including Eureka application form and draft consortium agreement, in accordance with the Israel Innovation Authority regulations, through an online system by 12:00 IST, 10th of September 2020, to the Israel Innovation Authority, along with the supporting documentation listed in the guidance for applicants.

Applicants from Japan must:

• submit the NEDO application form by noon JST (Japan Standard Time) by the 10th of September 2020 to NEDO along with the supporting documentation listed in the guidance for applicants.

Applicants from Spain must: 

• submit the application form through the website by 17:00 GMT by the deadline to CDTI. This submission must include a draft consortium agreement. Once the application is checked, additional information will be requested to eligible applications in order to proceed with the funding application. Each company must complete and submit the funding application to CDTI within 20 days after receiving the communication of eligibility.

Applicants from the UK must:

• submit the required Innovate UK application on the Innovation Funding Service by 12:00 BST along with the supporting documentation listed in the guidance for applicants by the 10th of September 2020.

Stage 3: International and national evaluation

All applications are assessed against the eligibility criteria of the call before being put forward for the national assessments according to the national evaluation criteria.

• Applications from Canada are being put forward for assessment by the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP).
• Applications from the Czech Republic are being put forward for assessment by Czech Eureka Committee consisting experts who are experts in the innovation area.
• Applications from France are being put forward for assessment by Bpifrance’s department in international innovation programmes, the latter could also mobilize, if necessary, Bpifrance’s experts.
• Applications from Germany are being put forward for assessment by DLR-PT and the national applications need to be send to AiF Projekt GmbH.
• Applications from Israel are being put forward for assessment by The Israel Innovation Authority’s evaluators.
• Applications from Japan are being put forward for assessment by the Technical Evaluation Committee consisting of external experts and the NEDO Authorization Committee.
• Applications from Spain are being put forward for assessment by CDTI experts who are experts in the innovation area identified in your application.
• Applications from the UK are being put forward for assessment by up to 5 external assessors who are experts in the innovation area identified in your application.

A multilateral consensus meeting made up of NRC, MEYS, BPI France, DLR-PT/AiF Projekt GmbH, Israel Innovation Authority, NEDO, CDTI and Innovate UK evaluators agree which projects to approve based on the assessors’ scores, using the Eureka Assessment Criteria (Annex A). The basis for the evaluation is the general Eureka eligibility criteria, national eligibility criteria and evaluations, the Eureka application form and if required a national application form.

Successful projects are put forward for a Eureka label. After a common list of labelled and non-labelled projects has been agreed, applicants will be informed about the results.

Funding details

Funding will only be provided to labelled projects that are positively evaluated by all participating funding agencies, taking the common ranking list into account. Funding of project partners is subjected to budgetary availability and national funding conditions stipulated by each funding body.

All project partners are notified of the funding decisions by their respective national funding agencies. Any IPR arising from cooperative project activities under this call shall be regulated in a Consortium Agreement in accordance with the relevant laws of the countries participating in the project.

A signed Consortium Agreement on the execution of the project and commercialisation of the projects results is mandatory for selected projects and must be sent to the relevant national funding agencies after the results of the evaluation have been communicated and before the start of the project.