23.01.2008 - Bulletin No:14
New update (version 1.9) to FP7 Book available now
Issues surrounding 60% Derogation Overhead Rate for SMEs
Feedback survey on First FP7 Contract Negotiations
New update (version 1.9) to FP7 Book available now.
This is a major update to the book and includes the following changes:
- Minor editing and corrections
- Added RTD to NoE activities
- Amended 5.6 on SME measures
- Edited Chapter 7 based on comments by Hermann Heich
- Updated section 10 on Good Practice and section 11 on ETPs with more info on JTIs
- Revised section 13 on SMEs
- Updated section 16 on call advice
- Added
- Updated Appendix 5
To download please click here.
There have been some major rule changes between FP6 and FP7. As an example, in FP7 RTD Performers like Universities and Research organisations can be the Coordinators of "Research for the benefit of SME" projects.
In order to answer requests, EFPConsulting together with the Finance Helpdesk will be holding an open 1 Day FP7 SME Measures (CRAFT) Workshop on 15 Feb 2008, in
The Workshop is aimed at people from organisations who are interested in taking part in SME Measures (CRAFT) project proposals. The Workshop will specifically cover the financial rules and regulations related to this type of project and specifically the derogations from other types of Framework Program research proposals.
The workshop shortcuts the learning curve for participating in a project proposal with a higher chance of success.
For more information, please click here.
In some priorities, the guides for applicants now state that the first stage reading of proposal texts will be carried out remotely.
The process involves the sending of paper copies of the proposal by secure means to the evaluators at their homes / offices.
This change could have side effects:
- Evaluators working from ‘home’ may devote a longer time to reading the proposal, and may use Internet access to validate assertions made in the proposal.
- Similarly they might visit websites mentioned in the text. Applicants should however not rely upon evaluators doing this.
In May 2007, the Commission adopted the first proposals for Joint Technology Initiatives. This is the first time that public-private partnerships, involving industry, the research community and public authorities, were proposed at European level to pursue ambitious common research objectives.
Joint Technology Initiatives are an entirely new mechanism for performing research at EU level. They are long-term Public-Private Partnerships and will be managed within dedicated structures based on Article 171 of the EC treaty. JTIs will support large-scale multinational research activities in areas of major interest to European industrial competitiveness and issues of high societal relevance.
On 20 December 2007, the Council adopted the Regulations setting-up four Joint Undertakings, each one implementing a Joint Technology Initiative as a Public-Private Partnership, and establishing a new mechanism for funding integrated industrial research.
The Regulations setting-up four Joint Undertakings are expected to be published in the Official Journal of the European Union during the week of 4 February 2008.
There is a new web site for JTIs http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/jtis/
In particular there is now available for downloading the draft Council resolutions for setting them up that includes details on the operation of their funding and calls. See under "Individual JTIs" from the link on the left of the JTI site.
JTI current member states
The above referenced Council drafts contain the names of the founding member states for each JTI.
For Artemis they are:
Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Hungary, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden, the United Kingdom.
For ENIAC they are:
Note that some additional Countries are in negotiation to become members. The impact will be that organisation in states that are not members of a JTI would only get approximately 16% funding if they are part of a JTI funded consortium.
The LifeLong Learning Programme and sub-programs: Comenius (School Education); Erasmus (Higher Education); Leonardo da Vinci (Vocational Education and Training); Grundtvic (Adult Education); Transversal Program (Policy Cooperation; Languages, ICT, Dissemination and Exploitation)
Some Key points
- 2007 budget was 88M Euro; 2008 budget is 112M Euro
- In 2007, 1393 proposals submitted; 415 selected; success rate 30%
- Proposal Submission Procedure and Forms are the same for all sub-programs. Variances between sub-program requirements are indicated on the forms.
- Proposal submission is a two-stage process. If you pass stage 1, you are given only 10 days to submit stage 2.
- Indirect Costs calculated as up to 7% of (Staff Costs + Travel & subsistence, + Equipment + Subcontractors + Other (e.g. Conference costs)).
- No audit certificates are required to be submitted for an LLP project
For more information and downloading of presentations, see:
http://ec.europa.eu/education/programmes/llp/index_en.html
http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/llp/infoday08/downloads/index.htm
Issues surrounding 60% Derogation Overhead Rate for SMEs.
Currently, the way the rules stand, by including the term “SME” in the Rules and by using uninformed and unclear language in the subsequent documents, SME’s can benefit from “double” concessions in FP7.
Many SMEs may not have any formal method (and accounting system) in place which allows the calculation of overheads per project (or even a particular department), and therefore the derogation method is being used and approved by most SMEs in the 2007 Calls for proposal.
The Finance Helpdesk has produced a leaflet to provide some more information on this subject.
To view the leaflet click here.
Feedback survey on First FP7 Contract Negotiations.
Many of you have completed negotiations on the first FP7 Contracts.
It would assist the Finance Help-desk to understand how several financial aspects of FP7 Call 1 Contract negotiations were handled in practice by the various Commission Units. We ask that you spend 10 Minutes filling in the survey, so that we can provide recommendations to the Commission.
The Finance Helpdesk undertake to keep the specific identities of the responders and their projects in confidence and will only publish non-attributable summaries and statistics.
The survey can be accessed from here.
We are pleased to announce another open Finance Helpdesk Workshop in
11/02/2008 3 Day in-depth FP7 Financial Workshop in Brussels, Belgium.
14/02/2008 1 Day FP7 Contract Negotiation and Project Kick-off Workshop in Brussels, Belgium.
15/02/2008 1 Day SME Measures (CRAFT) Workshop in Brussels, Belgium.
12/03/2008 1 Day FP7 Financial Workshop in Tel-Aviv, Israel.