llina Hristova, M.A., Ivica llié, M.A., AljoSa Kocjanéié, Damjan Struna, M.Sc., Mojca DuSica Zajc, Ph.D. BEYOND THE HORIZON Practical guide to developing competitive project proposals in Horizon 2020BEYOND THE HORIZON Practical guide to developing competitive project proposals in Horizon 2020 RR & CO. Knowledge Centre Ltd. Ljubljana 2014 Beyond the Horizon: Practical guide to developing competitive project proposals in Horizon 2020 First electronic edition Copyright © 2014 by RR & CO. Knowledge Centre Lid., Ljubljana. All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without prior written permission of the publisher. Editors lina Hristova Mojea Dusica Zaje Authors lina Hristova Ivica Hig AljoSa Kocjantié Damjan Struna Mojca Dusica Zajc Designer and layout technicianVesna Bitene Publisher: RR & CO. Knowledge Centre Ltd. Mateja Rudolf, general manager Dunajska cesta 20, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia info@rr-co.eu phone: +386 (0)1 432 41.91 fax: +386 (0)1 43171 48 hitp:/iwww.rr-co.si_http://www.rr-co.eu—http://www.efamt.eu _ hitp://www.eu-partners.eu Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2014 E-book is sold through the online shop: http://knowledge-management.si/shop Price: 51.14 EUR CIP - Katalozni zapis 0 publikaciji Narodna in univerzitetna knjiznica, Ljubljana 336.53 1.2:001.891(4)(0.034.2) 001.891:061.1EU(0.034.2) BEYOND the horizon [Elektronski vir]: practical guide to developing competitive project proposals in Horizon 2020 / fauthors Ilina Hristova ... [et al.]; editors llina Hristova, Mojca Dusica Zajc}. - El. knjiga. - Ljubljana : RR & CO. Knowledge Centre, 2014 ISBN 978.961-93780-1-4 (ePub) |. Hristova, tina 277067264 CONTENT THINGS TO KNOW BEFORE YOU START Introduction to the book Grant funding What is grant funding? Research, Development, Innovation What is “research and development”? What is “innovation”?When is something you might call an innovation not an innovation in the strict sense? What kind of activities does EU support in Horizon 2020? Why public funding for research and development? Why does giving public grant funding for research and development make sense economically? What is the political reasoning for EU Funding for Research and Development? Horizon 2020 structure What is Horizon 2020? What are the main reasons behind H2020? What is the main structure of Horizon 2020? Will Horizon 2020 change over time? Which activities does Horizon 2020 finance ~ The funding instruments? Funding Instruments in Horizon 2020 What novelties does Horizon 2020 bring? Which are some of the most important changes? Where to find more information about Horizon 2020? How to find and read the calls for proposals on the Participant Portal? What are Technology Readiness Levels? What is the connection between Horizon 2020 and the Structural Funds? What are synergies? What is combined funding? What are the main issues we have to face in such combination of two different sources of funding? Why SMEs and why an SME Instrument in Horizon 2020? How can SMEs benefit from H2020? What actions are especially targeting SME development? What are the key things you must know about the SME Instrument? SCIENTIFIC EXCELLENCE Circle of logic in research & innovation projects What is circle of logic and why is it crucial for the success of your project? What are the objectives of your project? Which unmet needs are your project objectives addressing? How to describe the project concept? Where exactly in the spectrum from ‘idea to application’, or from ‘lab to market’ is your project positioned?Are there any national or international research and innovation activities which will be linked with the project, especially where the outputs from these will feed into the project? What kind of methodology (which activities for research, demonstration, piloting, first market replication, etc.) will be necessary for you to achieve your project objectives? Gender and sex analysis Why is this important? How to address promotion of gender equality in project proposals? What can be included as a part of gender and sex analysis? What are the mistakes that should be avoided? IMPACT Project Impacts What is Impact? What should you consider when describing the expected impact? How will your project contribute to the expected impacts listed in the Work programme under the relevant topic? How will your project enhance the innovation capacity and integration of new knowledge? Which other impacts will your project have — social, environmental impacts ete.? What are impact indicators? Why do you need them? How to define indicators of Impact achievement? What are SMART indicators? Communication, dissemination, exploitation What is communication? What is dissemination? What is exploitation of results? Why do we need all three acti How should you plan the communication activities? How should you plan the dissemination activities? What can you do to communicate your project and disseminate the project results? How should you plan the exploitation activities? Data Management Plan What is a Data Management Plan? What is the Open Access policy of the European Commission in the framework of H2020? What are the implications of the Open Access policy for your scientific publications and your research data?Knowledge management What is knowledge management? Business plan What does outline ofa “business plan” mean in Section 2 of the proposal? What is a business plan? Is there any prescribed form? WORK PLAN AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT Work Plan What is work plan? How to get from the project idea to a detailed work pian? What is the WBS Method? Which are the key characteristics of a Work Package? How many work packages, tasks and deliverables do you need in your project? What does a Work Package look like? What is a Gantt chart? What is a Pert Diagram/Chart? What are the evaluators looking for in a good work plan? Project management What is project management and how to describe it? What are the key characteristics of a good project Coordinator (organisation) and project leader (person within coordinating organisation)? Authority of the project leader What are the key characteristics of a good Work package (WP) Leader? How should you set up good communication and documentation flow? How should you ensure effective innovation management on the project? What are project risks and how to describe them? PARTNERS AND CONSORTIUM Consortium description What is a consortium and why is the description needed? How does it relate to the evaluation criteria? What are other countries? Individual partner descriptions PROJECT COSTS AND BUDGET Costs and Grants What are cosis?What are grants? Reimbursement of eligible costs What types of costs are there? What are eligible costs? What are non-eligible costs? What are direct costs? What are indirect costs? Costs in Horizon 2020 Which are the main costs forms in H2020? Which are the different budget (cost) categories in H2020? Personnel costs What are personnel costs? What is a person/month? How many working hours are included in one person/month? How are personnel costs calculated? How can you calculate the costs for employees declared as actual costs? How can you calculate the costs for employees declared as unit cost? How to calculate personnel costs for seconded staff, SME owners and natural persons not receiving a salary? Cos What is included in the cost of durable equipment? Which costs of durable equipment can be charged to the project? s of durable equipment Travel costs What types of costs are included in the travel costs category? Consumables Sub-contractors Indirect costs Which are the indirect costs of your project? How do you calculate/ allocate indirect costs? What are in-kind contributions? Are in-kind contributions considered receipts? Budget How can you define the project budget? Where do you present the project budget in the proposal? How do you justify the resources to be committed? EVALUATIONWhat happens after your project has been submitted? What is meant by “legal entity”? When are two legal entities independent of each other? What are Member States and what are Associated Countries? Can you participate if you are not coming from H2020 Member State or Associated Country? Can you do the project alone? Can you apply as individual? What is meant by »financial and operational capacity«? What are award criteria? What happens if two proposals receive the same score? How much do you have to wait in order to receive the outcome of the evaluation process? What is the Complaint procedure? GRANT PREPARATION What is the role of the partners in the Grant Preparation Phase? What is the role of the Coordinator in the Grant Preparation Phase? What if a partner wants out of the project? What is financial viability check? What happens if the coordinating organisation has insufficient financial viability? What happens if the coordinating organisation has weak financial viability? What is DoA? What does the Coordinator have to do in the preparation of DoA? How much time will you have to prepare the Grant Agreement? PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION Consortium agreement What is Consortium Agreement (CA)? What is DESCA and why is it relevant to you and your project (why you must know about it)? Why do you need a CA? Who is involved in preparation of the CA? What is the content of CA? What are the things you need to describe in each section of the CA? Is DESCA the only template that can be used? Can the CA be changed during the lifetime of the project? What happens afier the CA is signed?Where you can find more information? Grant Agreement When do you sign the Grant Agreement? Are there different Grant Agreements? What does the Grant Agreement cover? How to better understand the Grant Agreement? What is the difference between the Grant Agreement and the Consortium Agreement? Getting the project started — Kick off meeting What is the kick off meeting? When and where to organise it? Who is in charge of it? What to discuss and agree? What not to do during the kick off meeting? Project implementation What is research and innovation coordination? What is coordination/ management of the consortium? Project implementation — Who does what? Project Periodic and Final Reports Why are they needed? When are you supposed to prepare them? Who is in charge? What should be included in the reports? Payment modalities and financial management What are the different types of payments? How much money will you get up front? What about subsequent payments? Do you have to have supporting documentation for the reported costs? Which supporting documents do you need (by cost category)? Personnel costs Durable equipment Travel costs All other direct costs: How to effectively store all the cost documentation? How to make the storage of documentation most effective? Why Audit? How is the audit certificate prepared? The auditorThe project coordinator/ The team leader The accouniant What is the relationship auditor — project coordinator/team leader ~ accountant like? What are the most frequent errors in the financial statements and examples taken from the European Court of Auditor s annual reports? Non-substantiation of working time Use of average personnel costs Lack of prior agreement Substantiation of costs claimed Calculation of productive hours Personnel costs — Charging of hours worked on the project Personnel costs — Use of the average personnel costs must meet the requirements. Ineligible personnel and indirect costs Reviews What are project reviews? Where and when do reviews take place? What is being reviewed? What to prepare? What comes next? What to remember? Chapter I: THINGS TO KNOW BEFORE YOU START Introduction to the book Horizon 2020 is rapidly becoming the most popular EC grant funding instrument. Informa- tion from the Participant Portal shows a large number of project proposals for each of the calls published within Horizon 2020 so far. Consequently, we can expect relatively low success rates which, however, will be quite different in different calls and also in different topics of the same call, Based on the available budget for a given call and the estimatedfunding per project indicated in the same, we can expect, for example, relatively low success rates of approximately 6,5% in the call for proposals on Future and Emerging Technologies H2020-FETPROACT-2014, of slightly more than 7% in the H2020 ICT call for 2014 (H2020-ICT-2014-1), round 10% for the first round of the ERC Starting Grants. On the other hand there are calls within Societal Challenges where the success rate of the H2020- INT-INCO-2014 call for example is not bad at all at a level of approximately 27%. According to the available data, it is expected that the overall success rate of the first calls for proposals in Horizon 2020 will be of about 11%. This is not only because evaluation criteria are strict, but because competition is becoming tougher with every new call in Horizon 2020 Acquiring skills and competences necessary to prepare a successfull project proposal is the first step you need to take. That is the beginning of a long and exiting journey filled with ups and downs, new experiences and new frontiers. With each and every project, your experience will guide you further in the world of grant funding; you will learn a lot on the way, both from yours and your partners’ success and mistakes, you will gain self confidence in writing proposals and you will build your reputation, both personal and of your organi- sation. This first chapter wants to show you the bigger picture, while the subsequent chapters will take you through the entire process of project proposal preparation based on the template for Research and Innovation Actions and Innovation Actions in Horizon 2020. Each of the chapters begins with an extract from the template, which is then analysed in detail. The last chapters are dedicated to the events following a positive evaluation of your project proposal: grant preparation and project implementation. The aim of this book is to present the complex process of proposal preparation and project implementation in a simple and user friendly way. Therefore, it is a starting point for your understanding and better success in Horizon 2020. It is meant to help you understand each part of the project proposal and to give you some useful hints on what you are expected to present in each section. It will also give you some insight into project implementation and project management, which will kelp you in preparing to manage your grant funded project. The book is not an exhaustive nor comprehensive document, therefore, if you want to know more about a given topic, we advise you to use the sources listed throughout the book. Although this book focuses on Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Actions, it will come handy when preparing or implementing any other grant funded project.Grant funding What is grant funding? Simply put, grant funding is public money spent to achieve a certain political objective. Technically, grant funding is the umbrella term for all donations from the budget, which aim to finance activities that will help achieve any policy objective. Grants are 1 usually awarded for separate projects that have to relate to a policy objective that the EU wants to achieve . Grant funding follows some general principles: + It must be awarded transparently (as a rule, a decision for grant is based on the public calls for proposals) and be based on equal treatment, + Grants are not awarded for projects that have already started; the reason for this is that grant are supposed to have an incentive effect, making you do something you otherwise would not, + Usually co-financing from the organisations implementing a project will be re- quired. Source: “Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the Union and its rules of application, March 2014: A synoptic presentation” presents all the relevant texts for EU budget. Title VI deals specifically with grants, laying down their scope, forms, who can benefit from them, how they are calculated and what are the eligible costs that the grant can cover, and many other procedural elements of EU grant funding. hitp://bookshop.curopa.eu/en/financial-regulation-applicable-to-the-general-budget-of-the- rules-of-application-pbK VO113881/;pgid=y8dIS7GUWMdSROEAIMEUUs Wb0000Kw- c2 |ANzTFY2xFADsGCoc2F WO1RKhASgd0Q=? CatalogCategoryID=¥.cK ABstnJsAAAE}xZEY4eSL Ifyou are considering grant funding for your project, it is therefore critical that you identify to which EU policy objective your project will contribute. If applying for EU funding, you need to see what the EU policy objectives are. They are not always the same as the policy objectives for your own country. Also, you should not start a project before the grant has been approved and be prepared to finance part of the costs yourself. Research, Development, InnovationNot everything we would consider “research” or “innovation” in everyday sense of the word falls within the official definitions of these activities (and can be eligible for funding within Horizon). What is “research and development”? Research and development activities are characterised by: + doing something that is significantly new (in fancy-speak, that is “characterised by an appreciable element of novelty”), + that may produce an answer or solution to something yet unknown (“resolve a scientific and technological uncertainty”, also known as “is risky”), and + the solution will be unexpected to someone with basic knowledge in the field (“not readily apparent to someone familiar with the basic stock of common knowledge and techniques for the area concerned”). If you are not sure if your project falls within the research and development activities, you need to ask yourself two questions: +s it new for an average expert in the field? If the answer to this question if yes, you've got yourself an “appreciable element of novelty”. + Is there a chance that the project will not be successful? If the answer is yes, you have got yourself “scientific and technological uncertainty”. If you are still unsure, you can decide on the basis of the following questions. You want to have YES as an answer to most of them + What is the main objective of the project and its main result / deliverable? + Do you aim to create new knowledge within the project? + Do you aim to create something drastically different than what already exist (an improved process, service, or product)? + What is new about this project? + Is it seeking previously undiscovered phenomena, structures or relation- ships? + Does it apply knowledge, techniques or technology in a new way? + Is there a significant chance that it will result in new (extended or deeper) understanding of phenomena, relationships or principles of interest to more than one organisation? Alternatively, will it create new technology? «Is your project trying to solve common problems in a way that has not yet been tried?+ Can you protect the project results by various forms of intellectual property rights protections mechanisms? + What methods are being used? While there is no “THE” scientific method, there are some questions that help you decide if your methods are scientific: + Are the project ideas developed through logical reasoning? + Will the methods include testing of the proposed explanations (project ideas) against the world? + Will the methods ensure that the project findings are reliable (well-founded in factual content)? + Will the findings be open to peer-review (examination of data and logic used to come to the finding, trying to find alternative explanation for the conclu- sions, also attempts to replicate experiments)’ + How general (transferrable, replicable) are the findings or results of the project likely to be? + Can the findings be replicated? + Can the findings be used in another scientific discipline? + For H2020 projects, these two questions can also be very handy: + Are you aiming at addressing problems that are common to different European countries? + Are you aiming at providing solutions that can be applied to other fields and other regions? + What staff is working on the project? This question does not mean that your organisation should have a formal “research and development department”, but that you should be able to show that the researchers working on the project have the knowledge and skills to do the proposed work. + What kind of education do they have? + What is their formal and informal background? + Do they have any previous experience in research and development? + Do they have any previous experience implementation of grant funded projects research projects (national and/or EU), preparation of scientific articles, patent applications? Do they have research and development duties are a part of their job description? + Does the project fall more naturally into another scientific, technological or industrial activity? + Does your “common sense” tell you that the project is not research? Why?What is “innovation”? Technological product and process (TPP) innovations are: + Implemented technologically new products and processes, and + Significant technological improvements in products and processes. A TPP innovation has been implemented if it has been introduced on the market (product innovation) or used within a production process (process innovation). It involves a series of scientific, technological, organisational, financial and commercial activities. In the last decades, besides above, innovations in services are gathering more and more importance (and grant funding). Innovation in service-oriented sectors can differ from above innovations: it can be organised less formally, is more incremental in nature and can be less technological. Innovation in services refers to new or improved service products (commod- ities or public services), new or improved ways of designing and producing services; all this may include innovation in service delivery systerns. Social innovation is also at the core of many grant funding programmes. Social innovation comprises of all those new ideas (products, services and models) that simultaneously meet social needs (more effectively than alternatives) and create new social relationships or 3 collaborations. When is something you might call an innovation not an innovation in the strict sense? In cases where changes to the product or process are: + insignificant, + minor, or + do not involve a sufficient degree of novelty. Examples of not-innovation include: any minor changes to the product / process / service, customisation of products, routine upgrades, stopping using product, a method or a process, regular seasonal and other cyclical changes. It is also not an innovation if you make “other creative improvements” where the novelty does not concern the use or objective performance characteristics of the products or in the way they are produced or delivered but rather their aesthetic or other subjective qualities.What kind of activities does EU support in Horizon 2020? “Research and Innovation Actions” in Horizon 2020 cover all activities from basic research to small scale piloting: + Basic research — experimental or theoretical work undertaken primarily to acquire new knowledge of the underlying foundation of phenomena and observable facts, without any particular application or use in view, + Applied research — original investigation undertaken in order to acquire new knowledge for a specific practical aim or objective. + Technology development and integration (systematic work, drawing on existing knowledge gained from research and/or practical experience, directed + to producing new materials, products or devices, + to installing new processes, systems and services, or + to improving substantially those already produced or installed), + Testing and validation on a small-scale prototype in a laboratory or simulated environment. “Innovation Actions” in Horizon 2020 are directly aiming at producing plans and arrange- ments or designs for new, altered or improved products, processes or services. For this purpose they may include: prototyping, testing, demonstrating, piloting, large-scale product validation and market replication. + Prototyping means “producing first of its kind”. Prototype is an original or first model of something, so prototyping proves a technology or its application. Prototypes’ can be used to verify fit, assess styling, or to perform life testing. How many prototypes you might need in your project, and whether they will be electronic of physical, will necessarily depend on the field you are in; for new type of mascara, the number will be significantly higher than for a new electric car. + Testing is the procedure so submitting something to such conditions or operations that will lead to its proof or disproof (acceptance or rejection). + A technology demonstration or is a prototype, rough example or an otherwise incomplete version of a conceivable product or future system, put together as proof of concept with the primary purpose of showcasing the possible applications, feasibility, performance and method of an idea for a new technology. They can be used as demonstrations to the investors, partners, and journalists or even to potential customers in order to convince them of the viability of the chosen approach, or to test them on ordinary users. + Piloting project refers to an initial roll-out of a system into production, targeting a limited scope of the intended final solution. The scope may be limited by thenumber of us 's who can access the system, the business processes affected, the business partners involved, or other restrictions as appropriate to the domain. The purpose of a pilot project is to test, often in a production environment. Sources: Frascati Manual provides definitions on the research and development: hiip://www.tubitak.gov.tr/ tubitak_content files/BTYPD/kilavuzlar/Frascati pdf Oslo Manual provides definitions on innovation: http.//www.oeed. org/science/inno/2367580.pdf Financial regulation and the Regulation on implementation of Financial regulation deal with rules and procedures for all EC budgetary issues, including grant funding: htip://bookshop.europa.eu/en/financial- regulation-applicable-to-the-general-budget-of-the-union-and-its-rules-of-application- pbKVO113881/:pgid=y8dIS7GUWMdSROEAIMEUUsWb0000Kw- Bydpn;sid=cZc2 1ANzTFY2xFADsGCoc2F W01RKhASgd0Q=? CatalogCategoryID=Y.cKABstnJsAAAE;xZEY4e5L. Prototype definition was found here: htip://dspace.mit.edw/bitstream/handle/1721.1/13270/25037245 pdf? sequence=1 Why pu g development? Contra-intuitively, giving away public money makes good economic sense. Why does giving public grant funding for research and development make sense economically? From Adam Smith times on, the economists have agreed that scientific and technological policy and innovation are an important for the long term economic growth. They just did not know what causes it. The answer was offered first by the theory of endogenous growth. The theory answers the question what are the causes of technological progress. Amongst others, technological innovation and research and development are important causes. At the level of firm, according to Paul Romer, they invest in new knowledge (which is gained through research for maximisation of the profit. When they have a new product of service ~ the result of new knowledge ~ they can charge maximum profit (become price- makers instead of price-takers). So, in principle, every company would invest in research and development to make new products and services. However, in practice, companies usually do not invest in research and development because: + Research and development is inherently risky (remember technological uncer- tainty from the definition of research?), As any researcher could tell, it can leadto the conclusion that something is simply not possible. In the world of science, this is a perfectly valid conclusion. But, in the world of business, such situation is not desirable. + Also, the problem with new knowledge is that is not that easy to keep it to yourself or to prevent it to spill over to others. If the newfound knowledge can be used by other companies, which did not invest in its production, then it is not reasonable for companies to invest in getting it. If companies engage in research and devel- opment, they usually protect new knowledge by the intellectual property protection tools (patents and similar) or they treat it as a business secret. Because of the riskiness of research and development and because of the difficulty of appropriating the research results, companies do not invest sufficiently in research and development. Therefore, to incentivise the companies to do it more, the state and EU offer grant funding (subsidies, donations) for the companies. So far, all the theorists dealing with research and development have been economists, But in reality, research, development and innovation are also social processes. Ever tried to make a university professor and a young SME owner, a high school drop-out, understand each other? This point is explored by the theorists of the national innovation systems: the relations between companies and researchers are not just economical — can you imagine working with someone you don’t know? This approach emphasise the role of trust in establishing relations between actors of the national innovation systems. Another important contribution of national innovation system theorists is that not all knowledge is the same. They distinguish 4 different forms of knowledge: + Know-what ~ knowing the facts + Know-why — knowing the principles and laws of nature and society + Know-how and skills — the ability to make something + Know-who — knowing the right persons that know something. Especially know-who is very important in trying to establish research consortia and building trust. Before you can make an international research project, you need to know the right people. This is why also the EU also finances projects that are about knowing other people in your field and not necessarily just doing the research.Finally, the latest theoretical approach to research, development and innovation, is open innovation: the idea that organisations should make greater use of external ideas and technologies in their own business, and allow unused internal ideas to flow out to others for use. What is the political reasoning for EU Funding for Research and Development? For research and development, the policy objectives are defined in the Treaty, strategic documents, such as Europe 2020, Innovation union, and the concept of European Research Area, The interest of EU in research and innovation is firstly described in the Treaty. This means that the EU has a political interest in the research and innovation, which is further elaborated in Europe 2020 strategy, especially in the Innovation Union, In 2010, Europe 2020 strategy was prepared, setting out a vision of how the European economy can be more efficient. Three priorities were identified: + Smart growth: developing an economy, based on knowledge and innovation + Sustainable growth: promoting a greener and competitive economy and effective use of natural resources; + Inclusive growth: fostering a high-employment economy delivering social and territorial cohesion of the Union. Five most important targets set by the strategy were: + To raise the employment rate of the population aged 20-64 from the current 69% to at least 75%, + To achieve the target of investing 3% of GDP in R&D in particular by improving the conditions for R&D investment by the private sector, and develop a new indicator to track innovation. + To reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20% compared to 1990 levels or by 30% if the conditions are right, increase the share of renewable energy in final energy consumption to 20%, and achieve a 20% increase in energy efficiency, + To reduce the share of early school leavers to 10% from the current 15% and increase the share of the population aged 30-34 having completed tertiary from 31% to at least 40%. + To reduce the number of Europeans living below national poverty lines by 25%, lifting 20 million people out of poverty.The purpose of the Innovation Union's research and development and innovation policy is a new focus on the challenges facing the society: climate change, energy efficiency, health and demographic change, and similar. Finally, the European research area priorities are: + More effective national research systems, in the form of more competition within any country and sustained or greater investment in research, + Optimal transnational co-operation and competition — defining and implementing common research agendas on grand-challenges, raising quality through Europe- wide open competition, and constructing and running effectively key research infrastructures on a pan-European basis, + Removal of barriers to researcher mobility, training and attractive careers. Horizon 2020 structure What is Horizon 2020? Horizon 2020 is the European programme that provides funding for research and innovation projects which means that all the phases from basic research to market uptake are covered. The total value of Horizon 2020 is slightly over 70 billion Euros in constant prices. What are the main reasons behind H2020? Horizon 2020 is the financial instrument implementing the Innovation Union ~ one of the flagship initiatives of Europe 2020. What this means in practice is that Horizon 2020 invests in research and innovation projects to help the creation of new jobs, to guarantee smart, sustainable and inclusive growth and provide solutions that will improve the quality of our everyday life. The idea is to make Europe even more competitive on the global market, to make it a leader in world cl: ience, to remove the barriers that prevent great ideas getting quickly to the market and to change the way the public and private sector work together. What is the main structure of Horizon 2020? Horizon 2620 is structured in three main pillars addressing the key challenges Europe faces today. In each of the three pillars there are a number of sub programmes focusing on different areas that will contribute to the overall achievement of Horizon 2020 goals. Each of the three pillars is briefly described below to give you a general idea of the types of projects that are funded and the types of organisations/partnerships that can be involved. For more detailed information on H2020 see the links in the Sources section.Picture: Horizon 2020 Structure Pillar 1: Excellent science: supports the great potential Europe already has in producing world class science. It provides funding for outstanding researchers and their training, mobility and career development. It supports ground breaking projects and the creation of the best possible research infrastructures. + European Research Council (ERC) Grants Which projects? Ground-breaking, high risk projects in any scientific field proposed by researchers with proven potential to become independent research leaders or have already established themselves as such. Who is it for? —_ Individual researchers and their teams + Marie Sklodowska — Curie Actions.Which projects? Projects supporting the career development and training of researchers with an important focus on innovation skills. Individual fellowships, joint research trainings and/or doc- toral programmes, staff exchanges, researchers’ night and cofounding of other programmes offering fellowships are provided. Who is it for? International networks of organisations from public and private sectors and individual researchers. + Future Emerging Technologies (FET) Which projects? Who is it for? Projects proposing scientific and technological research that goes beyond what is known and initiates radically new future technologies. International consortia + Research infrastructures including e- infrastructures Which projects? Project creating physical and especially c-infrastructures giving researchers easy and controlled access to facilities, resources and collaboration tools, bringing to them the power of ICT for computing, connectivity, storage and instrumentation. Who is it for? International consortia, national research infrastructures Pillar 2: Industrial Leadership: + Leadership in Enabling and Industrial Technologies Which projects? Projects proposing ground breaking technologies that will contribute to innovation in all sectors. The focus should be on advanced manufacturing and processes, nanotech- nologies and advanced materials, biotechnology and space. The topics called are defined by the European Commission specifically indicating the type of activities to be under- taken. Who is it for? International consortia addresses the need to invest into technologies that are crucial for innovation, growth and competitiveness of Europe and to attract private invest- ment in research and innovation. It also gives access to risk finance and supports SMEs with a dedicated instrument.+ Access to risk finance — loans, guarantees and equity finance Which projects? Projects that need intervention because there are financing gaps in the research and innovation delivery chain due to high risk for example. Who isit for? Loans and guarantees for companies, research institutes, stand-alone projects, PPPs and other Equity finance for innovative enterprises (seed and start- up companies) + Innovation in SMEs Which projects? SME’s project showing a feasible, applicable and market- able idea. SME Instrument is divided in 3 different phases, each one calling for different kind of projects: Phase I — Projects focusing on technical and market feasibility —business idea and its feasibility are presented Phase II — Projects comprising of innovation activities — development, testing, prototyping, piloting activities that will result in a new marketable product and/or service. Phase III — Projects focusing on commercialisation for which the EC offers help to SMEs for the commercialisation of innovative products / services: networking, training, coaching and mentoring, facilitating access to private capital or better interaction with stakeholders. Who is it for? SMEs exclusively, either individually or in a consortium of SMEs Pillar 3: Societal Challenges: addresses the concerns of European citizens. The 7 challenges that were identified by the EC are: + Health, demographic change and well-being + Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine, maritime and inland water research, and the bioeconomy + Secure, clean and efficient energy + Smart, green and integrated transport+ Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials + Europe in a changing world ~ inclusive, innovative and reflective societies + Secure societies — protecting freedom and security of Europe and its citizens Which projects? Projects proposing research and/or innovation in any of the above areas which can have real impact on the wellbeing of the citizen. The topics called are defined by the EC and the activities covered can range from basic research to market uptake as well as different coordination, networking and supporting activities Who is it for? International consortia As part of this third pillar Horizon 2020 supports also actions aimed at spreading excellence and widening participation (teaming and twinning projects, ERA Chairs, access to interna- tional networks and similar) as well as actions aimed at promoting science with and for society (making science education and careers attractive to young people, promoting gender equality in research and innovation, integrating society in science and innovation, ethics in research and similar). Part of the Horizon 2020 funding also goes to EURATOM. Will Horizon 2020 change over time? The overall structure of the programme as presented above will probably not change significantly over the period 2014-2020. The different priorities and the focus of the work programme will, however, be subject to changes, as Horizon 2020 wants to meet the challenges Europe is facing Which activities does Horizon 2020 finance — The funding instruments? Horizon 2020 provides funding for all types of activities ranging from basic research to market application, networking, mobility and similar. The type of activities your project should propose depends on the funding instrument/action the EC has predetermined for the call for proposals you are applying to. Understanding the different funding instruments will help you understand: the type of activities that will be funded, the minimum number of. participants requested, the EU funding rate and in some cases the value of the EU funding. Funding Instruments in Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Actions: Basic and applied research, technology development and integration, testing and validation on a small-scale prototype in a laboratory or simulatedenvironment. At least 3 independent legal entities from 3 member states or associated countries need to take part in the project. The funding rate is 100%. Innovation Actions: Prototyping, testing, demonstrating, piloting, large-scale product val- idation and market replication. At least 3 independent legai entities from 3 member states of associated countries need to take part in the project. The funding rate is 70% (100% non- profit organisations). Coordination and Support Actions: Accompanying measures such as standardisation, dissemination, awareness-raising and communication, networking, coordination or support services, policy dialogues and mutual learning exercises and studies. At least one legal entity based in a member state or associated country should take part. ERC Grants: Frontier research. One Principal Investigator and a host institution established member state or associated country. The funding rate is 100%, The ERC Grants are divided into Starting Grants (for researchers with 2 to 7 years of experience after PhD, max. grant up to 2 million EUR for up to 5 years), Consolidator Grants (for researchers with 7 to 12 years of experience after Ph.D., max. grant up to 2.75 million EUR for up to 5 years), Advanced Grants (for established researchers, max. grant up to 3.5 million EUR for up to 5 years) and Proof of Concept Grants (for those who have already won an ERC grant). MSCA: Mobility and training. Funding is provided for the creation and functioning of training programmes for early stage researchers (Innovative Training Networks), for indi- vidual fellowships ~ mobility of researchers (Individual Fellowships) and for the exchange of staff within the frame of joint research and innovation activities between participants. Support to other schemes offering fellowships, national contact points and organisation of researchers’ nights is also offered. The funding rate is 100%. COFUND Actions: Public- public partnerships and join programming initiatives, pre commercial procurement and public procurement of innovative solutions. At least 3 inde- pendent legal entities from 3 member states of associated countries need to take part in the project. The funding rate varies. SME Instrument: Phase |: Feasibility study risk assessment, market study, user involve- ment, Intellectual Property management, innovation strategy development, partner search, feasibility of concept and the like. Phase 2: sce Innovation Actions; Phase 3: mentorship and guidance. The funding for Phase | is a lump sum of € 50,000, for Phase 2 70% (€ 0.5 — 2.5 million), while Phase 3 does not receive direct funding.Inducement and Recognition Prizes: Recognition prizes will be used to award work that has already been completed. The Inducement Prizes will offer rewards for technological challenges that have to be completed. The prizes will go to the first to offer a feasible solution Horizon 2020 provides funding also for a number of partnerships (public-private partner- ships, contractual public-private partnerships and public-public partnerships) What novelties does Horizon 2020 bring? The analysis of the previous funding programmes showed that their rules were too compli- cated and unclear for the participants, the administrative procedures were too demanding and time consuming, the funding opportunities were too dispersed, all of which made the whole process time and money consuming. The EC has, therefore, decided to simplify things starting with Horizon 2020 and thus make it easier for different organisations to get involved. Which are some of the most important change: + Three separate programmes (FP7, CIP and EIT) were brought together into one single programme. + Research and innovation were coupled — funding is provided for research and innovation activities from the lab to the market under the same programme, while before different programmes funded different stages of the whole cycle. + All organisations participating in Horizon 2020 have to comply with the same rules, while before different rules applied to different organisations. + The costs of all the activities of all the organisations taking part in one project will be co-financed in the same proportion, while before the co-financing rate was different for different types of organisations as well as for different types of activities within the project. + Each organisation taking part in a Horizon 2020 project will use the same flat rate for the calculation of the indirect costs, while before each organisation could chose a different model to do the same. * The time the EC will take (o evaluate the projects and sign the contract with the beneficiaries should be reduced to a total of 8 months, while before it took a year or so for the EC to complete the process. + Once the project has been chosen for funding, the project consortium and the EC will proceed directly to the preparation and signature of the grant agreement without any negotiations on the content of the project. + The financial rules and procedures were modified in a way to make it easier for the participating organisations to manage the project according to their internal mules.+ All the correspondence between the EC and the participants will be done elec- tronically through a single platform — participant portal, which will mean a lot less time and paper used for all. Where to find more information about Horizon 2020? All you need to know about Horizon 2020 can be found in one place, on the Research and Innovation Participant Portal ~ hitp://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/ home. html. Picture: Web page — portal of European Commission dedicated to grant funding for Research & Innovation = RESEARCH & INNOVATION Source: huip://ec.ewropa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/home.huml accessed on June 11 2014 On the Participant Portal you can find all the calls for proposals (FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES TAB), rules for participation, guidelines and manuals on registering and submitting a proposal (HOW TO PARTICIPATE TAB) as well as access to the different helpdesks, national contact points, FAQs and other help services (SUPPORT TAB). You will use the Participant Portal to also submit and manage your project and communicate with the EC after you have registered and/or logged in. All your proposals, projects and communication with the EC will be stored in one place. There is a lot of information gathered in one place in the participant portal so you will need some time to get used to it. Therefore, it is better that you get familiar with it well before the submission deadline.How to find and read the calls for proposals on the Participant Portal? All the calls for proposals are published on the Participant Portal under the Funding Opportunities section. You can find what you are looking for either by looking through the different pillars of Horizon 2020 or using key words that best describe your research topic (you have to search under the Search Topic page). Once you have chosen the cal! for proposals of your interest you can find all the information you need in one place.polnngtote top). aime teat documents templets and meacloontrts (6) Sources: A short video introducing Horizon 2020, the reasons behind it and its structure: hitp://ec. europa.eu/ programmes/horizon2020/en/news/horizon-2020-video-general-overview All the information about Horizon 2020 can be found at the Research and Innovation Participant Portal: hup://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/home. him! The official Horizon 2020 documents, information on the specific sub-programmes as well as all the manuals: hutp-//ec.curopa.ew/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/funding/reference_docs.htm! Horizon 2020 FAQ — Research and Innovation Participant Portal: htip://ec.europa.ew/research/ participants/portal/desktop/en/supportifag html Horizon 2020 The EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation: http://ec.europa.eu/ programmes/horizon2020/en What are Technology Readiness Levels? The Technology Readiness Levels (TRL), although new in Horizon 2020, is a methodology that has been round since the 80s. It is a measurement used to define the level of maturity of an evolving technology from an idea to a large scale deployment. The scale consists of 9 TRLs as presented in the table below. The first three TRLs are related to concept development (basic technology research and research to prove feasibility), the next three to the proof of concept (technology development and demonstration) while the last three to the proof of performance (system demonstration and operation).The TRL methodology was introduced in Horizon 2020 to provide a common understanding of the technology status throughout the entire innovation chain. Each of the TRLs tells you exactly at what development/maturity stage the technology developed within your project is. Not all the calls for proposals in Horizon 2020 will use the TRL methodology, but those that will, will usually tell you the starting point of your project and what you should be aiming at or the range of TRLs within which your activities should span. The table below shows the different TRL ievels as used in Horizon 2020.TRL Definition 5 Explanation TRL Basic Lowest level of technology readiness. Scientific research begins 1 principles to be translated into applied research and development. This level observed consists mostly of paper studies of the components basic properties, experimental work that consists mostly of observations of physical phenomena, studies of published works and similar. Activities at this level are carried out mostly by scientific research organisations or individual researchers. TRL ‘Technology Once basic principles are observed, practical application can be 2 concept _ invented and R&D started. Applications are speculative and may formulated be unproven. Similar activities to TRL | are covered with the Concept development: basic difference that ideas are moved from pure to applied research. _ technology ‘The new technology or concept should be described in sufficient research and detail such that an average expert in the field can understand it research to and evaluate its potential usefulness. prove feasibility TRL Experiment Active research and development is initiated, including analytical/ 3 alproof of laboratory studies to validate predictions regarding technology. At concept _this level separate elements of the technology are studied and work moves from the paper phase to the experimental phase that verifies that the concept works. Single components are validated, but there is no attempt to integrate them into a complete system, Modelling and simulation can be used to complement the physical experiments. TRL Technology Basic technological components are integrated to establish that 4 validated in they will work together. This includes the integration components lab in a laboratory and small scale test in lab environment. This is the first stage of proving that the components can work together. This, is “low fidelity” compared with the eventual system. At this level itis compared how the actual results differ from the expected system performance goal: TRL Technology The basic technological components are integrated with 5 validated in reasonably realistic supporting elements so it can be tested in a relevant simulated environment that matches the final application in environme almost all respects. At this level a high-fidelity, lab scale system i nt tested. At this stage itis analysed what the lab results mean for the (industriall eventual operating system. The major difference between TRL 4 yrelevant and TRL S is the increase in fidelity. The system tested is almost environme prototypical, Proof of nt in the concept: case of key technology enabling development technologie and 8) demonstration TRL Technology A representative model or prototype system is tested in a relevant, 6 demonstrat environment. At this level the technology begins to be developed ed in as an operational system. It is a major step up from laboratory relevant scale to engineering scale and scaling factors are determined as to environme enable design of the operating system. The prototype should be nt able of performing all the required functions. The operating findnetriall environment chanld closely renrecent the actal aneratingExample: The H2020 call topic “New bioinformatics approaches in service of biotechnology” states “Activities will span between Technology Readiness Levels 3 and 5”. What this means for you is that your project should not deal with initial translation of basic research into technology concept and preparation for the RTD activities (TRL 1 and TRL2) but should already start with a clearly formulated concept (from earlier research work by the consostium or any of the partners) to be experimentally proven (TRL 3). You should aim at validating it in a lab (TRL 4) or in a relevant environment (TRL 5). All the technology development stages after the validation, i.e. demonstration, system completion and its piloting in an operational environment (TRL 6-9) will not be funded by this call although they represent important steps for you to take to bring your new technology to the market. When planning your project activities, you need to carefully compare them to the TRLs covered by the call as all those activities, although logically part of your project, that go outside of the planned TRLs will not be eligible for funding. Soures Detailed description on each TRL as well as TRL Assessment and Key questions to address at each TRL: Technology Readiness Levels Handbook for Space Applications: htips://telecom.esa.intiielecom/media/ document/TRL_Handbook pdf ‘Technology Readiness Assessment Guide, U.S. Department of Energy http:/Avww lbl govidir/assets/docs/ TRL%20guide pdf NASA's TRL descriptions: hitp:/vww.nasa.govipdf/458490main_TRL_Definitions.pdf ‘The general annex to the Work Programmes specifying the TRLs in Horizon 2020: hitp://ec.europa.eu/ research(participants/data/ref/h2020/wp/2014_2015/annexes/h2020-wp1415-annex-g-trl_en.pdf TRL calculator — an Excel tool to help you determine TRL: http://wwwicesames.nev/fichierphp?id=48 or alternatively, hitps://www.nyserda.ny.gov/-/media/Files/FOY.../2458attag.xlsm, Many more are available if you search for them on the internet. ‘The summary of EU legislation on e-Infrastructures: http-//europa.ew/egislation_summaries/ information_society/internet/si0006_en.him E-infrastructures in FP7: http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/information_society/internet/ si0006_en. htmWhat is the connection between Horizon 2020 and the Structural Funds? Based on the new regulations for H2020 and EU Structural and Investment Fund (ESIF) more effort is concentrated in obtaining synergies between both EU programmes. For you, this means that EC foresees the combination of funding between those two programmes for the same project. ESIF: Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013 An operation may receive support from one or more ESI Funds or from one or more programmes and frem other Union instruments, provided that the expenditure item included in 2 request for payment for reimbursement by one of the ESI Funds does not receive support from another Fund or Union instrument, or support from the same Fund under another programme. 12020: Regulation (EU) No 1291/2013 An action for which a grant from the Union budget has been awarded may also give rise to the award of a grant on the basis of Regulation (EU) No 1291/2013, provided that the grants do not cover the same cost items. This means that two concepts were taken into account: + Exemption from the non-cumulative principle of Art. [29 Financial Regulations — A beneficiary may receive more than one grant for the same project + Project in the synergies context = a project is divided in several actions with several grant agreements hat are synergies? Synergy here means: + obtaining more impacts (on competitiveness, jobs and growth) by combining ESIF and H2020 in one single project, + amplifying projects of the other source of funding, + carrying further the projects of the other source of funding. When talking about synergies in your project proposal you will have to connect them most of the time with the exploitation plan for your project. See the relevant section about mere info on the exploitation plan.hat is combined funding Combined funding is the possibility to use different public funding sources, including EU funding sources, within a programme, project or a group of projects. It seeks to exploit complementarities and synergies while at the same time needs to avoid overlaps and exclude double-financing. Example: We have a research and development project but at the same time we need a big investment in infrastructure (acquisition of new premises, durable equipment...) to implement the project. This is one project with 2 different components/actions. Now we have the option to receive grants from H2020 for research and innovation actions and at the same time to receive grants from ESIF to co-finance the investment in infrastruc- ture. In the ideal world this is perfect, but there are some issues you should be aware of when looking at the possibility of combining these two different sources. What are the main issues we have to face in such combination of two different sources of funding + How to take the overall project concept into account for the assessment of the quality or impact of the two proposals? + How to manage the coordination between these two programmes in the imple- mentation phase of the project? + Coordination of audits, shared reporting etc.? + Do we include in the consortium agreement also the ESIF part? + Does the ESIF part of the project depend on the successful funding decision of H2020 application? + Coordination of two different calls of proposal. Do we wait until the two calls are simultaneously available? Although the above and many other issues will need to be addressed, this is a great opportunity that will hopefully become a common practice in the upcoming years. Sources: REGULATION (EU) No 1303/2013 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL — here you can find the statement of the possibility of combination between H2020 and ESIFREGULATION (EU) No 1291/2013 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL — here you can find the statement of the possibility of combination between H2020 and ESIF REGULATION (EU) No 1290/2013 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL ~ here you can find the statement of the possibility of combination between H2020 and ESIF Guidance on Synergies between European Structural and Investment Funds, Horizon2020 and other innovation-related EU Funds - State of Play; Katja Reppel, Deputy Head of Unit, CC Smart and Sustainable Growth, DG Regional and Urban Policy; htip://www.eurada.org/files/AG I 3plus/Katja %20REPPEL pdf Horizon 2020 and possible synergies with Structural Funds through Smart Specialisation Strategies; Dimitri Corpakis, Head of Unit, RTD-C5, Regional Dimension of Innovation, Research and Innovation Directorate, Directorate General for Research and Innovation, European Commission; http:/Avww.apre.it/ media/64424/corpakis_roma_mayi612.pdf Why SMEs and why an SME Instrument in Horizon 2020? Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a central role in the European economy. They are a major source of entrepreneurial skills, innovation and employment. In the enlarged European Union of 28 countries, some 23 million SMEs provide around 75 6 million jobs and represent 99% of all enterprises Therefore, support for SMEs is one of the European Commission's priorities for economic growth, job creation and economic and social cohesion. It is important to emphasize that the special focus on SMEs is not really something new introduced by Horizon 2020, since the importance of SMEs has always been recognized in R&D(&I) programmes funded by the European Commission. However, we can say that Horizon 2020 has addressed the important role of the SMEs in a slightly different way. Namely: + There is SME-dedicated instrument that supports research-intensive companies (SMEs); + There are different ways of getting financial support for your SME, other than grants, that can be used for your project ideas (more to come); + The rules for SME’s participation, same as for any other organisation / institution, have been simplified; + There are certain calls for proposals that explicitly request the involvement of at least one SME in the consortium. What is the official definition of SME? SMEs are defined in Annex 1 of the Commission Regulation (EC) No 800/2008 issued in Official Journal of the European Commission on 9 August 2008. So, once you have established that you are an enterprise, the key criteria in SME definition are the number of employees, the annual turnover and the annual balance sheet total.In order to be considered an SME, you have to: + employ less than 250 persons and + your annual turnover should not exceed 50 million EUR or + your total annual balance sheet should not exceed 43 million EUR. Remember that when looking at the three criteria above, you must take into account also partner and/or linked companies, if any. Partner and linked companies are also defined in the same Commission Regulation and the number of their employees, their annual turnover and annual balance sheet total are taken into account when determining the SME status. How can SMEs benefit from H2020? SMEs have multiple choices in obtaining grants and other funding for their project ideas. It is on purpose mentioned grants and “other funding” since under “other funding” we include also loans and other financial instruments that are subject of Horizon 2020, as well as the possibility to gain revenues through framework contracts, establish public-private partner- ships, etc. So, there is a plenty of options on the horizon and it all depends on the vision of the company, strategy for growth and development, as well as the level of involvement in research-intensive activities. What actions are especially targeting SME development? The most important action is the SME Instrument. It is oriented towards SMEs that have feasible, applicable and marketable ideas. The SME Instrument is divided in 3 different phases, providing support for different activities. You can find more detailed description of the SME Instrument in the section “Which activities does Horizon 2020 finance?” of this book. What are the key things you must know about the SME Instrument? You can only participate in one project proposal under the SME Instrument at a time. Unlike the other Horizon 2020 instruments, where you can submit your project through the Participant Portal as many times as you want before the deadline, the proposal for the SME Instrument can be submitted only once. The proposal goes straight to evaluation after the submission, so make sure to submit a complete and final version of your proposal. As soon as you get the evaluation of your proposal, if your project is rejected, you can improve it and submit it again.To be eligible for funding under this instrument, your project activities should cover TRL 6 and above. Sources: For the SME definition: hetp://eur-lex. europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/? gid= 1402318175871 &uri=CELEX:32008R0800 ‘Ahup://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/2uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2013.347.01.0104.01.ENG for information on: why there is special focus on SMEs and how SMEs can benefit from H2020 and what actions are especially directed to SME development. For more information on the SME instrument you can consult the EC webpage hutp://ec.europa.ew/ programmes/horizon2020/en/h2020-section/sme-instrument htip://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/sme- instrument-frequently~asked-questions Chapter II: SCIENTIFIC EXCELLENCE The proposal template for RIA demands the following items to be described for the Scientific Excellence part: 1. Excellence Your proposal must address a work programme topic for this call for proposals. * This section of your proposal will be assessed only to the extent that it is relevant to that topic. 1.1 Objectives « Describe the specific objectives for the project’, which should be clear, mea- surable, realistic and achievable within the duration of the project. Objectives should be consistent with the expected exploitation and impact of the project (see section 2). 1.2 Relation to the work programme + Indicate the work programme topic to which your proposal relates, and explain how your proposal addresses the specific challenge and scope of that topic, as set out in the work programme.1.3 Concept and approach + Describe and explain the overall concept underpinning the project. Describe the main ideas, models or assumptions involved. Identify any trans-disciplinary considerations; + Describe the positioning of the project e.g. where it js situated in the spectrum from ‘idea to application’, or from ‘lab to market’. Refer to Technology Readi- ness Levels where relevant. (See General Annex G of the work programme); + Describe any national or international research and innovation activities which will be linked with the project, especially where the outputs from these will feed into the project; + Describe and explain the overall approach and methodology, distinguishing, as appropriate, activities indicated in the relevant section of the work programme, e.g. for research, demonstration, piloting, first market replication, etc; + Where relevant, describe how sex and/or gender analysis is taken into account in the project’s content. 8 Sex and gender refer to biological characteristics and social/cultural factors respectively. For guidance on methods of sex / gender analysis and the issues to be taken into account, please refer to htp://ec.europa.ewlresearch/science-society/gendered-innovations/index- en.cfin 1.4 Ambition + Describe the advance your proposal would provide beyond the state-of-the-art, ambitious. Your answer could refer to the and the extent the proposed work i: ground-breaking nature of the objectives, concepts involved, issues and prob- lems to be addressed, and approaches and methods to be used. + Describe the innovation potential which the proposal represents, Where rele- vant, refer to products and services already available on the market. Please refer to the results of any patent search carried outCircle of logic in research & innovation projects What is circle of logic and why is it crucial for the success of your project? In order to be successful, every research and innovation project has to have a clear internal logic (a reason for existence), which has to be clearly presented by the applicant (read: you) in the project proposal. To help you achieve that, you are advised to use the so-called “circle- of-logic” methodology: Circle-of-logic methodology = series of logically interconnected questions to which you must provide the best answers you possibly can, The better these answers are, the more clear and concise is your argument regarding why your project should be funded by grants or any other kind of money, refundable or not. Only if you are able to answer each and every question in the circle-of-logic methodology clearly and in enough detail, will the evaluators be able to understand/sce that your project: + has a concrete purpose and represents an important step forward (progress beyond what is currently best — we already discussed this at the very beginning of this book when we discussed “element of novelty”), + will address and help fulfil genuine needs that exist in your field/market (and which now cannot be fulfilled by the currently existing products/services /solu- tions/knowledge), + will have clear added value both to your organisation and many other interested target groups, + will provide results and potential impacts that are worth investing in (and in which the EC wants to invest), + is coordinated by people/organisations who know exactly what they are doing and can be trusted with the funds. Without this, your project has little to no chance of getting financed. If you are not able to present a proper circle of logic within your project (answer all the questions convincingly), you do not have a proper RRI project and/or you do not know enough about what your project is really about. Both of these spell doom for your project’s chances of success. Picture: Circle of logic for research & innovation projects» Before we look in more detail at each of the key circle-of-logic elements (questions), we should make it clear that you can start the circle-of-logic at various starting points. Usually, though, when you are applying project to Horizon 2020 call for proposals, the circle-of- logic will start either with: + Project objectives or + Needs unmet (as specified in call for proposals (specific topic) to which you are applying). Below, we present some pros and cons of both approaches CONS STARTING WITH... PROS PROJECT Chosen project objectives OBJECTIVES are better connected to the vision and strategy of your (and your partners’) organisation. Project objectives are usually more clearly formulated. You are able to better present the interest you have in obtaining these objectives (i.e. finishing the project) It is more difficult to connect chosen project objectives to the objectives of the call (topic). You have (potentially) more difficulty in convincing evaluators your project is suited to particular call (topic). There is increased possibility that you will have project objectives which cannot be successfully connected to the objectives of the call (topic).NEEDS UNMET (AS. SPECIFIED IN THE CALL FOR PROPOSALS) Itis easier to connect Chosen project objectives can be chosen project objectives poorly connected to the vision to the objectives of the call and strategy of your (and your (topic) ~ because project partners’) organisation. objectives will come Project objectives can be unclear directly out of the in their formulation (it can come objectives of the call across as if you don’t really (topic). know/understand what you want You have (potentially) less to do). difficulty in convincing You are unable to present the evaluators your project is interest you have in obtaining suited to particular call these objectives (i.e. finishing (topic) — you potentially the project) because the project have better chances of does not really reflect your obtaining co-financing, (consortium’s) wishes/needs. There is less chance of you Your consortium can be having any project inadequately put together to objectives which cannot be achieve project objectives. successfully connected to Even if you obtain co-financing, the objectives of the call you may lack motivation to (topic). achieve project objectives As you can see, both approaches have their pros and cons (with pros of one being cons of the other; and vice versa). In the end, it is entirely up to you which one you choose to start with. Below you will find the key elements/questions in the circle-of-logic methodology. What are the objectives of your project? When applying your project to a Horizon 2020 call for proposals, the very first thing you will need to do, is to describe the specific objectives for the project in section 1.1 (Objectives). Project objectives = central question(s)/problem(s) that you intend to answer and/or solve with your project (specifically, though the research/ development/ innovation contained within your project).Here, the key (aim) for you is to describe what you intend to accomplish with your project by the end of the project as clearly as possible. The biggest mistake most applicants make when describing their objectives is that they describe them too generally, in not enough detail. Every project objective needs to be 8 described in a so-called SMART way; i.e. they need to be: S - Specific M Measurable (quantified — you need to explain, how you will be able to measure the progress achieved by the end of the project ~ you need to identify indicators for following and measuring progress on your project) A — Achievable (in a cost-effective way) R- —_ Relevant T ~ Time-bound (you need to clearly state by when ~ what date — specific objective will be achieved) To ignore any of these 5 elements is to put your project proposal in real danger of not being co-financed in the end (or not even being positively evaluated). Objectives should also be consistent with the expected exploitation and impact of the project (see chapter on Impact for more). Also, make sure that you do not have too many project objectives. While it is OK to have just 1-2 objectives, our experience from successful research and innovation projects in both centralized and decentralized calls for proposals shows, that it is optimal to have about 3 project objectives. Having more than 3 project objectives can make your project seem too complex and unfocused (and makes it more difficult to connect your project objectives to the objectives of the call/topic). In the eyes of the evaluator it can also increase the perception of risk of you not being able to implement the project fully if your get the co-financing! Which unmet needs are your project objectives addressing? Once you have described your project objectives in required detail, you will need to fit them into a proper context — i.e. you will have to make sure the evaluator understands why you have chosen the project objectives. In general, you have chosen your project objectives as a reaction to larger (EU-wide) problems that exist in the scientific/technological field of your project proposal and/or in the markets that your project will address either directly or indirectly.In reality, most of the time, these “larger problems” are really unsatisfied needs of certain target groups. That means that in this stage of preparing your project proposal, you will need to: + Identify these target groups and + Identify their uns already recognized as an unsatisfied need). tisfied (or unmet) needs (ideally something, which the EC has Luckily, when applying your project to a Horizon 2020 call for proposals, these unmet needs will already be specified for you in the call for proposals ~ in the specific topic to which you will be applying. In H2020 a particular call for proposals usually consists of several different topics, with each topic having a specific challenge and scope (in which several potential themes are usually identified, at least one of which proposal is expected to cover). The calls in H2020 are very specific regarding specific challenge your project needs to tackle and which themes the project should focus on. This is what we call “top-down” approach, where you need to adapt/conform your project to the requirements of the call — the call itself and its objectives are set in stone. They cannot be changed. Instead, after choosing the topic most suited to the content of your project, it is up to you — in section 1.2 (Relation to the work programme) of your project proposal — to: + Indicate the work programme topic to which your proposal relates, and + Explain how your proposal addresses the specific challenge and scope of that topic, as set out in the work programme. Usually, using a simple table as the one bellow is a very effective way of showing clearly the connection between your project and the call. SPECIFIC CHALLENGE PROJECT OBJECTIVEHow to describe the project concept? Once you are done connecting your project objectives to the objectives of the call/specific topic, you will need — in section 1.3 Concept and approach of your Horizon 2020 project proposal — to expand on these project objectives by further describing the overall project 9 concept to the evaluators, specifically : + Main ideas, models or assumptions involved, including any transdisciplinary considerations Here, it is vitally important for you to convince the evaluators that your project will tackle a problem that exists throughout Europe (and hasn’t been solved yet) and that it needs the collaboration of several different European partners to be solved. It is too complex and (EU or world) widespread to be attempted on a national level. You also have to make the evaluators understand that this is the perfect time to do your project — if it is not done and co-financed now, the opportunity will be lost. Only if done now will your project be able to generate the most good (the biggest multiplier effects) for both your consortium and EU society at large. If it is not done now, opportunities will be lost, problems will mount and get bigger with time and more funds and effort and time wil! need to be spent on solving them. Additionally, make sure that the evaluators understand that you have full support of key target groups, that they know about your project and its potential results that they participated in the formulation of the project idea and are keen to use project results. As this has already been done and everybody sees the potential value in the implementation of the project and its results, project needs to start now and be financed now. Explain briefly what you and your project partners will get out of the project (how you will use project results for the benefit of your organizations) AND what each target group will get out of it (benefits for the society at large). And last but not least, explain the transdisciplinary considerations within your proje In Horizon 2020 projects, “transdisciplinary considerations” are mentioned for the first time in the project proposal template and must be described in section 1.3 of the proposal. Before (in FP7, for instance), this was not the case. This shows that European Commission sees transdisciplinary research (TR) as the way forward, as the future of research which holds potential to stimulate innovation in a broad range of disciplines and find solutions to complex real-world (societal) problems/challengesThe idea behind all this is that better scientific (as well as social) solutions will emerge, if there is dialogue with society (than if there is not) ~ something that many researchers have an instinctive bias against (arguing that social inclusion will give you weak scientific/ i technical results) but something that real-world evidence supports. Transdisciplinarity, more than a new discipline or super-discipline, is, actually, a different 2 manner of seeing the world, more systemic and more holistic You, as a participant, must take this into consideration - which means you need to lear about what TR is and to include these “transdisciplinary considerations” in your project proposal. Your project does not have to be transdisciplinary (as it is still not clear what a transdisciplinary project would look like) but it should contain aspects of Transdisciplinarity, especially: + Ensuring that the problems are formulated from the very beginning through a dialogue among and collecting inputs from a large number of different actors (partners and target groups — society at large) and their perspectives — creating dialogue with society, not just among researchers; + Including as wide a range of actors (partners and stakeholders) which will be able to bring heterogeneity of skills and expertise to the problem solving process; + Providing coordination of activities which is flexible enough to allow for elabo- ration of project outputs. Where exactly in the spectrum from ‘idea to application’, or from ql lab to market’ is your project positioned? Here, you need to specify the Technology Readiness Level(s) of your planned project results. Each of the TRLs tells you exactly at what development/maturity stage the technology developed within your project is. Not all the calls for proposals in Horizon 2020 will use the TRL methodology, but those that will, will usually tell you the starting point of your project and what you should be aiming at or the range of TRLs within which your activities should span. So, when planning your project activities, you need to carefully compare them to the TRLs covered by the call as all those activities, although logically part of your project, that go outside of the planned TRLs will not be eligible for funding. For more on TRLs, please see relevant section of this book.Are there any national or international research and innovation activities which will be linked with the project, especially where the outputs from these will feed into the project? For the EU, describing the previous research and innovation projects is important because: + It prevents the overlap and fragmentation of the research. In other words, knowing previous research efforts ensures the evaluator that the consortium knows of the previous and ongoing research and innovation activities. The consortium will not try to duplicate the efforts, thereby increasing the cost effectiveness of the research. + The awareness and cooperation with other research activities will also ensure that the outputs of previous and ongoing research are compatible and can contribute to existing or new standards if needed. +The list can signal operative capacity of the consortium as a whole, but only in the case when the previous projects have been or are implemented by the partners of the proposed. Itis best to present information about other projects in the form of a table with the minimum of the following information: + name and acronym of the project relevant to the proposed project, + the duration in years, + expected outputs of the “other” project and to which WP / task of the proposed project they are relevant, + the name of the partners in the proposed project that has a link to the project (if there is one). But also be careful: this is not the place in which all previous research and innovation projects of the consortium should be mentioned; a list of 5 previous projects by each partner should be included in each partner description, where there are no page limitations. What kind of methodology (which activities for research. demonstration, piloting, first market replication, etc.) will be necessary for you to achieve your project objectives? Here, you will need to present how exactly you plan to achieve your project objectives — to briefly summarize the overall approach and methodology of your project in one page: + which main activities do you plan to have on project (which are genuinely needed) to achieve planned project results, + what you plan to do in cach activity (to prove that this activity is indeed needed on the project to achieve results at the end),+ how are these activities connected to one another and to the project content — it needs to be clear every activity is vital for the successful completion of the project (remember: each activity will have a planned budget and evaluators want to see that they will not be paying for work that is not really necessary). Doing this, you are basically describing the results of your project: all the activities, that you will carry out throughout the duration of your project, will result in achieving the required Technology Readiness Level, specified in the H2020 call for proposals. After identifying the unsatisfied needs that exist, connecting them to your project objectives and then explaining your project concept in detail, you will now need to explain why these needs are still unsatisfied. You will do so by first describing the best current solutions (state- of-the-art) and then explain (again) in as much detail as possible why this isn t good enough! This is the key part that more often than not decides whether your proposal will be successful or not, Whenever you are trying to make an argument that your research and innovation project is important/needed/worthy of financing, identification and description of the “state-of-the- 13 art” (SOTA) is arguably the most important step in every project proposal. Why? Because, if existing SOTA is good enough and able to satisfy the needs of target groups, etc., then your project is not needed. It is as simple as that. It is up to you — in section 1.4 (Ambition) of your Horizon 2020 project proposal — to, first, convince evaluators that current best solutions have crucial shortcomings which are causing dissatisfaction among target groups (because their needs are not met either partially or in their entirety) and creating opportunity for projects which can solve these shortcomings and provide progress beyond SOTA — new solutions which are: + better than the best that currently exists and + able to more fully (or entirely) satisfy the needs of the target groups. You will do all that by answering questions 3-5 of the circle-of-logic methodology. 1. What are the best current solutions (state-of-the-art) that exist in the field of your proposed project? Needless to say, the better and in more detail you are able to present the current state-of- the-art (and all of its crucial shortcomings relevant to your project — see question number 4 below), the more “room” you will have to build a strong and persuasive argument whyand how your project will improve on that — why it will represent a crucial and important step forward, the so-called progress beyond state-of-the-art (see question number 5 below). When it comes to properly describing/presenting SOTA, here are a couple of suggestions from our proposal writing experience: + Avoid writing general sentences (or “empty” sentences because they tell the reader/evaluator nothing) ~ be as specific as possible when describing SOTA and always quantify, quantify, quantify! + In the text, when describing SOTA, always provide references to scientific! technological literature (leading peer-reviewed journals with high impact factor, monographs with high citations, articles, etc.), patent searches (along with relevant patent numbers), links to current SOTA products/solutions, etc. — the more references (preferably from last couple of years) the better! + This review of literature must be exhaustive enough to ensure that your project proposal will be seen as important and not redundant. When applying your project to a Horizon 2020 call for proposals, there is at least one more thing you need to pay attention to, when describing/presenting SOTA: + Find as many links as possible to previous FP6/FP7/H2020 projects which have been carried out or are currently being carried out in the field of your project proposal. Here, it is vitally important that you show to the evaluators, that your project represents a sort of continuation of the research that has already been recognized as important specifically by the EC (and thus funded by the EC). You need to show, that you are aware of what has been financed thus far by the EC in your field, that your project’s content is connected to at least some of the already financed projects (and in what way) and how you plan to “build” on these projects with your own project. EC likes nothing more than seeing you recognize its previous efforts to boost quality research and innovation and you adding to them/progressing beyond them. 2. Why aren’t these current solutions good enough? Which scientific/technological problems still exist (have not been solved yet by the current state-of-the-art solutions)? In the previous step, you have identified the best solutions that currently exist. Now, you need to analyse their strengths and (more crucially) weaknesses and provide all the necessary literature needed to support your argument that current SOTA solutions are not good enough and why they are not good enough.Usually, the identified SOTA weaknesses exist because certain still unsolved scientific/ technological problems exist. Here, in this step, you need to identify these problems (relevant to your project objectives, of course) and explain why exactly they still haven’t been solved. Usually, it is because there still exists some lack of knowledge that prevents these problems to be solved — and consequently, the current solutions to be able to satisfy the needs of stakeholders. 3. Which new knowledge will you need to obtain in your project to be able to solve at least some (if not all) of the still existing scientific/technological problems? Finally, once you identified specific scientific/technological problems that exist in the current SOTA, there is one final step you must make: namely, you need to identify and explain what kind of new knowledge’” you will need to obtain (through research, devel- opment and/or innovation) by the time your project ends — what kind of progress beyond current SOTA will you be able to achieve when you achieve your project objectives and which problems will you be able to solve (in what way) Your challenge here is to describe the eventual project results as vividly/clearly as possible (as if they already exist). To achieve this, use as many visual aids as you can (pictures, figures, diagrams, etc.). Also, make sure to connect the results/new knowledge achieved to specific work package (part of the project) so that it is also clear to the evaluators when you will achieve it. Additionally, EC will ask you to identify any kind of innovation potential your project results will contain/represent. Namely, it wants to see how likely it is, that your project results will: + directly lead to any kind of patents, cutting-edge products/ services/ pro- cesses that can be developed and commercialized (i.e. what are the chances of you or others being able to generate any kind of profits from your project results) and/or + indirectly lead to any kind of new cutting-edge products/ services/ processes that can be developed and commercialized by others after your project is finished — will you research and innovation project lead to other research and innovation projects. In short, they want to see you convince them that their money (grant funding you receive for your project) will be wisely spent and will generate (multiplier) effects for years to come after the conclusion of your project.Sources: hup:/swww.cioarchives.ca.gov/itpolicy/pdf/PM2.1_Project_Concept_Introduction.pdf presents the key steps in defining project concept and key problems encountered during this crucial phase of a project. huip:/artsci.unsw.wikispaces.net/file/view/Max_Neef Foundations of transdisciplinarity,pdf/340979004/ Max_Neef Foundations_of transdisciplinarity pdf contains in-depth definitions of disciplinarity, interdisciplinarity, multidisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity and explanation of differences between them. hup:/www.artemis-services.com/downloads/sourcebook_0502.pdf presents the entire process of designing 4 project in the context of Project Cycle management from initial design phase to preparation of project budget. huip://www.transdisciplinarity.ch/d/Transdisciplinarity/documents/HB_Propositions.pdf presents fifteen propositions on how to improve (or enhance) transdiciplinary research in the future by successfully dealing with some of the most persistent stumbling blocks in current transdiciplinary practice. Gender and sex analysis Why is this important? Gender equality is an important EU horizontal policy in science and research. It includes measures to: + Increase women’s participation in research; + Promote gender equality in careers in research organisations; and + Stimulate excellence in science by integrating sex and gender analysis into re- search. The first two measures have long been a part of explicit and implicit expectations of the EC in the preparation of project proposals. Sex and gender analysis are required for the first time in H2020 as a part of the project proposal. More on gender and women in research can be found at the EC site “Women and Gender in Research”: hup://ec.europa.eu/researchiscience-society/index.cfm?fuseaction=public.topicé&id= 1253 How to address promotion of gender equality in project proposals Select a mixed team of men and women as they can work more efficiently in a well-managed team. Also, try to take care that relevant project bodies have at least 40% of the representatives of one gender.Whenever possible, try to keep a balanced distribution of the leading roles between men and women. Make sure women and men are given equal opportunities and try to arrange flexible working arrangements for both men and women within your project (and your organisation). Make sure that your communication and diss equality in science and research. emination activities are also promoting gender You can also plan gender training among your project activities. What can be included as a part of gender and sex analysis? 15 The EC requires that all top-notch research takes into account the potential sex and 16 gender dimensions as key analytical and explanatory variables. The reason is that if these are missed or poorly addressed, research results can be partial and potentially biased. In other words, if research takes into account the differences between men and women in the research population, its results will be more representative. The main steps of gender and sex analysis in a project proposal are: + Generate gender-sensitive ideas for research proposals: assess the relevance of sex and gender for the subject matter and the previous research through the gender lenses ~ are there any questions that remain unanswered? + Make research hypoth nd research questions gender-sensitive. Sound meth- odology should differentiate between the sexes. General categories, such as people, patients, victims, do not distinguish between men and women and should not be used. Example: In 1993, it was discovered that people with Alzheimer’s were more likely to carry a variant of the APOE gene called APOE4. The received wisdom is that having one copy raises disease risk, while having two elevates it even more But it’s not quite as simple as that. To explore if this risk was related to gender, Michael Greicius at Stanford University and colleagues looked at 5500 healthy people who had been tested for their APOE variant between 2005 and 2013. During this time, 960 were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease or a precursor to it.Women with a single copy of APOE4 were 1.8 times more likely to fall into this group than women without the variant. For men, carrying a copy didn’t raise their risk (Annals of Neurology, DOI: 10.1002/ana.24135). However, women carrying a single copy of the APOE4 variant had the same chance of developing the disease as men without it—a puzzling result given that women are thought to be more susceptible to Alzheimer’s. Source: New Scientist, 19 April 2014, p.19 * Choose a gender-sensitive methodology: data collection tools need to be gender sensitive, gender neutral language to be used (for example, person/months instead of man/months). Bear in mind that methodology should make possible to detect different realities for men and women (for example. + Collect gender-sensitive data: prepare the data separated by sex. What are the mistakes that should be avoided? The common mistakes to avoid in this part of the project proposal are either not to consider sex differences as a problem (for example, to exclude men from a study of osteoporosis) or overemphasising sex differences (when sex differences are asserted without sufficient evidence, improperly attributed to sex, or when sex is emphasised to the exclusion of other important variables). Example: Often researchers ask different questions to men and women, assuming that they have different levels of interest in the topic. For example, women and men have different roles in the utilisation and management of water; hence, it is often assumed that women are only interested in water for household needs, while men are mainly interested in the use of water for productivity. However, women could also have a strong interest in the utilisation of water for agricultural production, notably for family gardens, as they also participate in farm production and in raising livestock. Source: Guidelines for Gender sensitive research, accessible at htip:/www.icimod.org/resource/1290. Sources: hutp:(/ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/gendered-innovations presents:-what are the methods for sex and gender analysis, terms used (sex, gender, women, men, femininity and masculinity and others), checklists of key questions for incorporating sex and gender analyses into different fields, such as engineering, health, tissues and cells, and urban planning and design, ~case studies demonstrating in very concrete ways how methods of sex and gender analysis function to create gendered innovations in science, health and medicine, engineering and environment. http:/www.yellowwindow. be/genderinresearch/downloads/YW2009_GenderToolKit_Module1 pdf, aimed at the previous EU programme for research and development, presents practical steps how to take these dimensions into account in every phase of the process ~ from idea to dissemination, Also includes a list of further reading on EU’s take on gender in research. Gender Equality in Horizon 2020: hatp://ec.europa.eu/research(participants/data/refth2020/ grants_manual/hi/gender/h2020-hi-guide-gender_en.pdf Chapter III: IMPACT 2. Impact 2.1 Expected impacts 4 Please be specific, and provide only information that applies to the proposal and its objectives. Wherever possible, use quantified indicators and targets. + Describe how your project will contribute to: the expected impacts set out in the work programme, under the relevant topic; c improving innovation capacity and the integration of new knowledge (strengthening the competitiveness and growth of companies by developing innovations meeting the needs of European and global markets; and, where relevant, by delivering such innovations to the markets; o any other environmental and socially important impacts (if not already cov- ered above). + Describe any barriers/obstacles, and any framework conditions (such as regu- lation and standards), that may determine whether and to what extent the expected impacts will be achieved. (This should not include any risk factors concerning implementation, as covered in section 3.2.) 2.2 Measures to maximise impacta) Dissemination and exploitation of results + Provide a draft ‘plan for the dissemination and exploitation of the project's results’ (unless the work programme topic explicitly states that such a plan is not required). For innovation actions describe a credible path to deliver the innovations to the market. The plan, which should be proportionate to the scale of the project, should contain measures to be implemented both during and after the project. * Dissemination and exploitation measures should address the full range of potential users and uses including research, commercial, investment, social, environmental, policy making, setting standards, skills and educational training. The approach to innovation should be as comprehensive as possible, and must be tailored to the specific technical, market and organisational issues to be addressed. + Explain how the proposed measures will help to achieve the expected impact of the project. Include a business plan where relevant. + Where relevant, include information on how the participants will manage the research data generated and/or collected during the project, in particular 17 addressing the following issues: ¢ What types of data will the project generate/collect? o What standards will be used? e How will this data be exploited and/or shared/made accessible for verification and re-use? If data cannot be made available, explain why. How will this data be curated and preserved? * You will need an appropriate consortium agreement to manage (amongst other things) the ownership and access to key knowledge (IPR, data etc.). Where relevant, these will allow you, collectively and individually, to pursue market opportunities arising from the project's results. * The appropriate structure of the consortium to support exploitation is addressed in section 3.3. + Outline the strategy for knowledge management and protection. Include measures to provide open access (free on-line access, such as the ‘green’ or gold’ model) to peer-reviewed scientific publications which might result 18 from the project 4, Open access publishing (also called ‘gold’ open access) means that an article is immediately provided in open access mode by the scientific publisher. The associ- ated costs are usually shifted away from readers, and instead (for example) to the university or research institute to which the researcher is affiliated, or to the funding agency supporting the research.+ Self-archiving (also called 'green' open access) means that the published article or the final peer-reviewed manuscript is archived by the researcher - or a repre- sentative - in an online repository before, after or alongside its publication. Access to this article is often - but not necessarily - delayed (‘embargo period’), as some scientific publishers may wish to recoup their investment by selling subscriptions and charging pay-per-download/iew fees during an exclusivity period. b) Communication activities + Describe the proposed communication measures for promoting the project and its findings during the period of the grant. Measures should be propor- tionate to the scale of the project, with clear objectives. They should be tailored to the needs of various audiences, including groups beyond the project's own community. Where relevant, include measures for public/ societal engagement on issues related to the project. Project Impacts What is Impact? 19 One of the meanings of impact is “a marked effect or influence” In light of grant-funded projects, impact can be defined as the changes that the project will bring (provoke, initiate), e.g. the effects that the project will cause after its end, the influence you will be able to exercise one you have completed your project activities. The European Commission uses public funding in order to make a positive impact in a given field on a European level. Before proposing a new grant programme, the European Commission in cooperation with all the interested stakeholders evaluates the potential economic, social and environmental outcomes of the programme. These findings then become an integral part of most of the programmes/calls for proposals. In other words, most of the programmes/calls for proposals list the expected impacts the projects should contribute to. Therefore, when planning your project, you should also think how your project, e.g. the results of the project, will affect different target groups and influence on different aspects of your surrounding ~ impact on society, impact on environment, etc. You need a project with a strong impact given that the impact is one of the three criteria that are subject of evaluation. The importance of the impact criterion in Horizon 2020 has been significantly extended compared to the FP7. Considering the market orientation of manysub-programmes and projects within H2020, the impact section has been extended to comprise some new parts such as strategy for knowledge management and protection, provision of detailed dissemination plan, activities to improve the innovation capacity of the consortium and its members, as well as integration of new knowledge, provision of a Data Management Plan, e.g. management of research data, etc. In some fields the impact criterion has been given much more focus and weight, although all evaluation criteria have the same number of points. For example, in the SME Instrument Phase | project proposals, the evaluation begins with the project impact and if the project does not obtain 4 points under this criterion, the evaluation stops. In H2020, compared to FP7, it should be noted that the impact criterion has more weight than excellence and quality and efficiency of the action, but only for Innovation actions and SME Instrument. In these actions, impact is weighted by factor 1.5 and when the scores are tied, impact is considered first in ranking of project propos It should be noted that during the preparation of the project proposal, there are two things that you must describe and make logical hook between them: expected impacts of the project and the measures to maximise them. What should you consider when describing the expected impact? When discussing the expected impacts (section 2.1. of the project proposal) you should consider several aspects: + How your project will contribute to the expected impacts listed in the Work programme under the relevant topic + How your project will enhance the innovation capacity and integration of new knowledge + Which other impacts your project will have — social, environmental impacts, etc. How will your project contribute to the expected impacts listed in the Work programme under the relevant topic’ In order to describe the contribution to the impacts listed in the Work programme, you should bear in mind that the programme is defined based on strategic documents, such as Innovation Union, Europe 2020 Strategy and policy documents, such as A Reinforced 20 European Research Area Partnership for Excellence and Growth and other policy docu- ments specific to your field.Impacts listed in the work programme under a relevant topic are carefully selected objectives that European Commission wants to achieve in long term by funding projects that contribute to the achievement of the same. So, it is necessary that your project contributes to the expected impacts listed in the work programme under relevant topic that is published in the call summary at the Participant Portal. The more the project contributes to the expected impacts, which you can prove in the project proposal, the better the evaluation report will be. However, you have to make a logical connection of project impacts and impact listed in the worked under relevant topic, so that evaluators are convinced in relevance and “strength” of the project impacts. Looking at your project and the expected impacts in the way described below can help you structure this part of the proposal. In preparing this part of the proposal your starting point are the results of your project that you have already defined before. On one side you have the results which are yours and on the other the expectations (expected impacts) of the EC. What you have to do, is to describe the path that connects your results to the expected impacts. Achieving the project results does not automatically mean that the impacts have been also achieved. It is normal that additional steps need to be taken, results should be used in a certain manner by given stakeholders and some “outside” conditions have to be met so that the impact is actually achieved. This is what the EC expects you to write in this part of the proposal. You are also expected to set some targets/indicators that will help you monitor the progress towards the “final goal” ~ the expected impacts and will allow you to say whether you have really made the contribution you have promised. For more see the following section INDICATORS. The definition of all the impacts in the project proposal should be joint effort of all members of the consortium. How will your project enhance the innovation capacity and integration of new knowledge? The second thing you should explain is how the project will enhance the innovation capacity and integration of new knowledge created in the project. The concept of Innovation Capacity was introduced in the early 90's as instrument for 21 measuring the level of invention and the potential for innovation in Unit of Analysis. Unit of Analysis can be: geographical area, country, company, etc.For industry-related entities (companies), innovation capacity can measure their level of invention at any time or between different locations. Providing comparisons between different industries can help in determination of technological leadership trends, e.g. declin- ing levels of innovative capacity of certain industry is used as early warning system for such industry that can trigger actions in revitalisation. In general, measuring innovation capacity provides important insights in dynamics of innovation activities in Unit of Analysis that can be used for policy-makers, industry analysts or academic researchers for understanding changes in invention, technology and the com- petitiveness of economic activities, Areas that become important sources of innovative capacity usually develop faster economically attract highly skilled population and experience rising incomes and trade The Innovation Capacity can be improved with collaboration and networking with univer- sities, publicly funded research agencies and other enterprises. For companies, the model of innovation capacity cannot be separately identifiable construct. It is model based on several key factors, such as: L. Vision and strategy, Harnessing the competence base, Organisational intelligence, Creativity and idea management, Organizational structure & systems, Culture and climate, MAYEN Management of technology. These factors should be used as a “toolbox” to explain how project contributes to raising the innovation capacity of the organization and the consortium as a whole. Namely, you should understand the following link: the project will impact one or several of the factors listed above (it will contribute to the achievement of the company’s strategy; it will contribute to changes in corporate culture and in-house working climate; because of the project, the company must change organizational structure, introduce new systems in order to follow modem trends, etc.). By explaining these improvements, you will be able to describe how you will raise the innovation capacity of your organization. The same can be applied for the consortium as a whole. When preparing this section, consider that the long term objectives of the EC are increased competitiveness of the European economy and stable growth and development of the companies. One of the ways to achieve them, encouraged by the EC, is through developinginnovations that meet the needs of European and global market. Thus, what you have to show is how your project will improve the innovation capacity of the entities involved (especially companies and SMEs in particular) as well as how the new knowledge will be incorporated in further activities after the end of project implementation. The knowledge can be either used for further research or exploited for the creation of new products, processes or services. Given the fact that a lot of the focus of Horizon 2020 has shifted towards the market, it is possible that marketable knowledge will be evaluated better than knowledge per se, especially in the case of Innovation Actions. On the other hand, knowledge integration is the task of identifying how new and prior knowledge interact while incorporating new information into a knowledge base. This task is pervasive because substantial knowledge bases must be developed incrementally: seg- ments of knowledge are added separately to a growing body of knowledge. This task is difficult because new and prior knowledge may interact in very subtle and surprising ways, and unanticipated interactions may require changes to the knowledge base. Performing 5 . A 2 knowledge integration involves determining and effecting these changes. Same as for the expected impacts, you will be expected here to set some targets/ indicators to help you monitor the progress. For Innovation Actions, in addition to the part on development of the innovations, you also need to discuss the delivery of such innovations to the markets. For that purpose, the business plan section is part of the proposal, where and when relevant. When discussing the business plan, the most useful things to be taken in consideration are: brief explanation of the products/services/processes that are results from the project, key markets, brief competitor analysis and the financial projections that are directly linked to commercialization of project results. Keep in mind that the page limits are strictly set by the European Commission and therefore, you cannot include a business plan, as we usually know it, in the proposal. (For more info about the business plan, consult the business plan section of the book.) Which other impacts will your project have — social, environmental impacts etc.? When planning your project and thinking of the results you will achieve, you have to keep the big picture in mind and try to identify other impacts your project will have on the economy, society and environment around you. You as a coordinator and expert in a given field should have the possibility to think “outside the box” and provide a wider overview of the project and its impacts that will be appreciated by the evaluators.The most frequently used in project proposals are social impacts, environmental impacts, economic impacts, etc. However, feel free to discuss any other impacts your project might have. Social impacts can be defined as the net effect of an activity on a community and the well- being of individuals and families, More precisely, it is outcome-led adaptive thinking and action taken by organisations that contributes to creating a positive, meaningful and sus- tainable change for the benefit of society and particularly those at disadvantage as result of systemic, long-term problems. In your project, you should clearly state how the results of the project will impact the target groups identified in the project, end users of the project results as well as groups indirectly linked to the action: policy makers, stakeholders, etc. Most importantly, if possible, the consortium should address the impact on the society as a whole and how the society will benefit from the project results. Environmental impacts are defined as any changes to the environment, whether adverse of beneficial, resulting from the project activities, products or services. The project you are preparing must be in line with the core strategies of the EC that concern environmental protection, combating climate change, etc. Thus, the project must outline all potential impacts of the project results on the environment. You should be clear in the definition of the impacts to the maximum possible extent. When writing environmental impacts, you should think in terms of: + materials used in the project, + energy used (and from which sources) — consumption of energy from renewable sources, + processes optimised — reduced use of fossil fuels, + reduced negative impacts on the environment (air pollution, water pollution, etc.), sete. You should consult the consortium members, especially work group leaders to provide brief environmental impact assessment for their “part” of the project, e.g. if the activities planned in the project that will be led by them, will have certain impact on the environment and, if yes, what. Do not forget to set targets/indicators for each of the impacts discussed.In the previous parts of this section (2.1.) you have discussed and described the potential impacts of your project. Three things appear to be crucial to the achievement of the planned impacts: 1, Your project results, 2. The actions you will take once the results have been achieved and 3. Outside factors. While you can have a control over the first two, the outside factors are something you can’t quite have a control of. However, having them identified and being aware of their potential influence can help you handle them a lot better. This is exactly what you have to show to the evaluators in this section (2.1) — that you are aware of the wider context and of all the things that can either help or stop you on your way towards the achievement of the planned impacts. When preparing this part, keep in mind that this is different from the project risks (for more on those, see relevant section of this book), Project risks are relative to the achievement of the project results, while here you discuss factors that can have an influence on the use of your results. Here you should name regulations and/or standards related to the subject of your project proposal and that can potentially affect the achievement of the expected impact, if adopted, rejected or modified. Look at the potential future barriers on national and EU level and present a plan of what you can do to overcome them. What are impact indicators? Why do you need them? The most general definition of indicator is “a sign that shows the condition or existence of something”, “a pointer of light that shows the state or condition of something” or “a device that shows a measurement”. When looking at project impacts, the indicators can be defined as pointers of achievement of the impacts planned in the project, in terms of existence and their volume or quantity, where such interpretation is possible. You need indicators in order to quantify project impacts, e.g. to enable measurement and tracking of progress towards the project impacts during and after the project implementation. In other words, you define the extent to which your project is affecting target groups, or what is the reach (limits) of your project.How to define indicators of Impact achievement? For different project results there are different possible signs and hints that can be used to measure your project’s impacts, There are two groups of indicators: qualitative indicators = take the form of a statement that has to be verified during the data collection and quantitative indicators — based on a counting process and related to measurements of numbers or quantities. The EC encourages the use of quantified indicators whenever possible together with the target values. When planning a project there might be many issues you will find interesting and therefore worth measuring be it with qualitative or quantitative indicators. However, considering that the EC sets out the desired impacts in the call, you should tailor your indicators accordingly. In other words, the indicators have to be best suited for measuring the impacts determined by the EC. What are SMART indicators? In line with the SMART objectives, an indicator should be defined using the same SMART methodology (as already discussed in the section on the objectives in this book). Sources: Definition of impact 112020 Grant manual Regulation (EU) No 1290/2013m of the European Parliament and of the Council of I1 December 2013 laying down the rules for participation and dissemination in “Horizon 2020 ~ the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2014-2020)” and repealing Regulation (EC) No 1906/2006 Objectives and Work Programme Participant Portal Innovation Capacity Suarez-Villa, L. (1990) “Invention, Inventive Learning and Innovative Capacity.” Behavioral Science, vol. 35, no. 4, pp. 290-310. Lawson, B. and Samson, D. (2001) “Developing Innovation Capability in organisations: A dynamic capabilities approach.” International Journal of Innovation Management, vol.5, No.3, pp.377-400 Integration of new knowledge Murray, K. "Learning as Knowledge Integration,” Ph.D. dissertation from The University of Texas at Austin, Department of Computer Sciences. Technical Report TR-95-41. November 1995 Social impacts Social Impact Assessment Guideline, Queensland Government, July 2013 Latane, B. (1981). The psychology of social impact. American Psychologist, Vol.36, pp. 343-356 Sedikides, C., Jackson, J.M. (1990). Social impact theory: a field test of source strength, source immediacy and number of targets. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, Vol.11, No.3, pp.273-281 Environmental Impacts“Principle of Environmental Impact Assessment Best Practice” from International Association for Impact Assessment (1999) Directive 201 1/92/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2011 on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment Indicators Methodological bases of the Evaluation process and Judgement references, EuropeAidCommunication, dissemination, exploitation What is communication? A general definition of communication is that communication is “the way of sending information to people by using technology”. ‘The Model Grant Agreement for Horizon 2020 outlines the necessity to promote the action (project) and its results, by providing targeted information to multiple audiences (including the media and the public), in a strategic and effective manner and possibly engaging in a in a two-way exchange. The communication activities must make the research activities known to multiple audiences (in a way that can be understood by non-specialists) and address the public policy perspective of EU research and innovation funding, by considering aspects such as: + Transnational cooperation in a European consortium (how working together has allowed to achieve more than otherwise possible). + Scientific excellence. + Contributing to competitiveness and to solving societal challenges. + Impact on everyday lives (e.g. creation of jobs, development of new technologies, better quality products, more convenience, improved life-style, etc.). + Better use of results and spill-over to policy-makers, industry and the scientific community. To sum up, in a Horizon 2020 project, the communication activities will be all those that you will take to inform the wider public about your projects, the results you expect to obtain and how we will all benefit from what you are doing. What is dissemination? In Horizon 2020, Dissemination means public disclosure of the results by any appropriate mean (other than resulting from protecting or exploiting the results), including by scientific publications in any medium. You are expected to make the project results public as soon as possible, but not before you have considered their possible protection.What is exploitation of results? In the context of Horizon 2020, exploitation means the use of results in further research activities other than those covered by the project, or in developing, creating and marketing 2B a product or process, or in creating and providing a service, or in standardisation activities When we speak about exploitation of the results, it can be twofold: entific exploitation, meaning that newly-created knowledge will be used in future advanced research activities, and -Commercial exploitation, meaning that newly-created knowledge will be used for development of the product, technology, process, service, etc., that will be marketed after the project has finished. Why do we need all three activities As stated previously, communication, dissemination and exploitation are ways how you will secure the maximisation of the impacts you have planned for the project. Besides that, you need to secure visibility of the project to the maximum extent possible among target groups, stakeholders, and other groups such as academia, industrial associa- tions, etc. The most important factor, why the EC wants to have a well prepared communi- cation and dissemination plan is the principle of transparency in spending public money the EC promotes transparency of public expenditures for good purposes. So, it must be visible where the money of taxpayers goes and that it is for good purposes. Communication activities will help achieving project impacts in general public, media, bringing the results closer to the possible end users, while dissemination activities impact the scientific/ technical population by sharing the knowledge gained through the implemen- tation of the project activities. Furthermore, especially in innovation actions, you need to create conditions that the project results reach the market in the most effective way, so you have to be able to provide information on the target markets and how you plan to reach / penetrate these markets as well as on the costs of these activities (Section 2.2. a)). On the other hand, new knowledge can also serve as a basis for further research and innovation actions, a healthy basis for further efforts in possible scientific breakthrough in particular scientific area (discipline). That is why you should clearly define exploitation of results by each member of consortium, it is necessary to state the legitimate interests of all parties involved in the project implementation and their “share” in project impact.How should you plan the communication activities? Communication (Section 2.2. b)) must be well planned and widespread process in order to raise awareness and bring your project closer to the people to the maximum possible extent. You are free to choose the type of communication activities. However, they must be: + effective (i.e. suited to achieving the action’s communication goals), * proportionate to the scale of the action, + designed to address audiences that go beyond the action’s own community (in- cluding the media and the public). Some examples of communication activities are: +a press release for the general public at the start of the action that can be accompanied with a press conference, + an interview at the local radio/TV station after a major achievement of the action; + organisation of local workshops about the action, targeted at audiences for which the action is of interest; + producing a brochure and/or other printed material to explain the action’s work to target groups. Don’t forget that any communication activity that is expected to have a ‘major media impact’ (i.e. media coverage (online and printed press, broadcast media, social media, etc.) that will go beyond having a local impact and which could have the potential for national and international outreach) must be first notified to the Commission/ Agency. When planning and delivering your communication activities, keep in mind that you should always indicate that your project has received community funding. The rules are clearly outlined in the Grant Agreement Visibility is considered ensured if you take care that in communication activities, you: + display the EU emblem; + include the reference to the EU funding, as it is specified in the Grant Agreement; + for infrastructure (equipment or major supplies) you use a sticker indicating that the project received community funding. How should you plan the dissemination activities? To ensure that the project results will be taken up and embedded in the community, a project must develop a dissemination plan (Section 2.2. a)) that explains how the outcomes of the project will be shared within scientific community and stakeholders.Below is a list of the steps you should take when planning your dissemination activities: - Define which project results will be disseminated. - Identify the target group for each of the results to be disseminated. - Create a key message for each project result. - Identify the channel you will use (webpage, conference, workshop, scientific journal, technology fair...) - Identify the people/organisations in charge. - Define the time of dissemination for each result. - Designate a dissemination manager, if necessary. ~- Consolidate the list of dissemination activities, What can you do to communicate your project and disseminate the project results? Below isa list of different Communication and Dissemination activities you can undertake within your project. The list is not exhaustive, so feel free to plan any activities that suit your project best.Communication and Dissemination activities/tools Symposium on scientific topics addressed in the project Dissemination Conference Guest speakers’ lectures Open house (open doors) / open days for either specialised or general public: the institutions opens its doors for one day to the public ~ lectures, presentations, discussions Visits of potential beneficiaries (stakeholders) — ex. Visits of SMEs Training of the next generation of scientists (Ph.D. or master students) ~ transfer of knowledge to the next generation of scientists Exhibition Organisation of special sessions at international conferences Round tables Popularization of science for society through participation on national science popularization events (Science festivals, Researchers’ Night, practical workshops, demonstration of experiments during the above events) Forums on national / regional / international level Info days to inform the target audience about the project and the relevant research topics / results Workshops Conference in Brussels for EU policy makers (to summarise to project and its findings / results and to present what further EU actions are needed to promote the use of the project key results) if applicable Training for stakeliolders Leaflets, booklets Web page Articles in popular magazines and news papers Peer — reviewed papers in scientific magazines (specify if possible the targeted magazines / journals and whether they will have open acces or not Interviews on regional and national radio / TV stations Books for dissemination of scientific results Manuals GuidelinesHow should you plan the exploitation activities? We have seen earlier what exploitation of results means. What you are asked to do in the project proposal is to show to the evaluators you have an idea of how you are going to do it. The exploitation plan is quite closely connected to the business plan you are also asked to present. At a proposal stage for RIA and JA actions (with the exception of the SME Instrument) you are expected to have just an outline of the exploitation and the business plan which can then be elaborated further and modified during the implementation of the project. The exploitation plan (and consequently the business plan) will depend a lot on your project and the technology readiness levels you will cover in it. So, not all projects are expected to present in the same detail these plans, The closer your project is to the market, the more details will be included in the exploitation (and business) plan. When discussing the exploitation of results in your project proposal (Section 2.2.a), try to focus on the points below. + Identify project results that will have the potential to be exploite + For each result define the partner(s) that have interest in exploiting it; + Describe briefly the exploitation strategy by answering to questions like: + What will the exploitation result in? A new product? Significantly improved process? New research project? Etc. + When will partners exploit the results? Immediately after the project? After doing some additional activities? Etc. + How will they do it? What steps they will take to bring the new product to the market? How will they integrate the results in future research? Etc. + Discuss IPR issues related to the project results and their exploitation. As we already said, the exploitation plan is related to the business plan. For more details on the business plan, see the respective section of the book. Data Management Plan What is a Data Management Plan? Data Management Plan (DMP) is a general outline of the policy on data management, all data gathered within the project. In this part (Section 2.2.a)), you need to present the type of data you will collect or generate through project implementation, what are the method-ologies and standards for generation / collection of data; whether and how this data will be shared and/or made open; how this data will be curated and preserved. The creation of a Data Management Plan is linked with the Open Access Policy in terms of sharing data generated / collected through the project. What is the Open Access policy of the European Commission in the framework of H2020? Open access can be defined as the practice of providing on-line access to scientific infor- mation that is free of charge to the end-user and that is re-usable. In the context of research and innovation, ‘scientific information’ can refer to: (1) peer-reviewed scientific research articles (published in scholarly/ scientific/ tech- nical journals) or (2) research data (data underlying publications, curated data and/or raw data). What are the implications of the Open Access policy for your scientific publications and your research data? Open access to scientific articles should not be confused with publishing your project results in Open Access Journals. We are all well aware that researchers prefer publishing their work in journals that are not open access (subscription journals), given the higher reputation they enjoy among the scientific community. However, these same journals, with their policy go against what the EC funded project should achieve i.e. widest dissemination possible. Even in those cases when journals would agree to grant open access to certain articles, it would represent a significant cost for the researcher/ organisation. This has been a big problem for scientists and researchers, but also for the EC, in the past framework programmes. Some attempts in addressing this issue were made already in FP7, but with Horizon 2020 things became formal and clear. The obligation to grant open access to articles (and to the underlying research data) is defined in the Grant Agreement (article 29) and the project partners can claim the costs of granting open access as eligible project costs which will be reimbursed by the EC ‘The Grant Agreement among other things sets that each beneficiary must: + As soon as possible and at the latest on publication, deposit a machine-readable electronic copy of the published version or final peer-reviewed manuscript ac- cepted for publication in a repository for scientific publications. + Moreover, the beneficiary must aim to deposit at the same time the research data needed to validate the results presented in the deposited scientific publications. + Ensure open access to the deposited publication — via the repository — at the latest:(1) on publication, if an electronic version is available for free via the publisher, or (2) within six months of publication (twelve months for publications in the social sciences and humanities) in any other case. (3) Ensure open access ~ via the repository — to the bibliographic metadata that 24 identify the deposited publication, which must include a persistent identifier. Regarding the digital research data generated in the project (‘data’), the beneficiaries must take appropriate measures to ensure open access, including: « deposit in a research data repository and take measures to make it possible for third parties to access, mine, exploit, reproduce and disseminate — free of charge for any user — the following: + the data, including associated metadata, needed to validate the results pre- sented in scientific publications as soon as possible; + other data, including associated metadata; + provide information — via the repository — about tools and instruments at the disposal of the beneficiaries and necessary for validating the results (and — where 28 possible — provide the tools and instruments themselves). Although you are asked to provide open access to your publications and research data, the obligation to protect results, the confidentiality obligations as well as security obligations and the obligation to protect personal data have priority. Therefore, before you share your results and data and give open access to them, first check whether there are any reasons that would stop you from fulfilling this obligation. We will finish this section, by looking at the different types of provisions of open access to research data and scientific publications: + Open access publishing (also called ‘gold’ open access) means that an article is immediately provided in open access mode by the scientific publisher. The asso- ciated costs are usually shifted away from readers, and instead (for example) to the university or research institute to which the researcher is affiliated, or to the funding agency supporting the research. + Self-archiving (also called ‘green’ open access) means that the published article or the final peer-reviewed manuscript is archived by the researcher ~ or a repre- sentative - in an online repository before, after or alongside its publication. Access to this article is often ~ but not necessarily ~ delayed (so-called ‘embargo period’),as some scientific publishers may wish to recoup their investment by selling subscriptions and charging pay-per-download/view fees during an exclusivity 26 period. Sources: Dissemination, Communication, Exploitation 12020 Grant Manual REGULATION (EU) No 1291/2013 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 11 December 2013 establishing Horizon 2020 - the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2014-2020) and repealing Decision No 1982/2006/EC Calls — proposal templates and evaluation forms. In calls for proposals you will find expected impact, in evaluation forms you will learn what are the factors that influence number of points you can gain from impact criterion and in proposal templates there is a list of question you need to answer in order to describe all the activities related to dissemination, communication and exploitation. It is available at: hup://ec.europa.ew/research/participants/data/refh2020/grants_manual/hi/oa_piloyh2020-hi-oa-data- mgt_enpdf Data Management Plan and Open Access Policy Guidelines on Open Access to Scientific Publications and Research Data where you will learn more about what is Open Access, how you provide Open Access, what is political and legal background behind Open Access. It is available at http://ec.europa.ew/research(participants/data/refh2020/grants_manual/hi/ 0a_pilot/h2020-hi-oa-pilot-guide_en.pdf Guidelines on Data Management in Horizon 2020 where you will learn more about Data Management Plan, its importance and template to be used while preparing DMP. It is available at: hitp://ec.curopa.eu! research/participants/data/re{/h2020/grants_manual/hi/oa_pilot/h2020-hi-oa-data-mgt_en.pdf Knowledge management What is knowledge management? In simple words we could define knowledge management as the process of obtaining, developing, sharing/disseminating and effectively using knowledge (existing or new) to achieve given objectives. In every research collaboration project and especially in H2020 you will have to share your experience and your existing/new knowledge with other organisations from the first moment you start working together. Only by sharing the knowledge among the project partners, the consortium can implement a successful project and achieve the expected results. Many people wrongly think that knowledge management becomes an issue only after the project has officially started and it is not something you have to deal with while preparing the project proposal. On the contrary, remember that ali partners bring to the project proposalpreparation phase their previous knowledge, experience and intellectual property (IP) (also known as “background”) which will help you show the evaluators you have what it takes to implement the project. Three things are important from the very beginning: 1. To identify the knowledge and {P you will disclose and make available to the other project partners for the purposes of the project and to define the conditions under which this will be done; 2. To make sure your own IP and interests are protected from the very beginning of your cooperation; and 3. To reach a general agreement among the project partners on how knowledge will be managed throughout the implementation phase. What knowledge and IP will you share with the project consortium and under which conditions? ‘An answer to this question should be outlined in the project application form to show to the evaluators that it is clear what each partner brings to the project and under which conditions. The answer should focus only on the knowledge and IP that are strictly related to the project and not to any other knowledge or IP the organisation may have. Any software, machines, processes, drawings, protocols, etc. that are owned by any of the partners and will be used for the project should be listed in the application form. A general agreement should exist on how this will be used and by whom as well as any other conditions that may apply. How can you protect your interests from the very beginning? + During the preparation of the project proposal, there are many moments when intentionally or unintentionally “background” is shared among the partners. Think of the preparation of the state of the art or the section of the proposal where you describe the consortium as a whole and how each partner will complement each other. During all the interactions among partners, in these and other moments, you are running the risk of disclosing some confidential information (inventions not yet protected, other business ideas, other research not yet being fully implemented etc.). In order to prevent any unpleasant situations and protect your own interests you can use several available instruments: Non-disclosure agreement — a legal agreement between the partners signed before they start preparing the proposal and which establishes the conditions under which partners disclose information to each other. As any other agreement, the breach of this agreement has legal consequences.* Memorandum of Understanding or Letter of Intent — which has the same purpose as the non-disclosure agreement, but it is less formal and has no legal consequences in case breach. If any such agreement or memorandum has been signed by the project partners, it is worth in the project application form, mentioning i Have you agreed on the management of knowledge in the implementation phase? ‘As we have seen earlier in this book, the plan for the exploitation of the project results plays an important role in the evaluation of your project proposal. Well planned exploitation plan is crucial for the suc of your project. If you want that the exploitation of the project results is as effective as possible, then you definitely have to take good care of the management of your intellectual property to reach the expected impacts and avoid any misunderstanding among the project partners related to IP issues. You might consider appointing an extra management body: Exploitation Committee (of course depending on the size of the project and on the nature of the project results). The leader of this body could be an expert in the field of intellectually property rights (IPR) who can help you to identify and look out at IP arising from the implementation of the project and he can propose the most suitable IP strategies. Although you are not expected to describe in detail all the Knowledge Management plan of your project in the application form, as this will be done in your Consortium Agreement later on, you still have to provide some general outline on what you have agreed with the other project partners. The most important thing for the evaluators to know at this point is that you have an agreement and a plan that will allow you to successfully exploit your project results and bring the positive changes you have promised. To be better prepared and to successfully manage the knowledge, you have to consider some of the issues below: + Managing your background As was described above, the knowledge that each partner brings to the project (its background) has to be clearly identified and described. The description of the back- ground should be done in a way that there is no space for misinterpretation of what could be shared among partners and what not. Managing the project results Same as for the background, you also have to clearly describe how you will organise the ownership of the project results and manage the use of the same. You also have toplan how one project partner can use the results that belong to another project partner. The (economic) conditions under which this will be possible should be also clearly defined in the Consortium Agreement later on. + Joint ownership In many cases it will happen that you will generate the project results together with one or more partners (jointly generated). This would consequently mean that you own them jointly, unless you agree differently. Therefore, you should agree how the joint owner- ship will be managed in sense of the exploitation of ownership, sharing of IP cost, sharing of revenues and licence and assignment rights. The protection of project results For the successful commercial or industrial exploitation, the project results should be protected in adequate and effective manner and in accordance with the other partners’ legitimate interests. For this reason you have to describe how you will manage the protection of results, how you will be able to identify these results, disseminate them, exploit it them and in doing so how you will be able to protect them from early disclosure. The exploitation of the project results You may have different ways for exploitation. How you will exploit the project results mainly depends on the type of results, the technology readiness level and of course on your business plans. The results could be also used for other future projects. + Confidentiality Before disclosing any information about the project, all the partners should follow the agreed conditions for dissemination. You should agree on any specification of any data to be secreted at the proposal stage and you could also foresee any measures to be taken to maintain confidentiality during and even after the end of the project. You must pay attention also to your internal confidentiality in your own organisation. Sources: European IPR Helpdesk: IP Management in Horizon 2020: at the proposal stage huip:// www.iprhelpdesk.eu/sites/defauli/files/newsdocuments/ FS_IP_Management_h2020_implementation_O.pdf Business plan What does outline of a “business plan” mean in Section 2 of the proposal? The Section 2 of the application forms asks you to include a business plan where relevant. While the business plan may not be relevant for some RIA proposals, it will definitely bepart of almost all IA proposals. As we have already mentioned earlier, the business plan is closely related to the exploitation plan that you have to present in the same section of the application form. Given the limited space you have at your disposal, in this part of the application form, you are expected to provide an outline of your business plan. The outline should cover in brief the aspects listed below. However, further on in this section, you can find more detailed info on the preparation of the business plan and what it should include. This will come in handy especially when working with the SME Instrument. The short outline of the business plan should contain: + The planned key exploitable results and their expected key areas of application; + The exploitation team; + The market; + The financial projections; + The business model; + The commercialisation plan; + The risk assessment; Please remember that the business plan should not be submitted as a separate document or attachment to your project proposal. Now, let us look a bit more in detail into the business plan. What is a business plai In general, business plan is a strategy how to place our new product or service on the targeted market with a view to improve all the relevant business indicators of our company. Essen- tially, the purpose of business plan is to place the right product/service on the market (based on the knowledge of the market, competition, customers, suppliers etc.). This will bring the added value to the company, which will result in the business indicators. Is there any prescribed form? In H2020 there is no predetermined form of business plan you have to use. There are many other different EU programmes which demand a business plan to be included, but in most cases there is no specific form to follow. Mostly there are only some recommendations or guidelines to follow.But nevertheless the business plan is an essential document for every single organisation which is on the market, There are many different templates and samples. All are essentially divided in these basic chapters: + EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Explain the fundamentals of the proposed business: What will your product be? Who will your customers be? Who are the owners? What do you think the future holds for your business and your industry? + GENERAL COMPANY DESCRIPTION Describe the company history in brief (main milestones). Include main goals, mission, vision, and the strategy to fulfil the company vision. Describe your most important company strengths and core competencies. + PRODUCTS AND SERVICES DESCRIPTION Describe your products or services in depth. What factors will give you competitive advantages or disadvantages? Examples include level of quality or unique or proprietary features. Identify your targeted customers, their characteristics, and their geographic locations. + MARKETING PLAN Use the business planning process as your opportunity to uncover data and to question your marketing efforts. Describe the market on which you are selling products/ services (size, share, trends, current demand, target market, growth potential, barriers to entry in the market). Also, describe your competition (strength, competiveness, weakness...) + FINANCIAL TABLES — FORECAST Balance sheet, Profit and loss account and other relevant financial indicators for at least 5 years (10 years) You can now question why the EC is putting on your shoulders more work than was necessary in previous programmes. If you are looking only in the way of more effort to put in writing the proposal, then you are right. But we have to look at the whole picture. Previously, we discussed the technical part of the proposal (the scientific content). If you take a close look at the guidelines text of the different proposal templates, you will see that in certain chapters you were already describing your business plan (main goals of the project, state-of-the-art, innovation potential, impacts, dissemination, communication, implementa- tion, costs, description of the consortia...). Therefore, when preparing your proposal, you can feel free to include the information from the business plan in different sections of the project proposal.Any one of you will definitely write a business plan if you are financing your project totally by yourself. For this reason you will firstly explore the market, its potential, the competitors then you will make a financial projections and, based on the results, you will make the right decision, Independently of the source of funding the business plan is an essential document of any project, wither profit or non-profit. Sources: You can find more about business plan in various internet sites, w Some of them are: also provide you with different templates. hutp://www.entrepreneur.com/businessplan/index. htm! hutp:/vwww:bplans.com Autp:/www.myownbusiness.org/s2/ Aup://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Business-Plan Chapter IV: WORK PLAN AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT Work Plan 3. Implementation 3.1 Work plan - Work packages, deliverables and milestones Please provide the following: + brief presentation of the overall structure of the work plan; + timing of the different work packages and their components (Gantt chart or similar); + detailed work description, ie.: oa description of each work package (table 3.1a); oa list of work packages (table 3.1b);a list of major deliverables (table 3.1¢); + graphical presentation of the components showing how they inter-relate (Pert chart or similar). + Give full details. Base your account on the logical structure of the project and the stages in which it is to be carried out. Include details of the resources to be allocated to each work package. The number of work packages should be proportionate to the scale and complexity of the project. + You should give enough detail in each work package to justify the proposed resources to be allocated and also quantified information so that progress can be monitored, including by the Commission. », You are advised to include a distinct work package on ‘management’ (see section 3.2) and to give due visibility in the work plan to ‘dissemination and exploitation’ and ‘communication activities’, either with distinct tasks or distinct work packages. + You will be required to include an updated (or confirmed) ‘plan for the dissemination and exploitation of results’ in both the periodic and final reports. (This does not apply to topics where a draft plan was not required.) This should include a record of activities related to dissemination and exploitation that have been undertaken and those still planned. A report of completed and planned communication activities will also be required. « If your project is taking part in the Pilot on Open Research Data. , you must include a ‘data management plan' as a distinct deliverable within the first 6 months of the project. A template for such a plan is given in the guidelines on data management in the H2020 Online Manual. This deliverable witl evolve during the lifetime of the project in order to present the status of the project's reflections on data management. Definitions: ‘Work package’ means a major sub-division of the proposed project. ‘Deliverable’ means a distinct ouput of the project, meaningful in terms of the project's overall objectives and constituted by a report, a document, a technical diagram, a software etc. ‘Milestones’ means control points in the project that help to chart progress. Milestones may correspond to the completion of a key deliverable, allowing the next phase of the work to begin. They may also be needed at intermediary points so that, if problems have arisen, corrective measures can be taken. A milestone may be a critical decision point in the project where, for example, the consortium must decide which of several technologies to adopt for further development. What is work plan?In this part of the project proposal you are asked to describe in detail your plan ~ the steps you will take to achieve the planned results, objectives and impacts. Your starting point is the first day of the project (representing the current state of the art) and your end point is the last day of your project (the moment by which you should have reached the planned progress beyond the state of the art). This plan, also known as work plan, consists of: -Work packages — major subdivisions of the proposed project -Tasks — work packages are further subdivided into tasks or main groups of activities that have to be carried out. -Deliverables — outputs of the project that are important for the overall objectives of the project. They are tangible outputs of the project like a report, document, software, prototype and similar. -Milestones — are control points in the project. They are points when you stop to look at the work you have done and see whether you can continue your work according to the original plan or you need to make any changes if necessary. The timing of the different work packages, tasks, deliverables and milestones plays an important part in the planning of the work as well as the interconnections among the different tasks and work packages. How to get from the project idea to a detailed work plan? In planning a project, it is normal to find yourself momentarily overwhelmed and confused, when you begin to grasp the details and scope of even a modest size project. This results from one person trying to understand the details of work that will be performed by a number of people over a period of time. The way to get beyond being overwhelmed and confused is to break the project into smaller pieces, organize the pieces in a logical way and then get help from the rest of your project team to define and describe each individual piece. In order to do so, in Horizon 2020, you will be using the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Method. What is the WBS Method? WBS divides the overall project into work packages, representing distinct elements to be assigned to someone on the project team. Work packages are further subdivided into tasks or activities that have to be carried out and have to result in one or more project deliverables. Large, complex projects are organised and comprehended by breaking them into progres- sively smaller pieces until they are a collection of defined "work packages" that may include a number tasks.