Application procedure: how to make a proposal Belgrade, 28 February 2013 Annalisa Bogliolo EC, DG CNECT : “Programme Coordination” unit CIP - ICT Policy Support Programme

Eligibility of proposals Proposals must involve a certain minimum number of mutually-independent legal entities of the required type from different EU Member States or ICT PSP Associated countries (Croatia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Montenegro, Norway, Serbia, Turkey) Pilot A = 6 partners Pilot B = 4 partners Thematic Network = 7 partners Best Practice Network = 7 partners PPI Pilot = 3 partners 2

Eligibility of proposals Provided there is the minimum number of EU/ICT PSP Associated country partners, organisations from elsewhere can also participate in a project (with Commission agreement) but without funding o Note that Israel and Switzerland have signed association agreements with FP7 but not with ICT-PSP o The former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia is going to sign soon 3

Eligibility of proposals Proposals must be submitted before the call deadline - 14 th May 17h00 - using the Commission’s electronic submission service in the Participant Portal Non-eligible proposals are not evaluated ! 4

Key information for proposers o ICT PSP Workprogramme 2013 o Guides for Applicants o FAQs o Model grant agreement 5

Electronic Submission o Proposal Coordinator access the Electronic Submission services from the Participant Portal using his/her ECAS identification o All partners need to obtain their Partner Identification Code (PIC) o The consortium prepares the proposal, then submits it before the deadline o Submission failure rate = + 1% Only reason; waiting till the last minute Technical problems Panic-induced errors Too late starting upload, run out of time 6

Electronic Submission Each submission overwrites the previous one Make an early submission to check out the procedure and your proposal Make your final submission in good time…. …….then look at what you submitted while there is still time to resubmit the correct version 7

8 How to register for an ECAS account ECAS account needed to access IT tools in PP o Access the register link (available on the Participant Portal below the "Login" button).register link Participant Portal o Fill in the registration form using your individual professional address and you will receive a confirmation by . ECAS credentials are personal and strictly confidential

Participant Identification Code o Participants need to use a PIC to identify themselves in the Electronic Proposal Submission system. On entering the PIC, parts of the proposal forms will be filled in automatically o The process for assigning a PIC is triggered by a self- registration of an organisation at the Participant Portal (under the “my organisations” tab): rganisations rganisations o On this website you will also find a search tool for checking if your organisation is already registered (and thus already has a PIC). You can also search for a PIC from the submission service. 9 A PIC is compulsory for each partner!

Thematic Networks o In this call we have two types of Thematic Network, differing in funding structure Objectives 1.2c), 2.2b) and 3.3d) call for “traditional” Thematic Networks (TN), funded by a scheme involving lump sums Objectives 1.3, 2.1c), 2.3b) and 3.3(a,b,c) call for eligible cost Thematic Networks (TN-EC), funded at 100% of actual eligible costs o So in this case it is even more important to register with the right objective and instrument! o If you make a mistake, discard that proposal and register again 10

Proposal Part A – online forms Part A - Forms completed online on our server A1 form Title, acronym, objective etc. free keywords 2000 character proposal abstract previous/current submission (in ICT PSP or eContentplus) A2 form (one A2 form per partner) PIC Address Contact person Organisation type etc. A3 form Cost and funding details 11

Proposal Part B – pdf document Part B - PDF document created by the consortium and uploaded on our server RTF template supplied by the Electronic Submission Service Format directly linked to evaluation criteria Summary Relevance (bullet points = sections) Impact (idem) Implementation (idem) 12

Additional paperwork For all proposals: Each participant must sign a “Non exclusion declaration”, which is held by the proposal coordinator until asked for by the Commission For Pilot A proposals only: Each participant which is acting in place of a national administration must obtain a “Certification of national authorised representative” from the national administration, which is held by the proposal coordinator until asked for by the Commission 13

Evaluation criteria Evaluation by independent experts on: Relevance Impact Implementation Each criterion is more fully explained by descriptive bullet points Criterion threshold3/5 Overall threshold - 14

Evaluation procedure o Individual reading by three or more experts o Experts meet in “Consensus group” o All experts in objective in Panel meeting o Evaluation Summary Report (ESR) o Commission selection of proposals for negotiation (based on Overall score respecting the budget and/or numbers limitations described in the Workprogramme) 15

Negotiation of projects o The selected proposers are invited to grant agreement negotiations o They are informed in advance of the available funding for the project, and of any technical changes required by the evaluators o The negotiations produce detailed cost forecasts and the “Description of Work” (Annex 1) to the grant agreement o The project begins work the month following the signing of the grant agreement 16

Writing the proposal Advices to proposers 17

Basic principles o Remember the three evaluation criteria have fuller descriptive bullet points o Familiarise yourself with the bullet points; write them into your proposal o The evaluators are looking for them; they are what they are going to score your proposal on 18

Pre-proposal check Use the pre-proposal check service* to make sure your proposal is eligible and in scope for this call….. …….And do it before you prepare your proposal, not afterwards *described in the Guide for applicants 19

ICT Helpdesk Use the ICT PSP Helpdesk* to check any financial or legal elements you are uncertain about….. …….And do it before you prepare your proposal, not afterwards *address in the Guide for applicants 20

Submission o Submit your proposal in good time ! o Familiarise yourself with the EPSS system o Submit early o Check what you submitted o Don’t make last minute changes And when in trouble, call the Electronic Submission Service helpdesk!

Getting help with your proposal The Commission supports: o A supporting website of advice, information and documentation: support-programme o Partner search facilities: o Information days and Thematic workshops in Brussels and elsewhere 22

Getting help with your proposal o An ICT PSP Helpdesk for proposers’ questions o A pre-proposal check service o A list of contact persons for the objectives in each call o And a network of National Contact Points in Europe and beyond: contact-points 23

ICT PSP Website programme General information about the programme Dynamic newsroom Participating in ICT PSP Information about calls (WP, infoday slides, guiding documents) Specific workshops and contact points for themes and objectives Expert registration and experts database Running activities and projects