Frequently Asked Questions version

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Frequently Asked Questions version 3.0 – 09.09.2014

COS-WP2014-2-05- Call for proposals - China, Latin America and South East Asia IPR SME Helpdesks

Table of Content

A. Eligibility of applicants

B. Eligibility of costs and budget template C. Communication activities and website D. Submission documents and platform

EUROPEAN COMMISSION

Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME) Department A - Operations

Unit A1 - COSME

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A. Eligibility of applicants

A1. Question: Is a proposal going to be penalized by the fact of covering only one of the three helpdesks in relation to a proposal that covers the three of them?

Answer: No. The submission and evaluation of proposals is made per topic (with the exception of the WP referring to the development and hosting of the common part of the website).

A2. Question: Is it possible for an applicant to be partner within a consortium for one topic and at the same time to be a partner within a consortium for all topics?

Answer: As indicated in the answer to question A1, the submission and evaluation of the proposals is made at topic level. Any organization who would like to apply to the three topics shall submit three independent applications.

There is not any limitation with regards to the number of proposals which may be submitted by a single organization. It is also irrelevant whether an organization applies to this call as part of different consortia.

A3. Question: In section 8.1 of the call for proposals you request "an audit report produced by an approved external auditor certifying the accounts for the last financial year available". How does it apply to public institutions?

Answer: As indicated in section 8.1 of the Call for Proposals (page 19) the verification of the financial capacity shall not apply to public bodies.

A4. Question: We are managing a proposal that pretend to include enterprises from targeted countries as Brazil and Mexico. Furthermore, these entities are affiliated to the coordinator, which is an EU Member.

Our question is if those entities could be eligible applicant entities and if an affiliated could be subcontracted for any task that is not the core of the project.

Answer: Yes, legal entities constituted and registered under national law in Brazil and Mexico are eligible to participate as “applicants” in Topic 3 (Latin America IPR SME Helpdesk)”.

Moreover, as indicated in section 6.2 of the Call for Proposals, those organisations may take part in the action as “affiliated entities” to the “applicant” based in the EU.

However, “affiliated entities” cannot participate in the action as “subcontractors” . A5. Question: Could you explain the rules for the consortium? For example, what’s the minimum number of participants in the consortium and what’s the minimum number of countries covered by the consortium.

Answer: There is not any limitation with regards to the number of partners or to the

number of countries represented in the consortium. As stated in section 6.3 of the Call

for proposals applications can be submitted by one entity or by several entities that

create a consortium.

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However, as stated in section 2.3 of the Call for Proposals, applicants should be able to provide the services described in section 2.4 in all the markets for which they present their proposal.

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A6. Question: Our proposal has a Spanish company as proposal leader with subsidiaries entities in Latin America (profit-making entities). In the case of taking part in the action as partners on the basis of Art. 7 Paragraph 2 of the COSME regulation they are not entitled to receive financial contribution. Would they be eligible to receive EU contribution if they take part in the action as affiliated entities to the coordinator?

In the case of being able to claim costs as affiliate entities, should their budget breakdown be included in the items of the coordinator budget? Or must be specified in the Technical Annex like in other H2020 calls?

Answer: Profit-making entities participating in the action under article 7.2 of the COSME Regulation cannot receive any EU contribution. This provision applies as well to entities with a legal link to EU companies (in this case Spain).

B. Eligibility of costs and budget template

B1. Question: Is there a maximum percentage that can be assigned to the subcontracting heading?

Answer: No

B2. Question: Is there any maximum percentage to any cost heading?

There is not any maximum ceiling for any category of eligible direct costs. Indirect costs are automatically calculated as 7% of all eligible direct costs.

B3. Question: How many Help Desk services would there be per geographic area?

How much is the top budget per proposal?

Answer: As indicated in section 4 of the Call for proposals (page 15) EASME expect to fund 1 proposal per topic.

The maximum EU contribution allocated to each topic is:

• Topic 1 (China IPR SME Helpdesk): €2,400,000

• Topic 2 (South-East Asia IPR SME Helpdesk): €2,600,000

• Topic 3 (Latin America IPR SME Helpdesk): €2,000,000

• The consortium selected to develop and maintain the common portal shall

receive an additional EU contribution of €200,000.

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B4. Question: How the WEB budget should be prepared? In the proposal documents - specifically the budget template - there is no sheet devoted to the WEB budget. Are we supposed to integrate the WEB budget in the global project?

Answer: Any cost related to the development, hosting and operation of the website shall be integrated in the overall budget. It is highly recommended that you clearly indicate which costs refer to the common part of the website (development, hosting, maintenance) and which costs refer to running the part of the website dedicated to each helpdesk (producing and uploading materials).

B5. Question: In article 4, it is written that the EASME expects to fund one proposal per topic. Does it mean that the EASME expects to fund one proposal per topic at all (among all the applicants all over EU) or EASME expects to fund one proposal per topic per applicant.

Answer: The EASME expects to fund one China IPR SME Helpdesk, one South-East Asia IPR SME Helpdesk and one Latin America IPR SME Helpdesk. These three helpdesks shall provide services to all interested SMEs across the EU.

B6. Question: Call for Proposals: 8.1. On the basis of the documents submitted, if the Authorising Officer considers that financial capacity is not satisfactory, he may:

request further information;

propose a grant agreement without pre-financing;

propose a grant agreement with a pre-financing paid in instalments;

propose a grant agreement with a pre-financing covered by a bank guarantee (see section 11.4 below);

where applicable, require the joint and several financial liability of all the co- beneficiaries;

reject the application.

When the contracting authority makes the decisions above, would there be a possibility to consult with the applicants first due to the difficulties related to obtaining the financial guarantee?

Can the consortium choose a grant agreement with a pre-financing paid in installments if the contract has been awarded to the consortium?

Answer: Applicants cannot be consulted because this decision is taken during the evaluation of proposals.

No, it is not possible for a selected consortium to choose a grant agreement with a pre- financing paid in installments.

B7. Question: In our experience subcontractors for the same service can be from

different countries or even continents. However this is not something that can

clearly be decided beforehand. In the current template there is no room for deciding

at a later stage from which country we decide to hire the subcontractor.

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Answer: If a specific subcontractor has not been identified yet or if the task to be subcontracted relate to multiple countries, please leave the cells “name of the subcontractor” and/or “country” blank. However, the description of the task to be subcontracted and the estimated budget allocated to it must be filled in.

B8. Question: There is little room in differentiating between e.g. international flights between China and EU, China and ASEAN and ASEAN and EU, or even international flights within Europe. How does the EC propose we calculate the average? For instance can flights within the EU be regarded as national? Is there a possibility to receive a template that allows for differentiating under the ‘international’ travel subheading so that a more accurate and transparent calculation can be made?

Answer: National travels are travels within the same country whereas international travels are travels between two or more different countries. Travel within two EU countries is considered here International travel.

The template you need to fill for the submission of your proposal refers to the estimated budget of the action not to the actual costs incurred by the beneficiaries. At this stage the only information needed is the number of national and international travels you expect to make during the implementation of the action and the overall budget allocated to those travels.

B9. Question: In the template provided by the EC it is not possible to list more than 10 subcontractors. This creates difficulties especially since there is a need to specify the country. The current pool of Helpdesk experts in different countries is greater than the cells available. Would it be possible to create three additional options in the template namely: Europe, Southeast Asia, Latin America?

Answer: The template allows you to list 10 tasks to be subcontracted per partner involved in the action. As the template is just an “estimated budget” you can perfectly group several contracts which relate to the implementation of the same task (e.g. using one line for the pool of experts you intend to subcontract).

Please, also note that the submission of proposals for the three topics (China, South- East Asia and Latin America) is totally independent. Should a consortium want to present proposals to the three topics it will need to submit three different applications (thus, three different budget templates).

B10. Question: We noticed in this call, in the budget sheet “RefNumbers”, it said the cost of office rent is included in the Indirect Eligible Costs (7% admin fee). However, if an office space has been rented for the sole purpose of hosting the Helpdesk.

Would it be possible to include the office rent as Direct Eligible Costs?

Answer: No. The renting of office space is part of the indirect costs even when the office space has been rented for the sole purpose of hosting the helpdesk.

B11. Question: Would we be allowed to shift one partner’s budget to another during the implementation of the project?

Answer: Yes. The rules for transferring budget between partners and between

categories of eligible costs will be part of the grant agreement.

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B12. Question: In the event that staff working on the project takes long-term sick leave or maternity leave, will the payments made by the consortium during these periods be considered as eligible costs.

Answer: In that case the salary costs shall be declared but the reimbursement will be limited to the amount of actual hours worked on the project.

C. Communication activities and website

C1. Question: Does the common portal have to be a different website or a shared common front page on the 3 helpdesk websites?

Answer: The front page and the visual identity shall be the same for all three helpdesks (see pages 10-12 of the Call for Proposals). The common front page shall give access to the dedicated parts of the website in which all beneficiaries will present the specific content relevant to the geographic area covered by each helpdesk.

C2. Question: Do the proposals have to foresee a transfer of the websites to europa.eu website during the lifespan of the project?

Answer: No. However, as indicated in page 12 of the Call for Proposals, at the end of the project the beneficiary shall prepare handover documentation concerning the website, the materials developed, the established contacts with intermediaries and other information and materials gathered during the project that will be necessary to continue the helpdesk activities in a new funding period.

C3. Question: Is it possible to subcontract a hosting service while the beneficiary does all the website management tasks?

Answer: Yes

C4. Question: Concerning WP6, (page 11 of the call for proposals) you state that:

"The staff managing the website shall possess sufficient language skills, experience in web editing and, preferably, a journalistic or marketing background": is the requested profile just for uploading the content on the website or also for defining and implementing the communication and dissemination activities?

Answer: As indicated in page 10 of the Call for Proposals all services, materials and presentations shall address intellectual property matters specifically from the point of view of SME business needs, rather than addressing a more specialized audience such as IPR law practitioners. Staff with a journalistic background shall ensure that the right audience is targeted in any communication activity, including all materials published in the website.

C5. Question: Who will be in charge of the creation, publication and updating of the contents for each website? Will it be the website coordinator or the beneficiaries of each helpdesk?

Answer: As indicated in pages 10-11 of the Call for Proposals all beneficiaries are

expected to produce new content and to update the website regularly. The tasks of the

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website coordinator are to host the website, to manage the joint front page, to develop joint practices common to the three helpdesks sub-websites and to coordinate the three sub-websites.

D. Submission documents and platform

D1. Question: We would need the template for the "Declaration of Honor". In the call it is stated that "applicants must use the relevant template", but there is no attachment.

Answer: The declaration of honor is integrated within the submission platform in the declaration box in Part A. Access to the submission service will be granted soon. Only selected proposals will be requested to send official documents like "declaration of honor" in the grant agreement preparation process.

D2. Question: What type of activity reports should be included in the ‘activity-report- ipr3c’ document? Can you please provide examples?

Answer: An annual activity report presents the achievements reached and corresponding resources used by an organization during one year's activities.

As part of your proposal you should provide links to the electronic sources where information on the activities implemented by the applicants can be found.

For instance, the latest activity reports of DG Enterprise may be found at http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/dg/annual-activity-report/index_en.htm

Contact:

Executive Agency for Small and Medium sized Enterprises (EASME)

Email: [email protected]

Website: http://ec.europa.eu/easme/ipr3c_en.htm