Fast Track to Innovation Pilot (2015)
Call opening: January 6, 2015
First Cut-off Date: April 29, 2015
Frequently Asked Questions
Contents
A. Eligibility and type of entities targeted ........................................................... 2
B. Preparing and submitting your proposal ......................................................... 7
C. Evaluation and Ranking of your Proposal .................................................... 10
D. Funding and Financial Administration ......................................................... 12
E. Other forms of support .................................................................................. 17
F. For candidate evaluators ............................................................................... 18
G. More information .......................................................................................... 19
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A. ELIGIBILITY AND TYPE OF ENTITIES TARGETED
1) Who can apply?
Only consortiums of at least three and at most five legal entities of any type, all of whom are
based in the EU-28 and/or in countries associated to Horizon 2020, can apply1. Consortium
partners must come from at least three different countries. In addition, specific conditions
regarding “industry” participation apply.
2) What does “legal entity” mean?
Please see the glossary on the Horizon 2020 participant portal, under the letter “L”.
3) What does “industry” mean?
In the context of the dedicated section of the Horizon 2020 Work Programme on the Fast
Track to Innovation Pilot, “industry” means private-for-profit organisations.
4) What does “for profit” mean?
'For-profit legal entity' means entities that are not 'non-profit legal entities' as defined in
Article 2 of the Rules for Participation and Dissemination ('legal entity which by its legal
form is non-profit-making or which has a legal or statutory obligation not to distribute profits
to its shareholders or individual members').
5) What are the specific conditions regarding industry participation?
The Work Programme stipulates the following:
-
Either: at least 60% of the overall budget of the proposal must go to the consortium
partner(s) from “industry”
-
Or: in a consortium of 3 or 4 partners, at least 2 of them should be “industry”
-
Or: in a consortium of 5 partners, at least 3 of them should be “industry”
6) Why is the involvement of industry mandatory?
The Fast Track to Innovation Pilot is an investment in delivering innovation onto the market
and into society. Private-for-profit entities are essential for meeting this objective, as they are
the ones most commonly conducting close-to-market innovation activities and are best placed
to exploit the benefits of a successful technology transfer.
1
For one notable exception, please see the NB in the answer to question 15.
2
The Fast Track to Innovation Pilot is also an incentive for European industry to continue
investing in high-risk innovation activities – possible game-changers for growth and jobs in
tomorrow’s economy – and can give a boost to high-potential innovation projects.
7) What does “first-time industry applicant” mean?
A “first-time industry applicant” means a legal entity that is a private, for-profit organisation
that has obtained a PIC (Participant Identification Code) for the first time, meaning that it has
registered for the first time in the Beneficiary Register during the preparation of the proposal.
Proposers must indicate the first-time industry applicants in their consortium; European
Commission services will check their first-time status.
8) Will the inclusion of a first-time industry applicant be a sine qua non to obtain funding
for an action under the FTI Pilot?
First-time industry applicants are particularly encouraged to participate and be part of
applying consortia, but will not be the only ones to be able to receive funding. For the ranking
process after evaluation, the inclusion of first-time industry applicants in the consortium will
play a role for setting a priority order for proposals with the same score.
First-time industry applicants that are consulting companies that are only there to streamline
the administrative part of the proposal are discouraged from applying, although they will not
be excluded a priori from receiving funding.
9) Does the size of my consortium (3, 4 or 5 partners) matter?
No. It is up to the coordinator to define the best way of implementing the proposal, and with
whom, and this can depend on many factors. Whatever the size of the consortium, it is
considered a premise that a consortium concludes a specific consortium agreement before
starting an action under the Fast Track to Innovation Pilot. This agreement should relate not
only to the distribution of tasks and allocation of work, but also to matters such as ownership
and responsibility, IPR arrangements, financial viability, and additional investment needed
(beyond funding obtained through the FTI Pilot under Horizon 2020).
10) Is there any restriction in terms of topic that could have an impact on the eligibility of
my proposal?
The Fast Track to Innovation Pilot is a bottom-up scheme, meaning that it has no defined
topic. However, proposals must be related to a field under the specific objective "Leadership
in enabling and industrial technologies" and/or to any of the "Societal challenges" of Horizon
2020. Interdisciplinary or cross-sectoral projects are encouraged.
Other than that, proposals are expected to add value to the economy and/or society at the
European level, and are expected to leverage more investment from the private sector in
research and innovation, and real prospects on wide market take-up (i.e. in several countries at
least).
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11) From the various different technologies that are part of “Leadership in Enabling and
Industrial Technologies” and out of the different “Societal Challenges”, does a
consortium need to choose only one, or can it choose several technologies and / or
challenges?
The FTI Pilot cuts across all “Societal Challenges” and the specific objective “Leadership in
Enabling and Industrial Technologies” under Horizon 2020. Although applicants are asked to
link their proposal to a priority challenge or technological field in the administrative part of
their proposal, proposals that are interdisciplinary / cross-sectoral are encouraged.
12) Is it possible for a start-up (without balance sheet) to apply?
This is possible, as the Fast Track to Innovation Pilot is open to any type of legal entity.
However, the absence of closed accounts implies the qualification of the financial viability of
a participant as weak, which will normally exclude it from coordination tasks.
Applicants should keep in mind that the Pilot has not been designed as a company creation
vehicle, but in order to support market take-up of innovations with European or global
commercialisation potential.
13) Are Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) a particular target audience
for the support granted through the FTI Pilot?
Yes, although it is important to understand that the FTI Pilot is not an SME-specific support
measure. Important objectives of the FTI Pilot in terms of impact are fast development &
commercial take-up and/or wide deployment of sustainable innovative solutions; SMEs that
see the possibility to meet those objectives – if need be with the help of bigger partners – are
strongly encouraged to apply for support.
14) I am heading a consulting company and would like to know how important my chances
are to obtain funding. My consulting company is neither an innovative or technological
company.
Consulting companies will be allowed as consortium partners, but if it is clear that the
company in question is there only to deal with administrative matters and is not part of the
innovation action as such, the chances for the consortium to be selected for funding may
decrease. It is to be reminded that the FTI Pilot scheme will be very competitive, with success
rates expected to be barely above 5%.
15) Can legal entities from non-EU countries participate?
Only legal entities that are established in EU Member States or countries associated to
Horizon 2020 are eligible for funding. However, legal entities established in other countries
can be involved as third parties, for example as subcontractors.
NB if a participant is an international European interest organisation or the EU's Joint
Research Centre or an entity created under Union law not established in an EU Member State
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or in a country associated with Horizon 2020, it is deemed to be established in an EU Member
State or Associated Country other than any EU Member State or Associated Country in which
another participant in the same proposal is established.
16) Can a public, not-for-profit legal entity be proposed as action coordinator in a proposal
in response to the FTI Pilot call?
Non-profit public organisations are allowed to coordinate projects under the FTI Pilot,
provided that eligibility criteria are met (especially in terms of industry participation).
The pilot is there to help close-to-market industry-driven innovation in Europe to reach the
market. If the entity that you have in mind could be instrumental to achieve this goal, the
proposal that you may submit stands decent chances of funding, but it should be reminded
that given the nature of the FTI Pilot, the belief is that private-for-profit entities may be bettersuited as they are by nature already on the marketplace.
17) Are clusters or other commercial networks welcome?
Yes. Any proposal will be judged on its merits and above all in terms of impact. If the clusters
or networks are composed of three to five legal entities (meeting all eligibility criteria) and
have a great innovation concept that is in need of funding to achieve full commercialisation,
they can be eligible for funding.
18) Can a self-employed worker be an eligible member of a consortium?
Yes. However, although the FTI Pilot is open to this and any other type of legal entity,
applicants should ensure that all eligibility criteria outlined in the dedicated section of the
Work Programme are met; other than that, the business case should be convincing.
Competition to obtain funding under the FTI Pilot is expected to be strong; if the value that
can be created as a result from your proposed action is not substantial at the European level, it
is recommended to look out for different opportunities for support for your proposal.
19) Is there a limit to the number of FTI Pilot applications or projects that I can make or
take part in at the same time?
No. Provided all eligibility requirements are respected, and the content of the proposal is not
the same or similar, an organisation can be involved in and/or submit several proposals at the
same time.
You should nevertheless note that FTI is a pilot scheme with a limited budget (EUR 100
million in 2015). For this reason, it is advisable to only select one action that would be worth
funding under the scheme, meaning that it meets the highest standards in terms of impact and
excellence in particular, and should have added value at the European level. In addition, only
innovative concepts that are already at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6 or at a similar
level for non-technological innovations will be considered for support (with exceptions only
possible in very well justified cases).
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20) Are organisations allowed to participate in more than one action funded under the Fast
Track to Innovation Pilot as a subcontractor?
In a hypothetic case, if the participating consortia can demonstrate that the subcontractor
provides the best value for money and that there are no conflicts of interest, it would
technically be possible for a same party to participate to two different actions under the FTI
Pilot in the same time.
21) How close to the market should my proposed innovation be to be considered for
funding under the FTI Pilot?
The time to initial market take-up of the innovation that is proposed for funding should not
exceed 36 months from the beginning of the funded action. This may be longer in welljustified cases (for instance, due to the specificity of a sector).
22) Can an applicant put forward a proposal seeking support for an innovation that is
actually ready to be launched on the market? What if we can launch the innovation on
the market one month or a couple months after having received the grant?
The FTI Pilot targets relatively mature new technologies, concepts, processes and business
models that need a last development step to reach the market and achieve wider deployment.
If the innovation that an applicant would like to see supported under the FTI Pilot is ready for
the market, the last development step appears to be already concluded. The FTI Pilot was
established in order to refine and upgrade mature innovations to a state of perfect market
maturity.
In general, launching an innovation that was selected for funding under the FTI pilot on the
market a couple of months after the award of the grant would be seen as an undesirable way
to implement the support available under the pilot. Each particular case would of course be
considered in the light of the technology/innovation fields and industry sectors concerned, but
if the consortium is able to launch the innovation in a very short timeframe after obtaining
support, it probably did not need the support in the first place.
23) What does “on the market” actually mean in the context of the FTI Pilot call?
The market is the place where the participating consortium is in a position to sell, either to a
customer, or to a company or another actor that can take commercialisation further, the output
of the action that was funded under the FTI Pilot.
24) I am working on the development of a medicine, and would like to know from what
point that development could potentially be funded under the FTI Pilot?
In principle, the drug should have already been tested in an “operational environment”, which
implies that at least a phase 1 clinical trial has taken place (see General Annex G to the
Horizon 2020 Work Programme).
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In addition, applicants should remember that according to the Work Programme, ideally the
time between the start of an action funded under the FTI Pilot and initial market take-up
should not exceed 36 months. This means that development should be quite advanced, and
that in addition there should be real prospects on market uptake, which is an objective for
which a strategy should be defined and documented in any proposal under the FTI Pilot.
25) If I am in doubt about submitting my proposal in response to the FTI call or in
response to a topical call, what should I do?
If the activities that you hope to see funded are not very close-to-market, it is advisable to go
for a topical call, taking into account the limited budget available for the FTI pilot in the next
two years, and the expected strong competition to get funding under the Pilot.
26) Does the Fast Track to Innovation Pilot have its own specific grant agreement?
No. The General Grant Agreement for innovation actions applies.
B. PREPARING AND SUBMITTING YOUR PROPOSAL
1) How do I start?
Contact your closest National Contact Point (NCP). NCPs will be able to advise you on
whether or not the FTI pilot call is a suitable opportunity for your organisation or consortium.
2) Where can I find information online?
Visit the FTI-pilot call page. More administrative information can be found in the section
dedicated to the Fast Track to Innovation Pilot in the Horizon 2020 Work Programme.
3) Does the FTI pilot call support a specific topic?
No. The FTI pilot supports actions undertaking innovation from the demonstration stage
through to market uptake, including stages such as piloting, test-beds, systems validation in
real world or working conditions, validation of business models, pre-normative research, and
standard-setting. It targets relatively mature new technologies, concepts, processes and
business models that need a last development step to reach the market and achieve wider
deployment. Actions can be interdisciplinary, but must relate to any field under the specific
objective "Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies" and/or to any of the specific
objectives under the priority "Societal challenges" of Horizon 2020.
For full details, read all about the FTI pilot call on the participant portal.
4) Is there a specific proposal template?
Yes, you can find it via the participant portal, on the FTI Pilot call documentation page.
5) Can I delete the comments and guidance notes in the application template in order to
have more space available for my application?
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Yes.
6) Are there guidelines describing or illustrating what should be included in my proposal?
Yes, see the page on the Fast Track to Innovation Pilot on the Horizon 2020 information
portal. You can refer also to the specific proposal template for the FTI Pilot (see the
Participant Portal).
7) What should the indicative duration of an action be under the FTI Pilot?
Although there are no formal limits in the Work Programme, you should note that in terms of
impact, the expectation is that initial market take-up of the innovation should happen no later
than 36 months after the start of the action. Indicatively, it is expected that the time span for
an action funded under the FTI Pilot will be in between 12 and 24 months, but slightly shorter
or longer periods of time are not excluded.
8) What does "business plan" mean?
General business practices apply. The proposal template allows evaluators to extract
information similar to what is contained in a standard, elaborated business plan; see, in
particular, the section on ‘impact’. There is no room to attach a separate business plan to your
proposal.
9) What does “EU added value” mean?
In the context of your proposal for the FTI Pilot, this means that the applicant will need to
make a link to any policy objectives of the EU, especially those relevant in the context of
Horizon 2020.
10) Are there guidelines describing the technological readiness of prototypes, in order to
help me to position my proposal?
Yes. Please see the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) sequencer in General Annex G of the
Work Programme. The FTI Pilot requires applicants to present innovation projects that have
reached TRL 6 as a minimum (or equivalent for non-technological innovations). As a rule of
thumb, this means that the proposed activities should take place in an operational or
production environment.
11) Can research and development activities be supported?
The proposed action should consist in innovation activities with a TRL of 6 or higher (or
equivalent for non-technological innovations), meaning that upon proposal submission the
innovation should be at TRL 6 or similar for non-technological innovations already; as the
Work Programme explains: the Pilot “targets relatively mature new technologies, concepts,
processes and business models that need a last development step to reach the market and
achieve wider deployment”. However, in exceptional circumstances and if duly justified,
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some parts of the activities conducted may include some more basic research and
development.
12) According to the Commission’s promotional leaflet on the FTI Pilot, also pre-normative
research activities are supported. What does this exactly entail?
Pre-normative research is research leading to the setting of certain standards in an industry.
This implies often advanced performance / durability testing. The term is quite commonly
used in the construction industry.
13) What commercial activities can be supported under the FTI Pilot?
The EU cannot distort the market, and cannot fund purely commercial activities supporting
marketing and sales related to the consortium's innovation.
The fine-tuning of a commercial strategy, in-depth market research and analysis and other
specific activities that are of a strategic nature (for instance refinement of a business model)
are activities that can be supported.
Please note that in the context of your proposal for receiving funding under the FTI Pilot, you
will already need to demonstrate that your innovation has what it takes to be “on the market”
in 36 months or less, meaning that strong foundations for commercialisation should be in
place, and should be detailed in the proposal.
14) Can I submit a pre-proposal for a check?
No. Please contact a National Contact Point for any questions about the possible suitability of
your proposal for the FTI call.
15) If I submit a proposal in say April 2015, and it is rejected after the first cut-off date, can
I resubmit it in September 2015?
If your proposal is rejected, we strongly recommend improving the proposed business case
before resubmitting, and to take into consideration the relative scarcity of funding for this
pilot scheme. You should consult a National Contact Point before any re-submission.
16) When should I submit my proposal?
The FTI Pilot call is permanently open, with three cut-off dates planned per year. You can
submit at any time from 6 January 2015.
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C. EVALUATION AND RANKING OF YOUR PROPOSAL
1) Our concept would be of great interest to our market competitors. How are you
ensuring confidentiality during the evaluation process?
Expert evaluators, Agency and European Commission staff are bound by an obligation to
keep confidentiality and will incur serious sanctions in case of violations. European
Commission and Agency services verify that no conflicts of interest could occur before a
proposal is allocated to experts for evaluation.
2) How do the evaluation criteria reflect market ambitions and innovativeness?
The main evaluation criterion is 'impact'. Mainly, but not exclusively, it covers the
commercial prospects (understanding of the market, commercial strategy, etc.) and the
prospective economic impact of the proposed innovation. The 'excellence' criterion focuses on
the quality and the breakthrough nature/ambition of the innovation.
3) Will “Impact” have a higher weighting for the ranking process than the other main
evaluation criteria, “Excellence” and “Quality and Efficiency of the Implementation”?
Yes, in line with Article 54 of the Horizon 2020 Regulation establishing the rules for
participation and dissemination, “proposals shall be ranked according to the impact, quality
and efficiency of implementation and excellence, with the criterion of impact given a higher
weighting”.
4) Will my proposal be considered more favourably if an industrial SME leads the
consortium?
The FTI Pilot is not a specific SME-support measure. It has been created mainly to allow
private-for-profit entities (including SMEs) to finalise high-potential innovation and proceed
to market deployment. Who the lead partner should be depends on the nature of the action
proposed; what matters is that the action proposed will generate a series of expected positive
impacts that are listed in the Work Programme. Please note however that during the ranking
process, in case of absolute ties in scoring between two or more proposals, the size of the
budget allocated to SMEs can be a tie-breaker.
5) During the ranking process, the number of first-time industry applicants can be a tiebreaker in case two or more proposals have a completely equal score. As a first-time
industry applicant is defined in the Work Programme as a “legal entity that is a private,
for-profit organisation that has obtained a PIC (Participant Identification Code) for the
first time (…) during the preparation of the proposal”, is it in my interest to request a
different PIC for different FTI Pilot proposals that my organisation wants to participate
in?
No. Cross-checks will be performed on PICs that participated in proposals (submission), for
tie-breaking purposes during the ranking process. If an organisation with an existing PIC
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creates a new PIC specifically for the purpose of participating in the FTI Pilot call, and during
the cross-check this is detected, this will negatively weigh on ranking of the proposal in
question.
6) How will private investment be measured in the evaluation procedure? Is it favourable
to make investors part of a consortium, or should there rather be defined contacts?
Private investment as such will not be evaluated. As for the participation of investors in a
consortium, there are no restrictions on the legal entities that can apply. It should be envisaged
however that a consortium cannot consist of more than 5 different legal entities of at least
three different EU Member-States or countries associated to Horizon 2020, and that industry
participation in the consortium is mandatory.
It should be considered that the FTI Pilot has been designed to support innovation activities,
and not financiers as such; any partner in a consortium seeking FTI Pilot support therefore
should contribute to actually delivering the innovation with more than just money alone.
Defined contacts with investors are welcome, and can be described at proposal stage.
7) How will evaluators measure whether or not the output of an action can be “on the
market” in 36 months or less, from the moment of the start of the action funded under
the FTI Pilot?
This assessment from the part of the evaluators will happen on the basis of the “business
plan” that underpins the proposal; the latter should indicate and document in concrete and
credible terms how the solution/innovation developed by the consortium stands very real
chances to be taken up by the market within a short timeframe. Not only the process to
achieve go-to-market should be described, also the position of the solution on the market in
respect to competing solutions, and the size and nature of the market should be detailed as
part of the proposal, in addition to other factors (please refer in particular to the section on
“Impact” in the proposal template).
8) What type of feedback can I expect from evaluation?
Other than the overall score for your proposal, you will receive information about your
performance for each of the three main evaluation criteria (Impact, Excellence and Quality &
Efficiency of the Implementation), and for the different sub-criteria. This will allow you to
understand what the main weaknesses of your proposals are (if any).
9) Will proposals be evaluated immediately upon arrival?
Proposal evaluation immediately upon arrival will not be possible, for the reason of absolute
preservation of confidentiality of proposal substance before respective cut-off dates. Still
early submission is encouraged, as this can lead to faster processing of the evaluation of the
proposals beyond the cut-off date; it will also allow to avoid any potential IT problems linked
to last moment submissions.
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10) How long will I have to wait before getting feedback about my proposal?
Typically, it will take European Commission services at most three months after the cut-off
date to come to a conclusion of the evaluation of all FTI Pilot proposals submitted before that
given cut-off date. As an example, if you have submitted a proposal before the first cut-off
date of the FTI Pilot, which is 29 April, 2015, you can expect the results from the evaluation
at the latest at 29 July 2015.
11) Who is responsible for the ranking of the proposals and how is it managed?
The ranking process as such is managed by the Executive Agency of Small and Medium-sized
Enterprises (EASME). It will be based on the aggregation of the Individual Evaluation
Reports, drafted by the four independent evaluators. A new ranking list will be made and
published after the evaluation of all proposals that were submitted ahead of a particular cutoff date.
12) What are the cut-off dates for the FTI Pilot?
For 2015, these are 29 April, 1 September and 1 December.
D.
FUNDING AND FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATION
1) What is the usual duration of the validation of company data via the beneficiary register
of the Participant Portal?
Validation is expected not to take more than some weeks, depending also on the speed with
which the entity that has requested validation submits the necessary documents to the Agency
(REA) performing participant validation. The fact that your documents could have been
already uploaded will definitely help to speed up the whole process.
2) What financial validation is required in order for my proposal to be funded?
In line with the specifications in the Horizon 2020 online manual published on the Participant
Portal, as a general rule only coordinators in projects requesting EU funding of €500 000 or
more will be subject to a financial viability check. Concretely, they need to be able to prove
that they have the resources to implement the project.
In specific cases the Commission may analyse the financial viability of other participants.
3) So financial viability checks will not be conducted for all partners in a consortium?
Correct.
4) I have doubts about my organisation’s financial viability. What should I do?
If you want your organisation to coordinate an FTI project but have doubts about its financial
viability, please use the financial self-check tool.
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5)
With regards to the financial viability check, are the equity flags (solvency) the
decisive factor for measuring the financial capacity of a legal entity and therefore assesses
if the entity has sufficient financial resources in place for taking the role as a coordinator?
What about the other profit ratios such as the Quick ratio, G.O. Profit ratio etc.? Article 8
in the Grant agreement states the following: “The beneficiaries must have the appropriate
resources to implement the action”. Is the financial viability check the measuring ground?
The results of the financial viability check are indeed part of the overall financial capacity
assessment that is to be performed by the operational unit responsible for the call/project. You
can find all information about the financial viability check in chapter III.4.3 of the "Guide on
beneficiary registration, validation and financial viability check", laid down in the Online
Manual
available
on
the
Participant
Portal:
http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/grants_manual/lev/h2020-guidelev_en.pdf.
The equity flag, applicable for FP7 (and decisive for Coordinators if its result was "Weak"), is
not applicable anymore under H2020.
Please consult the Guide for Grant Agreement Preparation on the Participant Portal for further
information on financial capacity assessment (in particular page 6).
6)
Where should additional funding come from for covering the 30% gap in funding of
eligible costs of private-for-profit legal entities / industry participants?
It must come from these participants themselves, and can originate from a variety of sources:
e.g. own resources, private investment, funding received from other (non EU) sources, etc.
Please note that double EU funding for the same action is prohibited, unless Article 37 of the
Horizon 2020 rules for participation (on cumulative funding) is applicable.
7) To what extent is sub-contracting allowed?
Actions funded under the FTI pilot do not differ from standard innovation actions funded
under Horizon 2020. This implies that sub-contracting is possible, but must be justified. Work
can be subcontracted to operators in line with the 'best-value-for-money'-principle and
provided there are no conflicts of interest2.
Please note that for significant levels of subcontracting, the motivation or the capacity of
applicants to carry out actions could be subject to doubt and would have to be very well
justified.
8) Are the costs of consultants considered as eligible costs?
2
See the rules for subcontracting outlined in chapter 4, section 1 of the annotated multi-beneficiary model grant
agreement, page 111 and following.
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If you need help to, for example, analyse an IPR issue or assess the possibility to enter a
specific foreign market with your product, service or process, the FTI grant can be used to
hire expert advice to do so, and the costs will be considered as eligible costs.
9) Is there a minimum budget to apply for the funding of an action under the FTI pilot?
No.
The Work Programme indicates that the “indicative EU contribution per project is expected to
be between EUR 1 million and EUR 2 million”. This does not preclude the submission and
selection of proposals requesting other amounts, up to a ceiling of EUR 3 million.
10) Is there a maximum EU contribution that one can apply for in the context of an action
under the FTI Pilot? How is this contribution divided between non-profit public partners
and for-profit private partners within the consortium?
Yes. The EU contribution to the project is capped at EUR 3 million.
The actual allocation of the funds is done by the action coordinator, in line with the budget
specifications that were submitted at proposal level.
NB: For public non-profit entities, the EU can reimburse up to 100% of the costs that are
eligible. For private-for-profit entities, the reimbursement ceiling has been fixed at 70% of the
costs that are eligible under the project.
If you represent a private-for-profit entity, you will in other terms always need to make sure
that your entity manages to secure 30% of the financing of its role in the project from other
sources than the EU.
11)
We are looking to obtain EU funding for a EUR 5 million project, and are
wondering if we could try to obtain part of it via the FTI Pilot?
Art. 37 of the RfP states that “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. “ However it should be
clear that funding from two different EU sources is very difficult and subject to many
conditions. Therefore, usually anything above EUR 3 million in funding will necessarily need
to come from another source than the EU.
12) Is it possible to acquire funding from FTI and from other institutions simultaneously
(for different actions within the project)?
Double funding for the same cost items is not allowed. However, it is indeed possible to
receive funding from third parties (“receipts of the action”), provided the cumulative funding
received from the EU and other third parties is equal or less than the total eligible costs of the
project. For more information on receipts please see the Annotated Grant Agreement. In
addition, please do not forget that you will have to demonstrate that your solution is ready to
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hit the market in less than 36 months' of time in the context of your proposal for FTI Pilot call
funding.
13)
How many actions or projects will actually be supported under the Fast Track to
Innovation Pilot in 2015? Are there any working premises?
Based on the fact that the budget for the FTI Pilot amounts to EUR 100 million, and that the
expectation is that average EU contribution to a project/action will amount to EUR 1 to 2
million, the expectation is that following the three cut-off dates in 2015, in between 50 and 70
projects/actions will be selected for funding. This means roughly 20 per cut-off date.
The battle for FTI Pilot funding will be extremely competitive, and consortia that have the
opportunity to submit their proposal in response to a topical call are strongly encouraged to do
so, as their chance to obtain funding may be higher in that way.
14) Will there be any selection of proposals in function of challenges under Horizon 2020?
Proposals will need to have an association with any of the societal challenges and or industrial
and enabling priorities targeted under Horizon 2020. Independently from that, proposals are
fully bottom-up and the budget for the FTI Pilot is managed as one single budget, meaning
that selection of proposals will happen purely on the basis of the outcome of the evaluation
process.
15)
What pre-financing is actually possible?
This is determined on a case-by-case basis, pending availability of payment credits. The level
can never exceed 90% of the total grant.
16)
Is there any specific requirement for splitting the grant among the consortium
partners?
In principle, each partner of the consortium requests an estimated contribution from the EU to
finance certain innovation activities in the framework of the action. However, it should be
clear that the grant is for the action and awarded at the level of the consortium, on an account
number provided by the coordinator. It is up to the coordinator to see that the individual
members of the consortium receive their due, in line with the requested contribution and on
the basis of costs that are actually eligible under the action3.
Under than that, if the consortium consists of 3 or 4 partners, and has less than two “industry”
partners, or if the consortium consists of 5 partners and has less than three “industry” partners,
it needs to be ensured that at least 60 % of the total budget of the proposal (i.e. total estimated
eligible costs) will be awarded to the industry partners that are there.
3
For full details on the role of the coordinator during the action, please review the General Grant Agreement
article 41.2 (p. 500).
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17) Is a bank guarantee required?
No.
18) Are different funding models possible for different partners or tasks?
The funding model is the same as for all innovation actions; this means that for-profit entities
can have their eligible costs covered by an EU grant up to 70% of the total amount, while for
non-profit entities this can go up to 100%.
19) How do I declare the costs of my action?
The general Horizon 2020 financial rules apply. More details are in the Horizon 2020 funding
guide on the Participant Portal, in particular in the relevant section on Grant Management.
20) What are eligible direct costs (partly) covered by FTI Pilot funding?
These are direct costs related to the implementation of the project, such as personnel costs,
travel, equipment, infrastructure, goods and services. Please refer to article 6 of the (monobeneficiary or multi-beneficiary) model grant agreement for full details.
In general, costs are eligible if they correspond to the tasks agreed upon in the grant
agreement. Costs are ineligible if this is not the case or if they are reimbursed under another
funding scheme.
21)
Can we spend the money for the FTI Pilot action before the signing of grant
agreement, after having received the news that the evaluation of our proposal was positive?
There is no legal basis for you to start spending money before the grant agreement is signed.
In principle, grants will be concluded 3 months at most after evaluation. Until the time that
the grant is actually signed, you do not have certainty to get the funding.
22) Are marketing and sales costs considered as eligible direct costs?
If communication and interaction activities with potential investors or customers, or
dissemination of milestone achievements during the project (under a work-package
'communication and dissemination activities') are necessary to implement the project, then
those costs are eligible.
23) Activities or products purely intended to support commercial purposes do not qualify as
eligible costs.What about periodic reporting?
The number of reporting periods will depend on the duration of the action. In general, actions
lasting up to 18 months will only have to deliver one report.
24) Will there be sanctions if an innovation is not “on the market” in 36 months’ of time?
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Although this will be regarded as a failure, no specific sanction will be applied to the
consortium responsible for the development of the innovation.
E. OTHER FORMS OF SUPPORT
1) What are the differences between the Fast Track to Innovation Pilot and the SME
Instrument under Horizon 2020?
Although both the FTI Pilot and the SME Instrument offer close-to-market support to speed
up market delivery of innovation resulting from actions framed within either the Horizon
2020 pillar “Societal Challenges” and/or the specific objective “Leadership in Enabling and
Industrial Technologies (LEITs)” and aim to keep time-to-grant short (six months for both
SME instrument phase 2 and FTI pilot; three months for SME instrument phase 1), the FTI
Pilot differs from the SME instrument in a number of important ways.
Unlike the SME Instrument, the FTI Pilot does not target exclusively or very specifically
SMEs; nor does it allow single applicants to submit proposals. It addresses itself to
consortiums of limited size (min. 3, max. 5 partners) which foresee an important role for
industry (i.e. private-for-profit entities, including SMEs) in their proposed innovation actions,
with as goal the delivery of an innovation onto the market within a period of 36 months after
the start of any given action funded under the pilot.
The FTI Pilot is a one-stage scheme for helping industry-driven consortiums to mature and
deliver advanced innovation concepts onto the market and into society via a grant, while the
SME Instrument aims to provide seamless business innovation support to SMEs from the
stage of studying the commercial and technical viability of a well-developed idea to its launch
onto the market (which is not fixed into time), through grants and other types of support. As
an example of the latter, the SME instrument has been designed to equip funded SMEs with
skills to become sustainable innovators, via business coaching support.
Though both schemes are based on a bottom-up approach, only the FTI pilot scheme is fully
bottom-up, meaning that it does not support specific topics and that applicants themselves can
set the topic within the “Societal Challenges” and the “LEITs”.
The calls for both the SME Instrument and the FTI Pilot are permanently open, meaning that
applicants can submit their proposal at a time of their choice. For Fast Track to Innovation
pilot support, applicants can submit their proposal during the course of the next two years
(pending adoption of the Work Programme 2016-2017), while for SME Instrument support
applicants are able to submit proposals over the duration of Horizon 2020.
2) What are the differences between the Fast Track to Innovation Pilot and other
innovation actions?
While actions under the Fast Track to Innovation Pilot are also innovation actions, they must
give a prominent role to industry (private-for-profit entities), more emphasis to impact and
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have a shorter time-to-grant (6 months instead of 8 months) compared to other innovation
actions.
Proposals follow the logic of a business plan; more than anything, the final objective is
successful commercialisation of the proposed innovation, which means that marketing and
sales strategies are well defined.
Applicants under the FTI Pilot all need to be legally established in the EU-28 or in countries
associated to Horizon 2020, which is not the case for standard innovation actions. A
consortium applying for FTI Pilot support can have a maximum of five entities, while for
regular innovation actions the maximum number of entities in a consortium can be a lot
higher.
Funding under the FTI Pilot is capped to EUR 3 million (maximum EU contribution in the
form of a grant), while for regular innovation actions, there is no such uniform, specific limit.
3) What about “good ideas” that are not selected under the FTI Pilot?
Applicants whose proposal for the FTI pilot call is not evaluated in a way that allows them to
obtain funding are advised to reconsider whether the FTI pilot is the most suitable opportunity
for them at large, be it at the EU level, or at other levels (national, regional, local).
Considering the relatively modest levels of funding available under the Fast Track to
Innovation Pilot, applicants must realise that their chances for funding under the pilot are
equally modest, and that if there is a chance to obtain funding under another call or scheme, it
may be better to go for the latter for the moment, certainly during the pilot phase of the Fast
Track to Innovation.
At the EU level, applicants are recommended to consult relevant National Contact Points
(NCPs), and/or to inquire about other services at the EU level for supporting innovation
projects, offered by the Enterprise Europe Network.
Funding programmes administered by national funding bodies may be receptive to consider
funding a proposal that was positively evaluated at EU level, but did not meet a score to
effectively allow funding from the EU.
F. FOR CANDIDATE EVALUATORS
1) Is it possible to apply to be evaluator for the FTI Pilot even though my company is part
of a consortium that has submitted a proposal under the Pilot?
No, as this would give rise to a conflict of interest. Evaluators under Horizon 2020 can never
evaluate their own proposals or any proposals competing with them.
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2) Where and when should I apply if I want to evaluate projects supported by the FTI
Pilot?
You must register as an expert via the Participant Portal.
3) Are there any guidelines or training for evaluators, particularly on the type of entities
this scheme actually targets?
Evaluator training materials will be available in the first quarter of 2015.
4) What type of contract will be offered to expert evaluators?
Please refer to the appropriate section of the Funding Guide on the Participants Portal for
more information.
5) What is the level of remuneration offered to experts per day of work?
EUR 450 per full day of work.
6) How many evaluators are there per proposal?
Four.
7) What will their profiles be?
The panel of four evaluators consists of experts with both commercial and financial
backgrounds, and technical backgrounds. All will have experience with what needs to be in
place for an innovation to be successfully launched onto the market.
8) How will evaluators be matched to proposals submitted under the FTI Pilot?
This process will be conducted by an Executive Agency (EASME). Part of the answer is that
applicants will be asked to determine the societal challenge or the enabling or industrial
technology with which they can associate their proposal the most, via filling out a fixed
keyword box at the level of the proposal template. "Key-wording" will help picking the right
type of evaluators for your proposal.
G. MORE INFORMATION
1) Where can I find additional information and guidelines related to the Fast Track to
Innovation Pilot?
To see the basic features of the Fast Track to Innovation (FTI) Pilot, please refer to the
dedicated page on the Horizon 2020 information portal. For more extensive guidelines and
policy background, please refer to the online video of the FTI Pilot launch event on January 9,
2015, and the accompanying presentation.
If you do not know where to start, please consult your National Contact Point (NCPs), in the
first place those NCPs dealing with SMEs and Access to Risk Finance.
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If you are looking to apply, please visit the FTI pilot call page via the Participant Portal.
To know what information you need to provide to be selected and funded for an FTI Pilot
action, please review the proposal template available on the Participant Portal.
2) Is the European Commission organising any information days on the Fast Track to
Innovation Pilot?
Besides the kick-off information event in Brussels on 9 January 2015 (video available here),
the Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME) may organise some
events during the course of 2015. Please keep an eye on the EASME website. Also other
Commission services may organise events to promote the FTI Pilot. Please keep an eye on the
newsroom of the Horizon 2020 information portal.
3) Is there any specific helpdesk to which I can turn to for questions on implementation of
this Pilot?
You can send any questions that have not been answered yet by filling out the form available
at http://ec.europa.eu/research/enquiries.
The agency dealing with implementation of the pilot is the EASME; if you have a question
about your application, you can contact EASME at the following address: EASME-FTIHELPDESK@ec.europa.eu.
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