Partnership
Healthy
Lifestyle
Solutions
Guidelines
miniCall-for-proposals on Ethics and e-coaching
Start date: April 29, 2013
Version: April 2013
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Contents
Contents ........................................................................................................................................ 2
Background ................................................................................................................................... 3
Ethics and e-coaching ................................................................................................................... 4
Roadmap automated coaching ........................................................................................................ 4
Research questions on ethics and e-coaching................................................................................. 5
Budget............................................................................................................................................. 5
Who can apply? .............................................................................................................................. 5
Proposals and selection .................................................................................................................. 6
Funding ........................................................................................................................................... 6
How to submit? ............................................................................................................................... 7
Tentative timetable STW-NIHC-Philips partnership proposals ......................................................... 7
Programme Committee ................................................................................................................... 7
Annex 1. Format of the proposal ................................................................................................... 8
Administrative data .......................................................................................................................... 8
Project description ........................................................................................................................... 8
Annex 2. The special partnership conditions ............................................................................... 11
Annex 3. Assessment and selection criteria of proposals ............................................................ 14
Annex 4. Assessment and selection procedure ........................................................................... 15
Annex 5. Utilisation ...................................................................................................................... 16
Annex 6. Procedure after granting ............................................................................................... 17
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Background
The Dutch Technology Foundation (STW) initiated the STW Partnership Programmes
to foster effective cooperation between academia and industries. This particular
programme on the topic Healthy Lifestyle Solutions (HLS) is an initiative of STW, the
National Initiative Brain and Cognition (NIBC), and Philips Research. The programme
investigates solutions for computer-supported coaching (e-coaching) for promotion of a
healthy lifestyle. We invite academic scientists to submit proposals for a research
projects that focus on the ethical aspects of e-coaching solutions that are critical for
acceptance of lifestyle e-coaching solutions at both personal and societal level.
The NIBC brings together scientific and societal partners to address questions relating
to brain, cognition and behaviour. NIBC wishes to support scientific challenges with a
potential to translate into solutions for society. Cognitive behavioural & technological
research in the area of lifestyle management provides such a perspective.
Philips is a diversified health and well-being company, focused on improving people’s
lives through timely innovations. Philips Research is the main source of innovation
empowering Philips’ business successes. One of the identified growth areas is Lifestyle
Management, which is part of the Healthy Life innovation theme of the Consumer
Lifestyle sector of Philips. The Healthy Lifestyle Solutions programme supports
innovation in this Lifestyle Management growth area.
The aim of the HLS programme is to develop know-how and solutions for empowering
people to adopt a lifestyle that promotes good health. The vision of the programme
partners is to make healthy lifestyle coaching available to far more people in an
affordable way. The target population is people at an early stage: people at risk of
developing chronic medical conditions, together with people that have the aspiration to
live a healthy life and would like to be supported in this. The programme’s approach is
computer-supported lifestyle coaching (e-coaching): to significantly enhance the reach
of human coaches by having a high level of automation, if not fully automated lifestyle
coaching. The programme focuses on the following lifestyle aspects: sleeping well,
stress and relaxation, healthy food consumption and sufficient physical activity.
Currently the program comprises five research projects. An overview of these projects
can be found at https://www.hersenenencognitie.nl/contents/1359. The current call will
extend the program with a project that addresses ethical issues in close interaction with
the five running HLS projects.
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Ethics and e-coaching
Coaching solutions collect a wealth of information about their coachees. In particular,
unobtrusive, longitudinal monitoring can give rise to all kinds of acceptance issues and
ethical concerns. Continuous monitoring can give rise to a feeling of ‘big brother is
watching you’ and, even unintentionally, intimate information may be acquired.
Therefore, long-term monitoring needs to be organised in such a way that it is
acceptable to the individual as well as to society at large. E-coaching solutions should
operate in a manner that is ethically responsible and acceptable for envisaged endusers.
Roadmap automated coaching
The figure (Kool et al. 20131 ) above indicates how we expect automation of the
coaching practice to happen. Starting from the traditional coaching practice
(scenario 1), we anticipate three main trends (Kool et al. 20131):
a. The digitisation of the communication
The communication between coach and coachee is more and more taking
place via digital media (scenario 2).
1
Kool, L., Timmer, J., Est, R. van (2013) Keuzes voor de e-coach: Maatschappelijke vragen bij de
automatisering van de coachingspraktijk. Voorstudie. Rathenau Instituut.
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b. The digitisation of the coach
Computer systems analyse coachees and their situation. The feedback
provided by the coach is more and more automated. This is scenario 3.
c. The digitisation of the coachee
The collection of information about the coachee is automated. The coachee’s
‘state’, including attitudes, cognitions, behaviour, physiology and environment,
is more and more automatically captured (scenario 4).
Scenario 5 envisions an integration of these trends into a fully autonomous e-coaching
process where the role of the human coach has changed to a supervisory role upon the
automated coaching process.
Research questions on ethics and e-coaching
The research questions focus on three aspects of coaching: privacy, safety and division
of responsibility, in particular between (e-)coach and (e-)coachee. Within this context,
the call solicits research proposals that answer the following questions:
1.
Current practice
Assessment of current practice in human coaching regarding privacy, safety
and division of responsibility. What is current practice in human
(cognitive/behavioural) lifestyle coaching regarding privacy and information
security, safety of human coaching and distribution of responsibility between
coach, coachee and possible other stakeholders?
2.
Anticipated change
Along the lines of the scenario framework, how have norms and expectations
regarding privacy, safety and division of responsibility changed, and how will
they change, at the level of the individual as well as at societal level with the
introduction of e-coaching?
3.
New practice
What are the anticipated requirements that the e-coaching practice will have to
comply with in order to be (ethically) acceptable to the individual and to society
as a whole?
As an outcome of the project, we anticipate a set of explicit and specific
recommendations for implementation of e-coaching solutions in marketable products,
which are grounded in solid qualitative and/or quantitative research.
Budget
A budget of this minicall is 139.000 euros and is available to answer the ethical
research questions within this HLS programme. We anticipate to fund one project. The
project should have a maximal duration of one year.
Within these constraints, various schemes are possible. For example, the budget could
suffice to fund two postdocs for one year or one postdoc and one associate professor.
Who can apply?
Scientists employed by Dutch universities or para-academic institutes eligible for STW
funding can submit a proposal (see OTP guidelines for eligibility criteria at
http://stw.nl/nl/content/guidelines-open-technology-programma).
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After publication of this call, we will invite scientists in our network whose scientific work
fits the goals of this call, to submit a proposal. This in no way affects the open character
of the call.
Proposals and selection
The proposals will be evaluated by the HLS programme committee. For the ethical part
of the programme, the programme committee will call upon an independent expert on
the topic. Proposals should be formatted according to the structure described in
Annex 1. The STW Board will decide also on behalf of NIBC on the funding of the
proposals.
Project proposals that meet the following fit-to-the-programme criteria are welcome and
should:
-
-
Address coaching in at least one to the lifestyle aspects: sleeping well, stress
and relaxation, healthy food consumption and physical activity;
Address all three research questions;
Have a final deliverable that has the shape of explicit and specific
recommendations for implementation of e-coaching solutions in marketable
products, which are grounded in solid qualitative and/or quantitative research.
Closely connect to and interact with the five existing Partnership projects.
Project proposals are encouraged to go beyond traditional, more qualitative fields of
research, and implement a (quantitative) empirical approach to questions of the
changing coaching practice and aspects of ethics and acceptability. Proposals may
therefore include focus groups, engaging multiple stakeholders, but also field studies,
observational, and questionnaire studies, as well as experimental manipulation (e.g.,
along the lines of ultimatum or trust games and the like).
Funding
Project grant will cover:
- personnel costs for temporary positions (associate professor, postdoc
positions, (assisted by PhD students , junior researchers or technicians);
- material costs (including national travel costs);
- international travel costs;
- costs for new equipment.
The institution(s) of the applicant(s) ensure(s) the required infrastructure, the
supervision and fitting into the research programme of the research institute. STW may
verify this with the dean or the executive board of the institute. The institution must
agree in writing to the special Philips partnership conditions (Annex 2).
The expertise required for the research must be available at the requesting institute(s),
so that external consultants will not be necessary for the research.
For reimbursable projects costs, OTP guidelines apply. See “Guidelines for funding
proposals under the Open Technology Programme (OTP)"
http://stw.nl/nl/content/guidelines-open-technology-programma) or consult the STW
programme committee secretary.
The STW Board can decide not to spend the maximum available budget for this call.
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How to submit?
All proposals must be written in accordance with the formal guidelines. STW should
receive your proposal though NWO’s electronic submission system IRIS. Proposals
must contain a detailed description of the expected results, planning of the research
and a paragraph on how the project expects to connect to and interact with the current
five HLS projects. Please consult Annex 1 for the format of the grant application.
The scientific quality and the fit within the programme of the proposals will first be
evaluated by a panel of experts in a peer review process. The grades given by these
peer reviewers for the scientific quality and the fit into the program carry equal weight.
Subsequently, the programme committee (PC) will rank the full proposals. The STW
Board will base its decision on this ranking. Details can be found in Annexes 3 and 4.
Tentative timetable STW-NIHC-Philips partnership proposals
Call for proposals open
Monday April 29, 2013
Deadline proposals
Thursday May 28, 2013, 11:59am
Peer review by expert panel
June 2013
Protocol sent to applicants
Monday June 24, 2013
Deadline comments applicant on protocol
Monday July 1, 2013
Advice Programme Committee to STW Board
Friday 19 July 2013
Decision by STW Board on funding
Friday 30 August 2013
Notification to applicants
From 2 September 2013
Programme Committee
The Programme Committee has been appointed by the STW Board. The committee
consists of three industrial members from Philips and three independent, foreign expert,
academic members. For the ethical part of the programme, the programme committee
will call upon an independent expert on the topic. Scientific quality and fit into the
programme will carry equal weighting in the committee's evaluation of the proposals.
STW programme committee secretary:
Dr. Wouter Segeth
Van Vollenhovenlaan 661
NL-3527 JP Utrecht
Phone: +31 30 600 1274
E-mail: w.segeth@stw.nl
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Annex 1. Format of the proposal
Deadline proposals Thuesday, May 28, 2013, 11:59 hrs (a.m.)
STW should receive your proposal through NWO’s electronic submission system IRIS
(https://iris.stw.nl/iris) as a PDF file.
On the front page state ‘Partnership Philips’ in the upper left corner plus STW file
number (if any).
The maximum length is approximately 10 (ten) pages of A4, with minimum font size of
10 points Arial or similar.
The proposal must be written in English.
For more information about the programme scope and content or the cooperation with
other organisations, please contact Philips Research, in casu Reinder Haakma at
reinder.haakma@philips.com.
Administrative data
On maximally half a page you should provide:
Title. The title of the project has a maximum of 225 characters. For publicity purposes,
a short, non-technical title or acronym is required as well.
Name, address, phone number, fax number and e-mail address of the applicants and
possible co-applicants and the telephone number of the secretary.
Applications elsewhere. If support has been applied for elsewhere, you should give the
status of this application at the time of submission.
Indicate which of the four lifestyle aspect(s) will be addressed:
o ‘Sleeping well’,
o ‘Stress and relaxation’,
o ‘Healthy consumption’,
o ‘Sufficient physical activity’.
Please enter the following declaration with signature on this page: We, the applicants,
declare that we have taken notice of, and are in agreement with, the special partnership
conditions (see Annex 2)
STW sends the official correspondence to the main applicant. This is the first applicant
mentioned. STW assumes the main applicant will have the supervision on the project.
He or she becomes the project leader and bears the final responsibility for the
execution of the research and the utilisation plan.
Project description
1.
Research summary
Summarise in half a page the context, statement of the problem, research
method and expected results.
2.
Composition of the group
The current group
Describe in half a page the composition of the team (academic and/or
industrial) that will perform the research as well as the reason this team is fit for
this research. Indicate the supervisors of the project, the proposed staff, and
how the tasks will be allocated.
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Available infrastructure
This information includes available laboratory room and equipment.
Candidate researchers
If candidates for the proposed staff positions are already known then mention
them here. Provide a brief explanation of their suitability for the position taking
into account the special combination of ethics, societal aspects of technological
innovation, and health.
3.
Scientific description
In this section, of at most four pages, an expert in the field should find all the
information they need to assess the quality of the proposed research. Treat the
following subjects:
Content of the research
Provide the scientific objectives and the starting-points of the project. Describe
the methods and techniques you will apply, the knowledge to be developed,
and the instruments and models you will use.
Required personnel and equipment
Provide motivations for staff and equipment and other possible requirements
for the research.
Time schedule and allocation of tasks
Describe the proposed course of the research over the duration of the project
and how the different parts must interact. Provide decision points (milestones)
and moments when research results are expected (deliverables). Furthermore,
you should indicate if and where you see a role for Philips in the work plan. You
need to describe the research activities as a function of time and visualise this
by means of a Gantt chart.
4.
Fit within the research topics of the programme
Explicitly describe in half a page how the proposal fits in the programme and its
research topics. The topics of interest are described in the Philips programme
plan. The programme committee will use this section in particular to assess the
fit in the programme. Generally, the more lifestyle aspects the proposal covers
in the way the program describes, the better the project may fit into the
programme. Fit into the programme is further strengthened by coverage of the
points of encouragement.
Connections with other research
Mention similar research (if applicable) being performed elsewhere, either in
the Netherlands or in the rest of the world. Describe the relation with your own
research and the contacts with these groups (or the plans to establish them).
5.
Utilisation plan
The utilisation plan, of at most one page, must be clear to those with general
knowledge of the application domain. Indicate the industrial relevance of the
proposed research and the impulse this research gives towards application.
Indicate which steps you will take to implement the research results in practice.
6.
Connection to HLS programme and running projects
Explicitly describe in half a page how your project will connect to and interact
with the five running HLS projects. Moreover, describe the ambitions you have
in cooperating with Philips. Describe how the researchers will interact with
those present at Philips and, if applicable, how you foresee traineeships of
researchers at Philips premises taking place.
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7.
Contracts and patents
If there are any contracts relevant to the proposed research project, these
should be mentioned here in half a page. Mention any ties to competitor
companies of Philips. Indicate if you have patents or running patent
applications in the field of the research. State clearly that there is complete
freedom to operate and that the project is not infringing or developing upon
rights or patent claims that are owned by other parties than the applicants. This
section should be no more than half a page.
8.
Budget
Present a budget table overview per project year and add specifications per
cost category. All amounts are exclusive of Dutch VAT (BTW). The length of
this section is at most one page.
Personnel
You can apply for (temporary) staff: associate professors, postdocs (eventually
assisted by PhD students, junior researchers or technicians). Staff are
appointed by the applicant institution. The actual appointment is subject to prior
written permission of STW. STW may withdraw a grant if vacancies are not
filled within a year after granting. The salary rates for staff can be found at
http://www.stw.nl/en/project-leader.
Materials
The costs of office and laboratory goods, small instruments and appliances
must be specified here. National travel expenses of the project are also part of
this budget including all costs related to travel and possible subsistence for
traineeships at Philips premises. Standard personal computers for data and
text editing will not be funded by STW.
Foreign travel expenses
These are costs for foreign travel and subsistence for congress or short
working visits abroad for the project.
Investments
These are costs for necessary equipment and other investments for the project.
Give specifications of the equipment and a cost breakdown if applicable.
Indicate availability of such equipment at other universities and institutes and
evaluate alternatives before requesting new equipment.
Overview of the total project costs
Present a table with the planning of the staff appointments and the budgets per
project year. Use the above mentioned cost categories. In addition a special
dedicated excel file should be included (“FP-formulier Partnership Philips”) and
can be downloaded from the STW website.
9.
Literature
In a maximum of two pages list all relevant and publicly available publications
of the participating parties of the proposal, as well as relevant publications of
others.
Appendix: Potential referees.
(not to be included in the proposal; please submit on separate page)
List four nationally or internationally renowned university expert referees in the
field of the project that could potentially review your proposal. The referees
should be able to review the proposal objectively and should therefore not have
participated as co-author in publications of the applicants.
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Annex 2. The special partnership conditions
This is a summary of the Agreement for Partnership Program between Philips and
STW.
STW acts on its own behalf and that of the Participants (universities or other research
organisations) of granted Partnerships Program Projects. The entire agreement can be
made available by STW to Participants of granted Partnerships Program Projects on a
need-to-know basis and under similar confidentiality obligations as set forth in the
Agreement. Disclaimer: This summary has been made with the utmost care. In cases
where it deviates from clauses of the entire agreement, the clauses of the entire
agreement prevail over the summary.
STW-Philips contract
conditions
Call for Proposals and
Grants
Execution of Projects
Reporting
User Committee
Reporting third party
rights
Supervision PhD
student
Management of the
Program
Tasks of PC
Decision taking
Description
STW shall issue calls for proposals according to the procedure described in
this Annex 2. The decision to award a grant for a Project shall be taken by the
STW Board. The Parties shall establish a PC consisting of six persons. The PC
shall advice the STW Board about which Proposals should be awarded funding
based on the criteria and rules described in this Annex 2 subannex 5.
Projects are executed by the Participants according to the (i) applicable
Proposal approved by Parties and (ii) the administrative funding conditions of
STW.
STW/Participants submit a progress report to PHILIPS –which shall contain
the Results reached – every six months. In addition, the researchers and
representatives of PHILIPS may contact each other regularly about the
progress of a Project and the Results.
Upon prior written approval from Philips, third parties may become member
of a User Committee.
STW, also on behalf of Participants, represents and guarantees that they
forthwith inform Philips of any third party right that appears to be relevant for
commercial use of the Results.
PHILIPS can, insofar as it is part of the Proposal and as agreed with STW and
the Participant concerned, supervise the PhD student at Philips’ premises.
The PC consists of six persons (3 Philips, 3 appointed by STW). Philips shall
appoint one of its representatives as the chairman. STW shall appoint a
secretary who shall not have voting rights but be responsible for
administrative management.
The PC shall advise on the overall direction (including content) of the
Program, assess and judge Proposals that are submitted to STW for the
Program, and recommend Proposals to the STW Board for the awarding of a
grant. The STW PC members shall advise STW on matters such as Program
progress monitoring, safeguarding the scientific quality of the Program, and
stimulation and exploitation of cohesion promoting actions between Projects.
Philips’ PC members shall monitor and safeguard the utilisation perspective of
the Program and its cohesion between Projects.
All decisions of the PC shall be taken by simple majority, except for the
decisions to formulate a recommendation to the STW Board to terminate a
project which will be taken unanimously. The PC will only advise to STW
Board to terminate a Project, if the reasons such a termination are based
upon cannot be remedied in a reasonable manner. The parties shall undertake
reasonable efforts to reach an agreement on the adaptation of a Project in
order to remedy the issues upon which the STW Board has based its the
decision to terminate the Project.
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Background
Intellectual Property
Rights
Joint IPR
Non-exclusive rights
Option exclusive
rights
License/Transfer
conditions
Patents
Court Proceedings
Confidentiality
Publication
Background remains vested in the party bringing in such Background.
Results that are generated separately and solely shall be owned by the Party
that generates the Results subject to the following: If Results are generated
by a Participant, they shall be jointly owned by the Participant and STW.
Joint IPR shall be jointly owned by the Participant, Philips and STW. All costs
related to the application and maintenance of joint IPR will be shared equally.
Each joint owner has non-exclusive rights to use the joint invention for any
purpose. A joint owner can provide non-exclusive licences under Joint IPR
without the right to grant sublicenses. Revenues from such licences will be
shared between Philips and STW/Participants. Philips has an option to require
exclusive rights on Joint IPR against market conditions.
Each party (including Affiliates of Philips) has free non-exclusive rights to use
all Results of a Project for all purposes. This right does not include the right to
sublicenses.
Philips has an option to acquire exclusive rights. After written notification by
Philips of the effectuation of its option, parties will reach an agreement within
6 months that also includes a remuneration based on market conform
conditions. The determination of such conditions takes into account the
financial contribution of Philips, the remaining development and
commercialisation effort, the comparative advantage of exclusive rights, and
the costs of the IPR. STW and Participants retain a royalty fee right for
internal research and education purposes. To the extent that such rights can
be granted, Philips and its affiliates can acquire rights under Background
under RAND conditions if such is necessary for exploitation of the acquired
exclusive rights.
Philips can file a patent application to a particular result at its own risk and
expense provided that a transfer agreement will be signed within 6 months
after filing and that this application is in accordance with the conditions stated
above. In the event that Philips does not want to file a patent, STW and
Participants can do so. STW and Participants are entitled to licence or transfer
IPR to third parties subject to the fact that Philips and its Affiliates shall retain
its non-exclusive rights.
Each Party will each be solely responsible for prosecution of their IPR, to bring
an action against (a) third party/parties for infringement of their IPR or to
defend their IPR against any invalidity or unenforceability claims. In no event
will any Party be obliged to pursue court proceedings in relation to IPR and/or
Results generated under this Agreement.
The receiver of Confidential Information (research results and proprietary
information) that is marked as confidential, and if disclosed orally confirmed
in writing within 30 days, shall not use the information for any other purpose
than in accordance with this Agreement and shall keep it confidential for 5
years longer than the duration of the Project in connection with which the
Confidential Information was disclosed. Confidential information published in
conformance with this Agreement (e.g. in a patent application) that was
already in the public domain, lawfully obtained, was developed by Receiver
independently or information disclosed to comply with court orders is
excluded from confidentiality obligation.
Two months prior to publication, STW/Participant shall send the manuscript to
Philips. Within these 2 months Philips can inform STW it wants to file a patent
application. In that case publication can be delayed by 4 months. In the event
that the publication contains Confidential Information from Philips, this
information shall be removed at Philips’ request. Participants may ask the
Philips PC Chairman to speed up the review of the proposed publication, if
they have good reason for this request.
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Funding
Liability and
Warranties
Performance project
Liability contract
provisions
Software
Termination
Power of Attorney
Each party contributes 1.5 million euros to the funding of projects under the
Program
As for provision of information or material: No warranty is given of sufficiency
of fitness of or purpose of non-infringement
Subject to the warranties provided for by STW or Participants, each party is
solely liable for loss, damages or injury from the use of – or allows to use the Results and IPR .
Unless caused by gross negligence or wilful intent, Parties shall not hold each
other or any Participant or any Affiliate liable for damage to property or injury
arising out of the performance of the Project
No liability for indirect damages STW/Participants except for breach of
reporting, publication, confidentiality obligations, non-respect of the nonexclusive rights on IPR on research results, non-respect on notification of use
on Open Source Software.
Parties agree that the total amount of any loss of profit, indirect or
consequential loss of per breach will not exceed 1.5 million euros.
There is no liability for indirect damages for Philips except for breach of PhD
supervision, tasks PC members, confidentiality and payment.
STW warrants that software generated by participants does not include Open
Source Software of which licensing and usage terms have not been reviewed
and agreed upon by Philips.
Premature termination of a project is, when done upon reasonable and
justifiable grounds while taking into account Philips’ business interests and h
providing Philips with the opportunity to come to an agreement with STW on
the adaptation of a Project in order to remedy the issues upon which the STW
Board has based its the decision, is not a material breach of the Agreement
STW herewith, on behalf of itself and each Participant, unconditionally agrees
to and accepts the terms and conditions of this Agreement.
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Annex 3.
Assessment and selection criteria of proposals
Proposals will be evaluated by a panel of experts consisting of two industrial members
from Philips and two independent expert academic members. The members of the
expert panel will operate independently from the Programme Committee.
STW normally uses utilisation criteria for the selection of proposals. This is, however,
not relevant for this specific call. Proposals will be evaluated according to the following
criteria.
Scientific quality
- Competency of the research team
- Originality and innovative character of the proposal
- Expected impact on the scientific community
- Research method and approach
- Timetable and deliverables
- Adequacy of budget and infrastructure
Utilisation
- Likelihood that the research will generate results which are relevant for the
business environment
- Strengths and weaknesses of the utilisation plan
- Interaction and cooperation between research and industry
Fit into the program
- Contribution to the aims of the partnership program
- Addressing coaching in at least one to the lifestyle aspects
- Addressing all three research questions
- A final deliverable that has the shape of explicit, specific and empirically
founded recommendations for implementation of e-coaching solutions in
marketable products
- Connection to and interaction with five running projects
Subsequently, the Programme Committee will be asked to score the proposals for the
criteria of scientific quality (based on the proposals together with the protocols) as well
as for the strategic fit within the programme and rank the proposals based on the
scores.
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Annex 4. Assessment and selection procedure
Peer review
STW presents the proposals to an independent panel of experts consisting of two
members from Philips who are independent of this HLS program and two independent
expert academic members. They will, without any interaction with applicants, review the
proposal according to the criteria for scientific quality and fit within the programme .
These criteria are stated in Annex 3. STW will combine the comments of the panel
members in a so-called protocol. In this protocol the comments of the individual panel
members are made anonymous.
Reply (rebuttal) by the applicants
STW will send the protocol to the main applicant and request a response to each of the
individual comments of the panel members.
Assessment by the Programme Committee (PC)
The PC, consisting of three persons from Philips and three independent scientific
experts in the field, will rank the full proposals. The PC members will separately give
grades on a scale from 1 to 9 (see scale definition below), for the scientific quality and
the fit within the programme. A preliminary ranking is subsequently made. The PC will
define the final ranking during a meeting. This final ranking will be based on the
average grades given by the PC members individually and (if necessary) other strategic
arguments. The PC finalises a ranking of the proposals, including an argumentation for
cases where it wishes to deviate from the ranking as obtained by averaged scores. The
decision of the STW Board will be based on the ranking of the proposals by the
Programme Committee. The STW Board can decide not to spend the maximum
available budget for this call.
Score
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Excellent
between Excellent and Very Good
Very Good
between Very Good and Good
Good
between Good and Moderate
Moderate
between Moderate and Very Moderate
Very Moderate
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Annex 5. Utilisation
A very important aspect within the HLS programme is the utilisation of the project
results in industrial practice.
STW, NIBC and Philips
The partnership programme is a collaboration between STW, NIBC and Philips. Each
party finances part of the 3 M€ budget. The programme duration is 5 years. The
objectives of the programme are driven by the ambitions of the company Philips.
Project leaders should have the ambition to fully cooperate with Philips and to follow
their business interest during the course of the programme. In addition the project
leaders should be aware of the fact that their project will become part of the NIBC and
should be willing to contribute to the NIBC mission (www.brainandcognition.nl).
Legal matters
A confidential contract has been signed between STW and Philips. For any issues that
might arise during the course of the project, the project leader can consult STW for
advice. In legal matters the text of the STW-Philips contract prevails above the text of
this call and above the general funding conditions of STW.
Programme and project execution
For details about the project procedure after granting and during the execution of the
partnership programme as well as the cooperation with Philips, please consult Annex 6.
Other supporting organisations
Within a partnership programme, (semi-)commercial research institutes or companies
other than Philips may not be involved without the prior consent of Philips.
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Annex 6. Procedure after granting
During the course of a project the following procedures apply. Detailed information is
available at http://www.stw.nl/en/project-leader.
Granting
The first mentioned main applicant will be considered to be the principal investigator
and will as such be appointed as project leader by STW. After granting, the project
leader obtains a number of documents in which the legal and financial conditions are
stated. The grant is available only after these documents have been signed and
returned to the STW office.
Start of the project
The start date of the project is the date of the appointment of the first staff member.
Usually, this is not the date of granting. The budget becomes available at the start of
the project and when the abovementioned signed documents have been received by
STW.
User Committee (UC)
For each project, a user committee is established in which it is explicit who is part of
this committee and who is not. The UC members alone will get access to the
confidential project documentation. By default, the committee consists of at least the
project leader and fellow applicants, the researchers paid through this partnership
programme and at least one representative from Philips and one programme officer of
STW and one auditor of NIBC. A STW management assistant will distribute the
documents prior to the UC meetings at the request of Philips. Furthermore, PC
members may attend the meetings. Others (e.g. students, other university staff,
representatives of other companies, consultants, etc.) may only attend these meetings
upon invitation or after approval of Philips.
User committee meetings and reporting
Approximately 3 months after the start of the project, the user committee will meet for
the first time. The standard meeting and reporting frequency is 6 months. In the
meeting the project progress is discussed as well as future planning. The project leader
sends a progress report to STW every half year. The project leader is the chairman of
the user committee meetings unless Philips indicates otherwise. A programme officer
from STW and the NIBC auditor will occasionally attend the meetings. The user
committee will receive all draft publications for approval prior to publication (see Annex
2 for details). This includes website information, poster and oral presentations,
conference contributions and other scientific publications.
Contribution to the programme
Each partnership project will contribute to the coordinating and cohesion-stimulation
activities, as described in the programme plan and as will be developed by STW and
the programme committee during the course of the Philips programme. € 60.000 is
reserved to this aim from the overall programme budget. Examples are the attendance
and presentation of project results at possible Philips and/or NIBC programme
conferences and events, input for a possible programme website, etc. Furthermore the
projects should contribute to NIBC activities (through attendance to meetings and
delivery of input) for which they will be invited.
Termination
A project can be terminated before the final end date in the event of a strong deviation
from the project work plan, considerable doubts about its scientific quality or strong
deviation from the approach of the partnership programme without written approval
from the PC, or in the event of gross negligence.
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