Transcript Slide 1

Registration, Application tools &
Structure; the Proposal
September 09
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Index
1. Preparatory Process
a)
Proposal viability
• The Rules for verification of existence, legal status,
operational and financial capacity.
• Verification of the financial viability
b)
Registration
• The Participant Portal
2. Drafting and submission of the proposal
a)
b)
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The EPSS
The Structure of the proposal.
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1.
Preparatory Process
a) Proposal viability
•
The Rules for verification of existence, legal status,
operational and financial capacity:
http://cordis.europa.eu7FP7/find-doc_en.html
.
These rules are aimed to ensure, in these terms, a consistent
verification of the organisations interested in participating as
beneficiaries.
– These Rules are based on the Financial Regulation and its
associated Implementing Rules
– They concern all FP7 Indirect Actions taking the form of Grant
Agreement and will be implemented by all EC services involved
in the management of FP7 projects.
•
Financial viability check. A user-friendly electronic tool
provided by the EC services to applicants to carry out their own
financial viability check http://cordis.europa.eu7FP7/find-doc_en.html .
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1.
Preparatory Process
a) Proposal viability
•
Guiding principles.
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–
Only information that is strictly required by the FP7 R of P and/or
the Financ. Reg. and/or its Impl. Rules or for the provision of essential
statistics will be requested from the applicants.
The URF facilitates the participation of legal entities in
subsequent FP7 proposals. (Legal entities will have to provide their basic
data and official documents only once. However they’ll have to inform the EC of
any modifications).
–
The information shall be requested at the time when the
verification/validation is to be done. (Information provided at the
proposal stage will not be asked again during negotiations)
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The verification shall rely as much as possible on the selfdeclaration and auto-verification by participants.
Due to the introduction of the Participant Guarantee Fund (PGF), no
additional guarantee or security will be requested from
participants. The EC will however strengthen ex-post controls.
Standard procedures already in place within the EC for the
validation of legal entities shall, as far as possible, be used.
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1.
Preparatory Process
a) Proposal viability
•
Verification of existence. (only the procedure used at proposal
stage is considered)
–
Principles. According to FP7 R of P and with the FR and its IR, a
grant can only be awarded to an existing legal entity who:
•
•
–
Implementation (at the proposal stage). After verification of
proposal eligibility, the EC will verify its existence and legal
status:
•
•
•
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has submitted an eligible proposal using the EC procedure; and
is not in a situation of breach of GA obligations, conflict of interests,
or guilty of misinterpretation of the EC conditions for proposal
submission.
Any legal entity, except if they had already provided, shall provide its
administrative and legal data in the Proposal Submission Form (PSF),
At this stage no supporting documents will be requested and no data
verification by EC will be carried out other than the eligibility of the
proposal purposes
These data will be automatically uploaded into the Grant Agreement
Preparation Form (GPF) at the beginning of the Negotiation stage.
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1.
Preparatory Process
a) Proposal viability
•
Verification of legal status.
–
(only proposal stage is considered)
Principles. Both the FP7 R of P and with the FR and its IR (in certain
cases the Work Programme and the call for proposals) define different
categories of legal entities. Depending on category they belong to legal
entities may have different rights and obligations with respect to:
•
•
•
•
–
rights in terms of the EC financial contribution to a participant;
whether or not a financial capacity check of a legal entity is mandatory;
whether or not a Competent public officer is allowed to certify Financial Stmts;
the financial responsibility in the implementation of the project.
Implementation (at the proposal stage). The EC services shall
categorise each legal entity participating in FP7 projects. Additional
information will, when necessary, be requested either at submission
stage (proposal), at negotiation, and/or during implementation,
•
This information will be collected through the PSF (at proposal submission- stage) and/or GPF (negotiation stage) and/or during
implementation/finalisation and will be stored in the URF.
•
Data will be verified and validated by the EC mainly during
negotiation stage. EC provides each legal entity with a validated
Participant Identification Code (PIC).
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1.
Preparatory Process
a) Proposal viability
Main categories of legal entities are:
•
•
Natural person
Legal person
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Public body
»
Non-profit Public body
»
Profit Public body
»
International Organisation of European interest
»
Other.
Secondary and higher education establishment
Research organisation
Enterprises
»
SME
»
Non-SME
Legal entity guaranteed by a Member State or Associated
Country
Other (none of the above).
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1.
Preparatory Process
a) Proposal viability
•
Verification of operational capacity.
–
(only for the proposal stage)
Principles. As mentioned in the FR and its IR, the operational capacity
of a participant must be assessed in order to ensure the applicant’s
ability to complete the proposed action or work programme.
Operational capacity relates to professional skills, qualifications, tools
and/or knowledge necessary to achieve the project objectives. Two levels
of operational capacity are considered:
•
Consortium operational capacity;
•
Each participant’s operational capacity.
–
Implementation (at the proposal stage). The operational capacity of
the consortium will be addressed at the Evaluation Stage by external
evaluators assessing the criterion “Implementation”. For evaluation
purposes, participants must provide in their proposal:
•
At participant level, brief description of the organisation and short
profile of staff members who will undertake the work.
•
At consortium level, how participants collectively constitute a
consortium capable of achieving the project objectives,
•
The evaluators will provide comments to the EC for any legal entity
whose capacity to perform is deemed to be insufficient.
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1.
Preparatory Process
a) Proposal viability
•
Verification of financial capacity. (only for the proposal stage)
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Principles. The verification of the financial capacity is an integral
part of the negotiation stage and needs to be completed before the
signature of the Grant Agreement.
Although this verification is made within the negotiation process,
each applicant may carry out its own verification for financial
viability by using the tool that the EC has made available to
them. Thus, applicants will know their respective financial
viability at the moment they consider to participate in FP7 and
prior to engaging in drafting a proposal.
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1.
Preparatory Process
b) Registration
•
The Participant Portal. Is an FP7 unique entry point for external
stakeholders (participants, LEARs, co-ordinators, experts, etc.), based
on a single sign-on European Commission Authentication Service
(ECAS). http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/pp_en.html and
http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/appmanager/participants/portal
–
It hosts a full range of services, facilitating monitoring and
management of both proposals and projects by participants throughout
their lifecycle.
• Organisation, registration and data management. The PP is the gateway
to access the URF.
• Management of projects. The PP is the gateway to access the FP7
Negotiation Facility (NEF)
• FP7 documentation. The PP is the gateway to access the new FP7
document search functionality.
.../...
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1.
Preparatory Process
b) Registration
.../...
–
The access to the PP is through an ECAS account. New users
must register on the ECAS, which is free and easy. Once in:
• All users can:
– Search for FP7 supporting documents (no login required)
– Check if their organisation has already a PIC (no login required)
– Register their organisation in the URF
– Identify what they can perform on the portal to support their
organisations and their projects.
• LEARs can:
– View the information stored in the account of their legal entity
and introduce change requests.
– Access the list of projects that their organisations are currently
working on.
• Co-ordinators, involved in the negotiation process can:
– Access the list of their projects and information on amendments
– Access the details of their projects.
– Get a direct access the NEF once the negotiation process is open.
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2.
Drafting and submission of proposals
a) The EPSS. General rules
• Applications for financial support under the FP7 are generally
made in the form of proposals submitted to the Commission
(EC).
• Proposals set out details of planned work, which will carry them
out, and how much they will cost.
• The EC evaluates proposals and enter into negotiation with the
co-ordinators of those having a sufficiently high quality.
• If negotiations are successful, the originating proposal becomes
a project and a Grant Agreement providing for a Community
financial contribution is established with the applicants.
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2.
Drafting and submission of proposals
a) The EPSS. Basic principles
•
•
Excellence.
Transparency. Funding decisions based on clearly described rules and
procedures. Applicants should receive feedback on the evaluation of their
proposals.
•
Fairness & impartiality. All proposals are treated equally and evaluated
impartially
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•
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Confidentiality. All proposals are treated in confidence.
Efficiency and Speed.
Ethical & security considerations. Any proposal that contravenes
fundamental ethical principles (Article 6 of the EC FP7 decision), or failing to
comply with the relevant security procedures (Article 15.2 of the EC Rules for
Participation) may be excluded at any time from the process of evaluation,
selection and award.
The Work Programmes (WP) implementing the specific programmes may
set out specific evaluation criteria.
The call for proposals and associated Guide for Applicants may specify in
more detail the implementation of these rules.
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2.
Drafting and submission of proposals
a) The EPSS. The process
• Call for proposals (CP).
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Content and timing of calls are set out in the WP.
Notifications of CP are published in the Official Journal of the EU.
Call texts are published on CORDIS website http://cordis.europa.eu
and include references to WP topics, indicative call budget, funding
schemes, submission deadlines and links to the Electronic
Proposal Submission Service (EPSS)
The CORDIS website provides access to all necessary information
for those wishing to apply to calls.
The showed Guides for Applicants are produced for every CP; they
explain the submission process and how applicants can seek
assistance or information on any call-related matter.
There is also support from the net of NCPs and a dedicated help
desk for issues related to the EPSS.
.../...
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2.
Drafting and submission of proposals
a) The EPSS. The process
.../...
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Depending on the CP objectives, different types of collaborative
projects, and between types of co-ordination and support actions,
may be specified.
A CP will also specify whether a single- or two-stage submission
and evaluation procedure is to be followed.
A Call Co-ordinator is appointed by the EC. This person acts as a
contact point for practical questions related to the CP and ensures
overall organisation of the reception and evaluation of proposals.
One or more EC officials shall be nominated, who will be
responsible for giving directions on how to deal with sensitive
questions that may arise during submission and evaluation.
Pre-proposal check. Depending on the nature of the CP an
advisory pre-proposal check service may be offered by the EC to
ensuring that proposal is within the scope of the CP.
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2.
Drafting and submission of proposals
a) The EPSS. The process
• EPSS
–
The proposals are submitted electronically via the web-based
Electronic Proposal Submission Service (EPSS) (only on very
exceptional circumstances proposals may be submitted on paper)
–
–
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Among the applicants in a proposal consortium, only the coordinator (identified by user ID and password) is authorised to
submit a proposal.
Preparation and uploading of all the proposal data, and the
applicants’ agreement to the conditions of use of the system and of
the evaluation must take place prior to attempting to submit the
proposal.
The EPSS will carry out a number of basic verification checks,
including completeness, internal data consistency, absence of
viruses, and conformity to the file types and size limitations.
• Only upon completion of these checks, which do not replace the
formal eligibility checks, will EPSS allow the applicant to submit.
…/…
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2.
Drafting and submission of proposals
a) The EPSS. The process (proposal submission)
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.../...
Submission is deemed to occur at the moment the proposal co-ordinator
initiates the final submission process, as indicated by the EPSS and not at
any point prior to this.
The proposals submitted via EPSS are entered into databases after the CP
closure.
The EC has no access to the proposal until the CP deadline has passed.
In case of continuous submission schemes, after interim cut-off dates.
Versions in paper (except in the exceptional cases referred to above), CD-ROM or
diskette, e-mail or fax shall be disregarded by the EC
A procedure for the withdrawal of a proposal by its co-ordinator is given in
the Guide for Applicants.
If more than one copy of the same proposal are received, only the most
recent eligible version is evaluated.
Proposals are archived under secure conditions at all times. After
completion of evaluation and any subsequent negotiation, all copies will be
destroyed other than those required for archiving and/or auditing
purposes.
.../...
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2.
Drafting and submission of proposals
a) The EPSS. The process (reception by EC)
–
.../...
The date and time of reception of the last version of submitted
proposals are recorded. After the call closure or cut-off in
continuous submission, an acknowledgement of receipt is sent to
the co-ordinator by e-mail containing:
•
•
•
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Proposal title, acronym and unique proposal identifier (proposal
number)
Name of programme and/or activity/research area & CP identifier
Date and time of receipt.
There is normally no further contact between the EC and
applicants until after completion of evaluation, except for proposals
subject to hearings. The CE may at any moment contact applicants
for clarifications.
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2.
Drafting and submission of proposals
a) The EPSS. The process (eligibility check)
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Proposals must fulfil all the eligibility criteria if they are to be
retained for evaluation. In the case of two-stage proposal
submission, each stage is subject to an eligibility check. The
following criteria apply:
•
•
•
•
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Receipt of proposal by the EC before the deadline and time established
in the CP.
Minimum conditions (such as number of participants) as referred to in
the CP.
Completeness of the proposal (the eligibility test only apply to the
presence of the appropriate parts of the proposal).
Scope of the CP: the content must relate to the topic(s) and funding
scheme(s) set out in the part of WP open in the CP.
If before, during, or after the evaluation phase it becomes clear
that one or more of the eligibility criteria have not been
fulfilled, the proposal is declared ineligible by the EC and is
withdrawn from any further examination.
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2.
Drafting and submission of proposals
a) The EPSS. The process (eligibility review
committee)
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If the question of eligibility is not clear-cut, the call co-ordinator
may convene an internal eligibility review committee
The committee role is to ensure a coherent legal interpretation of
such cases and equal treatment of applicants.
The committee is composed of EC staff having the necessary
expertise in legal matters, S&T content, and/or information
systems. It is chaired by the call co-ordinator.
The committee may decide to contact the applicant in order to
clarify a particular issue.
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2.
Drafting and submission of proposals
b) The Structure of the proposal
• Part A. It contains the administrative forms or the proposal. The
proposers need to fill the A forms appropriately and save them on the
EPSS server.
–
Depending on the type of CP, Part A shows the overview of forms A1, A2,
A3.1 and the summary A3.2 (certain sub-schemes also have and A4 form or
do not have A3.1/A3.2 forms.
• Part B. Is the description of the content of the proposal.
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–
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Proposers must use templates that are downloaded (RTF format) and uses it
as a guide to structure the Part B.
The template Part B RTF is open and edited, the file saved, converted to PDF
and then added to the proposal.
There is a check list for Part B in order to ensure that no special characters
or spaces are included, no colours used for figures, file ends in .pdf, and is in
PDF format.
• Annexes. For the majority of instruments and project types Part A and
Part B form the complete proposal. Where, in some particular actions
annexes are required, the EPSS section Annex Upload must be used.
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