Austria Canada call for projects

Date de clôture : 18 déc. 2017  
APPEL À PROJET CLÔTURÉ

Canada and Austria are announcing the 1st Call for Proposals for joint R&D projects, focusing on developing innovative products and applications in all technological and application areas. Applicants are expected to develop ready to market solutions or projects which have strong market potential for Canada and Austria. 

Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG)  and Canadian National Research Council-Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP)  will also provide access to public funding for labelled joint projects for eligible participants. The support will be given to each partner by its respective National Authorities in accordance with their national laws, rules, regulations and procedures in effect, on a non-exchange of funds basis, and subject to budgetary availability in each country.

Participants are strongly encouraged to contact their national project coordinators before submitting the documents in order to check the eligibility of the project idea and consortium. Funding at this extent will be provided only to projects positively evaluated by both public funding agencies: NRC-IRAP and FFG.

Eligibility criteria

In order to apply to the present call, partners must meet the following qualifications:

• The partners should include at least, one Canadian and one Austrian (for profit) company. Participation of research institutes/universities is welcome as subcontractors according to each country’s funding regulations.The Austrian and Canadian partners must express their will to cooperate, on an equal basis, in the development of a new product, industrial process or service.
• The product, process or service must be innovative and there must be a technological risk involved.
• The project must be equally significant for both partners.
• The project should have an obvious advantage and added value resulting from the technological cooperation between the participants from the two countries (e.g. increased knowledge base, commercial leads, access to R&D infrastructure etc.).
• Partners are required, prior to obtaining the Eureka label, to have previously signed a consortium agreement on the commercialization of the product, process or service once the phase of research and development has been completed which includes the ownership and use of know-how and IPR settlements (“Consortium Agreement”).
• Projects must be focused on technologies for civilian use (non-militray).

Any partner whose cooperative R&D project is consistent with the aforesaid criteria can apply to the present call in accordance with the national laws, rules, regulations, and procedures in effect in each country.

Submission and approval procedures 

Partners will be asked to submit a project outline via the Eureka Project Application Form. The completed electronic form must be submitted simultaneously to FFG and NRC-IRAP.

The forms have to be legally signed by all participating companies.

The signatures must be scanned and sent together with the form as an integral part of the application. The forms must be completed in English, signed by both project partners and sent to the program managers 

·        In Austria: The Eureka Project Application Form and the signatures must be scanned and sent together as an integral part of the application to: eureka@ffg.at until 18 December 2017. The partners of the consortium should also fill in the national full proposal until 18 December 2017. The National proposal should describe in detail only the work of the Austrian partner by using eCall 

• In Canada: Canadian SMEs must contact their NRC-IRAP Industrial Technology Advisor (ITA). If not already an NRC-IRAP client, contact the NRC-IRAP office in your region (1-877-994-4727) to discuss eligibility. The Eureka Project Application Form can be requested from Andrew Bauder. The documents will be sent via email.

Deadline for submission to FFG and to CNRC/IRAP: 18 December 2018 (12:00 h. local time)

Each country will fund its eligible participants according to its national procedures and funding rules laws, rules and regulations:

Funding details

National funding to approved project proposals will be considered under the normal national funding schemes for the respective programs. There is no additional budget allocated to this call for projects.

 In Austria

All companies registered in Austria are eligible for funding, universities and research centers can be funded as subcontractors only. In addition to the EUREKA project form the Austrian participant has to submit a separate national full proposal to the General Program (Basisprogramm) via e-Call at the FFG webpage. The evaluation of the Austrian project part is carried out by internal experts. The project must fulfill the national criteria (“Basisprogramm-Leitfaden”). There is no dedicated budget for this call. Funding in Austria is provided on an annual basis only, therefore follow-on applications must be submitted for the max. duration of 3 years. The funding provided by FFG are grants:

• max. 60% of the eligible costs for small companies,
• max.  50% of the eligible costs for medium-sized companies and
• max. 40%for large companies,

Detailed information on national rules and procedures 

In Canada:

Canadian eligibility criteria:

• Be incorporated, profit-oriented small and medium-sized enterprise (SME), with 500 or fewer full-time equivalent employees, registered in Canada;
• Be ready and have the capacity to collaborate with the Austrian partner on an industrial R&D project;
• Be intended to grow and generate profits through the development and commercialization of innovative, technology-driven, new or improved products, services, or processes.
• Canadian SMEs may receive up to 50% of their part of eligible project costs through NRC-IRAP.