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Electric Mobility Europe Call 2016
Date de clôture : 6 févr. 2017  
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 Gestion urbaine
 Villes intelligentes
 Développement urbain
 Applications informatiques
 Transport durable
 Transport
 Transport urbain
 Protection des consommateurs

1. The Electric Mobility Europe Call 2016 in brief

In collaboration with the European Commission and the European Green Vehicles Initiative Association, European countries and regions set up the Electric Mobility Europe Call 2016 (EMEurope Call 2016) to further promote and advance electric mobility in Europe. EMEurope builds on the experience, networks and results of the Electromobility+ Call 2010 (http://electromobility-plus.eu) and is designed to take transnational e-mobility research and policy exchange towards deployable solutions. Funded projects in the EMEurope Call 2016 shall focus on the application and implementation of e-mobility in urban and suburban areas.

This call responds to the need for transnationally coordinated Research and Innovation (R&I) to accelerate and advance the introduction and mainstreaming of electrification of mobility in Europe. The expected outcomes of these calls are likely to include an:

  •   Intensified uptake of e-mobility in urban and suburban areas;

  •   Improved connectivity between electric vehicles and the existing infrastructure;

  •   Increased choice for customers or consumers seeking to reduce the environmental impact of their travel.

    In the EMEurope Call 2016 14 countries and regions and the European Commission are providing research funds totalling some 23,000,000 EUR for coordinated funding of Research & Innovation (R&I) projects. The EMEurope call follows a two-step submission and evaluation procedure, starting now with the submission of light proposals. In a next step a full proposal submission will follow for those proposals selected from the light proposal evaluation.

    The EMEurope Call 2016 will be published on the EMEurope website http://www.electricmobilityeurope.eu. In addition, the national/regional programmes will publish the call according to their specific provisions.

    Light proposals shall be submitted electronically in the EMEurope Call 2016 until 6 February 2017, 17:00 CET.

 

 

 

2. The transnational call

2.1 Background and context

The European transport system is currently facing increasing challenges particularly regarding air pollution and climate change. In this context, electrification of vehicles is a forward-looking option, which provides significant potential for reducing transport-related air pollution, greenhouse gases and noise emissions. Setting the conditions for lifting electric mobility to the transport mainstream is a pan-European objective covering sustainable transport, environmental and climate protection, alternative energy and health policies. Moreover, incentives for European economic added value will be set, suitable for creating additional green jobs. Most of these policies are also relevant for national, regional and local levels throughout Europe in their endeavour towards sustainable development and decarbonisation.

To realise these goals, feasible solutions have to be deployed – specifically for urban and suburban areas. In recent years, a variety of initiatives for advancing electric mobility have evolved in European countries, regions and cities. As a result, the introduction of e-vehicles into the market has developed in a promising manner. However, a notable breakthrough and widespread uptake of e-mobility in Europe are still missing. Support for research, innovation, and joint policy initiatives can make a significant contribution towards achieving these objectives.

At present state, the first generation of electric vehicles has proven its potential, although there is still considerable room for improvement. While research and the development of novel technologies have progressed well, the integration of these technologies into the existing transport system still requires substantial effort especially in urban areas. Within the framework of Electromobility+, 18 research and innovation projects were funded, and the results of these projects have helped to increase knowledge and deliver important information for a wider uptake and roll out of e-mobility solutions throughout Europe. Moreover, it has provided policy makers and stakeholders across Europe with a variety of tools, scenarios, guidelines and models for introducing e-mobility.

A collaborative approach is essential to realise the ambition of effectively bringing electric mobility to the market: it encourages key players to come together on a European scale; it helps to identify and tackle the barriers for innovative products and services in the Single Market, and it facilitates joint usage of different sources of private and public funding. Today, EU funding remains a limited part of the overall funding across Europe. Implementation needs to be increasingly based on partnerships that build the necessary scale and scope to achieve greater impact from limited public and private resources.

 

2.2 Challenges, scope and objectives of this call

The scope of the EMEurope Call 2016 is the result of an extensive elaboration process, involving countries and regions that participated in Electromobility+ and additional interested countries and regions, the European Commission (EC), the European Green Vehicles Initiative Association (EGVIA) and various stakeholders. Proposals shall deliver practical results feeding into innovation and deployment solutions for 2020 and beyond. Appropriate user and general public acceptance, regulatory issues, market up-take, social, environmental and resource efficiency aspects are important topics within the scope of this call. In principle, all modes of surface transport are relevant. Urban freight and logistics using e-mobility concepts are also in scope (e.g. electric and smart urban delivery fleets).

The EMEurope call will support R&I projects addressing the following key areas of electric mobility:

  1. System integration (transport, urban and sub-urban areas);

  2. Integration of urban freight and city logistics in e-mobility;

  3. Smart Mobility concepts and ICT applications;

  4. Public Transport;

  5. Consumer behaviour and societal trends.

See chapter 3 for further details on the 5 key areas.

EMEurope projects shall support an optimised integration of electric mobility into the transport system. Instead of working on the development of new technologies, the projects shall aim at the testing and validation of existing close-to-market technologies and concepts. The project consortia shall include all relevant stakeholders for the application and implementation of electric mobility in cities and urban areas.

 

 

 

Projects shall substantially contribute to the objectives of the EMEurope Call 2016:

  •   Accelerate the time to market for solutions for integrating electric mobility in Europe’s (sub-)urban mobility systems;

  •   Establish and activate a network of policy decision makers and stakeholders for exchanging know-how and experiences on electric mobility solutions for European urban areas;

  •   Link policy, science and industry towards a joint support of electric mobility in European urban areas;

  •   Support industry, service sector, politics, authorities and users in their efforts to develop suitable and feasible solutions for electric mobility in European urban areas;

  •   Contribute to the European White Paper objective to promote zero emission mobility in European cities;

  •   Anticipate information/research trends and policy demand needs in 2020 and beyond

  •   Focus on passenger transport while considering urban freight and logistics;

  •   Consider issues of interoperability and compatibility;

  •   Consumer behaviour and societal trends.

  •   Provide new knowledge on efficiency, social aspects, regulation and conditions for market uptake.

The EMEurope Call 2016 will fund innovation projects focusing on the application and implementation of e-mobility with the objective of advancing the uptake and mainstreaming of the electrification of mobility in Europe. This initiative will provide about 23,000,000 EUR of funding to support applied innovation projects. The total funding is composed of national and regional funding and co-funding provided by the European Commission under Horizon 2020.

 

 

 

2.3 Technology Readiness Levels

Projects supported by EMEurope will be subject to evaluation on the basis of Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) used to assess the maturity of a technology prior to its implementation (see table on next page).

EMEurope is particularly interested in projects between “proof of concept” and commercial income generation. Spanning the gap between these two points – the so-called “valley of death” – often requires public and private investment to generate sufficient evidence of a technology’s ability to be commercially viable.

Proposals shall focus on the application and implementation of solutions that have already reached TRL 5-6 or higher. Lower TRL research activities will only be in scope if they are necessary to support the action and forming an integral part of the proposal aiming for this higher TRL level.

Table 1 – NASA Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs)

Explanation of TRL levels, based on NASA in line with H2020

Level 1 - Basic Research: basic principles are observed and reported

Lowest level of technology readiness. Scientific research begins to be translated into applied research and development. Examples might include fundamental investigations and paper studies.

Level 2 – Applied Research: technology concept and/or application formulated

Once basic principles are observed, practical applications can be formulated. Examples are limited to analytic studies and experimentation.

Level 3 – Critical function, proof of concept established

Active research and development is initiated. Laboratory studies aim to validate analytical predictions of separate components of the technology. Examples include components that are not yet integrated or representative.

Level 4 – Laboratory testing of prototype component or process

Design, development and lab testing of technological components are performed. Here, basic technological components are integrated to establish that they will work together. This is a relatively “low fidelity” prototype in comparison with the eventual system.

 

 

 

Level 5 – Laboratory testing of integrated system

The basic technological components are integrated together with realistic supporting elements to be tested in a simulated environment. This is a “high fidelity” prototype compared to the eventual system.

Level 6 – Prototype system verified

The prototype, which is well beyond that of level 5, is tested in a relevant environment. The system or process demonstration is carried out in an operational environment.

Level 7 – Integrated pilot system demonstrated

Prototype is near, or at, planned operational system level. The final design is virtually complete. The goal of this stage is to remove engineering and manufacturing risk.

Level 8 – System incorporated in commercial design

Technology has been proven to work in its final form under the expected conditions. In most of the cases, this level represents the end of true system development.

Level 9 – System ready for full scale deployment

Here, the technology in its final form is ready for commercial deployment.

 

 

 

2.4 Budget of the call and funding providers

The following table reflects the availability on the committed minimum funding budgets of national/regional funding organisations participating in the call. The funding budget figures reflect tentative budgets reserved for applicants from the respective country/region.

The total available funding budget may be increased on the base of evolving national/regional opportunities in some cases.

 

 

Table 2 – Indicative national/regional funding amounts (incl. EC top up)

 

Austria

Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG)

2,250,000

 

Belarus

National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (NASB)

1,500,000

 

Catalonia

Agencia per a la Competitivitat de la Empresa (ACCIÓ)

500,000

 

Denmark

Innovation Fund Denmark (IFD)

2,250,000

 

Finland

The Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation (TEKES)

3,000,000

 

Germany

Bundesministerium für Verkehr, Innovation und Technologie (BMVI)

2,250,000

 

Hungary

Ministry for National Economy (MNE)

1,500,000

 

Israel*

Israel Europe R&D Directorate (ISERD)

750,000

 

Netherlands

Stichting voor de Technische Wetenschappen (STW)

3,000,000

 

Piedmont

Finpiemonte S.p.A.

1,000,000

 

Poland

National Centre for Research and Development (NCBR)

1,000,000

 

Spain

Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnologico Industrial (CDTI)

1,000,000

 

Sweden

The Swedish Energy Agency (SWEA)

1,500,000

 

Turkey

The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK)

1,500,000

Total EMEurope Call 2016 23,000,000

 

 

3. Eligible key areas and research topics

This call is open for project proposals addressing one or more of the five key areas that have been defined in an extensive scoping process involving countries and regions, the EC, EGVIA and stakeholders:

  1. System integration (transport, urban and sub-urban areas);

  2. Integration of urban freight and city logistics in e-mobility;

  3. Smart Mobility concepts and ICT applications;

  4. Public Transport;

  5. Consumer behaviour and societal trends.

These 5 key areas and potentially relevant research topics are elaborated in the sections 3.1 to 3.5 hereafter. It is advisable to contact the funding organisation in your country or region to check if specific research topics are eligible for funding.

3.1 Key area 1: System integration (transport, [sub]urban areas)

The population living in European cities is rapidly increasing. While at the same time the number of electric cars is also rising. Multiple studies have demonstrated that electric cars are popular among citizens. A number of European cities are facing similar challenges: how to embed electric cars and especially charging infrastructure in the existing city infrastructure. There are a lot of advantages of e-mobility in the cities, like the mitigation of local noise and air pollution. Besides the evolution of e-mobility, including electric cars, there is a growing number of households and companies getting involved in or using decentralised generated energy and local storage. The local energy grid in the existing city centres has quite often not been designed to handle these new challenges. The combination of cities becoming popular for residents, the growth of e-mobility and development of decentralised energy generation and storage causes new challenges for (local) policy makers, grid owners, residents etc.

Over the past few years, national, regional and local governments have invested public resources, in some cases by public procurement, in public charging stations. The next logical step is to install smart charging stations that can charge whenever the driver or the service provider demands. The main challenge in smart charging of vehicle to grid is not the technical development, but is the implementation and large scale role out. Key issues

Please consider that when submitting their proposals applicants must select one dominant key area in the Call Management Tool (CMT). Beside, any additionally addressed key areas can be indicated, if applicable (refer to paragraph 6.2 ‘Proposal submission in the Call Management Tool’).

include: legislation; taxation and the role of the different stakeholders in the scheme. Potentially, the major benefit is that the combination of charging and decentralised energy storage and generation can strengthen the business case for this technological approach. Significant benefits could accrue if local policy makers combine the decision making and business case development. Projects in this sector should also consider public acceptability and appropriate business case development.

Besides the above mentioned challenges, e-mobility has an impact on the physical environment of urban areas. The role of the e-bike in the ecosystem, the safety of current, as well as future charging systems, including inductive (dynamic and static) charging, are some of the main questions in this key area. The increasing number of electric cars requires the development of charging infrastructure in public areas as well as in multi-home dwellings and apartments. There is often historical information about the usage of these charging stations that can better inform policy development. The next steps should also include the roll-out of charging infrastructure forecast models including the optimisation of forecast issues and battery management.

Potential research topics

  •   The safety of electric vehicles and charging infrastructure, including the integration in the city (e.g. e-bike paths);

  •   e-mobility adjusted and shared infrastructure (incl. inductive charging) and housing;

  •   ICT applications for optimisation of forecast issues and battery and charging

    infrastructure management;

  •   Options for easy models for system integration for decision makers;

  •   Models for the forecast and management of charging locations based on real-trials;

  •   The integration of sustainable urban mobility and energy plans in urban areas;

  •   The influence of decentralisation of energy production and consumption on the integration and development of urban areas;

  •   The role of public procurement of zero emission electric vehicles and the tasks, responsibilities and competences of the different stakeholders;

  •   The integration of EV requirements and charging infrastructure in buildings regulations;

  •   The development of business models to use batteries (once their ability to charge EVs has ceased) to balance the energy grid.

     

3.2 Key area 2: Integration of urban freight and city logistics in the e-mobility

The concept of city logistics has different facets. It includes the total optimization of the urban freight transport system, shared distribution centers, consolidated freight deliveries, sustainable distribution networks and delivery vehicles, as well as partnerships between public planners and logisticians. Whilst companies seek to optimize their system by themselves, most innovative solutions developed in City Logistics do not go beyond the development and demonstration stages to reach economic viability. This is mainly due to underestimated transaction cost and a mismatch between the goals and responsibilities of public planners and private logistics firms. In future, electric mobility can be a crucial component for sustainable urban logistics solutions.

For long-distance freight transports, electric mobility has not yet proven to be a suitable option. There are some technical obstacles that prevent the successful implementation for vehicles with a daily mileage between fifty and two hundred kilometers and with many stops. These challenges also apply to vehicles in the last mile distribution, including urban areas. Fully battery powered vehicles have advantages for urban areas due to their low noise and zero local air pollutant emissions.

Under current urban transport policies and market conditions, the economic viability of electric freight transport is only profitable in some small niche applications. With further cost decreases and advanced vehicle developments, additional benefits will arise for the operators. Electric freight vehicles could quickly become integral components of new innovative urban distribution concepts.

 

 

 

Potential research topics

  •   Research and development to improve existing electric vehicle technology towards the integration of electric vehicles into urban distribution systems for zero emission logistics;

  •   Innovative solutions to capture freight demand characteristics and improve corresponding logistics solutions with the aim of integrating electric vehicles into urban distribution systems for zero emission logistics;

  •   Determine which freight and fleet operations lend themselves to replacement by EVs and ways in which cities or roads can be configured to encourage this access;

  •   Development and exploration of practical solutions for the integration of electric vehicles in existing fleets (deployment of mixed fleet) and appropriate business models to support this;

  •   Better understand and meet the need of customer requirements in urban last mile freight transport and development of suitable distribution concepts with tailored services and employment of different kinds of electric vehicles (electric cargo bikes, electric vans and electric trucks);

  •   Development of business cases and organization models for last mile delivery with integration of electric vehicles; ex-ante assessment of new distribution concepts based on electric vehicles in order to analyse and improve business cases. Joint innovations of electric vehicles, vehicle deployment, logistics structures and operation planning are of particular importance;

  •   Supporting sharing and rental concepts for last mile electric vehicles to facilitate user experience with and acceptance of such vehicles and sharing concepts;

  •   Introducing electric mobility in existing public private freight partnerships and networks; supporting joint efforts of public planners and logistics companies to introduce electric vans into urban transport. Studying the individual and societal acceptance of electric mobility in urban freight transport and last mile delivery;

  •   Sharing of charging infrastructure for passenger and freight vehicles including capacity management; combined passenger and freight transport systems for urban areas based on electric vehicles;

  •   Evidence to support strategic recommendations for logistics companies regarding best practices of e-vehicle deployment and for the public sector regarding accompanying policy measures.

     

 

3.3 Key area 3: Smart Mobility concepts and ICT applications

E-mobility poses significant challenges as the transition from oil-driven to zero-emission transport is a long and complex process. To ensure best possible effects, advanced smart mobility concepts must be designed and combined with the recent advances in ICT. Currently, among the main obstacles in convincing people to switch to electric cars are perceptions of limited range, sparse infrastructure and relatively long charging times. Well designed and implemented smart e-mobility developments and operating models can provide more sustainable ways of travelling without exposing people to the current technological limits, and thus give new momentum to the ultimate switch to zero-emission mobility.

Research, Technology and Innovation in this sector has the potential to unlock and promote a significant number of benefits to the public utilising e-mobility solutions, which are likely to include; more efficient use of the public charging infrastructure (slow, fast and rapid), more people utilising smart charging devices at home and large-scale multi-modal e-mobility services that enable people to easily travel on a daily basis using only electric vehicles. In addition, business solutions for smart grids and e-mobility will need to be tightly integrated via modern ICT technologies.

The public will be encouraged to start using e-vehicles for different modes of travel (privately- owned, shared or public vehicles). This is likely to increase the share of electric vehicles on the market. New business models could be developed to enable large-scale multi-modal e- mobility services that ensure the public could more easily access travel on a daily basis using only electric vehicles, for instance, the launch of first autonomous e-taxi services in Europe.

Potential research topics

  •   Development of flexible e-car and e-bike sharing systems with support for cross- modal e-mobility chains (also including electric buses, trams and trains) and assisted parking search (via smart phone apps);

  •   Designing and implementing ride-sharing (carpooling) services, especially for daily commuting by means of e-vehicles (home, neighbourhood and/or work-centred solutions);

  •   Developing autonomous (shared) e-taxi and e-minibus services that aim at removal of private car traffic from city centres and integrating them with fixed-route public transport;

  •   Exploitation of big data (such as mobile phone data) to understand daily travel patterns and their day-to-day fluctuations in order to develop competitive and robust e-mobility services;

  •   Designing smart grid solutions for charging e-vehicles both at home and work by providing assistance with long-term and short-term decisions, such as choosing the charging scheme, or the right time and place to charge, taking into consideration the overall impact on the grid;

  •   Implementation of decision-support tools that aim at estimating induced electricity demand related to predicted future trends in e-mobility and optimising further development of the existing vehicle charging infrastructure;

  •   Development of smart phone trip planners for private e-car users that (1) offer choice between multiple criteria, and (2) use precise and adaptive (driver/car-dependent) models for energy consumption in order to avoid running undercharged, and (3) scheduling possible stops at charging stations along the route;

  •   Identification and development of business models for cooperation between all parties engaged, such as public transport operators, e-car(bike)-sharing operators, electricity providers, company fleet operators and end users, to harmonise development of future mobility as a service and e-mobility service concepts.

3.4 Key area 4: Public Transport

Public transport is the key element for improving mobility of people in the future, especially in urban areas. The main reason is the relatively poor efficiency of private modes in terms of consumption of shared resources. For example, in Barcelona the average load factor of private transport is 1.3 passengers per car which is very inefficient in terms of space utilisation and emissions. However, there are some significant challenges to improve the shift in modal change that is required.

E-mobility has a strong potential to favourably impact both public and personal rapid transport. The Government administration and public agencies in Europe often have direct influence on the decision-making process that allows the creation of a suitable framework to promote the adoption of electrical solutions in public transport companies. The operation of EVs in optimised systems could have a strong impact on the environment that could be used to promote the social adoption of EVs. Electric buses are likely to be the focus for urban mobility of the future as they allow sustainable operation and flexible networks, adapting routes and frequencies easily to demand. In addition, it allows for the planning of scalable investments with the growth of modal share. An alternative solution, the tram, requires higher capital expenditure and operating expenses in a rigid infrastructure. If the bus service has measures of priority in the street it might be competitive to trams.

Personal rapid transport allows the introduction of electrical innovations that improve the performance of mobility; especially with access to larger public transport systems that requires intermodal connectivity or for shorter journeys. For example, shared e-bicycle systems have demonstrated a strong potential to create a new market of users who adopt this mode of transport for commuting or leisure trips.

 

 

 

Innovative solutions are key to allowing operators and agencies of public transport to achieve a better performance for the whole transport system to achieve a greater part of the market share that is currently held by private modes. “Mobility as a service” concepts may require smaller sized public transport in the future. Also increasing automation may have significant consequences.

Potential research topics

  •   Research and development to improve the charging technology for busses, which is critical for operational improvement of the performance (including; reducing idle times due repositioning of batteries);

  •   Development of shared platforms for trams and buses, where buses could be connected to catenaries in the main sections of the network;

  •   Development and test technology that allows buses to operate connected to catenaries or be autonomous in remote sections;

  •   Research that takes a holistic approach to the whole public transport system that introduces priority measures to improve performance and quality by taking advantage of the introduction of new electric technology;

  •   Development of new concept of electric buses, which allows operators to achieve better performance on operating costs through a scalable design to adapt supply to demand (without wasting time with complicated connections), increase capacity in peak-hours and reduce boarding and de-boarding times with functional designs of the interior of the bus;

  •   Development and exploration of Internet of Things (IoT) solutions to support the tracking and monitoring systems for public transport. Part of this technology has to accurately measure key performance indicators related to sustainable efficiency. The comparison with traditional mobility is a boost to encourage administrative authorities to continue to support these innovative actions;

  •   Development of demonstrators of charging systems for electric buses in bus stations and head-stops. Optimising and testing remote and/or inductive charging systems;

  •   Development of demonstrators for testing EVs and charging in extreme weather conditions, e.g. in polar areas;

  •   Research and development of demonstrators related to electric personal rapid transport in the field of public transport, e.g. shared e-bicycle systems;

  •   Testing not only of the vehicle, but also propose pilots related to the management of the whole system (patterns of mobility, user requirements, fleet sizing, operation of rebalancing).

     

 

3.5 Key area 5: Consumer behaviour and societal trends

Consumer behavior and societal trends take electric mobility to the heart of our daily life. To implement electric mobility effectively into the overall societal context, the acceptance of the consumer and a feasible legal frame should be the main focus for developing and implementing electric mobility in urban and suburban areas. Many municipalities across Europe have developed and implemented new mobility concepts to solve their traffic problems during the last years. Electric mobility should be part of the overall strategies of Governments and local municipal administrations.

Building on previous funding and developments, the technical challenge is no longer the main focus of the implementation phase of electric mobility. However, the emphasis has shifted to public acceptability of the e-mobility technology and the key aims to reduce adverse health and environmental impacts of transport. It is important that consumers and stakeholders be part of the overall development of a strategy to implement e-mobility solutions which fit the needs and legal responsibilities of the implementation strategy.

For this call, it will be important to have a synthesis of research that has already been undertaken to better understand customer behaviour when deciding to purchase or utilise e- mobility for transport needs including the following: reliability, expectations of electric vehicles to meet the need of value for money, comfort, safety, performance, fuel consumption and innovative design. In addition, consumers’ perception of range limitation or possible safety and security concerns need also to be addressed.

New business and operating models including e-mobility sharing schemes will need to take account of consumer behaviour and acceptability. E-mobility has the potential to disrupt current value and supply chains especially of those of motor vehicle manufacturer’s, and it would be imperative that a better understanding is developed of potential risk, but also the opportunities and benefits realisation that could be achieved.

Therefore, projects in this key area should take into account those stakeholders that need to be integrated into the process and to determine their needs and frames of reference as the development and implementation of electric mobility proceeds. In a European context, the feasibility of dissemination of the findings of the project group to national level is vital to ensure the adoption of e-mobility.

 

 

 

Potential research topics

  •   Feasible models for system integration for decision makers;

  •   Involvement of users in order to provide adequate/better services;

  •   National or regional policies and strategies for supporting electric mobility;

  •   Regulations and standards, interoperability, compatibility of charging payment solutions;

  •   Fiscal measures, local planning measures, integration into the transport system or new mobility strategies;

  •   Stimulate consumers awareness by consumer information or combining electric mobility with successful mobility concepts;

  •   Application in vehicle fleets (e.g. for municipal services, taxis, public transport);

  •   Electric car sharing system, rental system of city electric vehicles;

  •   Policies and strategies for the establishment of a second hand market for e-mobility;

  •   Better understand public acceptability to use EVs to balance the electricity grid and the possible implications for battery life;

  •   Better understand public acceptability to the concept of new business models in car ownership such as the leasing of the battery.

 

 

 

4. Formal conditions of the call

4.1 Legal/administrative rules and eligibility issues

Definitions in the following chapters constitute the common call framework of transnational eligibility criteria for the EMEurope Call 2016, which is applicable for all participants and funding organisations. The EMEurope Call Secretariat will check the submitted proposals against these common transnational specifications. The call is however also based on specific national and regional legal and administrative rules of the participating national and regional funding programmes.. There is a bilateral responsibility between applicants from a particular country or region and their responsible national or regional funding organisation. Thus proposals will be also checked against applicable national/regional criteria by the respective funding organisation.

Applicants shall therefore always refer to their respective national/regional rules, conditions and specifications. Main applicable specifications are outlined in the ‘National/regional specifications and contacts’ (Annex to this document) with reference to further national/regional information documents, websites and contacts. More comprehensive information about related national/regional funding programmes and calls can be accessed via the indicated websites in the Annex.

Both transnational and national/regional eligibility criteria must be met. Proposals failing to comply with either of the criteria cannot be admitted to the evaluation procedure and will be rejected.

By submitting a proposal applicants agree that their proposal will be forwarded to the responsible national/regional funding organisations and the evaluators for an eligibility check and assessment. Basic project information (summary, costs, requested funding, partners etc.) will also be transmitted to the other participating funding organisations of this call. National/regional funding organisations and evaluators shall maintain strict confidentiality with respect to the proposals and the whole evaluation process.

 

 

 

4.2 Proposal preparation, information and documents requested

Proposals must be prepared and submitted electronically through the electronic tool called ‘Call Management Tool’ (CMT). For this purpose a ‘CMT manual’ is available for download under http://www.electricmobilityeurope.eu. Only those proposals submitted in the CMT system before the closure of the call will be considered for evaluation.

The applicants shall be aware that national/regional rules apply and therefore consult closely the specific national/regional conditions. For some countries/regions additional documents or data may be required by the indicated national/regional contact points. The corresponding national/regional specifications are provided in the Annex of this document.

The CMT provides proposal templates to be filled in. Only fully completed proposals can be submitted. The CMT will automatically indicate if requested information is incomplete. A full explanation of the proposal template and information requested can be found in the CMT manual. The CMT will generate a .pdf document of your proposal for download.

Proposals shall be submitted in English. Other languages shall not be accepted and such proposals shall be considered ineligible. Applicants preparing their proposals are strongly advised to get in touch with their responsible national/regional funding organisation at an early stage to clarify individual questions and to request information on the specific national/regional regulations and requirements. A pre-proposal check service may be offered – or even required – by some of the participation funding organisations (see Annex for details and contacts).

A call related international Information and Brokerage event will be organised on 25 November 2016 in order to provide general call information and options for networking with potential partners in other countries/regions. Web-based tools for networking of researchers (partnering) will be provided. Additional information on the EMEurope Call 2016 can also be found at the EMEurope website: http://www.electricmobilityeurope.eu.

Please find further information about the proposal preparation in chapter 6 (‘How to apply’’) and in the ‘CMT manual’.

 

 

4.3 Eligible project consortia, costs and duration

Each transnational project proposal shall be submitted by a consortium composed of at least three independent eligible applicants from at least three different call participating countries. The call is open for applicants from other than the funding countries (third countries), but those cannot apply for EMEurope funding and do not count for the country threshold requirement.

Consortia need to be balanced between countries/regions in terms of number of partners, geographical coverage and distribution of budget. The added value resulting from transnational cooperation shall be properly addressed in the proposal.

There is no limit to the total number of partners to be involved in each project and there are no fixed minimum or maximum limits for the project costs. However, no single country or region of a project consortium shall request more than 70% of the eligible costs in the project. The joint requested funding of the two partners applying for the highest funding shall not exceed 85% of the eligible costs.

Project consortia may consist of partners from universities, research organisations, institutes, stakeholder associations, city councils, SMEs industry and operators. Consortia have to include stakeholders and/or implementation partners and may consist of partners active across several positions within the research and development system (i.e. innovation, applied research, strategic research) and across disciplines. Consortia are required to prove the interest and active involvement of project partners in the consortium, who (either within the project or as a consequence thereof) will implement the solutions developed:

  •   Including stakeholders or implementation partners in the consortium who are eligible for funding; or

  •   Having stakeholders or implementation partners not eligible for funding, who express their interest in the proposal in a Letter of Intent. The letter shall contain an explicit declaration about the financial or in-kind contribution agreed upon. In-kind contributions are contributions in man-hours of personnel or material contributions such as the use of specific software and access to facilities. In-kind contributions shall be capitalised in the Letter of Intent and constitute an integral component of the project plan. The amounts stated in the letter must match the amounts stated in the budget for the proposal.

    The project duration (official start to end of the project) shall be appropriate to the subject of the research, but shall not exceed 30 months in total.

     

 

 

5. Two-step submission and evaluation procedure

The EMEurope call follows a two-step submission and evaluation procedure:

A two-step submission and evaluation procedure ensures the selection of best quality proposals to be invited for full proposal submission in Step 2. It is necessary to guarantee that only entities eligible for funding under the national/regional funding rules are invited to Step 2. Furthermore it enables EMEurope funding partners to balance requested funding and available funding for each participating country and region between Steps 1 and 2. The submission and evaluation process will be supported by a web-based tool, the CMT. Step 2 of the evaluation process will be monitored by an independent observer and an EC representative.

5.1 Submission and evaluation of light proposals: Step 1

The applicants shall prepare and submit their light proposal by means of the CMT.

Completeness and eligibility check

At the beginning of the evaluation process the Call Secretariat will make a completeness check of all received proposals and will indicate by a note any possible eligibility issue identified. This includes checking compliance of proposals with the stipulated minimum criteria.

Subsequently, the Call Secretariat will request the respective national/regional funding organisations to formally check in the CMT proposals involving applicants from their country/region for national/regional eligibility.

 

 

 

If either the project proposal coordinator (consortium coordinator) or the proposal does not meet the eligibility requirements, the proposal shall be excluded from further evaluation procedure. In case a single applicant of a project consortium is not eligible, the proposal may still be eligible without this partner, provided that the other eligibility criteria are met. In both cases, this will be communicated to and via the consortium coordinator.

National/regional experts and evaluation criteria

For the qualitative assessment in Step 1 of the evaluation eligible proposals will be forwarded to experts nominated by the national/regional funding providers. The experts will be selected according to their expertise in relation to the addressed key area and topics in the proposal.

These experts will assess proposals according to the call evaluation criteria and provide a qualitative assessment of the proposals along the criteria of H2020: Scientific and/or technical excellence, Implementation and Impact.

Since this stage considers the submission and evaluation of light proposals (Step 1), no detailed scores will be given, but the quality assessment dimensions will be used as guidance to establish the recommended general mark of a proposal:

  •   Red (proposal not to be invited for full proposal submission);

  •   Yellow (proposal to be invited for full proposal submission, with conditions);

  •   Green (proposal to be invited for full proposal submission, without conditions).



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