A Guide to Horizon 2020 Funding for the Creative Industries October 2014 Introduction This document is provided as a short guide to help you submit a proposal for the Horizon 2020 funding programme (H2020). It provides a brief overview of how to apply, things to think about, where to get support and useful links. At the end of this document there is information about live and forthcoming H2020 funding calls that are particularly relevant to the creative industries. The document has been produced by the Knowledge Transfer Network, in partnership with Creative England and the European Creative Business Network, so that creative industries businesses and organisations can maximise the opportunities for funding. It follows directly from a briefing event held by these organisations in London in October 14, and has benefited from the contribution of a number of sector organisations and individuals with considerable experience and knowledge of European funding programmes. About Horizon 2020 H2020 is the major funding opportunity for research and innovation initiatives across Europe. Over seven years up until 2020 some €80 billion of funding will be available to support research, innovation and business competitiveness. It is the successor to Framework Programme (FP) 7, which was the seventh such investment programme stretching back to 1984. In terms of its underlining policy rationale, H2020 is implementing the Innovation Union strategy to ‘create an innovation-­‐
friendly environment’ in EU, in which new products and services are developed, leading to jobs and growth. Innovation Union is in turn an initiative that comes under Europe 2020, the EU’s ten-­‐year strategy for economic growth. Compared to its FP predecessors, Horizon 2020 is a more streamlined fund that is set up to deliver innovative responses to societal needs. It covers three broad strands: (i) Excellent Science: basic scientific research, including career development and training of researchers (ii) Industrial Leadership. This is based around six sub-­‐programmes, including advanced materials, biotechnology, advanced manufacturing and information and communication technologies (ICT) (iii) Better Society: these tackle solutions to ‘societal challenges’ – major social and economic problems such as health, energy, environment, security etc H2020 is mainly composed of an ongoing programme of funding calls addressing specific topics, each of which is open for a limited period to competitively assessed proposals and has a specified sum set against it. For the creative industries, it is expected that the major funding calls will come under the ICT sub-­‐programme of Industrial Leadership. Each of the individual funding calls is usually composed of up to three different ‘actions’, again with a fixed sum set against it. The three actions are as follows: (i) Research Innovation Actions: These are actions with Research and Development activities as the core of the project intending to establish new scientific and technical knowledge and/or explore the feasibility of a new or improved technology, product, process, service or solution (ii) Innovation Actions: Primarily consisting of activities directly aiming at producing plans and arrangements or designs for new, altered or improved products, processes or services. For this purpose they may include prototyping, testing, demonstrating, piloting, large-­‐scale product validation and market replication (iii) Coordination and support actions: These are actions that cover not the research itself, but the coordination and networking of projects, programmes and policies. This includes innovation network activities, dissemination of knowledge, actions to stimulate the participation of SMEs In the addition to the calls, H2020 includes The SME Instrument, an ongoing fund (worth €3bn up until 2020) to which small and medium sized enterprises (i.e. fewer than 250 employees) that are EU based can apply directly to get funding and support for innovation projects that will help them to grow and expand their activities into countries, in Europe and beyond. Trans-­‐nationality Trans-nationality, or the carrying out of actions across national borders, is a guiding principle of the EU, particularly in terms of the wider benefits, lessons and best practice that are generated through such activities. Horizon 2020 is a trans-­‐national programme and this means that many calls will need partners from up to three different eligible countries in a consortium. In summary: • Research & innovation actions AND Innovation actions. At least three legal entities from at least three different Member States or associated countries. • Coordination & support actions. No requirements – but applications with a transnational element are likely to be looked on favourably. • SME instrument. No requirements. The aim of this is to help share learning across Europe and most applications will be strengthened by a reference to some “added value” from any trans-­‐national element. For example, you may show how cooperating with organisations from other countries can help you to develop a product or service that can be used/implemented in many regions across the programme area. Or you may show that partner organisations will learn from each other as part of the experience. In any case, a good application will also be required to demonstrate how the research/development will be widely shared across Europe. Making an Application: the Key Stages Stage 1 -­‐ Submit your proposal If you wish to respond to a call, you must submit a proposal before the deadline. The Participant Portal has clear instructions to guide you through the process. The system is an online only process – there is no need to submit a paper application. All proposals are submitted over the portal. The main proposal will be written in a template format – as an editable MS Word document. This should be downloaded and can be filled in offline. The budget must be filled in online, on the template provided. The partner details must also be filed in online. Note that all applications require you to firstly register for your Participant Identification Code (PIC). This is a 9-­‐digit code that is the unique identifier of your organisation and will be used as a reference in all interactions with the EC. Stage 2 -­‐ Find your partners Calls normally require a team of at least three partners. If you need help to identify a potential partner with particular competences, facilities or experience, use the partner search options. Stage 3 -­‐ Evaluation by experts Once the deadline has passed, all proposals are evaluated by a panel of independent specialists in their fields. The panel checks each proposal against a list of criteria to see if it should receive funding. Stage 4 -­‐ Grant agreement Once a proposal passes the evaluation stage (normally five months’ duration), applicants are informed about the outcome. The European Commission then draws up a grant agreement with each participant. The grant agreement confirms what research & innovation activities will be undertaken, the project duration, budget, rates and costs, the European Commission's contribution, all rights and obligations and more. The time limit for signing the grant agreements is generally three months. If you are successful, normally grants agreements stipulate that all partners are responsible for project delivery. You should therefore leave time both before and after application assessment to discuss terms and roles with your partners, as well as processes for re-­‐organising work if partner circumstances change. How to submit your proposal The application process will only be open once the call is live. It will be available from the specific topic page (e.g. ICT 19 or ICT 20) – as per the links below. The page will include three tabs in the middle of the page: (i) Topic description – which will provide info on the call (ii) Topic conditions and documents -­‐ This provides extensive detail on submission information (iii) Submission service – Once the call is live – a button “Start Submission” will appear on this page. Click on the button to go to the Draft proposal form. N.B. you are recommended to use Internet Explorer – there are issues using the browser Chrome – which has restricted access to the essential budget submission area. Once you have reached this page you will need to follow the steps outlined in this document here. http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/support/sep_usermanual.pdf It shows you the steps to 1. Register yourself 2. Register your company. a. Each Company is given a PIC number. This is a Unique Identifier. A company will only be awarded one PIC number – this must be used for every application, whether you are the lead or a partner. It means the same company can be recognised no matter what role it takes, and avoids duplication of the company on the EU system. 3. Register a proposal a. Once you have registered your proposal, it will be stored as a draft in your ‘My Proposals’ area. You can access this through your ‘my Area’ section which is the page you will be taken to once you login. Click on My Proposals. A list of your proposals is shown – click on the small ‘ED’ (edit) button to the right – to gain access. 4. Add a partner a. To add a partner, click on ‘Add a Partner’ button. If you have re-­‐logged in you will need to click on the Step 4 – Parties button at the bottom of the page. 5. Upload a proposal 6. Enter the budget The Main Proposals Contents of a proposal: Each type of proposal comprises of a number of sections: • General information: Contact details, a summary of your proposed activity, declarations • Participants & contacts: Who is involved and their contact details • Budget: The project finances, be aware that projects will be evaluated heavily on value for money and there is no opportunity to adjust your budgets at a later date. • Ethics: Yes/No questions relating to the ethics surrounding your proposed activity. • Call-­‐specific questions: Currently being updated ahead of launch but these will relate directly to the bid and will interrogate its suitability, excellence and innovation. Download the templates from the ‘Proposal’ section – Click on the ‘Download templates’. Follow the template format for the structure of your proposal. When it is complete click on Upload in your ‘Proposal’ section and add the corresponding completed document. Each area of funding has a specific proposal form relevant to its subcategory. Applications are made through the submission service; however you can view samples of these forms online: For RIA and IA applications you can see a sample application form here: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/call_ptef/pt/h2020-­‐call-­‐pt-­‐ria-­‐
ia_en.pdf for CSA applications you can see a sample application form here: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/call_ptef/pt/h2020-­‐call-­‐pt-­‐ria-­‐ia-­‐
csa_en.pdf for PPI applications you can see a sample application form here: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/call_ptef/pt/h2020-­‐call-­‐pt-­‐pcp-­‐
ppi_en.pdf The Budget The budget has to be entered online only. To access the budget section, click on the Edit Forms button. This will take you to an online ENTRY section where you will need to add in your budget details. H2020 funding is a reimbursement of the eligible costs incurred for the action. In general, for Research Innovation Actions this can be up to 100% of eligible costs, while for Innovation Actions it is 70% (or 100% for not-­‐for-­‐profit organisations). Reimbursements tend to largely be for personnel costs, for which timesheets are not required if the person works full time on the project. Partner Details In the same section you will also need to add in full information about the partners you are working with. As well as other administration details. Make sure you look though this in advance, as it will take more time than you think. Other European Funding It is worth remembering that Horizon 2020 is by no means the only source of funding for the creative industries. For decades now, many UK organisations have been delivering projects through the ‘structural funds’ of ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) and ESF (European Social Fund). These funds are intended to promote economic growth and opportunity in disadvantaged localities, the former more focused around infrastructure and business support, the latter around skills. Both of these are ongoing until 2020, with the funds allocated by the UK government through bodies such as the Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs). In addition, there is Creative Europe (based out of the EC’s Education and Culture Directorate) which similarly began in 2014 and runs over the next seven years with a total budget of €1.5bn, replacing the EC’s previous Culture and MEDIA funding programmes. Creative Europe funding is open to creative industries and cultural organisations (rather than individual artists) across the EU, with funding programmes that support them operate across Europe, to reach new audiences and to develop the skills needed in the digital age. Broad eligibility and guidelines applicable to all H2020 strands are explained in this document: https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/doc/call/h2020/common/1617621-­‐
part_19_general_annexes_v.2.0_en.pdf Useful Info Advice on how to apply can be found here: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/grants_manual/pse/h2020-­‐guide-­‐
pse_en.pdf General Links: http://www.europa.eu/horizon2020 http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/docs/h2020-­‐funding-­‐guide http://europa.eu/research/participation/portal H2020 Help desk -­‐ http://ec.europa.eu/research/index.cfm?pg=enquiries Contact the National contact Point The national contact point is the person in UK designated to support applications. If you have queries it is worth talking to them: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/support/national_contact_points.htm
l -­‐ c,contact=country/sbg/United Kingdom/1/1/0&function_details..function_abbr/sbg//1/1/0&+contact_name/asc Forthcoming Calls: ICT 19 and ICT 20 ICT 19: Technologies for Creative Industries, Social Media and Convergence Closing date for applications: 14/4/2015 Topic Challenge: The demand is growing for high-­‐quality content and new user experiences. At the same time, thanks to ubiquitous technology adoption, widespread use of mobile devices, broadband internet penetration and increasing computing power the consumption of content anywhere, anytime and on any device is becoming a reality. Consequently, developments related to content creation, access, retrieval and interaction offer a number of opportunities and challenges, also for the creative and media industries. In order to keep pace with the trends and remain competitive, those industries need to explore new ways of creating and accessing content. The opportunity to establish new forms of content and user engagement could be transformative to many businesses in creative and media industries. Participant Portal: ICT 19 – Technologies for creative industries, social media and convergence Which is subcategorised as • RIA – Research and Innovation Action (funding rate up to 100%): Research based activity into tools to support the Creative Industries or innovative approaches to teaching and learning environments • IA – Innovation Action: Testing of new technologies or innovative solutions • CSA -­‐ Coordination and Support Action: Facilitation of support to research on policy exchange in Convergence and Social Media or in the dissemination of research in this area ICT 20: Technology for Better Human Learning and Teaching Closing date for applications: 14/4/2015 Topic Challenge: The development and integration of robust and fit-­‐for-­‐purpose digital technologies for learning are crucial to boost the market for and innovation in educational technologies. This requires an industry-­‐led approach in close cooperation with academia to defining the frameworks and interoperability requirements for the building blocks of a digital ecosystem for learning (including informal learning) that develops and integrates tools and systems that apply e.g. adaptive learning, augmented cognition technologies, affective learning, micro-­‐learning, game-­‐based learning and/or virtual environments/virtual worlds to real-­‐life learning situations. This challenge also encourages public procurement of innovative solutions to address the needs of the digital learning ecosystem in making better use of educational cloud solutions, mobile technology, learning analytics and big data, and to facilitate the use, re-­‐use and creation of learning material and new ways to educate and learn online. Participant Portal: ICT 20 – Technology for better human learning and teaching • RIA – Research and Innovation Action (funding rate up to 100%): Research into innovative approaches to teaching and learning environments • IA – Innovation Action (Funding rate: 70%, except for non-­‐profit legal entities, where a rate of 100% applies): Testing and experimentation of new models for learning or the establishment of frameworks for stakeholder engagement with new approaches in this area •
PPI – Public Procurement of Innovative Devices (Funding rate 20%): Support to coordinate the development of joint specifications and procuring of innovative devices and software for the application of technology mediated learning and teaching