25 November 2019Brussels

EMFFINFODAY

Introducing the Blue Economy Window Call for proposals

BACKGROUND

Challenges in the Blue Economy (BE):

• Access to finance for innovative, sustainable and circular BE SMEs;

• Investment Readiness: It is not only about funding;

• Investor community unaware or unfamiliar about BE investment opportunities.

BACKGROUND This is all about investment and market readiness. In this call, we look for companies that:

• can demonstrate commitment from investors (letter of intent);

• have a convincing path to market (Business plan and commercialisation plan);

• can successfully pitch in front of a jury panel of investors (pitch deck).

OBJECTIVES

OBJECTIVES• Help innovative technologies and/or maritime services improve their market

readiness and advance towards market entry

• Facilitate scaling up business models and service concepts

• De-risk investment in these projects to facilitate their access to other financing schemes for the next stages of their activities

SCOPE

SCOPE

• Contribute towards a product and/or service in the blue economy and or;

• Contribute to one or more EU political objectives:lower greenhouse gas emissions,

circular economy,

energy security,

adaptation to climate change,

inclusion of coastal communities,

creation of high-value blue economy jobs,

better protection, sustainable use of natural or cultural capital and/or

• Shift existing activities towards these goals.

SCOPE• Blue bioeconomy

• Renewable energy

• Enabling technologie

• Cleaner shipping

• Resources efficiency/ circular economy

• Pollution monitoring, clean-up or management

• Diversification or energy efficiency of ports

• Tourism which contributes to the protection or preservation of natural capital

ACTIVITIES

ACTIVITIES• Demonstration,

• Validation,

• Piloting,

• Scaling-up,

• Miniaturisation,

• Certification,

• Design,

• Market replication and the like aiming to bring an innovation (product, process, service etc.) to industrial readiness and maturity for market introduction.

ACTIVITIES

TRL 4 TRL 5 TRL 6 TRL 7 TRL 8 TRL 9

Technologyvalidated in

lab

Technologyvalidated in

relevant envir.

Technologydemonstrated

in relevant envir.

System complete and

qualified

System prototype

demonstrationin operational

envir.

Actual system proven in

operational envir.

Expected TRL upon submissionUndesirable TRL

Desirable TRLoutcome

EXPECTED IMPACTS

EXPECTED IMPACTS

• Contributing to business and growth:

• SMEs profitability and growth performance

• High quality jobs

• Market and business opportunities in the EU and beyond

• Increase private investment in Blue innovations

EXPECTED IMPACTS

• Contributing to social, environmental goals and EU added value:

• Measurable social/environmental impact contributing to:

EU goals and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals

• European Added Value: contribute to job creation and growth and if relevant to the EU’s sea-basin strategies

• Expected impact to be described in qualitative and quantitative terms

LETTER OF INTENT

EXPECTED IMPACTS

Slido

25 November 2019Brussels

QUESTIONS ?

EMFF#19

All you need to know abouteligibility, award criteriaand evaluation

WHAT IS NEW?

• Eligibility:

• Only for SMEs in a consortium or single applicant

• Evaluation and Award criteria :

• A new evaluation procedure: remote step (step 1) / interviews (step 2)

• 3 new award criteria : impact, innovation, implementation

• New proposal template and mandatory annexes adapted torequirements of the call and evaluation: letter of intent, commercialisation plan, business plan and pitch-deck

ELIGIBILITY CONDITIONS

!!!!!! ONLY FOR-PROFIT SMEs !!!!

• Be exclusively for-profit SMEs (micro-small and medium-sized enterprises

• Definition set out in Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC.

• Applies to Coordinator, linked third parties and partners alike.

• What does it concretely mean? All applicants must register in the Participant register SME Self-Declaration + Self-Assessment

• Other types of entities only as subcontractors (subcontracting may only be limited)

SPECIFIC ELIBILITY CONDITIONS FOR PARTICIPANTS

• Legally established in the EU (including overseas countries and territories (OCT)

• Non-EU countries exceptionally when involvement necessary

• Proposal submitted by a consortium (for profit SMEs only)

• Or a single applicant

• The coordinator or the single applicant has to be established in an EU Member State.

SELECTION CRITERIA

Financial capacity: Make sure the applicant has sufficient and stable financial resources

Operational capacity: Make sure the applicant has the know-how & qualifications to perform the action

Fill in the operational capacity fiche (annex 2 to Proposal Template (partB))

FINANCIAL PROVISIONS

CO-FINANCING

• No-profit rule – a key principle for grants

• Co-financing: 70%

ELIGIBLE COSTS

• List and description of eligible costs(direct and indirect costs):

Call text (section 9 Financial provisions)

Grant agreement (General Conditions and Special Conditions)

AWARD CRITERIA AND EVALUATION

AWARD CRITERIA

INNOVATION IMPACT IMPLEMENTATION

Objectives, scope and methodology

Market and business opportunities Team

Challenge and solution Growth performance Work plan, management structures and risks

Innovation potential Market uptake and increase of private investment

Resources

European added value

Communication and dissemination

New !!

NEW FOR EMFF:

• Scoring grid with a total of 15 points

• Each criterion noted out of 5 points – half points can be given

• Individual threshold 3 out of 5 points

• Minimum overall pass threshold : 10/15

• Weighted score at consensus stage: Impact 50%, Innovation andimplementation 25%

EVALUATION PROCESS

EVALUATION AND AWARD PROCEDURE

• Two-step evaluation :independent experts assist the evaluation committee

• Step 1: remote evaluation by individual experts

• Applications passing the overall threshold are ranked in descending order (ranking list) according to their overall evaluation score and go to step 2 (approx. twice the budget of the call)

• Step 2: A panel of jury experts interview the applicants in Brussels. Based on their assessment, a proposal will be proposed for funding, for the reserve list (nomoney available) or rejected.

• Unsuccessful proposals are rejected

STEP 1 : REMOTE EVALUATION • Minimum of three experts evaluate remotely all aspects of the proposal against

award criteria

• For details: business plan and commercialisation plan

• For these annexes –: template with guiding questions. It will help evaluatorsunderstand your concept etc. Be straight to the point. No pages limit but in yourinterest to be concise and straight to the point.

• Remote Experts do not discuss: final consensus score is automated

• At the end of this step, you receive an automated assessment with standardstatements regarding your proposal

STEP 2 : JURY PANEL INTERVIEW

• 11-15 May 2020

• Company representatives are invited to participate (max 3)

• A panel of min 5 investors meet the applicants in Brussels

• Pitch-deck –to be submitted with application but will be used for step 2 (only)

• 10‘ Pitch presentation

• 20‘ Q&As

JURY INTERVIEW

• No pre-set questions but clarification of proposal based on specificaspects of award criteria

• Innovation : feasibility of the idea

• Impact : commercialisation strategy

• Implementation : the team

OUTCOME OF EVALUATION

In Step 2, based on the outcome of the interview, the evaluation committee finalises the ranking list as follows:

• proposals proposed for funding – final score A;

• proposals not proposed for funding – final score B.

INDICATIVE TIMELINE

27/02/2020 Submission Deadline

March–April 2020 Remote Evaluation

Mid-April Invitation to interviews

11-15 May 2020 Interview

June-July 2020 Information to applicants

May-June 2020 Evaluation committee agree final ranking list

July-September 2020 Grant Agreement signature

FROM SUBMISSION TO AWARD: PRACTICAL TIPS FOR A SUCCESSFUL PROPOSAL

CONDITIONS FOR ADMISSIBILITY OF YOUR APPLICATION

Submitted before the call deadline via the Funding & Tender Opportunities Portal Electronic Submission System Search Funding & Tenders

Must be readable, accessible and printable;

Contains all the requested information and all required annexes and supporting documents (see section 10 of the Call for proposals);

Limited to 45 pages, additional pages will not be considered by the evaluators.

Submission

Submission via the Portal Funding & tender opportunities portal

NEW - SME self assessment

You are interested in this call? You have a great idea!

Check first if you are eligble: Go ASAP on the Funding and Tender OpportunitiesPortal and check if you fit!

Pay particular attention to SME-self assessment

You have great partners? Check that they fit too!!!!

Do not wait until the last minute as this may negatively affect your submission!

You will be blocked if you don´t do it!

Go To the Participant register

https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/how-to-participate/participant-register

For-profit SME status in practice

For-profit SME status in practice

Step-by-step guide

For-profit SME status in practice

For-profit SME status in practice

For-profit SME status in practice

For-profit SME status in practice

Call for proposals:

Guide for applicants:

Administrative Forms (part A)

Technical Proposal Template (part B)

Operational capacity fiche (annex 2 to part B)

EMFF project indicators table (annex 3 to part B)

Business plan (annex 4 to part B)

Commercialisation plan (annex 5 to part B)

Letter of intent (annex 6 to part B)

Pitch-Deck : no indicative template but file size limited to 10 MB

Not mandatory Detailed budget table (annex 1 to part B)

All you need at hand for submission

Welcome to PART A

NEW - Keywords in PART A

Well done, you completed the SME self assessment !!!!!

In part A of your proposal, you have the possibility to enter keywords

Please do it and introduce a minimum of 3 keywords; this is in your interestas it will allow for the best matching of your proposal with the expertise ofevaluators

Defining keywords in your application

Defining keywords in your application

Defining keywords in your application

Defining keywords in your application

Welcome to PART B

Subcontracting

Call for proposals:

Guide for applicants:

Administrative Forms (part A)

Technical Proposal Template (part B)

Operational capacity fiche (annex 2 to part B)

EMFF project indicators table (annex 3 to part B)

Business plan (annex 4 to part B)

Commercialisation plan (annex 5 to part B)

Letter of intent (annex 6 to part B)

Pitch-Deck : no indicative template but file size limited to 10 MB

Not mandatory Detailed budget table (annex 1 to part B)

Welcome to annexes

Operational Capacity

Project Indicators

Business Plan

Commercialisation Plan

TIPS AND REMINDERS

Pay attention to part A – SME status and keywords:

All the entities in the consortium have to be for-profit SMEs (with completedself-declaration and self-assessment)

Complete the SME status ASAP and at least 48hrs before the submissiondeadline

Essential to define the best suitable keywords describing your proposal

TIPS AND REMINDERSPay attention to part B - Description of the action

Use the guide for applicants to help you (& the award criteria)

Clearly explain the starting point of your project and how it will make the difference

Clearly Make sure that your product/service meets the requested baseline TRL 6 definition

Be concise and to the point – 45 page limit!!

Use simple and clear language

Check/link the project with relevant EU/other projects

Even in case of consortium – only one business and commercialisation plan per proposal

TIPS AND REMINDERS

Pay attention to part B – Annexes to the proposal

Mandatory pitch deck upon submission. It does not follow a specific template. It should address the feasibilty, commercialisation and team aspects in view of the presentation during the interview

Detailed Budget table remains optional (annex 1 to part B)

Indicative templates for letters of intent, business and commercialisation plans include elements to guide you

EASME EMFF page

Funding & tender opportunitiesportal

Participant Portal

General EMFF FAQs

EMFF-BlueEconomySME-2019 call specific FAQs

FAQs functional mailbox

EASME-EMFF-CALLS@ec.europa.eu

Call relevant links:

Slido

25 November 2019Brussels

QUESTIONS ?

EMFF#19

25 November 2019Brussels

EMFFINFODAY