Advancing promising results from Pillar II collaborative research through the innovation journey

General conditions 1. Admissibility conditions: Proposal page limit and layout Admissibility conditions are described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes. Proposal page limits and layout are described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System. 2. Eligible countries Eligible countries are described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes. A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide. 3. Other Eligibility Conditions The following additional eligibility criteria apply: consortia may include a maximum of 6 independent eligible entities as participants. The proposals must be based on results generated within a prior multi-beneficiary project funded directly under the Clusters of Pillar II (Clusters 1 to 6), through a Research and Innovation Action (RIA), an Innovation Action (IA) or a Pre-commercial Procurement Action (PCP). Applicants may submit a proposal based on results generated within more than one such projects (from the same or different Clusters of Pillar II), however only one of these projects will be considered as primary. Applicants must explicitly state in their proposal the project concerned (or the primary project concerned in case the proposal is based on results generated within more than one projects), by providing the relevant grant number and acronym as indicated in the Funding & Tenders Portal. The project(s) must have been completed before the submission deadline[[The ‘end date’ of the grant must be prior to the submission deadline.]]. Ongoing projects[[Projects that have an ‘end date’ after the submission deadline.]] are not considered eligible. Only projects where the granting authority for the completed project is the Commission or Executive Agency[[This means for example that projects such as the ones funded under a co-funded European Partnership or a joint undertaking are not considered eligible.]] are eligible[[Results generated within projects funded via financial support to third parties are not eligible.]]. Proposals must provide evidence[[In case of proposals that are based on results generated within more than one projects, evidence of ownership or access to the knowledge assets, including intellectual property where relevant, must be provided for all these projects.]] that the consortium owns or has access to the knowledge assets, including intellectual property, where relevant. More specifically, proposals must include at least one of the following: Confirmation that at least one of the applicants is the owner or holder of the relevant knowledge assets, including if applicable Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), and possesses the necessary rights to commercialise/use the results, or Commitment letter from the owner(s) of the relevant result(s) confirming the owner(s)’ willingness to negotiate fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory access to the results, including IPR where relevant, for the purpose of future exploitation. In line with the “restriction on control in innovation actions in critical technology areas” delineated in General Annex B of the General Annexes, entities established in an eligible country but which are directly or indirectly controlled by China or by a legal entity established in China are not eligible to participate in the action. Some activities, resulting from this topic, may involve using classified background and/or producing of security sensitive results (EUCI and SEN). Please refer to the related provisions in section B Security — EU classified and sensitive information of the General Annexes. If projects use satellite-based earth observation, positioning, navigation and/or related timing data and services, beneficiaries must make use of Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS (other data and services may additionally be used). Other eligibility conditions are described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes. 4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion Financial and operational capacity and exclusion are described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes. 5a. Evaluation and award: Award criteria, scoring and thresholds To allow a faster access to funds for small collaborative consortia, grants under this topic will be funded under a Fast Track to Research and Innovation Procedure (FTRI). Indicative timetable for evaluation and grant agreement signature will be: Information on the outcome of the evaluation: Maximum 4 months from the final date for submission; and Indicative date for the signing of grant agreements: Maximum 6 months from the final date for submission. To ensure a balanced project portfolio covering all Clusters of Pillar II (Clusters 1 to 6), grants will be awarded (within available budget) to proposals not only in order of ranking but at least also to those proposals that are the 2 highest ranked within different Clusters targeted[[A proposal is considered to target a Cluster of Pillar II (Cluster 1 to 6), when it is based on results generated within a prior multi-beneficiary project funded directly under that Cluster. In case of proposals that are based on results generated within more than one projects, the Cluster of the primary project -as stated by the applicants in their proposal- will be considered as being the Cluster targeted.]], provided that the proposals attain all thresholds. Eligible proposals submitted under this topic and exceeding all the evaluation thresholds will be awarded a STEP Seal ​​​​​​[[ https://strategic-technologies.europa.eu/about/step-seal_en ]]. Award criteria, scoring and thresholds are described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes. 5b. Evaluation and award: Submission and evaluation processes The thresholds for each criterion will be 4 (Excellence), 4 (Impact) and 4 (Implementation). The cumulative threshold will be 12. Submission and evaluation processes are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual. 5c. Evaluation and award: Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes. 6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum as defined in the Decision of 7 July 2021 authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2021-2027) – and in actions under the Research and Training Programme of the European Atomic Energy Community (2021-2025) [[This decision is available on the Funding and Tenders Portal, in the reference documents section for Horizon Europe, under ‘Simplified costs decisions’ or through this link: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/horizon/guidance/ls-decision_he_en.pdf ]]. The granting authority may, up to 4 years after the end of the action, object to a transfer of ownership or to the exclusive licensing of results, as set out in the specific provision of Annex 5. Legal and financial set-up of the grants are described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes. Specific conditions Specific conditions are described in the specific topic of the Work Programme.