RESIST II PRODUCT INNOVATION OPEN CALL

As per the call textPDF, Section 6 - Eligibility/Eligible participants (eligible countries), in order to be eligible, the applicants must be legal entities established in one of the eligible countries, i.e., EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs)); listed EEA countries and countries associated to the Single Market Programme. Please check the list of participating countriesPDF to verify whether the country where the organisation is based is eligible to apply.

In this case, Serbia, Ukraine and Turkey are associated to the SMP, while Lebanon is not.

Entities from other countries can be added as "Associated partners", therefore not signing the grant and not receiving financial support, if this is considered useful/necessary for the implementation of the project. The rationale behind the choice should be well explained in the proposal. Please refer also to the award criterion 'Quality - Project team and cooperation arrangements' as described in Section 9 - Award criteria of the call for proposals.

Please note however that, besides the eligibility of each individual consortium partner, proposals must also fulfill the "consortium composition" requirements (as per the call textPDF Section 6) in order to be eligible, including having at least 3 cluster organisations or cluster networks from at least three different EU Member States. Therefore, non-EU member States like Serbia, Ukraine and Turkey, although being eligible partners, do not count towards this specific requirement.

The financial capacity check will be performed during grant preparation for all applicants that are not public bodies, regardless of their previous validation.

The documents already submitted by the applicants will remain valid, but it might be that additional and more recent documentation will be requested as, in general, documents showing the applicant's financial situation for the last two closed financial years must be provided (profit and loss account and balance sheet, business plan, audit report produced by an approved external auditor, certifying the accounts for the last closed financial year, etc.).

At the moment of closure of this call, this will normally be information on the closed financial years 2022 and 2023.

It is up to the applicants to design the FSTP calls, including the eligible activities, type of support, criteria for award and for calculation of the amount of FSTP.

Please refer to Section 2 (c) - Financial support to third parties (SMEs) of the call textPDF.

Only SMEs from countries associated to the Single Market Programme are eligible for FSTP funding.

Please refer to section 6 - "geographical location" of the call for proposalsPDF. Proposals must relate to activities taking place in the eligible EU and non-EU countries associated to the Single Market Programme or targeted third countries for the purpose of internationalisation activities.

Yes. The call requires financial support by the awarded SMEs with a certain percentage of private financial sources. The purchase of advanced technologies by the SME - as own contribution to match the received funding - would fulfil the requirement.

Please also refer to Q&A 54119 and Q&A 54368 on the subject.

The budgetary category "Financial Support to Third Parties" (FSTP) requires a direct payment from the beneficiaries of this call (consortium partners) to the sub-beneficiaries, or third parties. Therefore, services provided by Euroclusters' partners themselves will not be considered as financial support to the third party and therefore cannot be reimbursed 100%.

Please also refer to Q&As 54117and 54550 for more information.

Training activities and international missions, among others, are eligible for funding under cascade calls that will be published by Euroclusters in the context of financial support to third parties only if such activities are directly focused to address the main objective “Innovation and adoption of new processes and advanced technologies for strategic autonomy, to build capacity in the most critical areas of their ecosystems, and to reinforce transformation into a greener, more digital, and resilient economy”. On the contrary, a cascading call aimed at providing training or internationalisation activities per sé would not be allowed in the frame of the present call. It is up to the applicants to describe and justify in their proposals the intended approach to FSTP calls. We invite you to carefully read sections 6 and 2(c) of the call textPDF outlining the scope, objectives, conditions for the “support to third parties (SMEs)”.

A cluster active in Gaming can apply with a proposal in a Gaming-related topic under Strand 2 of the call for proposal, provided that all the respective conditions stipulated in the call text are met, such as, among others:

- Proposals must be focused on a value chain within or across one or more of the 14 industrial ecosystems as identified in the European Industrial Strategy (as an example, as described in the European Commission's 2021 Annual Single Market Report, the Cultural and Creative Industries ecosystem also includes audiovisual industries such as TV, videogames, video-on-demand, cinema, VR/AR, etc.) ;

- Applying clusters and entities in the proposal shall deliver on mandatory activities to address the main objective indicated in Section 2 of the call text and, in doing so, they are also expected to contribute to one or more of the supporting objectives.

It is reminded that eligibility conditions for individual partners and consortium composition indicated in Section 6 of the call for proposalsPDF must also be fulfilled.

No.

As per the call for proposals, Section 2- Themes and Priorities, the first strand is specifically related to the Net-Zero Industry Act and Critical Raw Materials Act. Strategic raw materials are listed in Annex I of Regulation (EU) 2024/1252 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 April 2024 establishing a framework for ensuring a secure and sustainable supply of critical raw materials and amending Regulations (EU) No 168/2013, (EU) 2018/858, (EU) 2018/1724 and (EU) 2019/1020 (Critical Raw Materials Act). ‘Strategic technologies’ means the key technologies instrumental for the green and digital transitions as well as for defense and aerospace applications as defined in Article 2 of the same Regulation.

Therefore, any materials or technologies that have not been identified as part of the two aforementioned legislations could be addressed by proposals under Strand 2.

Yes. Two distinct legal entities can apply as partners in different projects, providing that they fulfill the eligibility criteria as detailed in Section 6 of the call textPDF.

However, please note that eligible cluster networks are intended as Single Market Programme (SMP) cluster networks: in this sense, they must declare in the Annex 5 to Part B - Eligibility checklist that all members of the SMP cluster network are established in the countries participating in the SMP.

Please see the call text, Section 6. Eligibility/Eligible participants, as well as Annex 5 to Part B, for detailed information.

As per Section 2 - Themes and Priorities of the call for proposalsPDF, proposals must be focused on a value chain within or across one or more of the 14 industrial ecosystems as identified in the European Industrial Strategy.

The "Aerospace and Defence" ecosystem is among the 14 ecosystems identified, hence proposals focusing on value chains within this ecosystem are eligible for submission.

As per the call for proposalsPDF, Section 2 - (b) Other eligible activities, under the secondary supporting objective "2. Provide training to foster upskilling and reskilling of the workforce and attracting talents", a list of potential activities is provided.

Usually, training activities can be organised both for clusters and for SMEs, depending on their objective. However, it has to be noted that the relevant KPI for training activities measures the "number of SMEs taking part in upskilling and reskilling activities of their employees in the scope of the project."

Therefore, in general, activities planned under the main and supporting objectives are meant to have SMEs as their main target.

As per the call for proposalsPDF, Section 2 - (d) Non eligible activities, activities under the main objective of ‘Innovation and adoption of new processes and advanced technologies for strategic autonomy’ to build capacity in the most critical areas of their ecosystems, and to reinforce transformation into a greener, more digital, and resilient economy cannot fund the purchase and installation of advanced technologies. However, this provision applies only to the Euroclusters, as direct beneficiaries of EU funding. It is therefore not applicable to the recipients of FSTP.

It will be up to the Euroclusters to plan and design their cascading calls and define, among others, a fixed and exhaustive list of the different types of activities for which a third party (SME) may receive financial support.

In the context of KPI12, the "client satisfaction rate for flagship support services for SMEs" should be measured by collecting feedback from the supported SMEs regarding the effectiveness of the support provided.

Euroclusters are expected to serve SMEs, whether they are members of the clusters in the consortium or not. SMEs to be supported do not necessarily have to be part of any cluster.

When using financial support to third parties, however, certain conditions apply, as per Section 2(c) - Financial support to third parties of the call for proposalsPDF.These include, among others: calls must have a clear EU dimension; at least 10% of the supported SMEs shall come from EU regions different from the countries of individual Euroclusters’ partners; specific attention needs to be paid to EU-13 countries (i.e. Member States which joined the EU in or after 2004) and to those EU regions with which the Euroclusters’ partners had no previous cooperation; and calls shall focus on engaging actors from regions with different levels of economic development.

Please check the call text for the full list of requirements to be fulfilled when managing FSTP.

The budgetary category "Financial Support to Third Parties" (FSTP) requires a direct payment from the beneficiaries of this call (consortium partners) to the sub-beneficiaries, or third parties. If by "voucher scheme" is intended a document that would allow an SME to receive a service from a provider, that will then request a reimbursement to the beneficiary, then this is not possible under FSTP.

Moreover, the FSTP category in this call is subject to other requirements that must be respected. For example, cascading calls can only address the main objective. Please check carefully Section 2 (c) - Financial Support to Third Parties of the call textPDF, where all requirements are listed.

Having said this, please note that "voucher schemes" can be eligible under this call if contributing to the project objectives, but their cost will have to be declared under budgetary categories other than FSTP (with a co-funding rate of 90%).

The "100% co-funding rate" that applies to the FSTP cost category refers to the co-funding rate of the FSTP costs incurred by the beneficiaries (Euroclusters) selected under this call. This funding rate does not apply to costs incurred by the third parties (SMEs).

Third parties must provide a certain contribution of other private financial sources (in form of debt or own financial resources) to carry out the proposed activities and achieve the relevant objectives.

However, the amount of the grant they will receive by the Euroclusters, if awarded following a cascading call, represents the cost incurred by the Euroclusters, which will be declared under the budgetary category FSTP. Such cost, if deemed eligible, will be funded at 100% .

An “SMP cluster network” means a “network of cluster organisations”.

An SMP cluster network, as defined in Section 6 of the call for proposalsPDF, is eligible if all of its members are established in the countries participating in the SMP.

Therefore, a national cluster association from a SMP country is an eligible applicant.

No.

As per Section "Non-concurrent submission and non-concurrent participation", page 27 of the call textPDF: "individual applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) cannot participate in more than one Eurocluster proposal under this call for proposals. Each Eurocluster is responsible to verify that their individual consortium partners (applicants and affiliated entities) are not participating in proposals of another Eurocluster. This applies also to clusters without legal personality: if the same cluster organisation (even if represented in different consortia by different legal entities) participates in more than one proposal, all concerned proposals will be considered ineligible under this call. Similarly, one Eurocluster (consortium of applicants and affiliated entities) cannot submit more than one proposal under this call for proposals. If any such case is detected by the funding body, it will lead to the ineligibility of all concerned proposals submitted by the concerned consortia under this call."

Under Section "2(d) Non eligible activities" of the call textPDF, it is stated that "Activities under the main objective of ‘Innovation and adoption of new processes and advanced technologies for strategic autonomy’ to build capacity in the most critical areas of their ecosystems, and to reinforce transformation into a greener, more digital, and resilient economy cannot fund the purchase and installation of advanced technologies".

This rule, as well as rules on mandatory and other eligible activities detailed in Sections 2(a) and 2(b) of the call textPDF respectively, is intended to apply to Eurocluster beneficiaries, not to third parties receiving funding via FSTP.

Eurocluster beneficiaries cannot fund the purchase and installation of advanced technologies for themselves. However, Euroclusters can design FSTP calls that are directly addressing the main objective and, among the eligible activities foreseen by their calls, they could include the purchase and installation of advanced technologies.

It is reminded that it is up to the Euroclusters to plan and design the cascading calls for awarding FSTP to SMEs, including the type of eligible activities and the related eligible costs. As per Section 2(c) of the call text, which provides detailed information about FSTP, proposals must clearly detail, among others, “a fixed and exhaustive list of the different types of activities for which a third party may receive financial support” and “the criteria for calculating the exact amount of the financial support”.

If in line with the provisions of the relevant FSTP call, third parties (i.e. SMEs) could therefore use the FSTP funding scheme for the purchase and installation of advanced technologies.

According to the non-concurrent submission and non-concurrent participation rule (page 27 of the Call for ProposalsPDF), individual applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) cannot participate in more than one Eurocluster proposal under this call for proposals. However, if the national cluster and the cluster organisation that is among its founders do not share any legal or financial link, they can indeed participate as individual partners in the two consortia at stake.

No, if the SME is a Partner of the Eurocluster consortium.

Yes, if the SME is not a Partner in the project, but a member of a cluster organisation which is a partner in the project. However, support to SMEs must be awarded on the basis of an open call and adhere to EU standards with respect to transparency, equal treatment, conflict of interest and confidentiality. It is up to the applicants to design the conditions for participation, the criteria for awarding the support, etc. Please refer also to sections 2 and 6 of the call textPDF, which indicate the minimum requirements that must be respected when supporting SMEs. Among others, attention must be paid to the target of the support (e.g. “at least 10% of the supported SMEs will come from EU regions different from the countries of individual Euroclusters’ partners”; “specific attention needs to be paid to EU-13 countries in the calls and those EU regions with which the Euroclusters’ partners had no previous cooperation and shall focus on engaging actors from regions with different levels of economic development”).

As mentioned in the Call for proposalsPDF, entities that are not clusters organisations or cluster networks (as defined by the Call for proposals) are eligible to be part of a consortium as "other types of organisations supporting green and digital transitions", provided all other eligibility conditions detailed in Section 6 of the Call for proposals are respected.

There are no mandatory requirements in order for an entity to qualify as such, however, applicants must provide all possible information demonstrating that the entity at stake qualifies as an organisation “supporting green and digital transitions and building EU resilience” (e.g. this could be mentioned in the statute of the organisation or any similar documents as part of the mission of the organisation, or the type of support it provides, etc.).

As indicated in Section 3 of the Call for proposalsPDF: "Around 16 projects are expected to be funded under this call for proposals, with at least 8 projects for Strand 1. We reserve the right not to award all available funds or to redistribute them between the call strands, depending on the proposals received and the results of the evaluation. If there are no sufficient proposals passing the overall and individual thresholds of the award criteria within one of the two strands, the budget available can be used to support proposals in the other strand."

Please refer also to Section 8 on "Evaluation and award procedure", where you will find additional information on what happens if two or more proposals end up with the same score within a Strand.

Yes, the "non-concurrent submission and non-concurrent participation” rule (see section 6 of the call textPDF) applies to beneficiaries and affiliated entities only.

Associated partners will not become formal recipients of EU funding and can participate in more than one proposal.

The requirement of having a 100% completed profile on the ECCP is no longer applicable after the platform has been updated.

A profile will be considered as "complete" if all the mandatory fields (marked with a *) on the applicant's profile page have been duly filled in.

As stated in Section 6 - Eligibility of the call for proposalsPDF, in order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must be established in one of the eligible countries (EU Member States, listed EEA countries and countries associated to the Single Market ProgrammePDF).

Since the UK is not associated to the Single Market Programme, applicants from the UK are not eligible to apply as partners (or affiliated entities) in a consortium under this Call.

However, entities from the UK can participate as subcontractors. Please refer to Section 9.3. of the Annotated Grant AgreementPDF (AGA) for detailed information on subcontracting rules.

At least 10% of SMEs receiving FSTP funding must come from countries other than the regions where the legal entities representing consortium partners are seated.

However, please note that the final aim of this rule is to encourage a wide reach of the cascading calls going beyond the existing partners’ networks. It is therefore expected that the proposed approaches to FSTP in designed in such a way to ensure wide dissemination of the calls and transparent procedures.

The Financial Regulation 2018/1046 requires that beneficiaries must have the technical and financial resources needed to carry out their projects (‘operational and financial capacity’). Please refer to section 7 of the call for proposalsPDF and to Q&A 55130 for more information on the financial capacity.

If the cluster applies as beneficiary then, among other things, it must fulfil conditions set in section 7 of the call for proposals. If the incubator applies instead, then it must fulfil eligibility conditions set in section 6 of the call. See also Q&A 54522 on the subject.

Be also aware that applicants, both beneficiaries and affiliated entities (AEs), must comply with eligibility conditions set in section 6 of the call for proposals but AEs are not counted towards the fulfilment of the consortium composition requirements.

Finally, we invite you to refer to art 8 of the Annotated grant Agreement (AGA)PDF. In particular, in case a beneficiary has weak financial capacity, the granting authority may - under certain conditions - require joint and several liability of an affiliated entity.

No.

Please refer to Section 6 - Eligibility of thecall textPDF, which lists all eligibility requirements to be fulfilled for both applicants and consortia. In particular, please note that applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must be legal entities. It means that each individual applicant forming part of the applying consortium must be a legal entity.

Please also note that individual applicants cannot participate in more than one Eurocluster proposal. For more information please refer to the Q&A 54253 on the subject.

The "Non-concurrent submission and non-concurrent participation", page 27 of the call textPDF applies to individual beneficiaries and affiliated entities and therefore to any applicant, irrespectively of their role in the consortium.

For more information, please refer to the Q&A 54253 already published on the subject.

No, it is not foreseen to organise a matchmaking event specifically focused on this call for proposals.

However, applicants have a number of options to search for potential partners, e.g., at the bottom of the dedicated call for proposals page on the Funding and Tenders Portal, there is a "Partner search" feature; the ECCP and the Enterprise Europe Network database both offer the opportunity to look for potential partners; etc.

Please refer to Section 6 - Eligibility of the call textPDF, which lists all eligibility requirements to be fulfilled by individual applicants. In order to be eligible, applicants must be or represent a cluster organisation, a Single Market Programme (SMP) cluster network, or other types of organisations supporting green and digital transitions and building EU resilience.

Therefore, unless an applicant is (or represents) a cluster or a network of clusters, to be eligible it must demonstrate it supports twin transition or help building resilience. Applicants must duly justify and elaborate in the proposal why they believe fulfill the eligibility conditions. Evidence of that might be requested during evaluation.

Regarding the status of the different consortium partners, it is reminded that in a consortium, recipients of EU funding are only beneficiaries and affiliated entities complying with the eligibility rules.

Partners that are not fulfilling eligibility conditions may participate and contribute to project activities - if their contribution is deemed useful or necessary to reach the project's objectives - as "Associated Partners". However, associated partners will bear their own costs, hence they will not become formal recipients of EU funding.

Section 6. Eligibility - Specific cases / Exceptional funding of the call textPDF mentions that "entities from other countries (not listed above) are exceptionally eligible, if the granting authority considers their participation essential for the implementation of the action."

However, this has to be intended as an exception to which the most restrictive interpretation must be applied. Essential partners are considered those without whom the project could simply not be implemented.

For this specific call, the granting authority does not consider any non-SMP participating country as being essential for the implementation of the action.

In the context of KPI9, a "business partnership" is intended as an agreement, negotiated and usually legally enforceable, between two or more parties, that is signed following a direct action of the project. KPI9 can be therefore interpreted as "number of companies supported having concluded commercial/legal agreements with other companies for general business purposes (e.g. supply, sales, joint venture, etc.)".

In the context of KPI15, the same definition applies to "business agreements", however in this case the reference is to agreements signed with entities located in third countries. On the other hand, in the context of the same KPI, "collaboration agreements" are to be intended as informal partnerships, always with entities located in third countries.

It should be reminded that KPI9 is among the mandatory ones for all projects, whereas KPI15 is linked to one of the secondary supporting objectives, hence not mandatory to include in the proposal unless the relevant objective is also addressed.

As per Section 2 (c) of the call for proposalsPDF, SME beneficiaries of financial support must provide, on top of the financial support granted by the Euroclusters, a certain percentage of other private financial sources (in form of debt or own financial resources) to carry out the proposed activities and achieve the relevant objectives.

In the call text, there is no prescription as such regarding the share of private resources to be crowded-in by the awarded SMEs. In this sense, each Eurocluster will design their FSTP calls and determine the requirements that applicants have to fulfil in an independent manner. Similarly, it will be up to the Euroclusters to decide how to check that the requirement to crowd-in private capital is fulfilled by the awarded SMEs.

No, the use of own resources by third parties is not a revenue for the project.

No. The call only specifies minimum requirements and the eligibility criteria for the consortium composition (see Section 6 of the call textPDF).

We are not in a position to provide any recommendations regarding the consortium composition or size. It is up to the applicants to choose the most appropriate partners in order to implement the intended actions and to well explain and justify the rationale behind the choices made.

Please bear in mind that proposals will be evaluated on the basis of the award criteria indicated in Section 9 of the call text.

There are no restrictions as such. Applicants can propose activities that are following-up already existing projects. However, each call for proposals is a separate and independent selection process, each with its own defined conditions and criteria.

Having received another EU grant does not imply that the same consortium will be judged as eligible or that it will be awarded. Proposals will be evaluated only on the basis of the conditions and award criteria indicated in this specific call textPDF.

Yes, in principle this is possible.

However, please note that as a matter of principle, the names of subcontractors are not known in advance, as subcontracting is a competitive process awarded on the principle of the best value for money or, if appropriate, the lowest price.

Beneficiaries must also be able to prove compliance with procurement rules (with procurement national legislation for public entities or own internal rules and procedures). When awarding the contract, beneficiaries must ensure that they have respected the following principles: transparency, equal treatment and best value for money, or if appropriate the lowest price. In doing so, they must avoid any conflicts of interests.

Please see Article 6.2.B of the Annotated Grant AgreementPDF for more detailed information on this subject.

Yes. Two distinct legal entities can apply as partners in different projects, regardless of their previous participation in other projects or of the link between them.

Each call for proposals is a separate and independent selection process, each with its own defined conditions and criteria. Proposals will be evaluated only on the basis of the conditions and criteria indicated in this specific call textPDF.

Please refer to Section 6 - Eligibility of the call textPDF, which lists all eligibility requirements to be fulfilled by each individual entity applying, as well as the minimum requirements in order to form an eligible consortium. We cannot provide advice or opinions on the eligibility of a specific applicant. It is up to the applicants to demonstrate they comply with the eligibility criteria.

Regarding the consortium composition and roles, it is up to the applicants to decide and allocate tasks and budget among the consortium partners as they deem more convenient.

In order to find potential partners, applicants are invited to check: the section Partner search announcements on the call page in the F&T Portal (please scroll down to the bottom of the page to get to the right section), the ECCP, the EEN database.

Please refer to Section 6 - Eligibility of the call textPDF, which lists all eligibility requirements to be fulfilled both by the applicants and the consortia.

According to the call text, in order to be eligible, applicants must be or represent a cluster organisation, a Single Market Programme (SMP) cluster network, or other types of organisations supporting green and digital transitions and building EU resilience.

If the SME is not a cluster organisation or a network of clusters, then it must demonstrate they are an "other type of organisation supporting green and digital transitions and building EU resilience".

As per Article 6.2 - Specific eligibility conditions for each budget category of the Annotated Grant AgreementPDF, "Subcontracting may cover only a limited part of the action." This means that normally, only technical and non-core activities can be subcontracted.

In the context of this call, the FSTP call design and management would be considered as a core activity. However, for technical support or legal advice with the needed documentation, or for monitoring the projects' implementation when a technical expertise is needed, for example, subcontracting might be allowed.

Beneficiaries of FSTP can only be SMEs.

It is up to the applicants to design their cascading calls and outline their approach and requirements, including whether applicants to such calls can be individual SMEs or consortia of SMEs.

It is also possible to award consortia of SMEs in partnership with other entities (non SMEs), however the latter cannot receive FSTP.

Applicants may involve associated partners (i.e. partner organisations which participate in the action but without the right to sign or receive a grant) in the implementation of the proposed activities.

However, since associated partners will bear their own costs (i.e. they will not become formal recipients of EU funding), they will be included in the system’s application form, but without a budget.

Further to this, associated partners are not taken into consideration for the eligibility of the consortium composition, and they will not be eligible to receive any financial support to third parties (FSTP).

Associated partners and their role can be mentioned in the Technical Description of Part B - application document.

The beneficiaries must ensure that their contractual obligations also apply to the associated partners, and they remain responsible towards the granting authority for the action tasks performed by associated partners.

For further information, please see Section 13 of the call textPDF.

If a cluster member has a legal or capital link with the cluster being one of the "beneficiaries" (therefore consortium partners), this member can be considered as an affiliated entity, but it is up to the applicant to decide whether to include it or not in the consortium.

It is up to applicants to design the consortium composition, the actions performed and suggest the most appropriate methodology, including the roles of beneficiaries, subcontractors, affiliated entities or associated partners. Affiliated entities will not sign the Grant Agreement but will be able to claim eligible costs. They must therefore comply with all conditions as detailed in the Call for proposalsPDF (i.e. being eligible applicants and being registered in the Participants register, as per Sections 6 and 13 of the call text).

Affiliated entities are added in the Application Form - Part A (see Sections 5 and 11 of the call text).

However, please note that affiliated entities are not counted towards the minimum eligibility criteria for consortium composition. Please refer to page 26 of the call for proposals, on consortium composition, where it is stated that (the minimum of three) applicants are intended as beneficiaries, not as affiliated entities.

The activities implemented by Euroclusters consortia can be open to SMEs that are either members of the consortium partners or not. It is up to applicants to design each proposal and suggest a methodology accordingly.

Moreover, please note that for activities that are planned to be funded via the cost category “financial support to third parties”, all the conditions set in Sections 2 and 6 of the call textPDF must be fulfilled, including those focusing on the SMEs to be targeted (please see page 30 of the call text).

A cluster with no legal entity can be a Partner (acting either as Coordinator or as Partner) of the Consortium by being represented by one of their cluster members with a legal entity. Please, keep in mind that the same cluster cannot use several different legal entities under this Call, i.e. that one cluster entity can only apply with one proposal under this Call. The document to guarantee its representation capacity would be a letter from the Board which delegates the representation in the project to this specific organisation member of the cluster. This letter can be attached as an Annex to Part B.

No. As explained in Section 6 of the Call for proposalsPDF, individual applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) cannot participate in more than one Eurocluster proposal under this call for proposals. Each Eurocluster is responsible to verify that their individual consortium partners (applicants and affiliated entities) are not participating in proposals of another Eurocluster. This applies also to clusters without legal personality: if the same cluster organisation (even if represented in different consortia by different legal entities) participates in more than one proposal, all concerned proposals will be considered ineligible under this call.

Similarly, one Eurocluster (consortium of applicants and affiliated entities) cannot submit more than one proposal under this call for proposals. If any such case is detected by the funding body, it will lead to the ineligibility of all concerned proposals submitted by the concerned consortia under this call.

Please refer to "Operational capacity", at page 29, Section 7 of the Call for proposalsPDF.

Applicants must have the know-how, qualifications and resources to successfully implement the projects. It is up to applicants to demonstrate they have the capacity to perform their tasks and sufficient experience in projects of similar nature and size. Section 7 of the Call for proposalsPDF also provides information on the documents that are requested to demonstrate the applicants' operational capacity.

Indirect costs are declared as a fixed flat-rate of 7% of the eligible direct costs, in accordance with Article 181(6) EU Financial Regulation 2018/1046. The calculation itself is automated: the indirect cost amount is prefilled by the IT system. However, beneficiaries can change the amount, if they would like to request less indirect costs (for instance, because they have a parallel EU operating grant and are not able to demonstrate cost separation). Such specificities (e.g. requesting less indirect cost and/or different distribution of resources between partners) could be included in the Consortium Agreement. See Article 6.2.E of the AGA for more detailed information and refer also to this reply as regards the indirect costs.

As per section 10 (Legal and financial set-up of the Grant Agreements) of the call for proposals, communication costs for presenting the project on the participants’ websites or social media accounts are eligible; costs for separate project websites are not eligible.

No.

According to Section 2(c) - Financial support to third parties (SMEs) of the call textPDF, "The financial support that the Eurocluster grant beneficiaries of this call will provide to the third parties must be matched by the third parties/recipients of the financial support with a certain percentage of other private financial sources (in form of debt or own financial resources), thus crowding in private capital into the projects."

Moreover, the "Quality" award criterion, under sub-criterion "Project design and implementation", includes an assessment of the “methods of crowding in private capital in financial support to third parties financed projects”. Therefore, the awarded SMEs shall contribute with a certain percentage of capital (in form of debt or own private capital).

Associated partners are entities that implement action tasks, but without receiving EU funding. They do not become party to the Grant Agreement (do not sign an accession form), but they implement parts of the action and are thus often involved actively in the consortium. Therefore, the Grant Agreement mentions them by name and defines their role (rights and obligations).

Other third parties may give in-kind contributions to the action (i.e. personnel, equipment, other goods, works and services, etc. which are free-of-charge), if necessary for the implementation. Third parties giving in-kind contributions do not implement any action tasks. They may not charge costs or contributions to the action and the costs for the in-kind contributions are not eligible. The third parties and their planned financial contribution must indeed be declared by the consortium in Annex 1 and under the dedicated field under the "Income part" of the detailed budget table.

Please refer to the Annotated Grant Agreement (AGA)PDF for detailed information on the role of associated partners or third parties providing in-kind contributions.

It is up to the applicant to design the FSTP approach and calls, including the eligible activities, type of support, criteria for award and for calculation of the amount of FSTP.

Please refer to section 2 (c) Financial support to third parties (SMEs) of the call textPDF.

Recipients of Union funds may declare travel, accommodation and subsistence costs on the basis of unit costs, which are amounts fixed as per Commission Decision C(2021)35 of 12 January 2021, as last amended by Commission Decision C(2024) 5405 of 31 July 2024PDF.

In this framework, 3 types of costs can be declared, as follows:

1) travel costs: the unit cost corresponds to the number of people travelling . One unit cost must be calculated per person and for a return travel. The unit cost is fixed according to the distance, which can be calculated using the Flight and rail calculator (link to be added)

2) Accommodation costs: the unit cost corresponds to the number of nights spent during the travel, per person. e.g: 2 persons travelling spending 2 nights = 4 unit costs to be declared.

3) Subsistence costs: the unit cost corresponds to the number of days spent during the travel, per person.(e.g.: 3 persons spending 4 days abroad: 12 unit costs to be declared).

We invite you to consult the text of the Commission Decision for detailed information and instructions on how to calculate unit costs.

Please make sure that for the cost encoding you use the right cells/columns in the detailed budget template (unit costs by default, or - in exceptional cases - actual costs).

The detailed budget table foresees fields to declare external resources for the beneficiaries of the grant (only!) which cannot be declared as eligible costs - namely the income generated by the action, in-kind contributions by third parties and financial contributions by third parties and own resources. Please refer to the bottom of tab "3. Detailed table" of the detailed budget table template.

The maximum requested EU contribution per beneficiary will be fixed during the Grant Agreement Preparation phase, based on the proposal submitted by the consortium.

Each beneficiary will then later be entitled to receive 90% of the total of the eligible costs declared and incurred, except for the FSTP cost category, for which they will receive 100% of the costs declared and incurred.

Yes, in principle this is possible.

The "Travel and subsistence costs" budget category covers travels and related accommodation and subsistence allowances needed for the action (in the frame of both mandatory or non mandatory actions). They are not costs to be directed to third parties, hence they are not to be declared under the FSTP cost category.

Costs under this category must be declared using the unit cost fixed by the authorising decision C(2021)35PDF and comply with the eligibility conditions set out in Article 6.2.C.1 of the Grant Agreement. For further guidance, please also consult the answer n°54545 provided on the matter of travel and subsistence costs.

Yes, in the detailed budget table each partner/affiliated entity must fill one datasheet. The template contains a set of instructions how to fill it, please see Sheet 1. Please respect these instructions carefully.

Sheets 3 and 4 have to be filled in for each of the consortium partners.

Sheet 5 will be assembled manually by the coordinator on the basis of the detailed budget tables/consolidated budget tables filled out by the partners.

According to the Grant Agreement, the grant must not produce a profit. If there is a profit, it will be deducted in proportion to the final rate of reimbursement of the eligible costs approved by the granting authority.

The project income will be deducted from the grant amount at the level of the consortium only (not at the level of the SMEs). This applies, for example, in case of fees requested to attend conferences, or for the sale of results, such as products, services and publications, etc.

Please see the point "Reduction due to the no-profit rule" under article 22.3.4 of the Annotated Grant Agreement.

Travel and subsistence costs may also be eligible for persons that participate in the action on an ad-hoc basis (e.g. attending specific meetings), if this complies with the general and specific eligibility conditions set out in Article 6.1 and 6.2.C of the Grant Agreement, in particular being necessary for the implementation of the action, and: − their participation is foreseen in Annex 1, or − their participation is specifically justified in the periodic technical report and approved by the granting authority.

In line with the beneficiary’s usual practices on travel, the beneficiary may purchase itself or reimburse these persons.

Please see page 88 of the Annotated Grant AgreementPDF for further information.

FSTP budget (cost category D1) must correspond to minimum 75% of the total requested grant.

Indirect costs are declared as a fixed flat-rate of 7% of the eligible direct costs (see Article 6.2 Section E of the Grant Agreement and Article 6.1.7 of the Annotated Grant AgreementPDF for more information).

They are meant to provide a float to the consortium in order to implement the project activities and are not directed to third parties.

Indirect costs must be calculated by applying the 7% flat-rate to the total eligible costs (categories A-D, except volunteers costs and exempted specific cost categories, if any). The calculation itself is automated; therefore the indirect cost amount is prefilled by the IT system.

Please see Article 6, Section E of the Annotated Grant Agreement for more detailed information.

As per the call textPDF, Section 10 - Form of grant, funding rate and maximum grant amount, the costs will be reimbursed at the funding rates fixed in the Grant Agreement, namely 100% for the costs for providing financial support to third parties and 90% for all other cost categories.

The same funding rates apply to all consortium partners, regardless of the type of organisation they represent.

The budget must be estimated in the appropriate budget category. The latter depends on the nature of the costs, not on the activity to be funded. For example, training activities must be estimated under "subcontracting" when subcontracted or under "personnel costs" if run in house with staff of the beneficiaries. The FSTP requires instead a direct payment to SMEs following the publication of an open call.

However, please note that FSTP under this call can is only allowed for activities contributing to the main objective.

The Euroclusters budget is intended to cover for the project activities foreseen. The secondary supporting objectives can be financed using the share of the budget that doesn't have to be destined for FSTP. It is reminded that the total project budget will be reimbursed at a co-funding rate of 100% for FSTP and of 90% for all other cost categories.

The call for proposalsPDF, under section 2(b) - Other eligible activities, lists a number of eligible activities that can be implemented in order to address both the main and the supporting objectives. However, the list is not exhaustive and only serves as an inspiration for applicants to design their proposal. All activities contributing to reach the call's objectives are in principle eligible (unless explicitly excluded such as the purchase and installation of advanced technologies - see section 2 (d) of the call text at page 18 ).

Therefore, costs related to such proposed activities can be foreseen in the estimated budget of the proposal.

It has to be reminded that costs related to activities addressing the secondary supporting objectives cannot be claimed under the FSTP category, but under other costs categories.

As per Section 10 - Budget categories and cost eligibility rules of the call textPDF, the "maximum amount per third party" is EUR 60 000. This is therefore the limit of FSTP that can be awarded to one single SME, not necessarily to one project (as Euroclusters can also decide to award projects led by consortia of SMEs).

Then, it is up to each Eurocluster to design their own FSTP scheme and describe how the private contribution from the awarded SMEs will be guaranteed.

Yes. When designing their FSTP calls, Euroclusters can decide whether to go for a lump-sum payment or for a reimbursement based on actual-costs. Please refer to article 6.2.D.1 of the Annotated Grant AgreementPDF.

As per Section 2(c) - Financial support to third parties (SMEs) of the call textPDF, Euroclusters projects must allocate at least 75% of the grant amount (hence, not of the total estimated budget) to FSTP.

Example: if the requested grant is €2.6 million, then at least €1.95 million must go to SMEs under the FSTP scheme. Please note that this is only an example with the aim of clarifying the call text, however in this example the project budget would be higher than €2.6 million.

Moreover, applicants can decide to allocate an even higher percentage of the grant amount to the FSTP cost category.

It is up to the applicants to decide who will manage the FSTP calls and budget. Different partners, or one, or all, can provide FSTP. However, FSTP costs can be claimed only by the beneficiaries that have incurred such costs (therefore those who signed an agreement with the third parties and disbursed FSTP).

The FSTP costs must be foreseen in the estimated budget of each of the consortium partners providing it.

No.

90% is the co-funding rate for all budget categories except FSTP, which instead is funded at 100%. The contributions of third parties have no impact on the project budget, which only takes into account costs incurred by beneficiaries (Euroclusters' partners).

The grant amount (i.e. the EU contribution) will be based on the total eligible costs incurred by beneficiaries and will be a percentage of the latter (based on the dual co-funding rate).

Beneficiaries (not third parties) will therefore need to contribute with their own financial resources to cover the remaining project costs.

As mentioned in Section 2(c) - Activities that can be funded/Financial support to third parties (SMEs) of the call textPDF, Eurocluster grant beneficiaries of this call are required to ensure that the financial support provided to third parties is matched by a certain percentage of private financial sources.

This means that the grant beneficiaries cannot cover 100% of the costs, and the third parties/recipients of the financial support must contribute a fraction of the costs from their own financial resources, either in the form of debt or own financial resources.

This requirement is designed to "crowd in" private capital into the projects, ensuring that the grant beneficiaries are not solely responsible for funding the costs and that the third parties have a vested interest in the project's success.

It is up to the Euroclusters to plan and design the cascading calls for awarding FSTP to SMEs, including the type of eligible activities and the related eligible costs.

As per Section 2(c) of the Call textPDF, which provides detailed information about FSTP, proposals must clearly detail, among others, “a fixed and exhaustive list of the different types of activities for which a third party may receive financial support” and “the criteria for calculating the exact amount of the financial support”.

Qualified Electronic Signatures (QES) are accepted. Qualified certificates for electronic signatures are provided by (public and private) providers which have been granted a qualified status by a national competent authority as indicated in the national 'trusted lists' of the EU Member State. Those lists can be accessed through the Trusted List Browser.

While different levels of electronic signatures may be appropriate in different contexts, only Qualified Electronic Signatures are explicitly recognized to have the equivalent legal effect of hand-written signatures all over the EU.

The template of Application Form - Part B must be filled in as per the instructions provided on the first page of the document ("Important notice"). This notice outlines all formatting rules, including minimum font size, margins, etc. that must be respected.

Instructions must not be deleted, however, when converting part B into a pdf file, the first page of the document ("Important notice") can be taken out, so that the submitted form starts with the page titled "Cover page".

As stated in Section 7 - Financial and operational capacity and exclusion of the Call textPDF, applicants must have stable and sufficient resources to successfully implement the projects and contribute their share. A financial capacity check will be carried out for each partner on the basis of the documents that successful applicants will be requested to upload in the Participant Register during grant preparation.

If, following this check, we consider that your financial capacity is not satisfactory, we may require:

− further information

− an enhanced financial responsibility regime, i.e. joint and several responsibility for all beneficiaries or joint and several liability of affiliated entities

− prefinancing paid in instalments

− (one or more) prefinancing guarantees.

Therefore, the prefinancing guarantee is not normally necessary, but must be provided upon request. If it is required, it will be fixed in the Grant Agreement (Data Sheet, point 4). The amount will be set during grant preparation and it will normally be equal or lower than the prefinancing for your grant.

Please see also Section 10 - Prefinancing guarantees of the call text for more information.

Annex 5 to part B – Eligibility checklist is composed of several sections. The only section that must be signed (by the authorised representative of the cluster network) is Annex 5(e), whereas all other sections do not need to be signed.

When submitting the application forms and their annexes, the coordinator will make sure and confirm - by submitting the Annex - that the information provided by the other partners in Annex 5 is complete and correct.

See also ec.europa.eu for additional information about Annex 5.

No. Other types of organizations do not need to fill any of the sub-sections of Annex 5.

The description of FSTP calls and actions must be included in Part B of the application form.

Letters of support can be submitted together with Annex 5, as a single pdf file.

It is reminded that including letters of support is not a requirement of this call, therefore these will not be taken into consideration during the evaluation of proposals.

No. As per Section 5 - Admissibility and documents of the call textPDF, annual activity reports are not applicable, therefore they do not have to be submitted.

Annex 5(e) to part B is the "Declaration on members of the SMP cluster network". As such, it must be filled and signed by the authorised representative(s) of any cluster network that is a partner in the consortium.

Cluster organisations are not required to fill in Annex 5(e) but they will still need to fill in either Annex 5(a) or Annex 5(b), depending on the status of their registration on the ECCP.

To sum up, Annexes 5 (a) and 5 (b) must be filled in by both types of entities (cluster organisations and cluster networks) whereas Annex 5 (e) is requested for cluster networks only.

Please refer to the instructions provided on the template of Annex 5, as well as to Section 6 -Eligibility of the call textPDF.

As per Section 2 of the call for proposalPDF, Strand 1 covers value chains linked to net-zero technologies and/or critical raw materials - therefore it's either the first one, the second one, or both.

When targeting value chains linked to net-zero technologies, the call for proposal does not prescribe the number of net-zero technologies that proposals should focus on. It can be one or more.

No. Annexes or any other supporting documents, as long as they are submitted separately, i.e. not as part of the formal Part B template, do not count towards the 50-page limit of Part B.

If applicants add annexes to the Part B template, then these pages count towards the 50-page limit of Part B.

Indicators and targets included in the proposal must be coherent with the proposed mix of activities and the key focus of each Eurocluster. Nonetheless, all proposals must monitor and report on - as a minimum - the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) indicated in the call textPDF, Section 2 - Expected impact and results / (a) Key Performance Indicators, as mandatory indicators.

KPIs related to the secondary supporting objectives are therefore not mandatory to include if the proposal does not address such objectives. It is reminded, however, that according to the call text, Section 2 - Objectives, applications shall address the main objective and are also expected to contribute to one or more of the supporting objectives.

The list of eligible activities in Section 2 of the call textPDF is purely indicative and is intended to clarify the scope of the call.

As detailed in the call for proposals, FSTP funding is limited to activities that directly target the main objective, specifically those promoting innovation or the adoption of advanced technologies. This means that various activities —such as networking, training, or internationalisation efforts—can be included to help SMEs achieve business innovation or adopt new technologies, provided these are clearly linked to the main objective. Consortia must describe these activities and explain their relevance to the main objective within their proposals to justify FSTP funding. Standalone calls focused only on training or individual missions, for example, would therefore not qualify.

Any activities that do not directly address the main objective must be funded through the remaining budget, which may cover up to 25% of the total grant.

In Section 2.5 of the Application Form (Part B), you need to describe and elaborate on the choice of indicators (quantitative and qualitative) to monitor and verify the outreach and coverage of the activities and results (including unit of measurement, baseline and target values). Applicants are expected to describe an appropriate methodology (also elaborating on how the indicators are proposed to be measured and using which source), to set benchmarks and targets, in order to capture those indicators, as a minimum.

In Section 3.1, you insert both the compulsory and the optional Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), with their target values, as a summary table, i.e. not as descriptive as in Section 2.5.

To make sure you do not forget to include any of the compulsory indicators, a table summarising the specific objectives as well as the mandatory activities, deliverables and indicators can be found on pages 21-23 of the Call for proposalsPDF.

There is no limit set for the number of optional performance indicators that can be included in the proposal. It is up to applicants to propose a set of coherent, meaningful and SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Timely) performance indicators and to justify the choice made. Please also note that the proposed performance indicators will be assessed under the award criterion 'Impact' (see Section 9 of the call for proposalsPDF) and thus serve to demonstrate the expected impact of the project.

As per the call textPDF, one of the mandatory activities for all Euroclusters focuses on Communication. In this sense, Euroclusters shall aim at reaching the highest visibility of their activities and achievements, with particular attention to their industrial ecosystem/s.

Each awarded project will be requested to appoint a communication correspondent, who will be the main point of contact in the Eurocluster for any task/activity that is related to the communication and dissemination of the project's activities and results, notably vis-à-vis the Contracting Authority, the ECCP and the Euroclusters community.

No.

Each projects' kick-off meeting can be organised anywhere and in any format (onsite, hybrid, fully remote). It is up to the consortium to define the modalities and timing of projects' meetings.

However, as stated in the call text section 10PDF, there will be a kick-off meeting organised by the granting authority in Brussels. This is a meeting to kick-off the start of the action and to which all successful projects will be invited. Costs for the participation of up to 2 representatives per projects will be considered eligible costs and should therefore be foreseen by the applicants.

As reported in footnote 4 of the Staff working document (SWD (2021) 982 final) available on the Transition pathway on proximity and social economy webpage, the “Civil Security” dimension will not be captured as part of the Proximity & Social Economy ecosystem anymore, due to the minimal economic activity and as it concerns mostly public services. Civil security industries are equally represented in other industrial ecosystems identified in the Annual Single Market report 2021 SWD (2021) 351 final.PDF

Therefore, civil security value chains are in the scope of the call, but not included in industrial ecosystem number 13 "Proximity & Social Economy". It will be up to the applicants to select and explain which ecosystem or ecosystems better represent the civil security value chains mentioned in their proposal.

As reported in footnote 4 of the Staff working document (SWD(2021) 982 final) available on The transition pathway on proximity and social economy webpage, the “Civil Security” dimension (announced in SWD (2021) 351), will not be captured as part of the Proximity & Social Economy ecosystem anymore, due to the minimal economic activity and as it concerns mostly public services. Civil security industries are equally represented in other industrial ecosystems identified in the Annual Single Market report 2021 SWD (2021) 351 final.PDF

Therefore, civil security value chains are in the scope of the call, but not included within industrial ecosystem number 13 - Proximity & Social Economy. It will be up to the applicants to select and explain which ecosystem or ecosystems better represent the civil security value chains mentioned in their project.

A direct financial transaction is a payment made directly by the Euroclusters beneficiary to the "third party" (SME) receiving FSTP funding.

In order for a cost to be claimed under FSTP budgetary category there must be such a direct payment.

On the contrary, payments made by the beneficiary to a service provider - for example - in exchange of a service offered to the awarded SME will not qualify as FSTP.

The latter can be the case of a "voucher" or "coupon" issued to the SME that can be spent for certain agreed services with a service provider. The voucher in such case is not a payment to the SME but entitles the final recipient (the service provider) to request for the payment from the beneficiary. Therefore, "vouchers" or "coupons" do not qualify for FSTP.

As per section 7 of the call for proposalsPDF, applicants must have stable and sufficient resources to successfully implement the projects and contribute their share. Organisations participating in several projects must have sufficient capacity to implement all these projects.

The financial capacity check will be carried out on the basis of the documents that will be requested from selected applicants to upload in the Participant Register during grant preparation. While we cannot provide the financial capacity assessment during the application phase, organisations can check their financial capacity by using the Financial capacity self-check simulator. However, please note that the result of the financial capacity self-check is indicative and simulation only.

If during grant preparation EISMEA considers that financial capacity is not satisfactory, it may require:

• further information
• an enhanced financial responsibility regime, i.e. joint and several responsibility for all beneficiaries or joint and several liability of affiliated entities (see Section 10 of the call for more details)
• prefinancing paid in instalments
• (one or more) prefinancing guarantees (see Section 10 of the call for more details)
• propose no prefinancing
• request that an organisation is replaced or, if needed, reject the entire proposal.

As per section 2(b) of the call for proposalsPDF, applicants must indicate for which of the two strands they are applying and which of the 14 industrial ecosystems they represent in the Annex 5 to Part B - Eligibility checklist. Annex 5 can be downloaded from EISMEA’s page and will need to be uploaded as a mandatory annex to the proposal (please carefully check Section 5 ‘Admissibility’ and Section 6 ‘Eligibility’ of this call for proposals).

In the context of KPI10, "new" or "young" entrepreneurs are both intended as synonym for entrepreneurs in the early stages. This includes both nascent entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs who have recently started their own business (i.e. have been in operation for not more than three years).

The final result could be both a product or service. Please, refer to the "Expected impact and results" from pages 19 onwards of the call for proposalsPDF and in particular to the mandatory deliverables from page 21.

The main objective of the Euroclusters is to support SMEs in innovation and adoption of new processes and advanced technologies for strategic autonomy, to build capacity in the most critical areas of their ecosystems, and to reinforce transformation into a greener, more digital, and resilient economy.

Euroclusters are also expected to contribute to one or more supporting objectives, namely, establish network and partnerships, provide training, and support internationalisation.

It should be noted that the main objective is linked to two mandatory activities.

Under mandatory activity 1, Euroclusters shall aim to support innovation with a view to introducing new-to-firm products or services - hence both are considered as valid outcomes.

Under mandatory activity 2, Euroclusters shall foster the implementation of business process innovation tied to the adoption of new-to-firm technologies.

As per the call for proposals, Section 2- Themes and PrioritiesPDF, proposals must be focused on a value chain within or across one or more of the 14 industrial ecosystems as identified in the European Industrial Strategy, and they must focus on one of the two strands as identified by the call.

The first strand focuses on net-zero technologies and critical raw materials: this means that it covers value chains within or across industrial ecosystems aiming at ensuring access to a secure and sustainable supply of net-zero technologies, including by scaling up the manufacturing capacity of net-zero technologies and safeguarding supply chain resilience or/and at starting or expanding the extraction, processing or recycling of strategic raw materials, or the production and scale-up of materials that can substitute strategic raw materials in strategic technologies.

Please see the call text, page 11, for the complete description of the two legislations at stake.

As per the call for proposalsPDF, applications shall address the main objective and, in doing so, they are also expected to contribute to one or more of the supporting objectives.

The call does not prescribe which and how many supporting objectives should be addressed as a minimum, however the work plan proposed must be consistent with the objectives of the proposal and in line with its expected results and impact.

As per Section 3 - Available budget of the call for proposalsPDF, "Around 16 projects are expected to be funded under this call for proposals, with at least 8 projects for Strand 1."

This means, in practice, that there will be two different ranking lists, one for proposals submitted under Strand 1, the other for proposals submitted under Strand 2. It is then expected that the 8 top-ranked proposals under Strand 1 will be funded and that the remaining budget will be used to fund the best ranked proposals under Strand 2.

However, as mentioned in the call for proposals, we reserve the right not to award all available funds or to redistribute them between the call strands, depending on the proposals received and the results of the evaluation. If there are no sufficient proposals passing the overall and individual thresholds of the award criteria within one of the two strands, the budget available can be used to support proposals in the other strand.

As per page 4 of the call textPDF: “Euroclusters are cross-sectoral, interdisciplinary, and trans-European strategic initiatives […]”.

Euroclusters are “cross sectoral” by nature, as they encompass all the complex set of interlinkages and interdependencies among sectors that are part of an ecosystem. In fact, ecosystems can be very heterogeneous in terms of sectoral composition, size and scope. In light of this, proposals can target one single ecosystem or multiple ecosystems. It will be up to the applicant to describe which ecosystem(s) is/are targeted, both in the technical description of the proposal and in Annex 5 of Application form - Part B.

While targeting value chains in one or more ecosystems and within one of the two strands, it should be noted that the main objective of this call is for beneficiaries to focus on innovation and adoption of new processes and advanced technologies for strategic autonomy, to build capacity in the most critical areas of their ecosystems, and to reinforce transformation into a greener, more digital, and resilient economy. Therefore, to be considered as in scope, the relevant technologies should align with the objectives of the call.

Yes.

All KPIs listed in the call for proposalsPDF, Section 2 - Expected impact and results / (a) Key Performance Indicators, as mandatory indicators, must be included in the proposal and be monitored and reported on during the project implementation.

Value chains in the context of Strand 2 are all value chains that are not focused on net-zero technologies and critical raw materials. There is no limitation in this context in the call for proposalsPDF.

Please note that all proposals must focus on value chains within or across one or more of the 14 industrial ecosystems identified in the European Industrial Strategy. Applicants shall indicate in the technical description of the proposal, as well as in Annex 5 to Part B, the ecosystem(s) that is/are targeted.

As per the call for proposalsPDF, Section 2- Themes and Priorities, proposals must be focused on a value chain within or across one or more of the 14 industrial ecosystems as identified in the European Industrial Strategy. There is no prescription as such regarding the number of ecosystems to be addressed - the minimum being one.

As stated in Section 2 - Themes and priorities (scope) of the call for proposalsPDF, proposals must be focused on a value chain within or across one or more of the 14 industrial ecosystems as identified in the European Industrial Strategy. The Aerospace and defense ecosystem is one of the 14 industrial ecosystems identified, therefore proposals focusing on that sector are indeed eligible to apply to this call for proposals.

Regarding FSTP, it will be up to each Eurocluster to design their FSTP support scheme as they deem best, including the type of proposed support, the objectives and results to be obtained, the conditions for participation, a list of the different types of activities for which a third party may receive financial support, etc. Please see Section 2 (c) - Financial Support to Third Parties of the call for proposals for more detailed information.

Separate legal entities having a capital or legal link can either participate as different applicants (in the same or in different proposals) or one of them can apply as an "Affiliated Entity" of the other. Any evidence providing the capital or legal link (e.g. statute) would suffice to demonstrate the existence of such a link.

Affiliated Entities have similar rights and obligations of a beneficiary and they can claim costs. However, they do not sign the Grant Agreement and do not count towards the fulfillment of eligibility criteria for the consortium composition.

There is no such requirement in the call. Applications must address the main objective and are also expected to contribute to one or more of the supporting objectives. It is up to applicants to choose which of the supporting objectives they would like to address and to demonstrate that this choice is coherent and balanced. This will depend on the specific objectives of the proposal, its focus and the needs that were identified.

It is reminded that, in order for a Eurocluster consortium to be considered eligible, at least half of its partners must be cluster organisations or cluster networks registered or having submitted a registration on the European Cluster Collaboration Platform (ECCP) by the submission deadline of this call. In order to do so, please visit the ECCP and submit a request to register your organisation at this link: clustercollaboration.eu

Yes, a priori this could be possible. However, please be aware of the following: although the call for proposals does not specify how the evaluation procedure of cascade calls needs to be organized, it does state that the calls need to “conform to EU standards concerning the respect of transparency, equal treatment, conflict of interest and confidentiality.” Moreover, per Section 7 of the Call for proposals, applicants must have the know-how, qualifications and resources to successfully implement the projects.

Applicants can include letters of support or endorsement, as they wish. However, the presence of such letters will not be considered as an advantage during the evaluation phase. Every proposal will be assessed and evaluated only against the award criteria outlined in Section 9 of the call textPDF.

Affiliated entities are legal entities having a legal or capital link with applicants (beneficiaries).

As per the Call for proposalsPDF, page 39: "Applicants may participate with affiliated entities (i.e. entities linked to a beneficiary which participate in the action with similar rights and obligations as the beneficiaries, but do not sign the grant and therefore do not become beneficiaries themselves). They will get a part of the grant money and must therefore comply with all the call conditions and be validated (just like beneficiaries); but they do not count towards the minimum eligibility criteria for consortium composition (if any)".

No, each proposal will be evaluated on the basis of the information it contains as submitted. No changes are possible after submission. Evaluators will have to assess, among others, whether the proposal is in scope or not. It is therefore recommended to carefully think about which of the two strands the proposal is addressing before submitting it.

As per Section 9 - Award criteria of the call textPDF, the "methods of crowding in private capital in financial support to third parties financed projects" will be assessed as part of Criterion 2 -Quality/Project design and implementation.

This assessment won't be based on the amount/share of private capital that is crowded-in by the awarded third parties, but on the methodology proposed by the applicants to ensure that this requirement is fulfilled.

As per the call textPDF, Section 6 - Eligibility/Consortium composition, the applicant consortium must include at least one partner established in a less advanced region of an EU Member State.

As Ukraine is not an EU Member State, it is not considered for the purpose of this eligibility criterion.

The payment of the pre-financing (50% of maximum grant amount) will be made to the coordinator during the 30 days following the signature of the grant or 10 days before the project start whichever is the latest. Please see in the Call documentPDFsection 10, Legal and financial set-up of the Grant Agreements, therein Reporting and payment arrangements.

According to the project duration, there might be one or two interim payments, which will be made after submission and approval of the interim report(s).

For projects with a duration of 36 months, there will be two interim reporting periods linked to payment, one after 12 and one after 24 months. For project with a duration of less than 36 months, the interim reporting period linked to payment will be only one and in the mid-term of the implementation.

Beneficiaries must declare, at the end of each interim period, all incurred costs. The total amount of pre-financing and interim payment(s) must not exceed 90% of the maximum grant amount.

In most cases, budget transfers are covered by the budget flexibility, which means that budgetary shifts between cost categories/partners can be done without an amendment, when duly notified and justified to the Project Officer. However, in cases where such changes affect the implementation of the action, an amendment to the Grant Agreement is needed, for instance if the consortium wishes to add a subcontracting that was not foreseen. Budget shifts between categories with a different co-funding rate are also not possible without an amendment.

Please see the Annotated Grant AgreementPDF, Article 39 - Amendments / Changes to Annex 2 (estimated budget) for detailed information on the subject.

Affiliated entities can charge costs and contributions to the action under the same conditions as the beneficiaries and must implement the action tasks attributed to them.

The beneficiaries must ensure that all their obligations under the Grant Agreement also apply to their affiliated entities.

Please see Article 8 of the Annotated Grant AgreementPDF for detailed information.