Scaling up deep tech ecosystems

The general annexes of Horizon Europe state:

"A ‘legal entity’ means any natural or legal person created and recognised as such under national law, EU law or international law, which has legal personality and which may, acting in its own name, exercise rights and be subject to obligations, or an entity without legal personality"

In the light of this rule, individuals, as long as they have a recognition of a legal personality can benefit from grants in general terms. On the opposite, “newly formed teams” can not, as they lack of legal personality.

Nevertheless, this action targeting primarily “industry and SMEs”, it would make sense to restrict the FSTP call to legal entities rather than individuals (even if the latter have a legal personality).

Yes, it is possible to apply for different topics provided that the entity is eligible under the topic conditions.

As indicated in the call text, proposals should include at least one ESFRI Landmark OR European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) as beneficiary.

The required declaration/letter of support, listed as mandatory attachment in the portal only refers to proposals including ERICs and not ESFRI landmarks.

Proposals which do not have any ERICs can update the template, and include it as mandatory attachment, mentioning the above.

For more detailed information on implementing FSTP calls, we recommend consulting our guidelines on FSTPPDF available on our website.

In general, the beneficiaries are not third parties and thus cannot be the recipient of financial support to third parties (FSTP).

Since the topic does not specify any eligibility conditions for the FSTP beneficiaries, there are no restrictions regarding the beneficiaries of FSTP. Applicants should consider support to third parties in line with the aim of the action. Namely, to respond to the industry’s needs and to better valorise interactions that research infrastructures have with companies, facilitating deep collaboration and co-development. As emphasised in the call for proposal, the projects are expected to provide grants to pilot projects in three to five different technological areas in line with the scope of the call.

Proposals should include at least one ESFRI Landmark or European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) as beneficiary. In case of a distributed ERIC, as an alternative to the ERIC participating as a beneficiary, a legal entity that is hosting one of its nodes or components may participate as a beneficiary.

FSTP may indeed indirectly support RIs which are not members of the consortium. This can be organized by defining appropriate FSTP call conditions (for instance including a list of testing facilities).

It is the consortium that runs the FSTP scheme and not the ERIC as a separate entity.

The topic does not specify the expected duration of the action, nor the the number of potential beneficiaries. However, min number of consortium composition apply, and topic specifies that proposals should include at least one ESFRI Landmark or European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) as beneficiary. In case of a distributed ERIC, as an alternative to the ERIC participating as a beneficiary, a legal entity that is hosting one of its nodes or components may participate as a beneficiary.

As mentioned in the topic, expected outcomes are an increased involvement of the industry, including SMEs, with research infrastructures, increase valorization and improved contribution of infrastructures to the overall ecosystem. The funded projects should contribute to achieve the expected outcomes and interactions with beneficiaries should be planned accordingly. These interactions between RIs can also be set in the FTSP call (e.g. eligibility conditions could restrict to “members” of participating RIs or preselected entities based on subjective criteria).

Indeed, costs related to providing access to infrastructure and services of consortium members shall be covered by the 40% of the non-FSTP part of the grant. FSTP shall exclusively be used by end-recipients for the acquisition of services provided by non-consortia members (e.g. mentorship, bankability trainings).

Correct, the grant funds eligible costs incurred by beneficiaries, while FSTP funds activities performed by third parties. FSTP shall not fund activities of the direct beneficiaries of the grant.

Yes, it is possible, but the most important is to describe clearly and in detail the FSTP call conditions.

Cascade funding, also known as Financial Support for Third Parties (FSTP), is a Commission mechanism to distribute public funding in order to assist beneficiaries in the uptake or development of innovation. Under the topic’s conditions, beneficiaries should provide FSTP in the form of grants. The maximum amount to be granted to each third party is EUR 500,000. More information about the FSTP is available here.

Applicants should use the forms provided in the submission system once they start their application.

For this call the Version 4 of Application Form (Part B) from 16 December 2024 should be used.

The European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) is a specific legal form that facilitates the establishment and operation of Research Infrastructures with European interest. It allows the establishment and operation of new or existing Research Infrastructures on a non-economic basis. The Commission published practical guidelines to help potential applicants with the procedure to establish an ERIC.

The scope mandates to ensure that, FSTP is awarded, thus provides grants, enabling to pilot projects from at least 3 and up to 5 technological areas at the level of the proposal. In this regard the scope doesn’t require that each individual FSTP grant supports projects involving a minimum of 3 technological areas.

The aim of the call is to respond to industry needs and to better valorise interactions that research infrastructures have with companies, facilitating deep collaboration and co-development. Therefore improving RI through enabling technologies is not a core objective of the call. However, applicants are invited to integrate any relevant activity to their project proposal, which would lead to the expected outcomes of the call.

Eligibility conditions state that proposals should include at least one ESFRI Landmark or European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) as beneficiary. In case of a distributed ERIC, as an alternative to the ERIC participating as a beneficiary, a legal entity that is hosting one of its nodes or components may participate as a beneficiary. A declaration signed by the legal representative of the ERIC should confirm that the ERIC is informed about this participation and describe any further cooperation with the ERIC.

The use of AI is not forbidden, however, applicants must indicate the use of AI in their application, as requested by the application template and according to the Guidelines on the responsible use of generative AI in research.

The proposals should:

• identify deep tech innovations with breakthrough potential related to pan-European research infrastructures;

• assess the feasibility and scalability of the identified innovations;

• suggest a selection and clustering of those innovations that demonstrate sufficient maturity to provide a clear potential for industrial implementation and demonstrate the strongest market and societal value;

• run, evaluate calls and give convincing arguments to provide grant funding to pilot projects in the identified technological areas;

• assess the outcome of the pilot grants

It is not the main purpose of the action, as the topic does not directly target innovation training. However, it could be part of the implementation of the of the project if it fosters the development of the entire ecosystem.

Activities are expected to achieve TRL 2-5 by the end of the project.