Agri-food Biotech Scaling-up

As indicated in section 6 of the call documentPDF, individual applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) cannot participate in several proposals under this call for proposals. This restriction encourages applicants to be part of the proposal to which they can contribute most effectively. If a case of multiple participations is detected, it will lead to the rejection of the applicant concerned from all applications where the applicant is included. Moreover, the respective consortia affected by the rejection of an applicant must still fulfil all the eligibility criteria stipulated in this section 6. If it is not the case after the rejection of the applicant, the whole consortium will be declared ineligible.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are defined in the EU recommendation 2003/361. The main factors determining whether an enterprise is an SME are staff headcount and turnover/balance sheet total. If you are uncertain whether your company qualifies as an SME, you can use the European Commission’s SME self-assessment tool—the SME Wizard—to verify your status.

As outlined in section 6 'Eligibility' of the call documentPDF, proposals must be submitted by a consortium of at least three applicants (beneficiaries; not affiliated entities) from at least two different eligible countries, which complies with the following conditions:

• at least two cluster organisations or cluster networks from two different EU Member States that a) are registered or have a pending registration request to the ECCP by the submission deadline of this call for proposals; b) have a proven track record of at least three years in supporting biotech SMEs in the food and/or feed sector.

• any other relevant organisation(s) suitable for the implementation of the project.

As outlined in section 6 'Eligibility' of the call documentPDF, proposals must be submitted by a consortium of at least two cluster organisations and by any other relevant legal entity (established in one of the eligible countriesPDF), suitable for the implementation of the project.

As per section 2 of the call document, projects are expected to focus on advanced fermentation for food and feed applications in the agri-food sector. Advanced fermentation refers to fermentation processes beyond traditional applications, including biomass and precision fermentation, that use specialised microorganisms to produce targeted outputs.

The question whether specific technologies meet this requirement will be assessed at the evaluation stage of the proposals.

However, it needs to be highlighted that the focus of the call is not on one specific SME/company. The aim of the call is to establish partnerships bringing together clusters, SMEs and other relevant stakeholders to reach a critical mass and develop structured collaboration enabling to create a global biotech expertise hub.

Cluster organisations and cluster networks from an EU Member State have to be either registered or have a pending registration request to the ECCP (the request has to be done before the submission deadline of this call for proposals). The respective information will have to be filled-in in Annex 5 to Part B - Eligibility checklist.

The justification has to be provided in Annex 5 to Part B - Eligibility checklist.

As per section 6 'Eligibility' of the call for proposals, eligible participants receiving EU-funding have to be a legal entity registered in the Participant Register with a 9-digit participant identification code (PIC). The PIC number has to be entered in the project application.

The selection of SMEs is expected to take place during the project implementation. Thus is not a requirement of the call to put forward already at the application stage concrete SMEs that will be supported. It is however advisable to well describe in the application the selection process of SMEs (methodology and rationale), as this is a crucial aspect of demonstrating the impact potential of the project.

Section 6 'Eligibility' of the call document does not outline any conditions preventing certain types of organisations to take the role of project coordinator. Any eligible applicant can take over this role.

Entities from the UK or from another country not participating in the Single Market Programme (SMP) can participate as subcontractors. Please see Article 6.2.B of the Annotated Grant AgreementPDF for detailed information on subcontracting rules.

Yes, access to facilities may be provided by entities outside the consortium through subcontracting. As outlined in section 2 of the call documentPDF (Mandatory Activity 3), the proposal must explain in detail the support services to be developed, the methodology for delivering each type of support, and the roles of consortium partners (including any affiliated entities) and other service providers, including subcontractors, involved in delivery.

Regarding the restriction on non-concurrent participation (as specified in Section 6 of the call documentPDF), it applies to applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities), not to subcontractors. As stated in Section 13 of the call documentPDF, subcontracting should normally constitute a limited part and must be performed by third parties (not by one of the beneficiaries/affiliated entities). If subcontracting exceeds 30% of the total eligible costs, the application must include a detailed justification in the application.

The coordinator must be an entity established in an eligible country as defined in section 6 of the call documentPDF. There is no distinction between EU Member State and non-EU countries participating in the Single Market ProgrammePDF for the choice of the coordinator.

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 countriesPDF (EU Member States, listed EEA countries and countries associated to the Single Market Programme). 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.

As outlined in section 6 'Eligibility' of the call documentPDF, proposals must be submitted by a consortium of at least at least two cluster organisations and by any other relevant legal entity (established in one of the eligible countriesPDF), suitable for the implementation of the project. Pilot facilities can be a consortium member if it is relevant to the project's methodology and work plan.

Subcontracting is possible in the framework of this call.

Subcontracting should constitute a limited part of the budget. It must be performed by third parties and CANNOT by performed by one of the partners (beneficiaries or affiliated entities). Subcontracting going beyond 30% of the total eligible costs must be justified in the application.

However, it is to be noted that core tasks, such as project management tasks, cannot be subcontracted.

Affiliated entities are linked to a beneficiary (i.e. legal or capital link). They participate in the project with similar rights and obligations as beneficiaries, but they do not sign the Grant Agreement and therefore do not become beneficiaries themselves. As per section 6 'Eligibility' of the call document, affiliated entities will get EU funding and must therefore comply with all the call conditions and be registered in the Participant Register before submitting the proposal (just like beneficiaries). They will have to be validated by Central Validation Services.

Affiliated entities have to fulfill the eligibility criteria for participants as stipulated in section 6 of the call document, but they do not count towards the minimum eligibility criteria for consortium composition.

The mandatory annex “Detailed budget table” is available in the Submission System as template titled “Tpl_Detailed Budget Table (SMP COSME GFS 90)”. This template must be used in order to complete the budget with the correct funding rate of 90% for all other cost categories. After downloading the template, applicants must:

1/ Enable content (macros), if requested.

2/ Read the instructions provided in sheet “1. Instructions”.

3/ Complete the sheet “2. Start” to add the project number, project acronym, work packages (number and names) and the number of travels. This information will be automatically copied into the other sheets.

4/ Copy/recreate sheets “3. Detailed table” and “4. Consolid table (participant)” as many times as needed (each participant in the consortium must have a set of these two sheets with their budget).

Please check that links between sheets and formulas are not broken. Complete each participant's sheets 3 and 4 with their short name, PIC number and estimated project costs and income. White cells mean that you are required to enter data; blue cells are calculated automatically.

5/ Manually complete the sheet “5. Consolid table (project)” based on each participant's consolidated budget.

6/ Introduce the amounts from the final consolidated table to the online budget in the Submission System under Part A. In case of discrepancies, the amounts in the online summarised budget table will prevail.

7/ Upload your document to the Submission System under Part B Annexes, under ‘Detailed budget table’ field.

While the 90% EU co-funding ensures strong support, the clusters' competitiveness lies in their agility and strategic European collaboration—not just funding levels. The remaining 10% can be covered through national/regional funds, private investment, or other non-EU public sources, and we encourage applicants to stack complementary funding.

The co-funding rate for all budget categories is 90%. The grant amount (i.e., the EU contribution) covers 90% of the total eligible costs incurred by beneficiaries. Beneficiaries must secure the remaining 10% of costs through other sources of funding, excluding any additional EU funding.

As outlined in section 6 'Eligibility' of the call document, Financial Support to Third Parties is not an eligible activity under this call for proposal.

For all beneficiaries, the incurred eligible costs for implementing the project will be reimbursed at the funding rate of 90%. The remaining 10 % has to come either from own resources or other types of private or public funding. The 10% CANNOT be provided from additional other EU funding means, as this is considered as double-funding of the activities.

We expect to fund 2 projects with approximately 1,5 Million EUR grant amount per project (see section 6 of the call document).

For future funding opportunities, please refer to the annual work programmes of the Single Market Programme within the 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework.

The aim of sub-activity 3.1. is to provide tailored support at development stage to the selected SMES to help them to advance towards the next stage of maturity. Where appropriate, support will extend to scale-up activities at pilot or demonstration scale, such as process validation on scaled equipment, production of representative samples or confirmation of product quality.

Given the resource-intensive nature of this type of support, it is recognized that it may only be feasible to deliver it to a limited extent. Proposals committing to provide substantial access to pilot facilities for multiple SMEs will be positively considered.

As per section 2 of the call documentPDF, projects are expected to focus on advanced fermentation for food and feed applications in the agri-food sector. Advanced fermentation refers to fermentation processes beyond traditional applications, including biomass and precision fermentation, that use specialised microorganisms to produce targeted outputs.

The question whether specific technologies meet this requirement will be assessed at the evaluation stage of the proposals.

As per section 2 of the call documentPDF, projects are expected to focus on advanced fermentation for food and feed applications in the agri-food sector. Advanced fermentation refers to fermentation processes beyond traditional applications, including biomass and precision fermentation, that use specialised microorganisms to produce targeted outputs.

The question whether specific technologies meet this requirement will be assessed at the evaluation stage of the proposals.

Projects should last for 36 months.

The call does not set requirements as regards the TRL levels of the SMEs supported. As the mandatory activities focus on different types of SME support, the TRL level of those SMEs may vary according to the type of support provided to them. For mandatory activity 3 (see call document) SMEs receiving scale-up support are by nature rather those with higher TRL levels.

As outlined in section 6 'Eligibility' of the call document, cluster organisations are understood as the legal entities that support the strengthening of collaboration, networking and learning in innovation clusters and act as innovation support providers by providing or channeling specialised and customised business support services to stimulate innovation activities, especially in SMEs.

Cluster networks are organisations facilitating strategic partnering and networking across clusters. They can be sectoral, international or national in scope.

The organisation legally representing a cluster is indeed counting against the eligibility requirement as per section 6 of the call document, which stipulates that the consortium should encompass at least 2 clusters or cluster networks. In such case the organisation would represent 1 cluster and has to clearly outline in he application, which cluster it is represents in the project.

All other conditions as stipulated in section 6 Eligibility of the call document are valid and must be fulfilled, to guarantee the eligibility of the individual applicants and the eligibility of the applicant consortium.

At the stage of periodic reporting (i.e. interim or final payment) beneficiaries requesting an EU contribution going above 375 000 EUR will be required to provide a Certificate on the Financial Statement (CFS). The cost for producing the CFS are eligible project costs. Applicants are advised to consider such costs in their planned budget, if they meet the threshold of requested EU contribution as outlined above.