Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME), B-1049 Bruxelles/Brussel, BELGIQUE/BELGIË http://ec.europa.eu/easme/cosme

EUROPEAN COMMISSION Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME) Unit A1 – COSME

CALL FOR PROPOSALS Statistics for Family Businesses

COS-DCFB-2015-3-01

Questions and Answers

12.06.2015

INDEX

A. Background of the call

B. Objective(s) – Theme(s) – Priorities - Activities

C. Timetable

D. Available budget and funding of projects

E. Admissibility Requirements

F. Eligibility Criteria

G. Exclusion Criteria

H. Selection criteria

I. Award criteria

J. Legal commitments

K. Financial provisions

L. Publicity & Data protection

M. Submission of proposals

Please note the e-mail address for sending the questions: easme-cosme-dcfb-call@ec.europa.eu

2

A. BACKGROUND OF THE CALL A.1 Could you please inform me whether this call will be launched again in 2016? We will be able to provide this information once the COSME Work programme 2016 is adopted. The updated on the COSME WP and on the calls are available here: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/initiatives/cosme/

B. OBJECTIVES – THEMES – PRIORITIES – ACTIVITIES B.1 In the main document we find the following information "A priority will be given to projects aimed to develop for the first time statistics in those countries, which have not yet statistics on family business". In Poland we have researchers who are involved in family business research topics, also aimed at gathering statistical data from this sector. However, these are not regularly conducted researches but scientific projects financed by i.e. the Ministry of Higher Education. Data obtained with such projects are not updated. Moreover these are not projects initiated by the National Statistical Office. So, should we understand that in such a situation our project will get less priority??? As specified in Paragraph 2, page 4 the aim of the project is to provide the relevant stakeholders with inter alia systemic information on the role of family businesses. Moreover, the aim is also to encourage the statistical offices and other organisations collaborating with them to collect such information. The ad-hoc surveys, academic researchers or any other irregular activities related with the family business data collection may not necessary be considered as an example of the developed and sustainable data collection in a given country. It is however the applicant's role to explain what is the current state of play as far as family data collection in a relevant country is concerned and how the project intends to e.g. improve and systemise it. ______________________________________________________________________________ D. AVILABLE BUDGET AND FUNDING OF PROJECTS D.1 Our client is a policy and economics consultancy with offices in (…). They would like to apply for the call in all three countries, and would like to know if they can send in only one application where they apply for 60.000 EUR *3 - 60.000 EUR in each country. Or do they need to send in 3 separate applications? As stipulated in Paragraph 4 the maximum grant per project will be 60 000 EUR. One application should be used for submitting 1 project. When considering submission of several applications please note however the following rule set up in Paragraph 6.2 regarding the participation of same partner in different proposals: "It is not allowed that a partner participates in more than one proposal. Should this happen only 1 proposal with higher scoring received will be selected. In this respect, an explicit declaration will have to be submitted by the coordinator."

E. ADMISSIBILITY REQUIREMENTS E.1 I have found information “Applications must be drafted in one of the EU official languages”. Polish is one of the EU official languages, does it mean I can prepare entire proposal in Polish? Will the proposal be evaluated in view of the language used?

3

Both the Call and the Guide for Applicants, indicate that the proposal may be submitted in any of the official languages of the European Union. The Guide thereafter specifies that "if the submitted proposal is not in English, a translation of the full proposal would be of assistance to the evaluators. An English translation of the abstract shall be included in Part B of the proposal". This means that a translation into English of the full proposal is not essential although it would facilitate the work of evaluators. A faithful translation into English of the abstract should indeed be included – in Part B of the proposal (Section A: Project Summary) as indicated in the Guide for Applicants. ______________________________________________________________________________ F. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

F.1. For the purpose of the aforementioned call for proposals, is the consortium coordinator considered as a partner in the sense of paragraph 6.2? Yes, the same eligible criteria, as stipulated in Paragraph 6.2, are applied to each applicant incl. coordinator and the other partners. F.2. Can a consortium coordinator submit more than one offer to this call for proposals? Can more than one offer submitted by the same consortium coordinator but with different partners be awarded a contract? No, it is not allowed that a partner or coordinator participates in more than one proposal. The coordinator is therefore requested to sign and submit, together with the proposal, the declaration as to submission of one proposal (see the template available under the Call) F.3. Is this limit valid only for each activity or for the call in general? The rule is valid for the Call in general, irrespectively of the activities and level of engagement of the applicants foreseen in the project proposal. F.4 Can the geographical area be restricted only to one country? Yes. As stipulated in Paragraph 2 the objectives of the activities are to contribute to availability of the statistics on family business at inter alia national levels and to development of the data collection in the countries that have not yet collected this type of the data. In case of the latter please see the remark put in footnote 10. F.5 Which are the conditions of partnership between private limited company and national statistical office? There are no specific conditions for the consortia apart from those specified in Paragraph 6.2. Please note that the level of involvement of the statistical office in the consortium will be subject of evaluation (please see the Award criteria listed in Chapter 9). F.6 We would like to know if the statistical office of a University can be considered as eligible applicant for a mono-beneficiary grant under this call? As stipulated in the eligibility criteria Paragraph 6 it must national, federal or regional statistical office, either as a sole applicant or as a part of the Consortium.

4

F.7 My host organization is interested in submitting a project under the call Statistics for Family Businesses. I’m working on the call for proposal. I was wondering could you be more specific and describe in details the definition for statistical offices (national, federal or regional) As specified in Paragraph 2 the aim of the Call is to provide policy makers and relevant stakeholders with information for their decision making and for national and regional policy development. Moreover, the aim is also to encourage statistical offices to collect the info on family businesses. It is therefore important that national, federal or regional statistical office(s)/institutes are involved in the projects. The EU MS and other countries work in partnership with the European Commission within the framework of the European Statistical System (ESS). The ESS is the partnership between the Community statistical authority, which is the Commission (Eurostat), and the national statistical institutes (NSIs) or other State authorities or bodies linked or associated to the public authorities and collecting data for the State. All those entities that are not the statistical offices/institutes can take part in the project provided that the statistical office/ institute is participating in the project as a partner (see also the requirements set in Paragraph 6.1). Under below link you may find, for information purposes, the list which identifies, among other entities, the National Statistical Institutes (for some countries also the regional statistical institutes) responsible for the development, production and dissemination of European statistics as designated by Member State. http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/european-statistical-system/overview Please note that according to Paragraph 6.1 it will be the applicant's role to demonstrate how the compulsory requirement of having the national, federal or regional statistical office as partner is respected in the application. F.8 The association has a statistical office which has been officially recognized by a Ministerial Decree as part of the national statistical system. Could our proposal be considered eligible even if we don’t involve any other “national, federal or regional statistical office”? Or are we supposed to involve another statistical office anyway? As specified in Paragraph 2 the aim of the Call is to provide policy makers and relevant stakeholders with information for their decision making and for inter alia regional policy development. It is therefore important that the statistical office(s) such as regional ones are involved in the projects. In this sense your statistical office can be considered to be a regional statistical office, since it is authorised to play this role by a Government Decision. F.9 I am a cooperative development specialist and I found that family enterprise is a good vehicle for progress and development; can you support family should they apply for funding? The criteria for eligible applicants are set in Paragraph 6.1. In line with them the private entities are eligible in case their activities involve collection of statistics for businesses. F.10 I have a family business, I am from Kosovo, can I send application for this proposal? Please consult Paragraph 6.1 to see the eligibility criteria. The updated list of eligible non-EU countries is available on the following webpage: http://ec.europa.eu/growth/smes/cosme/index_en.htm

5

F.11 Our entity constitutes one of the bodies associated with the Ministry, providing the statistical data on various economic and social sectors; can it than cover the requirement of the Call for one national statistical institute (NSIs) or other State authority or body linked or associated to the public authorities and collecting data for the State? According to the call Paragraph 6.1 applicants can be also "any public or private entity whose activities involve collection of statistics for business; in this case the statistical office (national, federal or regional) must be present in the proposal as one of the partners." The above is confirmed in the FAQ (F.7) stating that in case the entities collecting data for the state are not the statistical offices/institutes, they can take part in the project, but the application should also include the statistical office/institute as a partner. The applicant should demonstrate therefore, if and how the proposal respects the above compulsory role. Moreover, the level of statistical office's/institute's engagement is than evaluated (please see paragraph 9 of the Call) in the selection process. F.12 Can the private company created and owned by (…) Ministry of Economy and Finance and Central Bank (…) through a national law in order to collect and analyse fiscal and economic datas from SME be considered eligible even if we don’t involve any other “national, federal or regional statistical office”? Or are we supposed to involve another statistical office anyway? According to the call Paragraph 6.1 applicants can be also "any public or private entity whose activities involve collection of statistics for business; in this case the statistical office (national, federal or regional) must be present in the proposal as one of the partners." The above is confirmed in the FAQ (F.7) stating that in case the entities collecting data for the state are not the statistical offices/institutes, they can take part in the project, but the application should also include the statistical office/institute as a partner.

M. SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS

M.1 I would like to clarify for us the selection procedure for Legal Entity Appointed Representatives (LEARs). (…) could the President of the NSI act as a LEAR, signatory and legal representative at the same time?

There are no formal obstacles for combining several roles of e.g. LEAR, PLSIGN by the same person. As you may read in the H2020 online manual (see the link below and scroll down to the Summary – rights associated with roles), one person may have several roles at the same time: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/docs/h2020-funding-guide/grants/applying-for-funding/register-an-organisation/lear-appointment_en.htm

You may want to consider what configuration will suit you best when it comes to fulfilling the tasks that are assigned to each of the roles.