introduction to the marie curie industry-academia partnerships and pathways (iapp) dr dagmar meyer

Introduction to the Marie Curie Industry-Introduction to the Marie Curie Industry-Academia Partnerships and Pathways Academia Partnerships and Pathways

(IAPP)(IAPP)

Dr Dagmar MeyerDr Dagmar MeyerMarie Curie National Contact PointMarie Curie National Contact Point

University of Limerick, January 17th 2008 www.iua.ie

University of Limerick, January 17th 2008 An Irish Universities Association Presentation 2

Basic features of IAPP

• What are Industry-Academia Partnerships and Pathways (IAPP)?– simple funding mechanism for partnerships between

public and private research organisations – based on a common research project designed to

exploit complementary expertise and create synergies– bottom-up approach (no predefined priority areas)– project duration typically 4 years with the aim to

develop long-term collaborations


What does the funding cover?

• Funding is provided for– exchange of know-how and experience through inter-

sector secondments of research staff– research and networking activities

• Optionally:– recruitment of experienced researchers from outside

the partnership, for transfer of knowledge and/or training of researchers

– workshops and conferences involving external researchers

– for SMEs: research equipment (up to 10% of the EC contribution for each SME participant) in duly justified cases


Success rates and funding level

• Experiences from first call (budget €38.5m):– only 102 proposals from across Europe, 2 with Irish

coordinators– 41 projects invited to negotiations, 5 on reserve list

(success rate: 40% !!)– requested funding: ~ €0.25m to ~ €2m

• Budget for second call: €45m• Deadline: 25 March 2008


Who can apply?

• Consortium composition – basic rules– at least two partners from two different Member

States or Associated Countries– of these: one private sector / industry partner, one

from the public sector– more partners can be added, from either sector,

from any country (including Third Countries)– most common size 2-3 partners, rarely more than

6-7 partners (first call: 1 successful proposal with 13, one with 15 partners)


Definition of “industry partner”

• What counts as “private sector organisation / industrial partner”?– commercial enterprises (big or small companies;

SMEs, spin-offs, start-ups etc. particularly encouraged)– national organisations (if operating on a commercial

basis)• Basic requirement (cf. Work Programme):

– “Within this scheme, the industrial partners must be organisations operating on a commercial basis, i.e. companies gaining the majority of their revenue through competitive means with exposure to commercial markets.”


Definition of “public sector organisation”

• What counts as “public sector organisation”?– national organisations (e.g. universities & IoT’s, public

non-commercial research centres etc.)– non-profit / charitable organisations (NGOs, trusts, etc.)– International European Interest Organisations

(e.g. CERN, EMBL) – Joint Research Centre of the European Commission– International Organisations (e.g. WHO, UNESCO, etc.;

funding subject to certain conditions)• Any organisation that does not count as industry

partner – if in doubt, contact us for clarification!


Location of participating organisations

• Where can the organisations be located?– Member States (MS)

• there are now 27 EU member states

– Associated Countries (AC) • Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Israel, Switzerland, Croatia,

FYR Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey • from January 2008: Montenegro and Albania

– Third Countries (TC)• more than 140 International Cooperation Partner Countries

(ICPC), e.g. South Africa, India, China, Russia, … (can be fully funded)

• other Third Countries (OTC), e.g. USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, … (normally self-funded)


Staff secondments (I)

• Staff secondments between partners from different sectors– main focus of the scheme– researchers of any level of experience are eligible (including

post-graduate students, e.g. for summer placements)– technical and managerial staff in well justified cases– no nationality restrictions, but in general the usual mobility

condition applies– secondments must in general be trans-national, but up to 30%

of person months in the consortium can be used for intra-national secondments


Staff secondments (II)

• Duration of secondments: – between 2 months and 2 years (cumulative over the

lifetime of the project, can be split into shorter periods)• Previous activity in the seconding organisation

and reintegration– participating staff must have been active in seconding

organisation for at least one year prior to the secondment– mandatory reintegration of at least one year after the final

secondment period (not funded by the project)


Staff secondments (III)

• Balance between partners– ideally, secondments should be reasonably balanced

between partners, but no expectation that they must be symmetrical as in one-for-one exchange

• One-way secondments not excluded if well justified (cf. Guide for Applicants):– “A consortium could make a good case for having more

secondment months from one sector (a large university department for example) to the other sector (a small company, where researchers are relatively few). Moreover, projects with secondments in only one direction are not excluded where there is a clear mutual benefit for both sectors, and where the consortium duly justifies this one-way exchange.”


Recruitment of researchers

• Recruitment of researchers from outside the consortium– optional and must be justified – at the level of the consortium not more person

months for recruitment than for secondments!– only experienced researchers are eligible (e.g. post-

docs or senior researchers)– technical or managerial staff not eligible– duration 12 – 24 months (split stays possible in

exceptional cases, e.g. for family reasons)– nationality and mobility conditions apply


Nationality and mobility conditions

• Nationality condition– recruited researchers cannot have the nationality of the

host institution (no nationality condition for seconded researchers)

– special rules in case of dual nationality or return to Europe after long stay in a Third Country

• Mobility condition– researchers/staff members must not have spent more

than 12 months within the last 3 years prior to the secondment/recruitment in the host country

• International Organisations:– no nationality or mobility condition applies


Allowances to the researchers• Living allowance (including all mandatory deductions) –

basic rate submitted to country-specific correction coefficient (Ireland: 113.3)

Experience level Employment contract (€/year)

Stipend (€/year)

Early Stage Researchers (e.g. post-graduate students) 34,500 17,250

Experienced Researchers with up to 10 years exp. 53,000 26,500

Experienced Researchers with >10 years experience 79,500 39,750

• Mobility allowance (basic rate €500/€800 monthly, depending on family situation)• Travel allowance (€250 - €2500 for every 12 months period or fraction thereof,

depending on distance)• Career exploratory allowance (€2,000 once, only for newly recruited researchers)


Contributions to the consortium members (I)

• Contribution for the execution of the partnership project/programme – €800 per person month, covering:– costs associated to the publication of vacancies– internal training actions– participation in research and transfer of knowledge

activities (research costs, participation meeting and conference attendance, etc)

– contribution to the expenses related to the co-ordination between participants (partnership meetings, detachment of staff, etc)


Contributions to the consortium members (II)

• Contribution to the organisation of international conferences, workshops and events open to participants outside the partnership– €300 per researcher day (from outside the partnership),

covering:– organisational expenses (invitation of keynote speakers,

publications, rental of premises, web casting)– participation fees of researchers from outside the

partnership


Contributions to the consortium members (III)

• Management activities– max. 3% of total Community contribution

• Overheads– 10% of direct costs except subcontracting

• for SMEs: – research equipment (up to 10% of the EC contribution

for each SME participant) in duly justified cases


Indicative timetable for IAPP scheme

Publication of call 30 November 2007

Deadline for submission of proposals

25 March 2008, at 17:00:00 Brussels time (i.e. 16:00:00 Irish time!!)

Evaluation of proposals May 2008

Evaluation Summary Reports sent to proposal coordinators July 2008

Invitation for contract negotiations July 2008

Letter to unsuccessful candidates from July 2008

Signature of first contracts from October 2008


Submission procedure

• Only electronic submission using EPSS (Electronic Proposal Submission Service)

• Proposal has two parts:– Part A: administrative information about proposal,

coordinator and partner institutions (prepared forms)– Part B: free text covering a number of predefined

aspects of the project, limited number of pages (prescribed font size and margins), limited size of pdf-file

• Deadline is STRICTLY enforced


Evaluation criteria – basic principles

• Evaluation according to criteria provided in the Guide for Applicants

• Different criteria carry different weights• Thresholds for some evaluation criteria• Overall threshold is 70% • All issues need to be addressed! Don’t waste your

chances.• Always keep in mind the objectives of the activity!


Evaluation process

• All proposals undergo initial eligibility check• Evaluation by at least three experts from an international

pool (not all experts are exactly from your field of speciality!!)

• Proposals that miss a threshold are rejected• Remaining proposals are ranked within each panel• All applicants receive evaluation summary report (very

useful for re-submission!!)• Distribution of funding to different panels in proportion to

proposals submitted • Reserve lists in case of late withdrawal etc.


Evaluation criteria

Criterion Threshold (out of 5) Weighting (%)

S&T Quality 3 25

Transfer of Knowledge 3 20

Implementation 3 25

Impact - 30

Overview:


IAPP – S&T Quality

• S&T objectives of the research programme, including in terms of intersectoral issues.

• Scientific quality of the joint collaborative research programme.

• Appropriateness of the research methodology.• Originality and innovative aspects of the

research programme; knowledge of the state-of-the-art.

• Weight: 25%, Threshold: 3/5


IAPP – Transfer of Knowledge

• Quality of the transfer of knowledge programme; consistency with the research programme.

• Importance of the transfer of knowledge in terms of intersectoriality.

• Adequacy of the role of researchers exchanged and recruited from outside the partnership with respect to the transfer of knowledge programme.



IAPP – Implementation

• Capacities (expertise / human resources / facilities / infrastructure) to achieve the research and exchange of know-how and experience. Fit between capacity of host and size of support requested.

• Adequate exploitation of complementarities and synergies among partners in terms of transfer of knowledge.

• Appropriateness of management plans (recruitment strategy, IPR strategy, demarcation of responsibilities, rules for decision making etc…).

• How essential is non-ICPC Third Country participation, if any, to the objectives of the knowledge transfer programme.



IAPP – Impact

• Provision to develop new intersectoral and lasting collaboration.

• Strategy for the dissemination and facilitation of sharing of knowledge and culture between the participants and external researchers (including international workshops, training events).

• Extent to which SMEs contribute to the project.• In case of SME participation: Adequacy of the available

infrastructure for the performance of the project. In case extra equipment is requested, necessity and justification in the context of the partnership.

• Weight: 30%, Threshold: none


Experiences from first call

• Out of 102 proposals evaluated, 36 (35%) failed to achieve one or more of the required thresholds:– 13 failed the “S&T” criterion – 19 failed the “Transfer of Knowledge” criterion– 16 failed the “Implementation” criterion– 34 failed the overall threshold of 70% applied to the

total score


More information

Official website of the FP7 “People” (Marie Curie) programme on CORDIS: http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/people/

Follow the link to “Find calls for this activity”

to download the Work Programme 2008 and the Guide for Applicants 2008

Deadline: 25 March 2008

http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/people/


EI support for FP7 applicants: travel grants

• Enterprise Ireland travel support:– for researchers in higher education / publicly funded

institutions– for visits by Irish researchers abroad to meet potential

partners or attendance at EU information days/workshops relating to FP7

– covers least-cost travel plus subsistence rates up to € 150 per day (typical length of visits: three days)

– during the period of FP7, any one researcher can receive up to € 3,000 to facilitate multiple visits to research partners (open to discussion!)


EI support for FP7 applicants: coordination grants

• Enterprise Ireland coordinator support:– for researchers in higher education / publicly funded

institutions– to facilitate preparatory work leading to a proposal for

the coordination of any research project under FP7– grants up to a maximum of € 25,000– for coordinator (or internal approved staff) least cost

travel and subsistence expenses, costs of hosting meetings, communication costs with consortium members, employment of researcher for short-term analysis, professional services in preparation of application, strategy development and planning

– replacement teaching costs in well justified cases


EI support for FP7 applicants: feasibility studies

• Enterprise Ireland financial support for companies:– covers company negotiations with research partners

and/or preparation of joint R&D proposal for FP7 – covers all areas (incl. Social Sciences etc.)– grants to SMEs and High Potential Start-ups up to a

maximum of € 25,000 (with equal investment by the company)

– under review – support for multinationals?


EI support for FP7 applicants: more details

More details on Enterprise Ireland FP7 support schemes and application form:

http://www.enterprise-ireland.com/FP7/Financi

al+Support.htm


Meeting room facilities in Brussels

Irish Liaison Office for EU RTD

meeting room bookings:

Catriona WardEU R&D Liaison OfficePark LeopoldRue Wiertz 50 WiertzstraatBruxelles 1050 BrusselTel. +32 (0)2 673 [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]


Marie Curie key contacts in Ireland

IUA Marie Curie Office – National Contact Point/National DelegateDr. Dagmar Meyer - [email protected]. Conor O’Carroll - [email protected]

[email protected] +353-(0)1-6764948

Enterprise Ireland – National Contact PointBill Kee - Focus on Industry

[email protected]+353-(0)1-8082277





introduction to the marie curie industry-academia partnerships and pathways (iapp) dr dagmar meyer

Documents

private research organisations

universities iots

public sectormore partners

research equipment

industrial partners

irish coordinators41

common research project

funding cover