Conducting or participating in an international collaborative research project - Eureka - Multilateral 'lightweighting' call for tenders - Austria, Belgium (Flanders and Wallonia), Canada, South Korea, Spain, France, Luxembourg, Sweden and Switzerland

The types of eligible partners include:

- Businesses
- Approved research centres
- University research departments
- College research depatments and associated research centres

The aid is granted in the form of a subsidy with a funding rate ranging from 40% to 100% of the budget of each partner in Wallonia, depending on the type of partner and the qualification of the research.

The grants are intended to cover all of the costs related to conducting the research. These include:

• staffing costs for researchers, technicians, administrators and managers;
• operating costs;
• general costs;
• cost of equipment used;
• subcontracting costs.

The agreement will last for a maximum of three years.

Preferably, an information meeting will be organised between the Walloon partners in the project and the representatives responsible for the programme within FPS Research prior to the submission of any proposal.

Projects are submitted via the ONTIME platform at the same time as they are submitted via the Eureka initiative’s platform no later than the deadline for the call for projects.

Appeal procedures

How can I contact the department who made the decision?

You may contact the administrative department that made the decision at any time, independently of the appeal procedures outlined below, in order to obtain information about why the application was rejected.

You must contact the following department:

FPS Economy, Employment and Research
Technological Research and Development Department
Place de la Wallonie, 1 (Building III), 5100 NAMUR (JAMBES)
Phone: +32 (0)81 33 45 32

This free process is not subject to any specific formalities and does not suspend the periods for filing an appeal. The absence of a response from the administration does not constitute acceptance of your request.

How to file an appeal

Unless the dispute can be viewed as relating to a subjective right – in which case only courts of law and legal tribunals have jurisdiction – an appeal may be submitted to the State Council, in accordance with the procedures outlined below.

Request for cancellation

Cancellation of the decision may be requested by filing a request with the State Council, either:

• electronically  to https://eproadmin.raadvst-consetat.be;
• via a signed and dated registered letter to:

Conseil d’État
Greffe
Administrative Disputes Section
Rue de la Science, 33
1040 Brussels

You must submit your request within 60 calendar days from the date of notification for the disputed decision.

In your request, you must indicate the ‘reasons’ for your appeal, that is, the legal rights that have been infringed by the decision and the way in which they have been infringed.

Request for suspension

Sending a cancellation request does not suspend the effects of the decision.

If an emergency arises which is incompatible with the processing of the case, and if a serious argument is manifestly likely to lead to the cancellation, you may file a request to suspend the decision with the State Council.

The request for suspension may be submitted before, at the same time as, or after sending the request for cancellation.

In exceptional cases, and under specific conditions, you may also request the suspension of the decision in cases of extreme emergency.

Practical information

Requests for cancellation and suspension requests are only valid if they contain certain annexes and information. Reference is made to the coordinated laws and decrees mentioned below, which are available at http://www.raadvst-consetat.be (‘Procedure’ section).

Each requesting party must pay a fee of €200 (amount as of 9 January 2017), using a transfer form that will be sent to the party after the appeal is received. Payment is not currently subject to any deadline and the payment of the sum may be made at any time before the closure of the dispute.

Find out more: laws on the State Council, coordinated on 12 January 1973, Regent Decree of 23 August 1948 determining the procedure before the administrative disputes department of the State Council, Royal Decree of 5 December 1991 determining interlocutory proceedings before the State Council, which are available at http://www.raadvst-consetat.be (‘Procedure’ section).

Target audience – Eligibility criteria

A proposal is eligible if the following elements are all answered in the affirmative:

• The research budget for the partner(s) from a given country may not exceed 70% of the total budget of the project.
• The product or process must be innovative and the technological risk must be real. This must be true for both partners.
• The project must benefit all partners.
• The project must have a clear benefit and added value, resulting from technological cooperation between participants from different countries.
• The product or process must be innovative and have a potential impact.
• A consortium agreement must be signed before the project begins.
• In addition to submitting the project to the Eureka initiative, applicants must submit an application for funding with FPS Research via the ONTIME portal, under penalty of being deemed ineligible. This application must be written in French and submitted no later than the deadline for the call for projects.
• The research budget for partnering Walloon companies must correspond to at least 40% of the total budget for all the partners from Wallonia.
• Walloon industrial partners must be in good financial standing.
• Walloon participants must have a business unit in Wallonia.
• The project cannot have already received public funding.
• A project cannot last for more than three years.

Assessment criteria and project selection

The assessment and selection procedure for projects comprises several stages:

• Stage 1: The proposal will be evaluated based on three criteria (quality of the proposal, technological quality and promotion) by an expert from FPS Research and, potentially, independent experts. At the same time, for foreign partners, the proposal will be evaluated by their respective funding bodies.
• Stage 2: A multilateral consensus meeting between all the participating funding bodies will select the projects to be approved, based on the ratings from the evaluators.
• Stage 3: The selected proposal will be sent to the Minister for Research.
• Stage 4: Eureka will certify the project after receiving the agreement from other funding member states.
• Stage 5: The relevant project leaders will be notified of the proposals selected for funding.

The evaluation criteria shall be as follows:

- Impact
-  Excellence
- Quality and efficiency of implementation