Globalstars call for projects with Japan

Scope

This call is open for R&D projects, but excludes technologies associated with nuclear power and drug discovery. Examples of scope include:

• Quantum
• Artificial intelligence
• Robotics
• Semiconductors
• Electronics
• Energy and environment
• Biotechnology
• New materials
• Medical devices
• Aerospace
• Mining and other industrial technologies

Timeframe

23 October 2023: Call opens

31 January 2024: National application deadline (exact timings may vary)

31 January 2024 at 23:59 CET: Eureka application deadline (date of receipt)

April 2024: Notifications and project set-up

1 July 2024: Projects can begin

Funding

Japan (NEDO)

Grant of up to 100m yen per project for SMEs only.

United Kingdom (Innovate UK)

Grant of up to 600,000 pounds per project for businesses and research and technology organisations, which must include an SME and be business-led.

Canada (NRC IRAP)

Eligible Canadian SMEs may receive up to 50% reimbursement of eligible project costs up to a maximum total funding grant of $500,000 CAD. Other Canadian organisations such as research institutes, universities, research and technology organisations, large enterprises and other companies may participate on a self-funded basis or as subcontractors.

Czech Republic (MEYS)

Grant up to 3 mil CZK per project per year (or 4 mil CZK per project per year in case of more than one Czech participant) for SMEs or large companies. Small enterprises may apply for grant funding up to 80% of the eligible costs, middle enterprises up to 75% and large companies up to 65%.

France (Bpifrance)

Loan or reimbursable advance up to 80% of the R&D costs for SMEs and large companies below 2000 FTE. For deeptech projects, a mix between grant and reimbursable advance is possible. Universities can only join as a subcontractor or on a self-funded basis, as an additional partner.

Netherlands (RVO)

Enterprises and research institutes in the Netherlands can apply for grant funding up to 50% of the eligible costs, depending on the type of organisation and the type of activities. Maximum funding is 350,000 euro per project.

Learn more.

Singapore (EnterpriseSG)

Grant of up to 70% (startups and SMEs) or 50% (non-SMEs) of the total qualified project costs.

Spain (CDTI)

Spain will finance industrial research and/or technological development activities of Spanish companies. Universities and research centers could take part as subcontractors.

If there is no allocated budget for your organisation type in your country and you want to participate in a project consortium, contact your national funding body using the form below to see whether there are other funding opportunities available or talk to them about self-funding.

Eligibility

Eureka has limited eligibility criteria for organisations participating in a Globalstars consortium:

• Your project idea must represent international cooperation in the form of a specific project.
• The project must be directed at researching or developing an innovative product, process or service with the goal of commercialisation.
• The project must have a civilian purpose.
• Your consortium must include at least two independent legal entities, from Japan and a minimum of one other Eureka country listed in this call (United Kingdom, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Netherlands, Singapore, Spain).
• No single organisation or country can be responsible for more than 70% of the project budget.

This call for projects has additional criteria for organisations to be eligible to receive funding:

• All partners must express their will to cooperate to the development of a new product, industrial process or service. The product, process or service must be innovative and there must be a technological risk involved.
• The project should have an obvious advantage and added value resulting from the technological cooperation between the participants from the countries (e.g. increased knowledge base, commercial leads, access to R&D infrastructure etc.)
• The project should demonstrate the contribution of all participants and the project must be significant to them.
• The duration of a project may be between 12-48 months (Canada, Czech Republic, France, the Netherlands and Spain can fund projects up to 36 months only)
• The participants are required, prior to the start of the project, to have signed a project consortium agreement on the execution of the project and commercialisation of the projects results. This must be sent to the relevant national funding agencies after the results of the evaluation have been communicated and before the start of the project.

Evaluation

Your project application will be reviewed according to our Network projects evaluation methodology.

1. Impact

• Is the market properly addressed (i.e. size, access and risks)?
• Is the value creation properly addressed (i.e. employment opportunities and environmental and societal benefits)?
• What are the competitive advantages of your project (i.e. strategic importance, enhanced capabilities and visibility)?
• Are your commercialisation plans clear and realistic (i.e. return on investment, geographical and sectoral impact)?

2. Excellence

• What is the degree of innovation? (i.e. is the proposed product, process or service state-of-the-art? Is there sufficient technological maturity and risk)?
• How is the new knowledge going to be used?
• Is your project scientifically and technically challenging for consortium partners?
• Is the technical achievability and risk properly addressed?

3. Quality and efficiency of implementation

• What is the quality of your consortium (i.e. balance of the partnership and technological, managerial and financial capabilities of each partner)?
• Is there added value through international cooperation?
• Is your project management and planning realistic and clearly defined (i.e. methodology, planning approach, milestones and deliverables)?
• Is your cost structure reasonable (i.e. costs and financial commitment for each consortium partner)?

4. Overall perception

Experts will list three positive and negative points to your application and finally state whether they recommend your project for public investment.

Your national funding body may carry out a further evaluation (performed by the national project coordinator and technical experts) according to national rules before allocating funds to successful applicants.

Country/ region evaluation

Your project application will be reviewed according to the following additional national evaluation processes:

Applicants from the UK must:

• Submit the required Innovate UK application on the Innovation Funding Service along with the supporting documentation listed in the guidance for applicants by 31 January 2024 at 11:00 GMT (UK time).

Applicants from Japan must:

• Submit the required NEDO application on the NEDO website by 31 January 2024 at 12:00 noon JST (Japan Standard Time), along with the supporting documentation listed in the guidance for application.
• NEDO has additional criteria for Japanese applicants to be eligible to receive funding:
  • Applicants must be unlisted Japanese small or medium-sized companies with their main research and development bases in Japan, or Japanese business operators represented by such companies and joined by other companies, research institutes, universities, and the like.
• Note: If an approved project participant company is listed after the project starts, funding will be terminated as the requirements are no longer fulfilled at that time.

Applicants from Canada must:

• Canadian applicant must register with NRC IRAP by 24 November 2023 on the NRC IRAP International opportunities webpage for this call for proposals, so that we can determine basic NRC IRAP eligibility and send an Expression of Interest (EOI) form.
• Complete and submit the EOI form to NRC IRAP by 24 November 2023. We strongly recommend Canadian applicants complete the EOI phase as early as possible, in order for NRC IRAP to confirm the firm’s potential eligibility for funding before assembling and submitting a proposal.
• Only qualified applicants will be invited to submit a Eureka project proposal with their project partner(s). Qualified Canadian applicants will be provided additional templates and will need to submit the required supporting documentation (NRC IRAP Canadian Annex and draft consortium agreement) along with the Eureka Network projects proposal.
• NRC IRAP has additional criteria for Canadian organisations to be eligible to receive funding which include:
  • your organisation must be a small and medium-sized enterprise in Canada, incorporated and profit-oriented.
  • your organisation must have 500 or less full-time equivalent employees.
  • you must have the objective to grow and generate profits through development and commercialisation of innovative, technology-driven new or improved products, services, or processes in Canada.
• Canadian SME applicants must be eligible for funding as NRC IRAP clients before they can be considered for funding through this call for proposals.

Applicants from Czech Republic must:

• Submit the required Czech application together with the supporting documentation specified in the instructions for applicants within the parallel open national call LUEJP23 by 31 January 2024 at 23:59 CET.
• CZ has additional criteria:
  1. Eligible applicant is a SME or large organisation
  2. Research organisation/university as project partner only
  3. Applicant must submit a document proving its research and development activity.

Applicants from France must:

• Contact Bpifrance prior to the application to conduct an eligibility check with their regional account manager ("Chargé d’Affaires Innovation”).
• Submit their national application to Bpifrance by 31 January 2024 at 18:00 CET (an email will give you access to the Bpifrance En Ligne platform once you have applied to the Eureka programme). If the funding application’s documents are not submitted in time, the project can be rejected. The evaluation will be conducted by the regional account manager (“Chargé d’Affaires Innovation”) and the International Collaborative Innovation team.

Applicants from Netherlands must:

• Submit an additional application to RVO, including a detailed project plan and budget for the Netherlands project partners in the consortium. The application must be submitted by a for profit Netherlands company. Other Netherlands organisations can join as project partner to the Netherlands application.
• Be aware that only R&D costs are eligible for funding.
• Submit their application on the e-loket before 31 January 2024 at 17:00 CET.

Applicants from Singapore must:

• Fill in the preliminary assessment form hosted on FormSG by 24 January 2024.
• Thereafter, when notified, submit the full application via the Business Grants Portal (BGP) by 31 January 2024, with the following documents:
  • Latest ACRA business profile (retrieved within six months from application date)
  • Applicant’s latest and previous two years audited financial statements (Company and Group level), or official management account
  • Supplementary Project Proposal Form (please find the template here: https://go.gov.sg/edgcip)  
  • Relevant key quotations (e.g. equipment and software, materials and consumables, professional services).
• EnterpriseSG has additional criteria for Singapore applicants to be eligible to receive funding:
  • Be locally owned (the applicant should have ≥ 30% of its ordinary shares held directly or indirectly by Singaporeans/ Singapore PRs); and 
  • Be in a financially viable position to start and complete the project; and 
  • The lead applicant (if more than one Singapore entity is involved) should be a business entity that is registered/incorporated and operating in Singapore. 

Applicants from Spain must:

• Submit a formal R&D international project aid application through CDTI’s website by 31 January 2024 including the Eureka Application form (in English) and the draft consortium agreement (optional). Additional documents in Spanish language, containing detailed information on the Spanish participants, could be requested depending on the specific type of funding requested by the company.
• Additional to this application, each Spanish applicant willing to receive public funding from CDTI will have to submit a funding application at the same time as the international application also through CDTI’s website. A full memory (in Spanish) must be attached to these applications. Deadline to submit this second application is also 31 January If the funding applications are not submitted in time, the international project could be rejected.
• Funding conditions for Spanish partners may vary depending on the nature of the project and the beneficiaries. For more information please access: http://www.cdti.es/index.asp?MP=100&MS=802&MN=2.
  • It is mandatory that project activities do not start before submitting the funding applications to CDTI. For further information, please contact CDTI.

Applying

1. Contact your national funding body using the contact form on Eureka’s website to discuss your project idea, financial viability, eligibility and national procedures.
2. Create an account on our application portal (one per consortium) and select the funding opportunity you want to apply to.
3. Using the portal, complete one application form per consortium (in English) and invite other consortium partners to fill in a partner form.
4. Upload a GANTT chart (one per consortium), a signed and completed co-signature form (which you can download from the platform) and any additional required annexes.
5. Your application will be checked for completeness and eligibility before being reviewed using a standard evaluation procedure. If successful, your project will receive a Eureka label.
6. Your national funding body may carry out a further evaluation (performed by your national contact and technical experts) according to national rules before allocating funds to successful applicants.
7. The final step is to complete and sign a consortium agreement. We recommend that you seek legal advice when drafting your consortium agreement.

Downloadables