Globalstars call for projects with Taiwan

Scope

This call invites consortia to submit high quality R&D projects that fall within the scope of the call. The participating funding organisations welcome project proposals in the field of

• High technologies, such as (but not limited to):
  • Semiconductors and photonics (integrated circuits)
  • Digital health / biotechnology
  • Telecommunication (5G, 6G)
  • Advanced manufacturing
• Sustainability, such as (but not limited to):
  • Mobility
  • Circular economy, including carbon circulation, industrial processes circulation

These should be collaborative research and innovation projects which tackle challenges in subtopics mentioned, resulting in innovative and marketable solutions.

Your project should:

• address at least one of the fields mentioned in the call description and
• demonstrate the potential to research or develop a product, process or service for commercialisation.

Timeframe

• 20 November 2023: Call for projects opens
• 21 May 2024: Deadline (date of receipt CE(S)T)
• October 2024: Applicants are informed about evaluation results
• October 2024: Eureka label procedure and approval
• December 2024: Funding decision and projects start

Funding information

Taiwan (DoIT)

The application must be submitted by a Taiwanese company. DoIT does not fund universities and research organisations. However, universities and research organisations are welcome as subcontractors of Taiwanese companies or to participate with their own budget.

Companies can apply for grant funding up to 50% of the eligible costs depending on the industrial impact of the project in accordance with the A+ Industrial Innovation R&D Program (Herein after referred to as "the A+ Program").

Finland (BusinessFinland)

Enterprises can apply for grant funding for research projects or loan funding for development and piloting projects. A grant can cover up to 50% of the eligible costs for SMEs and 40% for large and midcap companies. A loan can cover up to 50% (70% in certain cases) of the eligible costs.

Public Research Organisations can receive up to 80% funding, specific national co-innovation project funding rules apply.

There is no specific euro limit for the project size.

Austria (FFG)

There is a dedicated budget of one million euro for this call. Funding in Austria is provided on an annual basis only, therefore follow-on applications must be submitted for the maximum duration of 3 years.

The funding provided by FFG are grants:

• max. 60% of the eligible costs for small companies,
• max. 50% of the eligible costs for medium-sized companies and
• max. 40% for large companies.

Funding decisions for national applications submitted until 23 May 2024, 17:00 CET will be published after the Advisory Board Meeting (“Beiratssitzung”) on 5 September 2024.

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 Canadian dollars.

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.

Read more.

The 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.

More information.

Sweden (Vinnova)

Swedish project participants can apply for grant funding according to Vinnova’s general terms and conditions for funding: SMEs up to 50% of eligible costs, large companies up to 30% of eligible costs and universities and research institutes up to 100% of eligible costs. The maximum funding (grant) per project to Swedish project participants is 250,000 euro.

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

If there is no allocated budget for your organisation type and you want to participate in a project consortium, contact your 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 a minimum of one Eureka country and a specified Globalstars country or region.
• 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. Partners must meet the following qualifications:

• The consortium should include at least two organisations that are independent from each other, one (for profit) company from Taiwan and one (for profit) company from one of the participating Eureka members.
• The product, process or service must be innovative, and there must be a technological risk involved for all involved partners.
• The project must benefit all involved partners.
• The project should have an obvious benefit and added value resulting from the technological cooperation between the participants (e.g. increased knowledge base, commercial leads, access to R&D infrastructure etc.).
• The product, process or service must be innovative and with the potential to create impact.
• A signed consortium agreement is required upon approval, before the actual start of the project. It ought to include, amongst others, the ownership and use of know-how and IPR settlements
• The maximum duration of a project may not exceed 36 months

Any partner whose cooperative R&D project is consistent with the aforesaid criteria can apply to the present call in accordance with their own laws, rules, regulations and procedures in effect, on a non-exchange of funds basis, and subject to budgetary availability. The amount of funding available per project partner is subject to the respective rules and regulations of the participating funding organisations.

Project partners are strongly advised, prior to submitting the application, to contact their funding organisation (see below) in order to check the eligibility of their project.

Partners from other Eureka members or outside of Eureka can also participate, but they will not be funded by the participating funding bodies in this call. Subsequently, these partners have to secure their own funding within the deadlines for this call.

DoIT

In addition to the centrally submitted Eureka Project Application Form, Taiwanese applicants must submit their national application documents to DoIT before 21 May 2024, 17:00 Taiwan time (11:00 CE(S)T on 21 May 2024). The applicants (companies only) with Eureka labelled project are eligible to apply for funding under the A+ Industrial Innovation R&D Program ("the A+ Program"). The proposal must include abstract, detailed project and budget plan as requested in the A+ Program.

DoIT does not fund universities and research organisations. The application must be submitted by a Taiwanese company. However, universities and research organisations are welcome as subcontractors of Taiwanese companies or to participate with their own budget.

Companies can apply for grant funding up to 50% of the eligible costs depending on the industrial impact of the project in accordance with the A+ Program. DoIT’s budget is available for qualified projects.

Prior to the submission of the application forms, the applicants are recommended to get in touch with DoIT for a pre-check of their project ideas and eligibility.

More info here – in Chinese only

BusinessFinland

The general Business Finland eligibility criteria and rules for funding apply for this call. Different rules apply for small and medium-sized enterprises, midcap companies (large companies with turnover < 300 M€), large companies, and research organisations. The impact of the international cooperation should be clear, and the participating companies should have a credible internationalization plan and business goals including export targets. If public research organisations are involved in a co-innovation project, minimum three companies must also participate, at least two of which apply for Business Finland funding.

The applicants will be advised in detail about the applicable rules by Business Finland contact persons prior to submitting the Eureka application.

Funding from Business Finland is intended for challenging and innovative research, development, and innovation projects. More informartion on eligible costs and funding rates, can be found here.

FFG

All companies registered in Austria are eligible for funding, universities and research organisations can be funded as subcontractors only.

In addition to the Eureka application, Austrian participants have to submit a separate national application to FFG General Programmes (“Basisprogramm”) via eCall at the FFG web page. The national application must include the Eureka project proposal and a national project proposal. The evaluation of the national application is carried out by internal experts.

The project must fulfil the national criteria (“Basisprogramm-Leitfaden”). Detailed information on national rules and procedures can be found here.

Before project submission, it is important to contact the Eureka NPC at FFG.

NRC IRAP

Canadian applicants must register with NRC IRAP by 19 February 2024 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 4 March 2024. 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. For more information, please contact NRC IRAP at 1-877-994-4727.

RVO

Under the program funded by RVO, only R&D costs are eligible for funding. Enterprises and research institutes can apply for grant funding up to 50% depending on the type of organization and the type of activities:

• SMEs: 45% for research activities, 35% for development activities
• Large companies: 35% for research activities, 25% for development activities
• Universities / research organisations: 50% for research activities, 25% for development activities

The maximum funding (grant) per project is 350.000 EUR.

In addition to the centrally submitted Eureka Project Application Form, project partners from The Netherlands need to submit an application to RVO, including a detailed project plan and budget. The application must be submitted by a for profit Netherlands company. Other Netherlands organisations can join as project partner to the Netherlands application. The deadline for submission is 28 May 2024, 17:00 CE(S)T. RVO invites partners for a pre-check of their project ideas.

More info here:

VINNOVA

Vinnova’s national call is aimed at companies, universities, research institutes or other relevant actors in Sweden that want to collaborate with organisations in Taiwan and the participating Eureka countries. A participant seeking a grant must be a Swedish legal entity. In this respect, a Swedish legal entity is equated to a foreign organization with a branch or establishment in Sweden.

Swedish participants can apply for grants according to Vinnova’s general terms and conditions for grants. State aid rules apply to organisations that carry out economic activities[1]. The rules on state aid for research, development and innovation are stated in the European Commission’s General Block Exemption Regulation No 651/2014 (GBER). In this call article 25 in GBER applies. In addition, the following funding levels apply:

• SMEs up to 50% of eligible costs
• Large companies up to 30% of eligible costs
• Universities and research institutes up to 100% of eligible costs

The maximum funding (grant) per project is 250,000 EUR. The total budget at Vinnova for this call is approximately 500,000 EUR. Information on terms and conditions for funding and eligible costs: https://www.vinnova.se/en/apply-for-funding/rules-for-our-funding/terms-and-conditions-for-our-funding/

Swedish participants that require funding from Vinnova are recommended to get in touch with the Vinnova contact person before submitting the national application.

In addition to the centrally submitted online Eureka project application form, Swedish participants of the international project consortium apply on the Vinnova web page here to the national call that will open on 20 November 2023 before 30 May 2024, 14:00 CE(S)T. The complete Eureka application form of the international project consortium, including all partner forms, project budget and a Gantt diagram of work packages, must be submitted as the project description in the national application to Vinnova.

Other organisations

Organisations from other Eureka members or from outside the Eureka network can participate provided:

• they arrange their own funding
• the project meets the eligibility participation criteria
• they respect the deadlines of the call

Evaluation

Evaluation

Applications will be evaluated by the participating funding bodies. The basis for the evaluation is the general Eureka eligibility criteria, the eligibility criteria and evaluations of the particular funding body, the Eureka application form and, if required, the additional application to the funding body.

A multilateral consensus meeting between all involved funding organisations will select projects to be approved based on the evaluation scores, using the Network projects evaluation methodology. After a common list of funded and non-funded projects has been arranged, the funding bodies and Eureka will inform the applicants about the results. Successful projects are put forward for a Eureka label.

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

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)?

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?

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)? 

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.

Funding will only be provided to labelled projects that are positively evaluated by all participating funding bodies, taking the common ranking list into account. Funding of project partners is subject to budgetary availability and the funding conditions of each funding body.

Any IPR arising from cooperative project activities under this call must be regulated in a consortium agreement in accordance with the relevant laws applicable to the project partners.

A signed consortium agreement on the execution and commercialisation of the projects results is mandatory for selected projects and must be sent to the relevant funding agencies no later than six months after the results of the evaluation have been communicated. The project start can in any case not be prior to the approval of the signed consortium agreement.

Applying

1. Contact your funding body using the contact form on Eureka’s website to discuss your project idea, financial viability, eligibility and 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 funding body may carry out a further evaluation (performed by your national contact and technical experts) according to their funding rules before allocating funds to successful applicants.
7. The final step is to complete and sign a consortium agreement.

All partners must complete Eureka's project application form online before 21 May 2024 at 17:00 hours Taiwan time (11:00 hours CE(S)T on 21 May 2024). The form must be completed in English.

The project consortium is strongly advised to read the form carefully, follow the guidelines and complete all necessary elements in the form as requested. User guidance for the application tool is available under “Related documents”.

In parallel to the submission of the Eureka project application form, all project partners are required to submit a related funding application, if required, to their respective funding bodies, taking into account all relevant procedures and submission rules. Deadline for submission might differ between the participating funding agencies, see below for detailed information for each funding agency.

• Applicants in Taiwan must submit their national application documents to DoIT before 21 May 2024, 17:00 Taiwan time (11:00 CE(S)T on 21 May 2024).
• Applicants in Finland must submit their national application to Business Finland. The applicants need to contact the call contact person(s) at Business Finland for detailed advise including the timetables for the national applications at the latest two weeks before the call closing date. We strongly advise that the applicants contact Business Finland as early in the application process as possible
• Applicants in Austria must submit their application on the FFG eCall portal before 23 May 2024, 17:00 CE(S)T.
• Applicants in Canada must submit their application and all supporting documentation on the Eureka application portal before 21 May 2024 11:00 hours (EDT) 17:00 CE(S)T, and email the following documents to IRAP International Office: (International.Forms-Formulaires.international.PARI@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca)
  • A well-developed (but unsigned) draft project consortium agreement
  • Canadian SME Annex - Project Cost Breakdown
• Applicants in the Netherlands applicants must submit their application on the e-locket before 28 May 2024, 17:00 CE(S)T
• Applicants in Sweden must submit their application on the Vinnova web page to the national call that will open on 20 November 2023 before 30 May 2024, 14:00 CE(S)T.

The funding bodies named above will provide access to public investment for the selected projects. The support will be given to each partner by its respective funding body in accordance with their laws, rules, regulations and procedures in effect, on a non-exchange of funds or soft loan basis, and subject to budgetary availability for each funding body.

Events and webinars

Are you interested in collaborating on an high technology or sustainability R&D project with partners from Taiwan?

We will be hosting an information session on our new Globalstars call for projects with Taiwan.

When?

Wednesday 15 November 2023 at 09:00-11:00 CET

Where?

Online: Register here

Eureka, in collaboration with the funding agencies in Austria, Canada, Finland, Taiwan, the Netherlands and Sweden is organising an information session about the Globalstars call for projects with Taiwan.

This call for projects opens on 20 November 2023 and is for high tech and sustainable R&D projects.

During the information session on 15 November 2023, you will hear more about how to apply and the funding agencies' funding requirements. In addition, two companies from funded projects will share their experiences with the Globalstars programme.

Programme

09:00: Opening

09:15: Presentation

• Introduction to Eureka
• Introduction to Globalstars call for projects with Taiwan in 2024
• Funding information DoIT (operating by ITRI) (Taiwan)
• Funding information RVO (the Netherlands)
• Funding information FFG (Austria)
• Funding information Vinnova (Sweden)
• Funding information Business Finland (Finland)
• Funding information NRC IRAP (Canada)

10:10 Coffee break

10:20 Case studies

• TMYTEK
• Somni Solutions

10:40 Q&A

11:00 Closing remarks

If you are interested in learning more about this Globalstars call for projects with Taiwan, please register for this online event.

Register here

If you have other questions about this call for projects, please contact your project officer at your funding organisation using the contact form below.

Downloadables