France and Spain call for projects

Timeframe

• Call opens: 1 February
• Submission deadline (date of receipt CE(S)T): 15 July
• Eureka label given: February 2023 (approx) 

Funding information

France

Bpifrance will finance industrial research and/or technical development activities of French companies. Universities and research centres could take part as self-funded or subcontractors.

Bpifrance could conduct a first “pre-eligibility check” as soon as the company contact the team before submitting the application.

Once the application is submitted, Bpifrance will first evaluate the technical project and, if the project get a good note enough, will open a national founding application.

Once the national funding application is submitted, the regional relationship manager will evaluate the project and decide on the type of funding and amount.

The French funding scheme (ADI – Aide pour le Développement de l’Innovation) is the following:

• Eligible partner: Innovative company up to 2,000 FTE
• Eligible costs: Industrial research and experimental development (industrialisation and commercialisation costs are not eligible)
• Funding amount: from 50,000 euro up to 3 million euro (submitted to financial analysis of the company and financial conditions)
• Funding type: Reimbursable advance in case of technical success or deferred R&D loan
• Duration: maximum of 36 months

If the company is considered to be a deep tech company, the funding could be different. In any case, all the above information could be adapted to the profile and project of the company.

Before the application, the French partner could also apply to a Diag Partenariat Tech International, if they plan on working with an external expert to help them build their consortium, project or application. The Diag is a grant covering up to 50% of the expert’s consultancy services (within the limit of a 25,000 euro excluding VAT contract, i.e. 30,000 euro including VAT) and planning on helping companies structuring their international collaborative project.

Spain

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

CDTI will check the eligibility of the Spanish applicants after receiving the international application. If it is eligible, funding applications will be generated by CDTI to each Spanish company and it must be completed and submitted by them. A full memory (in Spanish) must be attached to these applications. Deadline to reply 15 September. 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.

More information.

Funding decision is expected within 4-5 months after submitting an eligible funding application

It is mandatory that project activities do not start before submitting the funding applications to CDTI. For further information, please contact CDTI.

According to Eureka’s practices, applicants may choose to request a label without public financing (e.g. self-funding is also applicable).

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 Network projects 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 one French and one Spanish company. Participation of research institutes/universities and other organisations is welcome as self-funded participants or subcontractors according to each country’s funding regulations. Organisations from other countries may also participate, but they will not be funded by CDTI or by Bpifrance.
• 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:

• The participants are required, prior to obtaining the Eureka label endorsement, to have signed a consortium agreement.

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.

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 the NPC 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 (CA). We recommend that you seek legal advice when drafting your CA.

Additionally, each applicant must submit all required documents to their respective national funding authority and meet its due diligence process requirements:

• In France, the participants will have to submit the Eureka application form (in English) before the deadline, on the Eureka website. Once this document has been uploaded, the regional relationship manager of the company will get in touch to ask for the national funding application (ADI), in French language, which includes the draft consortium agreement. Additional documents could be requested depending on the profile, project and founding requested by the company.
• In Spain, the participants will have to submit a formal R&D international project aid application through CDTI’s website including the Eureka application form (in English) and the draft consortium agreement. 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.

Downloadables