The Coal and Steel Research Fund (RFCS) Research Program is a funding program of the European Union intended to support research and innovation in the sectors related to the coal and steel industry. This document is subject to the confidentiality rules of Article 13 of the Rules of Procedure of the Coal and Steel Committee.
R ESEARCH O BJECTIVES OF THE RFCS
P RIORITIES FOR 2018
The proposals should focus on advanced monitoring of the highly stressed components in such plants where reduced component life is a problem, as well as qualification of new materials. A key technology for releasing this carbon is gasification, which allows complex hydrocarbon compounds to be split into synthesis gas – the basic building block of many chemical processes.
E LIGIBLE A CTIVITIES
Research Projects 15
The maximum total financial contribution of the European Union for research projects is up to 60% of eligible costs. The maximum total financial contribution of the European Union for pilot and demonstration projects is up to 50% of the eligible costs.
P ROJECT D URATION
The maximum total financial contribution of the European Union for Accompanying Measures is up to 100% of eligible costs. It is recommended that sufficient time be allocated for the preparation of the final report at the end of the project.
P ROJECT B UDGET
E XCEPTION FOR CALL 2018
Important: the description of the eligible costs given in this chapter has been written in accordance with an RFCS Model Grant Agreement (MGA), which was adopted on 26/08/2015. Any reference made in this information package to the RFCS MGA should be taken as a reference to the Model Grant Agreement as described above.
G ENERAL P RINCIPLES
Applicants are strongly advised to familiarize themselves with the rules for eligible costs presented in this information pack, which are written in accordance with the provisions of the RFCS MGA, and to budget their proposals accordingly. Please note that for proposals recommended for funding, costs that do not comply with the definition of eligible costs given in this section will be rejected during the preparation of the grant agreement and the EU contribution will be reduced accordingly.
C OSTS C ATEGORIES
Direct personnel costs (Staff Costs) 22
Linked third parties 28
On the participant portal, every person who wants to create, edit and submit a proposal must log in with his/her EU Login. The EU account is intended to allow users to access a wide range of Commission information systems using a single username and password. You may already have an EU login if you have used electronic services from the European Commission in the past.
If this is the case, avoid a new registration and use your existing EU login to log in. EU login is different from PIC (Participant Identification Code, which relates to an organization, see section 4.3). Typically, the PIC code is unique for the entire organization, while the EU login is personal.
S TEP 2 – F UNDING S CHEME
The Participant Portal offers applicants the possibility to create and edit a proposal for each open call, monitor the status of their submitted proposals and register as an expert for the evaluation of proposals. An error message is displayed if you try to register with an email address already registered in the system. Every time you log in with your EU login, make sure you select the correct domain (this should be External for people who don't work at a European institution).
If the user intends to create a new proposal for submission to the RFCS program, he can do so by following the indications detailed in steps 2 to 6;. If a user has already created a proposal and now wants to edit or submit it, or has been invited to participate in an existing proposal, they can view the proposal in question on the My Proposals page and edit only specific parts. On the Submission Service panel and after selecting the type of activity (research projects, pilot and demonstration projects or accompanying measure), the user will have direct access to the Participant Submission Service portal (called PPSS in this information package and available under the Submission Service tab when opening the call), which is an electronic environment that enables editing and submission of bids.
S TEP 3 – C REATE D RAFT
S TEP 4 – P ARTIES
S TEP 5 – E DIT P ROPOSAL
If these forms are written in a language other than English, please include an English version of the proposal summary in the technical annex (Form B2). In order for the proposal to be admissible, it is therefore the responsibility of the applicants to ensure that the said restrictions are respected. In order for the proposal to be accepted, the applicants are obliged to ensure that the specified page limit is respected.
Form B2 Form B2 (technical annex) describes the work plan for the implementation of the proposed measure. If the proposal is retained for funding, it will become an annex to the grant agreement and will define the contractual technical obligations of the participants. This corresponds to the summary evaluation report (ESR) that the applicants received from the European Commission after the last evaluation of the submitted proposal.
S TEP 6 – S UBMIT
Changes to the proposal are no longer possible after the cut-off date and any additional documentation provided by the applicants after this date will be disregarded, unless the Commission expressly asks the applicants to provide this information, e.g. In addition, the Commission may reassign a proposal to another subject, Technical Group or type of activity, if the first choice made by the applicants seems questionable. In this case, the applicant will be informed and asked to expressly agree to the proposed reallocation.
If the coordinator wishes to withdraw the proposal after the call is closed, he must notify the Commission via the RFCS functional mailbox listed in section 6.1. If the applicant submitted the same proposal more than once, the Commission may ask him to withdraw unnecessary duplicates.
C ONDITIONS FOR A DMISSIBILITY AND E LIGIBILITY
A check on the acceptability and admissibility of the proposals is carried out by the Commission before the evaluation. Applicants of unacceptable and unsuitable proposals will be notified in time of the Commission's decision not to proceed with the evaluation of such proposals. A proposal may also be declared ineligible at a later stage of the evaluation process, if evidence of non-compliance with the eligibility and eligibility criteria given above arises.
23 Two legal entities are considered independent of each other where neither is under the direct or indirect control of the other or under the same direct or indirect control as the other. For this purpose, control may in particular take any of the following forms: a) the direct or indirect ownership of more than 50 % of the nominal value of the issued share capital in the relevant legal entity, or of a majority of the voting rights of the shareholders or associates of that entity;. The following relationships between legal entities will not in themselves be considered controlling relationships:. a) the same public investment corporation, institutional investor or venture capital company has a direct or indirect holding of more than 50 % of the nominal value of the issued share capital or a majority of the voting rights of the shareholders or associates;.
E VALUATION C RITERIA
Scoring 49
For each evaluation criterion, and regardless of the type of activity, a threshold of at least 3.00 points applies. Consequently, a proposal that scores less than 3.00 points on any evaluation criterion will not pass the evaluation and will not be recommended for funding.
Ranking lists 50
At the end of the evaluation process, the Commission prepares a summary evaluation report (ESR) indicating and justifying the points for each criterion. Starting from the top of the two ranking lists (coal and steel), funding will be allocated to proposals that have passed all evaluation thresholds according to the requested EU contribution, until the available budget for the current call and for the relevant sector is allocated in such a way that the next eligible proposal on scale cannot be funded. In this case, most of the information from Part B of the originally submitted proposal becomes a contractual obligation.
During the preparation of the grant agreement, no possibility will be offered to change elements of the proposal, such as the planned work, the results, the composition of the consortium, the nature and size of the costs declared, etc., except for obvious clerical errors. .25 A change in the consortium may exceptionally be accepted in duly justified cases, provided that the content and quality of the proposal does not change, or in the event that a partner fails in terms of legal and financial viability. In this case, the consortium must propose a solution, either by assigning the tasks to other members of the consortium. The total amount of pre-financing and interim payments will not exceed 80% of the maximum grant amount.
Submission failed 52
The proposal will then be assessed on the basis of the pdf files that the complainant has provided (in the latest version before the notice deadline) OR if the complainant cannot provide this, the latest version in the IT system. At the end of the evaluation, each coordinator will be informed about the result of the evaluation of his/her proposal. He receives a copy of the summary evaluation report with the views and scores of the independent experts.
The scope of the evaluation review will cover only the procedural aspects of the evaluation. In order for the appeal to be justified, the coordinator must file it within 30 days from the date on which the Commission notified the complainant of the evaluation results. The re-evaluation score will be the final score for the proposal (it may be lower than the one originally awarded).
H ELPDESKS
S UPPORTING D OCUMENTS
The published reports on completed RFCS projects are available from the EU Bookstore, which is the portal of the Publications Office of the European Union:.
C ONFIDENTIALITY AND P ERSONAL D ATA P ROTECTION
The research program supports the competitiveness of the Community sectors related to the coal and steel industry. For coal and steel-related RTR aspects, each advisory group advises the Commission on the following: a) the general development of the research program, the information package referred to in Article 25(3) and future guidelines;. The members of the advisory groups are appointed by the Commission in their personal name for a period of 42 months.
The Commission, with the assistance of the technical groups referred to in Article 24, shall monitor research projects and activities. The Commission carries out an annual evaluation of the activities under the research program and the progress of the RTD work. Members of the Advisory Groups are individuals appointed by the Commission to represent a common interest shared by stakeholders.
Members of the technical groups are appointed in their personal capacity by the Commission. Integration of the coal chain, from mining to the final product (electricity, heat, hydrogen, coke).
