IAPP UCC 08052009

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Marie Curie Industry-Academia Partnerships and
Pathways (IAPP) Dr Dagmar Meyer Marie Curie
National Contact Point
University College Cork, 8th May 2009
www.iua.ie
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Basic features of IAPP

• What are Industry-Academia Partnerships and
  Pathways (IAPP)?
• simple funding mechanism for partnerships between
  commercial and non-commercial research performing
  organisations
• based on a common research project designed to
  exploit complementary expertise and create
  synergies
• bottom-up approach (no predefined priority areas)
• project duration typically 4 years with the aim
  to develop long-term collaborations

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What does the funding cover?

• Funding is provided for
• exchange of know-how and experience through
  inter-sector secondments of research staff
• research and networking activities (including
  workshops and conferences involving external
  participants)
• Optionally
• recruitment of experienced researchers from
  outside the partnership, for transfer of
  knowledge and/or training of researchers
• for SMEs research equipment (up to 10 of the EC
  contribution for each SME participant) in duly
  justified cases

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Experiences from first two calls

• 2007 (budget 38.5m)
• 102 proposals across Europe, 2 with Irish
  coordinators
• 41 projects invited to negotiations, 5 on reserve
  list (success rate 40 !!)
• no successful Irish applicant
• 2008 (budget 45m)
• 141 proposals across Europe, 9 with Irish
  coordinators
• 41 invited to negotiations, 10 on reserve list
  (success rate 29)
• 5 ( 1 from reserve list) of the 9 Irish
  proposals successful, 14 successful Irish
  participations in total
• Budget for 2009 call 65m (increase of 44!!)
• Deadline 27 July 2009 (no call in 2010 WP!!)

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Who can apply?

• Consortium composition basic rules
• at least two partners from two different Member
  States or Associated Countries
• of these one commercial partner, one
  non-commercial partner
• more partners can be added, from either sector,
  from any country (including Third Countries)
• most common size 2-3 partners, rarely more than
  6-7 partners (first call 1 successful
  proposal with 13, one with 15 partners)

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Definition of commercial sector

• Examples for commercial partners
• commercial enterprises (big or small companies
  SMEs, spin-offs, start-ups etc. particularly
  encouraged)
• national organisations (if operating on a
  commercial basis)
• Basic requirement (cf. Work Programme)
• Within this scheme, the commercial partners must
  be companies gaining the majority of their
  revenue through competitive means with exposure
  to commercial markets, and will include
  incubators, start-ups and spin-offs, venture
  capital companies, etc.

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Definition of non-commercial
sector

• Examples for non-commercial partners
• national organisations (e.g. universities
  IoTs, public non-commercial research centres
  etc.)
• non-profit / charitable organisations (NGOs,
  trusts, etc.)
• International European Interest Organisations
  (e.g. CERN, EMBL)
• Joint Research Centre of the European Commission
• International Organisations (e.g. WHO, UNESCO,
  etc. funding subject to certain conditions)
• Any organisation that does not count as
  commercial partner
• if in doubt, contact us for clarification!

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Location of participating organisations

• Where can the organisations be located?
• Member States (MS)
• there are now 27 EU member states
• Associated Countries (AC)
• There are now 12 ACs Iceland, Liechtenstein,
  Norway, Israel, Switzerland, Croatia, FYR
  Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey, Montenegro, Albania,
  Bosnia-Herzegovina
• Third Countries (TC)
• more than 140 International Cooperation Partner
  Countries (ICPC), e.g. South Africa, India,
  China, Russia, (can be fully funded)
• other Third Countries (OTC), e.g. USA, Canada,
  Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea
  (normally self-funded)

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Staff secondments (I)

• Staff secondments between partners from different
  sectors
• main focus of the scheme
• researchers of any level of experience are
  eligible (including post-graduate students, e.g.
  for summer placements)
• technical and managerial staff in well justified
  cases
• no nationality restrictions, but in general the
  usual mobility condition applies
• secondments must in general be trans-national,
  but up to 30 of person months in the
  consortium can be used for intra-national
  secondments

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Staff secondments (II)

• Duration of secondments
• between 2 months and 2 years (cumulative over
  the lifetime of the project, can be split into
  shorter periods)
• Previous activity in the seconding organisation
  and reintegration
• participating staff must have been active in
  seconding organisation for at least one year
  prior to the secondment
• mandatory reintegration of at least one year
  after the final secondment period (not funded by
  the project)

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Staff secondments (III)

• Balance between partners
• ideally, secondments should be reasonably
  balanced between partners, but no expectation
  that they must be symmetrical as in one-for-one
  exchange
• One-way secondments not excluded if well
  justified (cf. Guide for Applicants)
• A consortium could make a good case for having
  more secondment months from one sector (a large
  university department for example) to the other
  sector (a small company, where researchers are
  relatively few). Moreover, projects with
  secondments in only one direction are not
  excluded where there is a clear mutual benefit
  for both sectors, and where the consortium duly
  justifies this one-way exchange.

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Staff secondments (IV)

• Flexibility regarding who pays the salary
• budget in principle allocated to the hosting
  organisation (for determining the country
  coefficient etc.), BUT
• administrative flexibility as to who actually
  pays the salaries out to seconded researchers
• seconded researchers can stay on payroll of home
  organisation, avoiding problems with social
  security contributions and benefits, tax,
  pensions etc.
• must be agreed on by the consortium partners in
  consortium agreement

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Recruitment of researchers

• Recruitment of researchers from outside the
  consortium
• optional and must be justified
• at the level of the consortium not more person
  months for recruitment than for secondments!
• only experienced researchers are eligible (e.g.
  post-docs or senior researchers)
• technical or managerial staff not eligible
• duration 12 24 months (split stays possible
  only in very exceptional cases, e.g. for family
  reasons)
• no nationality condition anymore
• mobility conditions apply

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Nationality and mobility conditions

• Nationality condition
• there is no nationality condition anymore (in
  particular, researchers can be recruited in their
  country of nationality)
• Mobility condition
• researchers/staff members must not have spent
  more than 12 months within the last 3 years prior
  to the secondment/recruitment in the host country
• International Organisations
• no mobility condition applies, but researchers
  cannot have spent more than 12 months in the
  previous 3 years in their host organisation

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Allowances to the researchers

• Living allowance (including all mandatory
  deductions) basic rate submitted to
  country-specific correction coefficient (Ireland
  113.3)

• Mobility allowance (basic rate 500/800 monthly,
  depending on family situation, submitted to
  country coeff.)
• Travel allowance (250 - 2500 for every 12
  months period or fraction thereof, depending on
  distance)
• Career exploratory allowance (2,000 once, only
  for newly recruited researchers)

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Contributions to the consortium members (I)

• Contribution for the execution of the partnership
  project/programme
• 1200 per person month, covering
• costs associated to publication of
  vacancies/interviews
• internal training actions
• participation in research and transfer of
  knowledge activities (research costs,
  participation in meetings and conference
  attendance, etc.)
• workshops and events (invitation of keynote
  speakers, publications, rental of premises, etc.)
• contribution to the expenses related to the
  co-ordination between participants
  (partnership meetings, detachment of staff, etc.)

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Contributions to the consortium members (II)

• Management activities
• max. 3 of total Community contribution
• Overheads
• flat rate 10 of direct costs except
  subcontracting
• for SMEs
• research equipment (up to 10 of the EC
  contribution for each SME participant) in duly
  justified cases

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Indicative timetable for IAPP scheme
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Before the submission

• Applicants will need a PIC number (Participant
  Identification Code) not mandatory at proposal
  stage but will facilitate the filing of A forms
  and handling of proposal by Commission (if
  successful, all participants have to get a PIC).
• Commercial sector coordinators should check their
  financial viability first (follow instructions in
  Guide for Applicants).

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Submission procedure

• Only electronic submission using EPSS (Electronic
  Proposal Submission Service)
• Proposal has two parts
• Part A administrative information about
  proposal, coordinator and partner institutions
  (prepared forms)
• Part B free text covering a number of predefined
  aspects of the project, limited number of pages
  (prescribed font size and margins), limited size
  of pdf-file (for this call 30 pages, 11pt, 15mm
  margins)
• Deadline is STRICTLY enforced

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Evaluation basic principles

• Evaluation according to criteria provided in the
  Guide for Applicants
• Different criteria carry different weights
• Thresholds for some evaluation criteria
• Overall threshold is 70
• All issues need to be addressed! Dont waste your
  chances.
• Always keep in mind the objectives of the
  activity!

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Evaluation process

• All proposals undergo initial eligibility check
• Evaluation by at least three experts from an
  international pool (not all experts are exactly
  from your field of speciality!!)
• Proposals that miss a threshold are rejected
• Remaining proposals are ranked within each panel
• Distribution of funding to different panels in
  proportion to proposals submitted
• All applicants receive evaluation summary report
  (very useful for re-submission!!)
• Reserve lists in case of late withdrawal etc.

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Evaluation criteria
Overview
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IAPP ST Quality

• ST objectives of the research programme,
  including in terms of intersectoral issues.
• Scientific quality of the joint collaborative
  research programme.
• Appropriateness of the research methodology.
• Originality and innovative aspects of the
  research programme knowledge of the
  state-of-the-art.
• Weight 25, Threshold 3/5

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IAPP Transfer of Knowledge

• Quality of the transfer of knowledge programme
  consistency with the research programme.
• Importance of the transfer of knowledge in terms
  of intersectorial issues.
• Adequacy of the role of researchers exchanged and
  recruited from outside the partnership with
  respect to the transfer of knowledge programme.
• Weight 20, Threshold 3/5

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IAPP Implementation

• Capacities (expertise / human resources /
  facilities / infrastructure) to achieve the
  research and exchange of know-how and experience.
  Fit between capacity of host and size of support
  requested.
• Adequate exploitation of complementarities and
  synergies among partners in terms of transfer of
  knowledge.
• Appropriateness of management plans (recruitment
  strategy, IPR strategy, demarcation of
  responsibilities, rules for decision making
  etc).
• How essential is non-ICPC Third Country
  participation, if any, to the objectives of the
  knowledge transfer programme.
• Weight 25, Threshold 3/5

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IAPP Impact

• Provision to develop new intersectorial and
  lasting collaboration.
• Strategy for the dissemination and facilitation
  of sharing of knowledge and culture between the
  participants and external researchers (including
  international workshops, training events).
• Extent to which SMEs contribute to the project.
• In case of SME participation Adequacy of the
  available infrastructure for the performance of
  the project. In case extra equipment is
  requested, necessity and justification in the
  context of the partnership.
• Weight 30, Threshold none

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More information

• Official website of the FP7 People (Marie
  Curie) programme on CORDIS
• http//cordis.europa.eu/fp7/people/
• Follow the link to
• Find calls for this activity
• to download the Work Programme 2009 and the
  Guide for Applicants 2009 (call
  page accessible from 24 April 2009)
• Deadline 27 July 2009

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EI support for FP7 applicants travel grants

• Enterprise Ireland travel support
• for researchers in higher education / publicly
  funded institutions
• for visits by Irish researchers abroad to meet
  potential partners or attendance at EU
  information days/workshops relating to FP7
• covers least-cost travel plus subsistence rates
  up to 150 per day (typical length of visits
  three days)
• Limit of 3,000 over the period of FP7 has been
  abolished to allow for multiple visits you can
  apply as often as you like!

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EI support for FP7 applicants coordination grants

• Enterprise Ireland coordinator support
• for researchers in higher education / publicly
  funded institutions
• to facilitate preparatory work leading to a
  proposal for the coordination of any research
  project under FP7
• grants up to a maximum of 25,000
• for coordinator (or internal approved staff)
  least cost travel and subsistence expenses, costs
  of hosting meetings, communication costs with
  consortium members, employment of researcher for
  short-term analysis, professional services in
  preparation of application, strategy development
  and planning
• replacement teaching costs in well justified
  cases

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EI support for FP7 applicants feasibility studies

• Enterprise Ireland financial support for
  companies
• covers company negotiations with research
  partners and/or preparation of joint RD proposal
  for FP7
• Salaries
• Overheads (30 of salaries)
• Travel subsistence
• Consultancy fees
• covers all areas (incl. Social Sciences etc.)
• grants to Enterprise Ireland clients up to a max
  of 25,000 (with equal investment by the
  company)
• Similar scheme in place for IDA client companies

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EI support for FP7 applicants more details

• More details on financial support is available on
  the Irish FP7 Portal at
• http//www.fp7ireland.com/Page.aspx?SP225

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Meeting room facilities in Brussels

• Irish Liaison Office
• for EU RTD

meeting room bookings Catriona Ward EU RD
Liaison Office Park Leopold Rue Wiertz 50
Wiertzstraat Bruxelles 1050 Brussel Tel. 32 (0)2
673 9866 catriona.ward_at_enterprise-ireland.com
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Marie Curie key contacts in Ireland

• IUA Marie Curie Office
• National Contact Point/National Delegate
• Dr. Dagmar Meyer - dagmar.meyer_at_iua.ie
• Dr. Conor OCarroll - conor.ocarroll_at_iua.ie
• mariecurie_at_iua.ie
• 353-(0)1-6764948
• Enterprise Ireland National Contact Point
• Bill Kee - Focus on Industry
• bill.kee_at_enterprise-ireland.com
• 353-(0)1-7272277