Commission launches call for proposals on SME innovation and participation
The European Commission has announced a call for proposals for indirect research and technological development (RTD) actions under the specific programme for research, technological development and demonstration on promotion of innovation and encouragement of SME participation (1998 to 2002). This is a pilot action of a new tool proposed for the next Framework programme: collective research projects. Collective research projects aim to expand the knowledge base of large groups of SMEs being confronted with common challenges, which range from increased legislative requirements to enhanced competition from companies outside Europe. The call relates to: Part 1: Expressions of interest, specified under Part 1, called by a fixed deadline following which evaluation will take place. Part 2: A restricted call for proposals, specified under Part 2, called by a fixed deadline following which evaluation will take place. Part 1 The expressions of interest will help the Commission in identifying topics that best satisfy the objectives of the further restricted call for proposals and encourage the retained Expression of Interest to submit a full proposal. The expressions of Interest has to fulfil the following requirements: - provide information on the objectives, relevance to SMEs and innovative nature of the proposal; - describe the Community added value and the potential contribution to Community social objectives of the proposal; - describe the research content and explain how will the future results be disseminated; - present briefly the foreseen partnership, resources to be used and management approach. Part 2 This call for proposals is restricted to expressions of interest mentioned above and retained by the European Commission under the call for expression of interest. Other proposals will not be accepted. Proposals have to fulfil the following requirements: - provide information on the objectives, relevance to SMEs and innovative nature of the proposal; - describe the Community added value and the potential contribution to Community social objectives of the proposal; - describe the research content and explain how will the future results be disseminated; - present in detail the foreseen partnership, resources to be used and management approach. The indicative budget for Part 2 is 5.5 million euro.For further information, please contact: SME Help Desk European Commission Directorate-General for Science, Research and Development rue de la Loi/Wetstraat 200 B-1049 Brussels Fax +32-2-295 7110 E-mail: research-sme@ec.europa.eu http://cordis.europa.eu/sme/src/200101.htm(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie)