FAQ about the Travel Voucher Call

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What will the duration of the current Travel Voucher call be? The current Travel Voucher Call has originally been open for submission for three months and has recently been extended by 2 months until 15 December 2019. However, the 200 Travel Vouchers are awarded to eligible proposals according to the “first come first served” principle.

Which activities do qualify for the receipt of financial support und the Travel voucher call? The only activity that can obtain financial support during the Travel Voucher call of the DIH-HERO innovation action appears to be cross-border traveling in order to visit:  (i) the DIH-HERO brokerage event taking place in October 2019,  (ii) a DIH-HERO conference / network meeting or  (iii) a Digital Innovation Hub of the DIH-HERO consortium in another country to make usage of its services.  The number of TVs that can be obtained is limited to one voucher per entity per call.

Is 2000 EUR just for one event or we can spread to cover more events? It is possible to travel cross-border for the pre-defined purposes within the validity period several times, until the maximum amount of €2,000 has been reached.

How long will the Travel Voucher be valid? The Travel Vouchers may be used for the activities described above within a period of 12 months after the entity has been awarded with a travel voucher, until the maximum amount of €2,000 has been reached.

Will I receive the money before the event or do I need to cover all the expenses first and then ask for reimbursement? The travel costs made during the validity period will be covered on reimbursable basis up to a maxium amount of €2,000.

How will the Travel Voucher proposals be evaluated? All submitted TV proposals will be evaluated following the first come first served principle and will be reviewed considering two main aspects:  (i) The date and time of the proposal submission online. A date and time stamp as well as a proposal identification number will be generated automatically for each proposal submitted.  (ii) A proposals eligibility for travel vouchers.

When is a TV proposal considered eligible? To be eligible for funding under the Travel Voucher call all of the criteria given below will have to be fulfilled:  a. The applicant should be a legal entity being an SME from EU / EEA country;  b. The applicant must operate in the field of healthcare and/or robotics  c. The proposal must clearly state the purpose of the traveling (visit of a cross-border DIH or brokerage event/conference/network meeting organized by DIH-HERO) as well as the objective and expected outcome of the travel;  d. A third party may not receive more than 300k FSTP for the entire action duration;  e. The proposal must be written in English  f. The proposal must be submitted via the portal before the deadline;  g. There must not be any conflicts of interests.

How can I submit my travel voucher proposal? Eligible proposals are to be submitted via the submission form available on the DIH-HERO website. Proposals submitted by any other means will generally not be taken into consideration. An exception will be made for impaired persons. Please see the applicant guides for more information. Once the proposal has been submitted it cannot be edited or updated any longer. A legal entity is only allowed to submit one proposal per Travel Voucher call. In case more than one proposal is submitted by one entity, only the one proposal submitted will be taken into consideration. The submission platform will allow the applicant to download the complete proposal for reference.  Shortly after proposal submission, an automatically generated acknowledgement of receipt will be sent to the applicant’s email address. Please note that this acknowledgement of receipt does not imply that the proposal has been accepted as eligible for evaluation.

What information must the TV proposal at least contain? Any proposal submitted should at least contain the following information (please also see the proposal template example in the applicant guide for more information)  1. General Information about the company: Full legal entity name, type of company, official registration number, please of registration, address as well as main contact information 2. Brief description of the company and its main activity area(s) in regard to robotics/ healthcare (max. 3000 characters): Describe the company’s current main activities and focus areas the company is working in. 3. Brief description of purpose for cross-border travelling in connection with robotics in healthcare (max. 1200 characters) 4. Brief description of the impact to be reached through the use of the cross-border travel voucher, when considering the major Healthcare Robotics domains (max. 3000 characters) 5. Results of the EU Self-assessment questionnaire saved in .pdf format. 6. Signed Declaration of Honour saved in .pdf format. 7. Signed Consent Form for data processing and storage saved in .pdf format.

Where can I find the accompanying documents like the declaration of honour and the Informed consent for data processing and storage? The Declaration of honour and the Informed consent for data processing and storage can be found here.

Is there a contractual agreement foreseen? Yes, a contract will be signed between the awarded (coordinating) SME and the DIH-HERO project coordinator.

What kind of costs will be reimbursed under the Travel Voucher? (Cross-border) Travel costs are categorised as other direct costs. Under DIH-HERO only (cross-border) travel costs which can be identified as such following the EU guidelines will be reimbursed. All applicable receipts will have to be handed via the DIH-HERO portal. Eligible travel costs can be reimbursed up to a maximum amount of €2,000 per entity, per open call.

What are the basic guidelines for using the TV funding?  The basic criteria for cross-border travel costs to be generally eligible are: 1. Costs must be actually incurred by the awarded third party solely for the given cross-border travel purposes (Cross-border travel costs to visit the brokerage event, to visit a DIH in another country to make use of its services and/or a conference or network meeting organized by DIH-HERO. 2. Costs must be necessary for implementing the agreed cross-border travel purposes. 3. Costs must have been incurred within the defined period of 12 months after awarding. 4. Costs must be identifiable and verifiable and recorded in the accounts of the awarded third party, in accordance with the accounting standards applicable in the country where the awarded third party is established and with the awarded third party’s usual cost accounting practices. 5. Costs must comply with the applicable national law on taxes, labour and social security. 6. Costs must be reasonable and justified and must comply with the principle of sound financial management, in particular regarding economy and efficiency (Best-value- for-money principle).

Which documentary evidence is needed to prove the activities? Payment will be made on the basis of applicable cross-border travelling receipts for the listed destinations and a filled in report questionnaires concerning your traveling activities done under the travel voucher. You will be asked to fill in a questionnaire during and after the defined travel period of 12 months.

Where and when can I hand in my receipts for the reimbursement of the travel voucher? A template for submitting traveling receipts for reimbursement will be made available before the intermediate reporting.

I have got a question which is not yet addressed here. What can I do? This list of FAQs will be updated regularly during the further course of the project. If your specific question has not been addressed yet, please contact us directly by sending an email to: dih-healthcare@utwente.nl.