FAQ about the Technology Demonstrator and Technology Transfer Experiment Calls

Home / Calls / FAQ / FAQ About the Technology Demonstrator and Technology Transfer Experiment Calls

Forming a TD or TTE Consortium

Is there a limit on the number of partners that may take part in the TD or TTE projects? There must be minimal two partners from two different countries:  either 2 SMEs/ Slightly larger companies or 1 SME/ slightly larger company and 1 end-user collaborating on and executing a TD or TTE project. There is no maximum limit of partners, however the collaboration of the partners and the involvement of each partner must be visible in the proposal.

Are knowledge institutes, in addition to SMEs, eligible for these calls? Knowledge institutes not being an SME or slightly larger company may take part in a TD or TTE project in addition to 2 SME/slightly larger companies from two different EU/EEA countries or 1 SME/slightly larger companies and 1 end-user from two different EU/EEA countries. Please note that, only SME/slightly larger companies are eligible for funding. However, the DIH-HERO network offers various benefits beyond the financial support also for knowledge institutes.

Will the DIH-HERO partners be coordinating in setting up the right consortium for a possible project? The DIH-HERO partners can facilitate in finding partners (also through the brokerage event), it is the participant’s own responsibility to set up the right consortium for TD or TTE project.

Are two SME partners from two different countries enough or should we include a third one?  The minimal requirement for a TD or TTE project within DIH-HERO is collaboration between either:  1 SME/ slightly larger company and an end-user from two different countries, or 2 SME/ slightly larger companies from two different countries.  According to this definition a collaboration between 2 SMEs from two different countries would be enough. However, you are of course free to add more partners to the TD or TTE project where necessary.

Can one SME submit more than one application for each one call, teaming up with different partners in each submission?  Yes, this is possible. However, the maximum possible financial support for any SME or slightly larger company is limited to €300,000. In addition, it is not possible to have the same proposal content funded twice.

What if one of our partners is not an SME or slightly larger company?  However, only SME/slightly larger companies are eligible for funding.   The DIH-HERO partners can facilitate in finding partners (also through the brokerage event), it is the participant’s own responsibility to set up the right consortium for TD or TTE project.

Role of the DIH-HERO Partner

What exactly will be the role of the DIH-partners?  Each of the DIH-HERO partners represents a Digital Innovation Hub consisting of several parties offering a variety of services. The partners are in close contact with the different parties within their hub and can facilitate making contact with one of the service partners. The initial service catalogue can be found here.

Are the DIH-HERO partners going to provide knowledge and access to possible facilities in order to execute a granted proposal? Different innovation coaches have been announced by each DIH-HERO partner. One of those innovation coaches will be assigned to each of the awarded projects. The main tasks of the innovation coaches will be:  – Giving advice during the execution phase of the project where necessary – Monitoring the project’s progress – Facilitating access to services of the network

Do the DIH-HERO partners need to participate (be a project partner or be sub-contracted) in every project? No. the DIH-HERO partners are not allowed to become a partner in a TD or TTE project or to receive any money via subcontracting from the DIH-HERO innovation action.

Proposal Document Preparation

What are the requirements that have to be met when applying for the TD / TTE calls?  All of the following eligibility criteria will have to be fulfilled for a TD/ TTE project to be funded:  1. Third parties receiving financial support must be a legal entity, being an SME or slightly bigger companies from EU / EEA countries; 2. At least two parties must be involved (either two SME’s or slightly larger companies from two different EU/EEA countries, or one SME or slightly larger company and one end user (e.g. hospital) two from 2 different EU/EEA countries; 3. The proposal must clearly state the relevant clinical demand for the intended robotic solution including a clear linkage to end-users; 4. The proposal must address expertise and/or services of the DIH-HERO network; 5. The proposal must fit to the call text; 6. A third party may not receive more than 300k FSTP for the entire action duration; 7. Proposal must be written in English and submitted via the portal before the deadline; 8. There must be no conflicts of interests with consortium partners of DIH-HERO. 9. Third parties receiving financial support should be financially healthy (they have to sign a declaration of no financial problems)

Do we have to include the administrative information in the pdf of the TD/TTE proposal?  No, this is not necessary. The administrative information can be filled-in in the online application form.

Is there a template for the project proposal or specific proposal guidelines and where can we find those?  The administrative data can be filled in in this online form. Furthermore, the basic guidelines for the pdf document to be uploaded can be found in the applicant guides.

How can we sign up in the platform in order to save our proposal for later? If you have started the submission process, it is possible to stop and continue later through clicking on the “save and continue later” button right next to the next button. By clicking on save and continue later, you will be redirected to the page where a link is given. You can save this link or have it send to you via email. Through this link you can go back to the place iin the form, where you stopped. The link will be valid 30 days.

The system does not accept the pdf. file I would like to upload, what shall I do? It is not possible to upload editable pdf. formats. Please save the file in a simple pdf. format and try again.

The TD budget section should it be added to the maximum 6 pages in the pdf? Yes, the estimated budget section should be included in the pdf of the project proposal. However, it is not included, but in addition in addition to the project description. An estimated budget template can be found here.

Is it possible submit more pages than the maximum page limits given in the call documents?  The page limits given for the excellence, impact and implementation part of the proposal have been set on purpose to make it convenient for the applicants to apply, to limit the workload for the evaluators and to get proposals which are focused and to the point.

Should the budget structure follow the same rules of H2020? Yes, the budget structure follows the same rules of H2020. However please note that only the following cost categories are eligible:  (a) Direct personnel costs  (b) Direct costs of subcontracting (up to a maximum of 15%) whereas,  o subcontracting has to be necessary to implement the action. o   subcontracting may cover only a limited part of the action. o   awarding of subcontracts must be done ensuring the best value for money or, if appropriate, the lowest price principle.  o   any conflict of interests must be avoided. (c) Other direct costs  o    travel costs and related subsistence allowances  o    equipment costs o    costs of other goods and services  (d) Indirect costs (25% of direct personnel costs and other direct costs) An estimated budget template can be found here.

How can we include the hourly costs of freelancers working for the partner organisations? There are basically 2 options: a) As work for Third Parties (Subcontracting) through contract; b) As Personnel costs (hour x rate). The only freelance activities that qualify as actual personnel costs are those performed by natural persons (not companies) that are directly contracted by the beneficiary in a non-employee arrangement.   General Conditions: a) The work carried out must comply with the general conditions for eligible costs, i.e. carried out during the duration of the project and necessary. b) There must be a direct contract between the natural person (person) and the beneficiary; c) The person must work according to the beneficiary’s instructions; d) The result (s) of the work must belong to the beneficiary; e) The hourly rate may not differ significantly from that of staff performing similar duties under an employment contract with the beneficiary; f) The person must work under conditions that are comparable to those of an employee.

Is it in line with the call rules if the total project cost exceeds the total funding amount for each of the calls? Yes, the total project costs may exceed the max. funding amount. However, it is only possible to receive a maximum funding amount per call from DIH-HERO for a project, while the rest of the costs will then have to be bared by the partners. The intention to finance the remaining costs from own resources is basically every euro above the maximum funding amount.

Considering that equipment is intended to be bought exclusively for project is it possible to report the total equipment cost for the project? Yes, the depreciation costs of equipment, infrastructure or other assets that are exclusively bought for the project and are recorded in the third party’s account are elegible, if they were purchased in accordance with the H2020 purchasing rules and written off in accordance with international accounting standards and the third party’s usual accounting practices. However, only the depreciation costs for the project duration may be taken into account. So if the equipment is depreciated in 36 months and the project duration is 9 months, you will only be able to charge 9/36.The costs of renting or leasing equipment, infrastructure or other assets (including related duties, taxes and charges such as non-deductible value added tax (VAT) paid by the third party) are also eligible, if they do not exceed the depreciation costs of similar equipment, infrastructure or assets and do not include any financing fees.

What are the rules for purchasing goods, works or services? If necessary to implement the action, the third parties may purchase goods, works or services. The third parties must make such purchases ensuring the best value for money or, if appropriate, the lowest price. In doing so, they must avoid any conflict of interests.

Should the Declaration of Honor and Declaration of informed consent be signed only by the project coordinator or by all partners? Yes, the Declaration of Honour and the Declaration of informed data consent should be signed by all partners of the TD or TTE project.

What are the terms of “addressing expertise and/or services of the DIH-HERO network”, as stated in the eligibility criteria? Does it mean that we are free to use every service available or is there a distinctive list of services that are at our disposal? Both the TD and TTE proposals must be in connection with the DIH-HERO network, making use of one of the several services or expertise offered by the Digital Innovation Hubs of DIH-HERO. An initial list of the services offered by the DIH-HERO network can be found here. It is not allowed to include a DIH-HERO core partner in the project consortium to make use of the services and expertise.

Where can I find the declaration of honour for the TD/TTE call?  The declaration of honour for the TD/TTE call can be found here.

Where can I find the declaration of informed consent for data processing for the TD call? The declaration of informed consent for data processing for the TD/TTE call can be found here.

Where can I find the statement on legal agreement describing the rights and duties of each party to be negotiated among consortium partners? This statement is included in the online application form.

Where can I find the statement on the announcement for publication?  This statement is included in the online application form.

In the applicant guide it is stated that “questions for statistical purposes” should be answered. Where can I find them? The questions for statistical purposes are included in the online application form.

Subcontracting

Is it possible to have an end-user who is a partner in a TD/ TTE proposal as a subcontractor? No, this not possible. Subcontracting within a project consortium is not allowed.

What are the requirements for subcontracting?  Direct costs of subcontracting (up to a maximum of 15%) whereas,  o   subcontracting has to be necessary to implement the action. o   subcontracting may cover only a limited part of the action. o   awarding of subcontracts must be done ensuring the best value for money or, if appropriate, the lowest price principle.  o   any conflict of interests must be avoided. In addition, the subcontracted party may not be part of the TD or TTE project consortium or one of the DIH-HERO partners.

Can we subcontract to a party which is not an SME or slightly larger company? Yes, that is possible. However, please note that the maximum amount that may be subcontracted is 15% of the total budget and that subcontracting must fulfil the following criteria:  o   subcontracting has to be necessary to implement the action. o   subcontracting may cover only a limited part of the action. o   awarding of subcontracts must be done ensuring the best value for money or, if appropriate, the lowest price principle.  o   any conflict of interests must be avoided. In addition, the subcontracted party may not be part of the TD or TTE project consortium or one of the DIH-HERO partners.

Funding Agreement and Payment

Who signs the funding agreement?  The coordinating or lead SME/ slightly larger company will be asked to sign a contract with the University of Twente. Whereas the lead SME/slightly larger company will represent the TD/TTE consortium and the University of Twente will represent the DIH-HERO consortium.

Will the grant be paid to the lead SME to be distributed among the project consortium or will it be paid to each of the consortium partner individually? As the lead SME signs the contract the lead SME is responsible for the execution of the project and will also receive the grant to be distributed among the consortium partners of the project.

Project Execution Phase

What is the maximum duration of a TD/TTE project? The maximum duration of a TD project is nine months. The maximum duration of a TTE project is 15 months.

What is the role of the innovation coaches?  The different innovation coaches have been announced by each DIH-HERO partner. One of those innovation coaches will be assigned to each of the awarded projects. The main tasks of the innovation coaches will be:  – Giving advice during the execution phase of the project where necessary – Monitoring the project’s progress – Facilitating access to services of the network.

Other questions

Is the cap of 300k EUR of FSTP is referring only to eligible proposals within the TD call? Or does is also include upcoming TTE call? The cap of 300k EUR does also include the TTE call.

What is meant by (novel use of) value chains inside and outside healthcare   The European Commission aims to accelerate the ‘innovation cycle’ throughout the entire value chain, making sure that the products and services are developed efficiently by connecting the relevant stakeholders According to this aim the proposal should show if and in what way new/other/ or not immediately apparent linkages/partners within or from outside the healthcare domain are used and why they are used.

What does the transfer of innovative technology from outside the robotics and healthcare domains exactly include? A robotic application that has not originally been developed for the healthcare market, but (with some adaptions or additions) bears the potential to solve a clinical problem would be a perfect example for a technology transfer from outside healthcare to the different healthcare domains.

Is it possible to apply for both the TD and the TTE call? Yes, SMEs and slightly larger companies also have the possibility to participate in different DIH-HERO open calls to apply for financial support for technology demonstrators as well as technology transfer experiments during the course of the DIH-HERO innovation action. However, the maximum possible financial support for any SME or slightly larger company is limited to €300,000. In addition, the applicant is not allowed to hand-in multiple proposals for the same purpose also within the different Digital Innovation Hubs Projects Trinity, DIH2 and RIMA. Proposals may be cross-checked in this regard.

Are there more TD calls planned to be opened in the future? Yes, there is one additional TD call scheduled to be opened in later stages of the DIH-HERO project.

How long will the evaluation of the proposals take? For the TTE call a basic timeline of proposal evaluation is given in the applicant guide on page 7.

Is it possible to track the evaluation process as an applicant? During the evaluation process it is not possible to track the status of the individual proposals. The different applicants will be notified about the end result when the evaluation process has been finished.

Will the project have to be audited? Yes, each project will be audited at the end of the project period.

I have received the acknowledgment email, however the links do not work what shall I do? Do not worry. The links in the acknowledgment email do not work on purpose. If you uploaded all the files correctly, and no error message occurred, your files are normally saved in the system without any problems.

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.