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UK SMEs can apply for a share of up to £2.5 million to collaborate in research with partners across Europe and associated countries.
- Competition opens: Tuesday 15 December 2020
- Registration closes: Thursday 4 February 2021 7:00pm
This competition is now closed.
Competition sections
Description
This competition is aimed at micro, small or medium sized enterprises (SMEs) working on high-quality research and development (R&D) projects across national borders.
These enterprises often find it difficult to attract public-sector funding. EUREKA Eurostars was set up to overcome this barrier to innovation. With its market-led approach, it encourages international collaborative research and innovation projects that will be rapidly commercialised.
Eurostars supports SMEs in leading international collaborative research and innovation projects by helping them get access to guidance and funding.
A Eurostars project must have a civilian purpose and be aimed at the development of a new product, process or service.
Projects must be led by a research-performing SME.
This competition closes at 7pm UK time on the deadline stated.Funding type
Grant
Project size
Eurostars will award up to 360,000 euros funding for each UK project partner or 60% of eligible project costs, whichever is the least.
Who can apply
State aid
Any UK registered business claiming funding must be eligible to receive state aid at the time we confirm you will be awarded funding. If you are unsure please take legal advice. For further information see our general guidance.
Your project size
Eurostars will award up to 360,000 euros funding for each UK project partner or 60% of eligible project costs, whichever is the least.
UK organisations
In the UK, only UK registered research-performing SMEs are eligible for funding. More than one UK SME can be involved in each project.
Each of the UK research-performing SMEs must meet one of these conditions:
- invest 10% or more of their turnover into research
- have 10% of their full-time equivalent staff working on research activities
- have 5 or more full-time staff working on research activities if the SME has 100 or fewer employees
- have 10 or more full-time staff working on research activities if the SME has more than 100 employees
Innovate UK will not fund any other types of organisations, including:
- academic institutions, including universities
- research and technology organisations (RTOs)
- charities
- large companies
These organisations can take part but must self-fund or use funds from other sources.
You must follow the Eurostars eligibility criteria, and the Innovate UK criteria detailed in this competition at the application deadline and throughout your project:
- UK SMEs can only take part in one Eurostars project at a time.
- If any UK partner has an existing project, it must declare that all project deliverables are met. You cannot apply for new Eurostars projects until your previous projects have been completed.
- UK partners must be separate, non-linked legal entities.
- UK partners must have been trading for 12 months at the competition application deadline.
- All work must be carried out in the UK and your project costs must be incurred in the UK.
- UK subcontracting is capped at 20% of the UK partners’ total eligible costs.
- UK-led projects must be managed by a research and development (R&D) performing SME. You cannot subcontract project management.
- Your labour costs must be on a pay as you earn (PAYE) basis, following the PAYE rules below.
PAYE rules
If you do not currently operate a company PAYE scheme and are working directly on the project, you can include your labour as an eligible cost. This must be in line with the European Commission policy and meet the following conditions:
- your labour costs must be calculated using a maximum of 8 hours per day, 5 days per week, 40 hours per week and £22 per hour
- your costs must be recorded through the business accounts
- your project time must be supported by timesheets and project records
Partners from other countries
Your partners must follow the eligibility criteria of their countries’ national funding bodies.
Previous applications
Resubmissions
If you submitted an application into a previous Eurostars competition, you may use your previous application to resubmit into this one.
Failure to exploit
If you applied to a previous competition as the lead or sole organisation and were awarded funding by Innovate UK or UK Research and Innovation, but did not make a substantial effort to exploit that award, we will award no more funding to you, in this or any other competition. You will not be able to contest our decision.
We will:
- assess your efforts in the previous competition against your exploitation plan for that project
- review the monitoring officers’ reports and any other relevant sources for evidence
- document our decision, which will be made by 3 team members, and communicate it to you in writing
Previous projects
Under the terms of Innovate UK funding, you are required to submit an independent accountant’s report (IAR) with your final claim. If you or any organisation in your consortium failed to submit an IAR on a previous project, we will not award funding to you in this or any other competition until we have received the documents.Funding
Your proposal
Eurostars is a European funding programme dedicated to supporting R&D performing SMEs in innovative R&D projects.
It has a market-driven approach, which gives companies full control over project content. It also supports collaborative research and innovation projects that can go to market 2 years after the project finishes.
You can apply for Eurostars funding for any sector or industry. It can address any technological area but must be aimed at the development of a new product, process or service.
Your project must have a civilian purpose. It cannot have a military purpose.
Specific themes
Projects we will not fund
- 15 December 2020
- Competition opens
- 4 February 2021 7:00pm
- Competition closes
- 4 February 2021 7:00pm
- Registration closes
Before you start
To apply for a Eurostars project and submit your application, you must create a Eurostars account.
Eurostars will send you an email with your sign in information. This will give you access to the restricted website and the application form. Using your email and password, you can access your workspace on the website.
You must complete:
- all sections of the application form
- the ethics issues table annex
You can edit, save and retrieve drafts of the application form, or download the content as a PDF so that you can email it to your partners. For help refer to the:
- guidelines for using the online application system to see an overview of the online portal and the electronic submission system
- guidelines for completing an application to see an overview of the online application form and information on how to complete the various sections
- the Eurostars eligibility guidelines for an explanation of the Eurostars project eligibility criteria and calculation method
- Eurostars ethics guidelines on how to fill out the ethics forms, including a description of the ethics appraisal process
You must submit your application and ethics issues table using the Eurostars online tool. Application forms and other documents submitted by any other means will be automatically rejected.
If Eurostars confirms you are eligible, you will need to complete an Innovate UK project finance form. We will email this to you approximately 3 months after the competition closes.
Background and further information
For further information about Eurostars, please see the Eurostars process.
Each participating country has a National Project Co-ordinator (NPC). To find yours, choose your country from the list of Eurostars participating states and partner countries.
If you need more information, contact the competition helpline on 0300 321 4357 or email us at support@innovateuk.ukri.org. Our phonelines close at 4.30pm. After 4.30pm you can contact applications@eurostars-eureka.eu
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