Quality of life and management of living resources

open to all legal entities established in any of the other States associated to the Programme (see box 4).

Participation and financing for legal entities established in other countries (‘third countries') is governed by common conditions which are applied throughout the Fifth Framework Programme (see boxes 3 and 4), with the exception of the Programme ‘Confirming the international role of Community research’ under which some entities are entitled to receive Community funding depending on their country of origin .

III.1.2. HOW MANY?

Proposals submitted to the Commission should demonstrate a Community dimension. As a general rule, this means that they should involve at least two legal entities, independent of each other, and established in two different Member States, or one Member State and one Associated State. (The Joint Research Centre of the European Commission is considered as a participant of a Member State).

However, certain actions may vary from this general rule - either by requiring more participants or by permitting a single one (see box 6).

III.1.3. ROLE OF THE PARTICIPANTS

Participants in a proposal fall into a number of different legal categories, according to the type of activity proposed and the nature of a participant’s role in it (see box 6 and III.5.3.).

III.2. Proposal submission

III.2.1. CALL FOR PROPOSALS

Calls for Proposals published in the Official Journal will open certain parts of a Specific Programme’s Work Programmes for proposals, indicating what types of actions (RTD projects, Accompanying measures etc.) are expected. In addition to those with a fixed closing date, the Commission will open certain Calls on a longer ‘open’ basis, with periodic evaluation of received proposals. A provisional timetable for the Calls of a Specific Programme is included in each Work Programme.

A Call may address the full programme, a key action, one or several research themes, areas, sectors, action lines, objectives, topics. In order to ensure co-ordination among the Specific Programmes, common Calls may be published. The objectives to be achieved may also be fully detailed, for example in the case of key actions or dedicated calls .

Proposals submitted under a Call shall be subject to a selection process presented in section III.4.

Certain Accompanying Measures may however be based on spontaneous applications or on a call for tender, and shall therefore be subject to a different process .

III.2.2. SUBMISSION

Participants should complete the appropriate Proposal Submission Form corresponding to the type of action involved, preferably using the software tool that the Commission supplies: The Proposal Preparation Tool or ‘ProTool’, available at the following address: http://www.cordis.lu/fp5/protool.

Proposals must be completed in full as detailed in the Guide for Proposers Part 2.

In addition, experience in previous Calls shows that a number of general recommendations, provided in box 9, may be helpful. Participants have the choice to submit proposals either electronically or on paper.

Submission takes place in the following steps, which are detailed in Part 2 of this Guide.

The co-ordinator may request a pre-proposal check from the Commission, if this service is offered for the call concerned.

The proposer may be required in the Call for Proposals to submit a request for a proposal number. This form (Notification of Intention to Propose) is sent to the Commission services via fax or electronic mail.

The requested proposal number is sent back to the proposer by fax or electronic mail from the Commission.

The proposal is prepared either in electronic or paper form, preferably using ProTool.

The co-ordinator checks the proposal against the key recommendations (Box 9)

Electronic submission

The submitting partner in the consortium seeks certification for the Programme. Paper submission

The proposal is sent to the Commission in the form of five bound paper copies and one unbound original.

The proposal is submitted electronically following the instructions given with ProTool.

III.3. Proposal evaluation

III.3.1. GENERAL PRINCIPLES

The evaluation of proposals will be based on the fundamental principles of transparency and equality of treatment. The entire selection process and the description of the criteria by which the proposals will be evaluated are presented in the Evaluation Manual (see also box 5 and Appendix 6 of Part 2 of this Guide).

In general, and in order to help the Commission, panels of independent, external experts will be constituted covering a wide range of relevant expertise, without linguistic or geographic bias. Proposers’ confidentiality will be fully respected, both to avoid conflicts of interest and to preserve the impartiality of the independent experts.

III.3.2. CONFORMITY CHECK AND ELIGIBILITY

On receipt, all proposals will be subject to a validation process, to ensure they conform to the requirements of the Call, of the submission procedure and of the rules for participation.

Only proposals that conform to these requirements will be subject to evaluation.

III.3.3. EVALUATION

Proposals will be evaluated according to criteria grouped into five categories, as laid down in the Work Programme applicable to the relevant call. The content and the respective weighting of the criteria are described in the Evaluation Manual. Programme specific information on evaluation may also be explained, if appropriate, in Part 2 of this Guide. Ethical aspects and safety aspects have to be taken into account in the process.

The experts examine proposals individually, then meet as a panel to agree a ranking. At this stage, they may recommend that certain proposals should be combined into larger projects or linked together as clusters (see section I.3.3).

Following the evaluation, and according to the interest of Community, the Commission will establish a list of proposals in order of priority. This list will take into account the budget available (which has been set out in the call for proposals) plus, if necessary, a percentage of the call budget to allow for withdrawal of proposals and/or savings to be made during contract finalisation. Late or ineligible proposals, those of inadequate quality or for which there is not adequate budget will be subject to a “non-retained” decision by the Commission. This information, with the main reason for non-retention, will be communicated to the proposers concerned.

III.4. Proposal selection

The co-ordinators of proposals, which have been retained, will be notified in writing. This notification however does not ultimately commit the Commission to fund the project concerned.

A brief report on the evaluation prepared by the Commission will be sent to the proposers via the proposal co-ordinator. Further administrative and financial information will be required to assess the viability of the proposed project.

Hence, participants will have to demonstrate that they have all the necessary resources needed for carrying out the project. The Commission will check these, and may seek to safeguard its interest by asking for a bank guarantee or by other measures.

The Commission may also propose modifications to the original proposal based on the result of the evaluation, or in terms of grouping or combination with others.

On successful conclusion of these negotiations, the Commission will then offer contracts for the commencement of work, based on a timetable determined by the needs of the Specific Programme concerned.

Any proposal, which is finally not taken up, due to a lack of available funding for example, will be subject to a “non-retained” decision by the Commission. This information, with the main reason for non-retention, will be communicated to the proposers concerned.

III.5. The contract

Contracts are issued to proposals successful in the procedure of selection.

III.5.1. THE VARIOUS TYPES OF CONTRACTS

Research contracts from the Commission fall into five main groups. They each have their own detailed conditions, appropriate to the types of action and the activities to which they refer. (see boxes 6, 7 and 8).

III.5.2. THE SUBJECT OF THE CONTRACT

The main obligation of the participants is to carry out the project to completion in a pre-arranged period, and to make use of or disseminate its results.

In return, the Commission undertakes to contribute financially to the realisation of the project, normally by reimbursing a certain percentage of the project costs .

III.5.3. RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS OF PARTICIPANTS

These may vary according to the nature of the action or the category of participant:

• For Research and Technological Development (R&D) projects, Demonstration projects and Combined projects, a participant who has a wide-ranging role in the project throughout its lifetime is normally a principal contractor. A participant whose role is largely in support of one or several of these principal contractors is termed an assistant contractor. Principal contractors are distinguished from assistant contractors in two main ways:

- all the principal contractors are collectively responsible to the Commission for the execution of the project and shall use reasonable endeavours to