ERA-SPOT Call Announcement 2007

Dates & Deadlines:

Call opens: 17 September 2007
Deadline for pre-proposal submission: 26 November 2007, 12:00 noon
Deadline for full proposal submission: 29 February 2008, 12:00 noon
Selection of proposals for funding: June 2008

1.1 Introduction

Within the EU funded Coordination Action ERA-SPOT large scale funding organisations and ministries from Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, Slovenia and Sweden work together in the EC 6th Framework Programme "ERA-NET" to consolidate the research funding activities in Photonics and Optical Technologies throughout Europe.This shall be realised by the pan-European co-ordination of national programmes by means of developing and implementing joint strategies and actions.While research and innovation in Photonics and Optical Technologies play increasingly important roles in several Member States, funding activities at national level are still fragmented. A joint effort of all Member States engaged in the promotion of Photonics and Optical Technologies is an indispensable precondition for the exploitation of Europe's high potential in this field. The critical mass required to compete on the world stage can only be achieved by combining the specific competencies, strengths and resources throughout Europe.As part of the EC Framework Programme 6 the Coordination Action ERA-SPOT www.era-spot.eu is devoted to "Strengthening Photonics and Optical Technologies for Europe".A small scale call was already conducted in 2006 and four projects involving partners from Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, and Sweden, were supported.Funding agencies in 5 European countries have now agreed to fund joint projects between research and industry partners in their respective countries in the call 2007.A full scale call for proposals is therefore now being announced for proposers from Austria, France, Germany, Austria and Sweden.NOTE: Slovenia is a member of the consortium and is participating in the evaluation process but will not be funding projects under this call.This document describes the procedure for submitting a project under the ERA-SPOT 2007 call. 

1.2 Scope

The present call is informed by the Strategic Research Agenda developed by "Photonics21" www.photonics21.org and by a number of expressions of interest elicited in some member states. This call will not have an exclusive thematic focus but will invite projects dealing with photonics and optical technologies. Due to national funding rules some thematic and commercialisation potential restrictions may apply. It is important that these national priorities are understood by applicants. Details can be found by referring to section 1.4 (Rules for national submission).The added value of the ERA-SPOT procedure will be to fund projects that could not be performed at a national scale; therefore the genuine complimentarity of the partners will be an important criterion.  Projects of up to three years duration will be considered.

As a minimum requirement, the ERA-SPOT procedure will require partners from at least two of the eligible countries (see section 1.4). Proposals with partners from more than two countries are strongly encouraged.

1.3 Submission procedure

Projects submitted under this call will comprise partners from a minimum of two participating countries (Austria, France, Germany, Ireland and Sweden). An submission summary flowchart is provided in Appendix 3.

It should be noted that ERA-SPOT project partners are funded by their respective national government so it is necessary to have a full proposal submission procedure comprising the following steps:

The submission procedure consists of the following steps:

• Pre-Proposal Submission to the ERA-SPOT overall assessment procedure (section 1.3.1)
• Full-Proposal Submission to the ERA-SPOT overall assessment procedure (section 1.3.2)
• Submission to the appropriate national funding organisation (section 1.3.3)

1.3.1 Pre-Pproposal Submission

The pre-proposal submission facilitates the identification of expert evaluators and ensures that potential project applications are eligible under ERA-SPOT and national funding rules.
Please download the ERA-SPOT pre-proposal submission form from the ERA-SPOT website www.era-spot.eu and complete the form. One of the partners should act as the project co-ordinator and should take responsibility for completing the pre-proposal submission on behalf of the project partners. The completed pre-proposal submission form should be uploaded onto the ERA-SPOT site. www.era-spot.eu before the deadline: 26 November 2007, 12:00 noon

All pre-proposals received before the advertised closing date will be assessed for eligibility by the ERA-SPOT consortium.  A decision on eligibility for full proposal submission will be made and issued by 7th December 2007.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Please be aware that after submission of the pre-proposal the content of the abstract, the indicated coordinator and all partners listed in the proposal must be identically quoted in the full proposal and are not allowed to be changed. Any changes could lead to ineligibility.
See also section 1.3.2.

Pre-Proposals that are deemed ineligible cannot proceed to the full proposal submission stage.  Therefore it is highly recommended that proposers consult their national contact (Appendix 1) before completing their pre-proposal submission.

1.3.2 Full Proposal Submission

To be considered for evaluation, full proposal submissions must maintain the following pre-proposal content:

• Abstract (The full proposal work programme must reflect the abstract from the pre-proposal stage)
• Co-ordinator (Must be the same as identified from the pre-proposal stage)
• Partner List (project partners must be the same as in the pre-proposal list)

Project co-ordinators of projects judged eligible for Full Proposal submission should download the ERA-SPOT Full Proposal submission form from the ERA-SPOT website www.era-spot.eu and complete the form. The project co-ordinator, should upload the completed ERA-SPOT Full-proposal form on the ERA-SPOT site www.era-spot.eu before the deadline:  29 February 2008, 12:00 noon