Japan-Israel R&D Cooperation under EUREKA – 8th Call for Proposals

Summary:

Participating Agencies

Israel Innovation Authority

NEDO - New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, Japan

Eureaka

Program Description

Funding

1. Funding will be provided in the form of a conditional grant from the R&D Fund of the Innovation Authority to the projects jointly selected under the Call for Proposals.
2. The total funding from the Israel Innovation Authority will not exceed 50% of the eligible and approved costs of the R&D for a one-year period, in accordance with the national laws and regulations of the R&D Fund. Israeli applicants are encouraged to reapply for funding for year two project supports in line with the duration agreed between the applicants.
3. When a project results in sales of a product, service or process, the financial support must be repaid to the Innovation Authority according to its regulations (in general, royalties are paid at rates beginning at 3% of sales, depending on various criteria. Royalties are payable until 100% of the amount of the grant has been repaid with interest as provided in the applicable regulations). If the project does not result in sales, no repayment is required.

For more information on funding conditions, applicants should visit the Hebrew website of the Innovation Authority

Criteria

Qualification Criteria:
Partners must meet the following qualifications-

• The consortium should include at least two companies that are independent from each other, one company for Japan and one company from one of the EUREKA member countries participating in the call.
• The project partners must express their will to cooperate on a win-win/fair basis in an R&D project leading to a new product, industrial process or service.
• The product, process or service must be innovative, and there must be a technological risk involved for all involved partners.
• The project must benefit all involved partners.
• The project should have an obvious benefit and added value resulting from the technological cooperation between the participants from the different countries (e.g. increased knowledge base, commercial leads, access to R&D infrastructure etc.).
• A signed Consortium Agreement (CA) is required upon approval, before the actual start of the project. It ought to include, amongst others, the ownership and use of know-how and IPR settlements. A draft consortium agreement should be submitted with the EUREKA application as an annex.
• The maximum duration of a project may not exceed 24 months.
• No individual organisation, or individual country, can claim more than 70% of the total eligible costs of a joint project.
• Military projects are excluded.

Any partner whose cooperative R&D project is consistent with the aforesaid criteria can apply to the present call in accordance with the national laws, rules, regulations and procedures in effect in each country, on a non-exchange of funds basis, and subject to budgetary availability. The amount of funding available per project partner is subject to national rules and regulations.
Project partners are strongly advised, prior to submitting the application, to contact their Contact Points in participating countries) in order to check the eligibility of their project.

To be eligible for the Israel Innovation Authority’s support the applicants must be R&D performing Israeli registered companies operating in Israel.

Terms of support:

• The support is provided subject to the provisions of the R&D Law applicable to the relevant incentive program, include the following:
• The product, service or industrial process to be developed within the framework of cooperation should be innovative, suitable for commercialization in the target markets, and have added value for the Israeli economy and for the project partner.
• The partner companies must have the ability to implement the project and the R&D processes necessary for its completion, as well as the ability to fund their proportionate share in the process required for project realization.
• Research institutes and academic entities are allowed to take part in the cooperation as subcontractors.
• The partner companies must demonstrate that the cooperation between them is necessary for the development of a value-added technology, resulting from the transfer of knowledge between the companies, as well as from sharing of resources, infrastructure or commercial relationships, innovative application of existing technologies to new markets and more.
• The partner companies will sign an agreement to regulate the rights to their intellectual property (IP) and ownership of new IP, which will be produced during the project and its commercialization. This agreement is to be subject to the R&D Law.
• Please carefully read the complete list of conditions, which specifies the rights and obligations of the companies, as detailed on the Authority’s Hebrew website.

Application Process

There are 4 stages to the submission and assessment process:

Stage 1:
All partners must complete the EUREKA project application form online which is available in the call webpage. It must be completed online by 10th September 2020 by 17.00 Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). The form must be completed in English.
The project consortium is strongly advised to read the form carefully, follow the guidelines and complete all necessary elements in the form as requested.
The project consortium is requested to submit a draft consortium agreement as an annex to the EUREKA application.

Stage 2:
In parallel to the submission of the EUREKA project form, all project partners are required to submit a related funding application, if required, to their respective funding agencies, considering all relevant procedures and submission rules.
Applicants from Japan must:
submit the NEDO application form by noon JST (Japan Standard Time) by the 10th of September 2020 to NEDO along with the supporting documentation listed in the guidance for applicants.

Applicants from Israel must:
submit the required national application forms, including EUREKA application form and draft consortium agreement, in accordance with the Israel Innovation Authority regulations, through an online system by 12:00 IST, 10th of September 2020, to the Israel Innovation Authority, along with the supporting documentation listed in the guidance for applicants

Stage 3:
All applications are assessed against the eligibility criteria of the call before being put forward for the national assessments according to the national evaluation criteria.
A multilateral consensus meeting made up of NRC, MEYS, BPI France, DLR-PT/AiF Projekt GmbH, Israel Innovation Authority, NEDO, CDTI and Innovate UK evaluators agree which projects to approve based on the assessors’ scores, using the EUREKA Assessment Criteria (Annex A). The basis for the evaluation is the general EUREKA eligibility criteria, national eligibility criteria and evaluations, the EUREKA application form and if required a national application form.

Successful projects are put forward for a EUREKA label. After a common list of labelled and non-labelled projects has been agreed, applicants will be informed about the results.

Stage 4:
Funding will only be provided to labelled projects that are positively evaluated by all participating funding agencies, taking the common ranking list into account. Funding of project partners is subjected to budgetary availability and national funding conditions stipulated by each funding body.

All project partners are notified of the funding decisions by their respective national funding agencies. Any IPR arising from cooperative project activities under this call shall be regulated in a Consortium Agreement in accordance with the relevant laws of the countries participating in the project.

A signed Consortium Agreement on the execution of the project and commercialisation of the projects results is mandatory for selected projects and must be sent to the relevant national funding agencies after the results of the evaluation have been communicated and before the start of the project.

In Israel:
The total funding from the Israel Innovation Authority will not exceed 50% of the eligible and approved costs of the R&D for a one-year period, in accordance with the national laws and regulations of the R&D Fund. Israeli applicants are encouraged to reapply for funding for year two project supports in line with the duration agreed between Japanese and Israeli applicants.

Partner Search

Looking for a Japanese partner? Kindly contact the Program Manager and the dedicated platform of EUREKA – EUREKA GlobalStars Japan Virtual Marketplace