NOFO: Stimulating the Innovation Ecosystem in Lebanon

Deadline: 7-Apr-22

The European Commission (EC) has announced a call for proposals to contribute to sustainable, environmentally friendly and inclusive socio-economic recovery and job creation in Lebanon.

Objectives

The specific objective(s) of this call for proposals are:

• Increased collaboration between Lebanese industrialists and research institutions in the promotion of innovation and technology transfer responding to industry needs.
• Increased knowledge, skills and capacities of the main stakeholders of the Lebanese innovation ecosystem on issues related to technology transfer, intellectual property and commercialisation of research.
• Increased collaboration around research and technology transfer between Lebanese and European stakeholders.

Priorities

The priorities of this call for proposals are:

• Interventions that aim at promoting systemic changes (rather than targeting a specific group/actor of the innovation ecosystem) will be prioritised.
• Interventions that are part of a clear strategy ensuring continuity in services/partnerships beyond project duration (reasonable level of institutional and financial sustainability) will be prioritised.
• Geographical distribution: interventions aiming at stimulating innovation in different areas of Lebanon, rather than one single region or city, will be prioritised.
• Interventions that follow a market orientation approach, giving a prominent role to the private sector, by encouraging increased private sector engagement and investment in innovation-related activities will be prioritised.

Funding Information

The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 3 000 000. The contracting authority reserves the right not to award all available funds.

Size of grants

Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:

• minimum amount: EUR 2 750 000
• maximum amount: EUR 3 000 000

Eligibility Criteria

• Lead applicant(s)
  • In order to be eligible for a grant, the lead applicant must:
    • be a legal person and
    • be non-profit-making and
    • be established in a Member State of the European Union or in Lebanon.
    • be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the action with the coapplicant(s) and affiliated entity(ies), not acting as an intermediary
• Co-applicant(s)
  • Co-applicants participate in designing and implementing the action, and the costs they incur are eligible in the same way as those incurred by the lead applicant.
  • Co-applicants must satisfy the eligibility criteria as applicable to the lead applicant himself.
  • Co-applicants must sign the mandate form.
• Affiliated entities
  • The lead applicant and its co-applicant(s) may act with affiliated entit (ies).
  • Only the following entities may be considered as affiliated entities to the lead applicant and/or to coapplicant(s):
    • Only entities having a structural link with the applicants (i.e. the lead applicant or a co-applicant), in particular a legal or capital link.
    • This structural link encompasses mainly two notions:
      • Control, consolidated financial statements and related reports of certain types of undertakings:
        • Entities affiliated to an applicant may hence be:
          • Entities directly or indirectly controlled by the applicant (daughter companies or first-tier subsidiaries). They may also be entities controlled by an entity controlled by the applicant (granddaughter companies or second-tier subsidiaries) and the same applies to further tiers of control;
          • Entities directly or indirectly controlling the applicant (parent companies). Likewise, they may be entities controlling an entity controlling the applicant;
          • Entities under the same direct or indirect control as the applicant (sister companies).
      • Membership, i.e. the applicant is legally defined as a e.g. network, federation, association in which the proposed affiliated entities also participate or the applicant participates in the same entity (e.g. network, federation, association,) as the proposed affiliated entities.

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