Eurostars is an international co-operation programme of 34 countries that supports research and development performing SMEs, which develop innovative products, processes and services, to gain competitive advantage. The programme is bottom up, meaning that all technology fields are welcome and that all projects submitted will be evaluated against each other.

France and the Netherlands are two active countries in Eurostars and want to increase the number of French – Dutch project proposals. Therefore, France and the Netherlands are announcing a Promotional Call for Project Ideas within the Eurostars programme. The call focuses on developing innovative products and applications with a strong market potential. Although Eurostars is open for projects within all technology areas, a special focus is given in this call to the following domain:

Seminar Serious Gaming in the health sector in Paris on the 18th of June

The main support event of the Eurostars call will be the Dutch-French seminar “Health & Games, serious business” to be held on the 18th of June 2015 in Paris, France. Inscriptions for participation to the seminar are still open, once the limit of attendees is reached, applications will be closed. The programme is to be found here.

Call Launch and Structure

The Promotional Call for project ideas has been launched on the 21^st of May by Bpifrance and RVO and asks partners to submit a joint project outline before the 1^st of July, in preparation of submitting a full proposal in the 4^th Eurostars call before the 17^th of September.

The project partners are invited to present joint proposals for industrial, close-to-the-market R&D projects according to the Eurostars criteria.

Please take into account:

• The main partner (the co-ordinator of the project) must be a research and development performing SME.
• The consortium should include at least one French and one Netherlands organisation, of which at least one is a R&D performing SME. Other SMEs, large enterprises and research institutes/universities are welcome to participate as additional participants or subcontractors according to the French or Dutch funding regulations. However, at least 50% (excluding subcontracting costs) of the project must be performed by the participating R&D performing SME(s).
• Industrial and innovation actors from other countries may also participate, but they will not be funded by Bpifrance or They can, however, be funded through their own national (Eurostars) schemes or participate with own resources.
• The project should demonstrate the contribution of the participants from both countries on an equal base, and the project must be equally significant to all participants. One country cannot represent more than 75% of the project budget.
• The project must have a civil purpose.

Any partner whose cooperative R&D project is consistent with the aforesaid criteria can apply to the present announcement in accordance with the national Laws, Rules, Regulations and Procedures in effect.

Financing

This is a promotional call for project ideas: there is no specific budget dedicated to this. The funding comes from the national programmes in Eurostars. Full proposals submitted will compete against any other proposal submitted within the Eurostars programme. The Dutch budget for the 4^th call in Eurostars is approximately 9.1 million euro. For France, the budget is up to 5 million euro.

Both France and The Netherlands will fund its eligible participants within the Eurostars framework, which means that funding conditions and eligibility criteria may vary.

The main aspects of the funding criteria are:

France

In the framework of Eurostars, Bpifrance funds French companies up to 2000 employees through grants.

Type of organisation	Funding % of eligible costs	Additional information
SME Eurostars	40%
SME	30%
LARGE COMPANY < 2000 pers	30%
LARGE COMPANY > 2000 pers	0%	On the basis of the consolidated number of employees (including parent companies).
UNIVERSITY	40% up to 100 000€	40% of full costs in the limit of 100 000€ per participant
RESEARCH ORGANISATION	40% up to 100 000€	40% of full costs in the limit of 100 000€ per participant

For more information, please refer to https://www.eurostars-eureka.eu/contact/show/FR

The Netherlands

Dutch partners in the consortium can be funded according to the rules of the funding programme ‘Internationaal Innoveren’ (see: http://www.rvo.nl/subsidies-regelingen/aanvragen-eurostars). The maximum funding for all Dutch partners in a Eurostars project is € 500.000. The funding rate differs between types or organisations and types of project activities.

 

Type of organization	Funding rate for eligible Research activities	Funding rate for eligible Development activities
SME	45%	35%
LARGE COMPANIES	35%	25%
UNIVERSITIES and RESEARCH ORG..	50%	25%
OTHER	35%	25%

Submission and approval procedures

In order to submit the full application, you must register on the Eurostars website (www.eurostars-eureka.eu) and upload your proposal directly in the Eurostars application platform according to the joint Eurostars guidelines (https://www.eurostars-eureka.eu/home/guidelines) before the 17^th of September (20.00 hours)

However, prior to the call deadline you are kindly recommended to:

• Send a short description of your application, using the attached project outline form, to the Eurostars contact persons at Bpifrance and RVO before 1^st of July at the latest. The project outlines will be screened and the results will be communicated to the consortium within two weeks.
• In addition, Bpifrance and RVO offer professional assessment of the draft application if it is send to Bpifrance and RVO no later than the 15^th of August.

Please refer to the website of Eurostars for more information about the Eurostars programme and how to register and apply. Bpifrance and RVO can assist you in finding your project partners (see below for relevant contact details).

For instance, on the 3rd of June 2015, RVO organizes its first Eurostars Summer event in Amsterdam. The programme includes a detailed introduction into Eurostars and offers the participants matchmaking and networking opportunities. For more information, please refer to http://english.rvo.nl/news/events/eurostars-summer-event-2015

Contacts for details and partner search requests

For France

National Eurostars Contact: Bpifrance

Ms Ineke Petit, phone: +33 1 41 79 91 32, email: ineke.petit@bpifrance.fr

Ms, Amandine Karoui, phone: +33 1 41 79 91 47, email: amandine.karoui@bpifrance.fr

For The Netherlands

National Eurostars Contact: The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO)

Mr Arnold Meijer, phone +31 88 602 2582, email: arnold.meijer@rvo.nl

Mr Niels van Leeuwen, phone + 31 88 602 5290, email niels.vanleeuwen@rvo.nl