06.01.2009 - 31.03.2009

Announcement

Federal Ministry of Education and Research Announcement of Regulations Governing Funding in the Area of "Securing the supply chains" within the Federal Government's "Research for Civil Security" Programme

of 18 December 2008

The supply and secure transportation of goods and commodities is vitally important for the economy and for society. As an export nation, Germany is strongly embedded in international commodity chains. With this call, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is responding to the changed risks. The aim is to support research into innovative solutions to secure commodity chains. Security scenarios in which the supply of goods is threatened or affected by attacks, natural disasters, major incidents or criminal violations deserve special attention. The project proposals should integrate relevant technologies, processes, services and strategies, including societal aspects. Major criteria for funding include the innovativeness, holistic character and broad effectiveness of the approach, the consideration of all relevant stakeholders and the importance of the contribution to increasing civil security.

1 Funding purpose and legal basis

1.1 Funding purpose

The "Research for Civil Security" programme (http://www.sicherheitsforschungsprogramm.de) forms part of the Federal Government's High-Tech Strategy. As the first programme to consider civil security in its broader context, it provides resources for research and innovation in this area. The funding is expected to lead to solutions that help improve civil security and open up international markets for German security products and processes. The call "Securing commodity chains" should be viewed in the context of the Federal Government's "Freight Transport and Logistics" master plan  and as part of the "scenario-based security research" programme line. Scenario-based security research goes far beyond the development of technical security solutions. It sees them as part of an overall concept which also includes the consideration or development of threat and cost/benefit analyses, including research on the parameters and causes, and which examines the dynamics of individuals and oranizations in situations of crisis. Basically, all aspects that represent significant parameters of the scenario should be taken into account. A central feature of scenario-based security research is its relevance to application, which is achieved by looking at the entire innovation chain, from research to industry and the end users. Within the meaning of the Security Research Programme, the end users include public authorities, security and emergency services (police, customs, disaster relief, and others) and infrastructure operators (e.g. transport and logistics providers, commercial enterprises, and operators of storage facilities and transportation hubs for goods and commodities). Since 80 percent of critical infrastructures are operated by private companies, this group of end users is explicitly invited to take part  in the call. ².

1.2 Legal basis

Project grants will be awarded in accordance with the BMBF's standard terms and conditions for grants on an expenditure or cost basis and the administrative regulations under section 44 of the Federal Budget Code (BHO). There is no legal entitlement to funding. The BMBF will decide on the award of funding after due assessment of the circumstances within the framework of the budget funds available. The European Commission (EU) has approved the programme.

2 Object of funding

Funding will be provided to collaborative projects that explore and develop innovative solutions for securing commodity chains. The focus is on security scenarios in which the supply of goods is threatened or affected by attacks, major incidents, natural disasters or criminal violations. The starting point should be an existing or emerging threat, taking into consideration failure risks and the potential consequences, for example the complete or partial breakdown of production processes and resulting supply shortages. The collaborative projects should address all relevant intra-company and particularly cross-company supply chain processes that are linked to the production, further processing and delivery of a product. The objective is not to develop an individual technology or process, but to combine all the measures, technologies, services and processes that are necessary in order to create a comprehensive solution through integrated risk management.

The emphasis on a complete security scenario, which needs to be defined by the applicant, has the purpose of avoiding the development of isolated, individual solutions rather than suitable system innovations. The sub-aspects of the scenario must be integrated into the collaborative project by suitable partners. What is important is that the envisaged work involves research not only in the natural sciences and engineering, but also in the humanities and social sciences. The envisaged solutions must be compatible with national and international legal regulations, provisions and standards or be geared towards the improvement of such standards.

In addition to actual means of transportation and shipping containers, the system solutions should also examine storage facilities and transportation hubs, production plants as links in commodity chains, and all relevant technical and organizational measures for the transportation of goods as well as the way in which potential failures of these systems would affect the population's security of supply. In other words, the call focuses on critical infrastructures for the supply of goods that are "facilities of strategic importance for the community, the failure or disruption of which would result in long-term supply shortages, major disturbances to public security or other dramatic consequences³.

The project proposals should also consider prevention and early detection measures as well as concepts for quick crisis management, for avoiding supply shortages, for restoring the supply as quickly as possible, and for increasing acceptance of these measures among companies, security and emergency services and the general public. The scenarios are based on specific hazard, risk or threat analyses that take account of cost-benefit aspects, user and customer friendliness, and the attitudes and behaviour of individuals and organizations and their dynamics.

The research aspects within the scenarios can include:

• Innovative technologies for the quick or real-time monitoring of goods and commodities and their transport routes, for example sensors for the detection of hazardous materials, mobile X-ray scanners, high-throughput detection
• Intelligent and cost-efficient monitoring systems for shipping containers; solutions for the secure sealing of containers
• Information and communication systems for the uninterrupted tracking of goods, for example RFID systems; secure communication and coordination of logistics processes; identification of high-risk shipments; encryption systems
• Distributed sensor networks for the large-scale monitoring and systematic state detection of factors that can contribute to securing commodity chains on an area-wide basis
• Strategies to increase the robustness of systems and processes, the tamper resistance of logistics systems, customer- and user-based security features such as Single Window concepts
• Concepts and methods for security management along the entire commodity chain, with the aim of identifying and assessing failure risks and damage potential, detecting security gaps at an early stage, recognizing technical and organizational deficits, and identifying potential for the reduction of dependencies from delivery failures
• Concepts for the assessment of existing security cultures and their development, training concepts, acceptance analyses
• Preparing for the eventuality of failure and failure management, avoidance of supply bottlenecks and supply restoration in the event of crisis
• Business models for measures aimed at securing commodity chains, analysis of synergies in securing commodity chains and other potential benefits (e.g. the efficiency of the supply chain, self-protection of organizations)
• Potential risks owing to the increasing dependence of commodity chains on IT technology
• Analyses of national, European and international laws and regulations, provisions and standards, e.g. with regard to their effectiveness or innovativeness, interface compatibility, harmonization potential, etc.; impact of safety requirements on the securing of commodity chains, etc.
• Strategies for the establishment of innovative solutions as international standards

The proposals for collaborative projects must include the following key features:

• Consistent use of the latest scientific findings and research results
• Detailed description of the security scenario, taking into account all relevant parameters
• Presentation of a sound analysis of threats and/or requirements for the selected scenario
• Clear improvement over current security standards
• Clearly formulated project goal, including the envisaged increase in security, economic efficiency and acceptance

Only collaborative projects will be considered. As a rule, the project duration will be three years.

The relevant societal issues should, if at all possible, be integrated into the collaborative scenario-based security research projects. Societal issues that deal with securing commodity chains as a general cross-cutting subject and are not suitable for integration into scenario-based collaborative research can be supported separately as independent projects. These research projects can, for example, include threat and cause analyses, risk analyses and risk management systems, economic considerations, innovation and internationalization strategies, ethical and legal aspects, issues relating to the acceptance of technologies and measures, and human-technology interaction.

3 Recipients of funding

Research proposals may be submitted by commercial companies (which are headquartered and mainly exploit their results in Germany). Universities, research and science institutions, public authorities and their research institutions, and similar organizations are also eligible for funding. As a rule, however, universities and research and science institutions should be involved via R&D (research and development) subcontracts awarded by commercial companies as part of a collaborative project. Research institutions which receive their basic funding from both the Federal Government and the Länder can be awarded project funding under certain conditions only. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are expressly invited to participate; their involvement will be taken into account when evaluating the proposed projects.

The BMBF aims to increase the share of universities of applied sciences that receive research funding.

For this reason, universities of applied sciences are expressly invited to participate in the collaborative projects - preferably via R&D subcontracts awarded by commercial companies (see also section 7.3 below).

4 Prerequisites for funding

Partners in collaborative projects must formalize their cooperation by concluding a cooperation agreement. Before a funding decision is taken, the cooperation partners must prove that they have reached a basic agreement on certain criteria stipulated by the BMBF.

For further details, please refer to the BMBF form 0110, which can be found online at http://www.kp.dlr.de/profi/easy/bmbf/pdf/0110.pdf.

As a rule, the coordinator of the collaborative project should be nominated by an industrial partner or an end user.

Applicants should, in their own interest, familiarize themselves with the EU's Research Framework Programme and examine whether the envisaged project includes specific European components that would make it eligible for exclusive or additional EU funding (see, for example, http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/cooperation/security_en.html). The result of this examination should be briefly described in the application for national funding.
Bilateral cooperation with French partners is particularly welcome. The BMBF and the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche have concluded a special agreement in which they decided to open this call, "Securing Commodity Chains", and the French call, "Concepts Systèmes et outils pour la Sécurité Globale, CSOG 2009".

5 Type, scope and rates of funding

Funding will be provided in the form of non-repayable project grants. 

Grants for commercial companies will be calculated on the basis of the eligible project-related costs, up to 50% of which can usually be covered by government grants, depending on the project's nearness to application. The BMBF's policy generally requires a minimum self-contribution of 50% towards the eligible costs incurred.

Grants for universities, research and science institutions and similar institutions will be calculated on the basis of the eligible project-related expenditure (in the case of the Helmholtz centres and the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft (FhG) the eligible project-related costs), which can be funded up to a maximum of 100% in individual cases.

The European Commission's Community Framework for State Aid for Research, Development and Innovation must be taken into account when determining the rates of funding. The Community Framework allows differentiated rules on extra percentage points for SMEs, which may result in a higher rate of funding. The EU's definition of SMEs applies (http://www.kp.dlr.de/profi/easy/bmbf/pdf/0119.pdf).

6 Other terms and conditions

The Allgemeine Nebenbestimmungen für Zuwendungen auf Kostenbasis des BMBF an Unternehmen der gewerblichen Wirtschaft für Forschungs- und Entwicklungsvorhaben (General Auxiliary Terms and Conditions for Funds Provided by the BMBF to Commercial Companies for Research and Development Projects on a Cost Basis) will be part of the notification of award for grants on a cost basis.

The Allgemeine Nebenbestimmungen für Zuwendungen zur Projektförderung (General Auxiliary Conditions for Grants for the Promotion of Projects) and the Besondere Nebenbestimmungen für Zuwendungen des BMBF zur Projektförderung auf Ausgabenbasis (Special Auxiliary Terms and Conditions for Funds Provided by the BMBF for the Promotion of Projects on an Expenditure Basis) will be part of the notification of award for grants on an expenditure basis.

7 Procedure

7.1 Involvement of a project management organization

The Federal Ministry of Education and Research has entrusted the following project management organization with implementing the call for proposals:
VDI-Technologiezentrum GmbH
Projektträger Sicherheitsforschung
VDI-Platz 1
40468 Düsseldorf

The contact person is:
Dr. Sandra Börner
Telefon: 0211/6214 - 364
Telefax: 02 11 / 62 14 - 484
E-Mail: boerner@vdi.de

All project outlines must be submitted using the official form, which can be downloaded from http://www.vditz.de/sicherheitsforschung/bekanntmachungen or obtained from the project management organization VDI Technologiezentrum (see above).

Further information and guidelines as well as auxiliary terms and conditions are available at http://www.kp.dlr.de/profi/easy/formular.html.
An information event for this call is to be held on 5 February 2009. Further information is available at http://www.vditz.de/sicherheitsforschung/bekanntmachungen.

7.2 Two-tiered funding procedure

The funding procedure is two-tiered.

7.2.1 Submission and selection of project outlines

In the first stage, project outlines are to be sent to the project management organization VDI Technologiezentrum GmbH in written and electronic form
by 31 March 2009 at the latest.

This is not a cut-off deadline. However, it may not be possible to consider project outlines received belatedly.

The collaboration partners, represented by the coordinator, should each submit to the project management organization a project outline of a maximum 20 A4 pages (including annexes, 12 point font) in a form which can be evaluated.

The project outlines must be structured as follows:

1. Objectives
   • Overall objective of the project, summary of the project proposal
   • Description of the security scenario, scientific and/or technical working objectives, envisaged innovations
   • Project consortium: project coordinator, distribution of roles
2. State of the art and applicants' own work
   • State of the art
   • Patents filed (by applicants and third parties)
   • Previous work of the applicants
3. Work plan
   Detailed description of the planned work of the partners in the collaboration (including sub-contractors, if appropriate, and including all scientific and technical issues relevant to the project as well as the proposed solutions).
4. Utilization plan
   Utilization plan (scientific and technical utilization as well as commercialization of the results by the partners involved), translation into marketable security solutions, procurement, strategies for action and forms of organization, provisions, legal framework conditions, relevance of the results for guidelines and standardization, etc.
   
   If utilization is linked to a public procurement measure or requires an amendment or adjustment of current law, this must be explained separately in the utilization plan.
   
   The utilization plan must include information on compatibility with national and international laws and regulations, provisions and standards.
5. Network plan
   Work packages, handover points, milestones and implementing decisions presented over time.
6. Financing plan
   Estimate of overall costs and funding requirements for each individual partner in the collaboration.

Applicants are free to add further points which they consider to be significant for the evaluation of their proposal.

Collaboration partners whose projects are co-financed by industrial partners or other agencies must indicate the amount of external funds expected.  No legal claims can be derived from the submission of a project outline.

The project outlines received will be evaluated in accordance with the following criteria:

• Significant contribution to the programme's goal of increasing the population's security
• Clear relevance to the content of the call for proposals
• Clearly identifiable innovativeness and knowledge gain
• Specific involvement of end users;
• Holistic character and large-scale effectiveness of the approach, taking societal goals and impact into account
• Practicability and marketability of the envisaged solution and its optimized economic leverage
• Quality of the project consortium, involvement of all relevant stakeholders
• Involvement of SMEs

Suitable project outlines will be selected for funding on the basis of the evaluation. The project management organization will inform the collaboration coordinator in writing of the BMBF's decision (the result of the selection procedure). The coordinator will, in turn, inform the partners involved in a collaborative project of the result of the evaluation of their project outline. The BMBF and the project management organization reserve the right to consult independent experts when evaluating the project outlines received.

7.2.2 Submission of formal applications for funding and decision-making procedure

In a second step, applicants whose project outlines have received a positive evaluation will be invited to submit a formal application for funding on which a decision will be taken after final evaluation by the BMBF.
The approval, payment and accounting for the funds as well as the proof and examination of the proper use and, if necessary, the revocation of the award and the reclaiming of the funds awarded are governed by the administrative regulations pertaining to section 44 of the Federal Budget Code (BHO) and sections 48 to 49a of the Administrative Procedure Act (VwVfG) unless deviation is allowed under the present funding regulations.

7.3 Special information for universities of applied sciences

Universities of applied sciences that have been successful in the above selection and decision-making procedure within the framework of collaborative projects (cf. section 7.2 above) are eligible for further funding. This additional funding can be provided for an additional research project carried out by a "New technologies qualification or profiling group". The topic and content of this second, separate application must bear reference to the subject of the collaborative project. However, the additional research project must include advanced or new R&D issues and differ clearly from the tasks of the original application in order to avoid redundancy. The work plans/research activities and staffing schedules of the two applications must not overlap. The additional funding is to be used by a small project team to achieve an improved research profile and research expertise in the subject area of the call (bachelor's/master's/doctoral degrees, specialized publications, research marketing). Evaluations and funding decisions are internal BMBF procedures.

Further information (legal basis, prerequisites for funding as well as "Hinweise für die Erstellung von Projektvorschlägen" (Notes on drafting project proposals), etc. ) can be obtained from the BMBF, Division 515 "Research at Universities of Applied Sciences", Heinemannstr. 2, 53175 Bonn, Phone: + 49 (0) 228 / 99 57-3468 or from the BMBF's website at http://www.bmbf.de/de/1956.php .

8 Entry into force

These funding regulations will enter into force on the date of publication in the Federal Gazette (Bundesanzeiger) and expire at the end of the first funding period in 2010.

Bonn, 18 November 2008
Federal Ministry of Education and Research
Dr. Christine Thomas

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¹  The Federal Government presented a strategic concept for the future orientation of freight transport in its "Freight Transport and Logistics" master plan in July 2008. It is available at http://www.bmvbs.de
² Numerous practical tips and basic information can be found in the brochure "Schutz kritischer Infrastrukturen - Leitfaden für Unternehmen und Behörden" ("Protection of critical infrastructures - Guidelines for companies and authorities"), January 2008, available at http://www.bmi.bund.de ³ Definition of critical infrastructures by the KRITIS Working Group at the Federal Ministry of the Interior of 17.11.1003.