28.01.2011 - 28.04.2011

Announcement

by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research on Cooperation in Civil Security Research between Germany and France within the Framework of the Federal Government's "Research for Civil Security" Programme of 24 January 2011

With this call for proposals the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is pursuing the aim of promoting research for civil security in German-French collaborative research projects in cooperation with the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (National Research Agency - ANR).

This call will serve as a basis for funding German contributions to German-French collaborative research projects. Funding for the French contributions will be provided by the ANR in accordance with its call for proposals "Concepts Systems and Tools for Global Security CSOSG 2011".

Applicants are expected to submit interdisciplinary research projects relating to questions of civil security, taking into account the technological and societal dimensions. Important funding criteria include innovativeness and knowledge gain, relevance of the findings and solutions, scientific quality, bilateral added value and the importance of the work for increasing civil security.

With their bilateral cooperation on security research, France and Germany not only want to strengthen future national security but also to provide a contribution to the European security architecture.

1 Funding purpose and legal basis

1.1. Funding purpose

The "Research for Civil Security" programme (http://www.sicherheitsforschungsprogramm.de) considers security research in a broad context. The programme focuses on improving the protection of citizens against threats resulting inter alia from terrorism, organized crime, natural disasters and major technical accidents.

Continuing from this programme and from a German-French agreement between the BMBF and the ANR to cooperate in the field of civil security research of January 2009, funding under this call is expected to produce research solutions which will provide innovative contributions to civil security, taking into account both the technological and the societal dimension.

The aim is to achieve a high level of practicability and marketability in the results produced by involving the entire innovation chain from research to industry to end-users. End-users in the sense of the Security Research Programme include authorities, security and rescue services (police, fire brigade, disaster relief and other relief organizations) and the operators of critical infrastructures (e.g. transport systems or supply networks).

1.2 Legal basis

Project grants for the German partners within the framework of German-French projects will be awarded in accordance with these funding regulations, the BMBF's standard terms and conditions for grants on an expenditure or cost basis and the administrative regulations (VV) under section 44 of the Federal Budget Code (BHO). There is no legal entitlement to funding. The funding provider will make a decision after due assessment of the circumstances and within the framework of the budget funds available. The programme has been notified to the European Commission.
Projects of French partners can be funded by the ANR on the basis of the call for proposals "Concepts Systems and Tools for Global Security CSOSG 2011".

2 Object of funding

Funding will be provided to collaborative projects within the framework of a German-French collaboration which develop and conduct research into innovative solutions aimed at improving protection for society against threats resulting inter alia from terrorism, organized crime, natural disasters, major technical accidents.

The projects must go beyond the current state of the art of research and make contributions to one or more of the following topics:

• Crisis management solutions including the protection and rescue of people in danger,
• Protection of the public against risks and threats, including terrorism and crime,
• Protection of critical infrastructures, also taking interdependencies into account,
• Solutions to secure flows of goods and the relevant flows of information.

Project proposals must take the following aspects into account: Prevention, early detection, ability to function even in crisis situations (e.g. by increasing redundancy), fast and effective reaction to events which are relevant to security.

Technological as well as societal issues are of importance in this context. Societal issues include, for example, aspects of security culture, ethical aspects, value conflicts, threat perception, security and crisis communication, legal framework conditions, data protection requirements for technology design, privacy protection, acceptance studies, analyses of threats and causes, economic aspects, and human-technology interaction. These societal issues must be adequately taken into account and projects must address these issues by linking research and development work with technological questions. Furthermore, funding can also be granted to independent projects dealing with overarching societal policy and cross-cutting issues.

Proposals are invited for collaborative projects within the framework of a German-French collaboration. Partners on the German side are research institutions (non-university, university), companies and end-users. Independent projects dealing with overarching societal policy and cross-cutting issues are to involve at least one partner on the French side. On the French side, partners are to be involved in accordance with the call for proposals "Concepts Systems and Tools for Global Security CSOSG 2011". As a rule, the collaborative projects will run for a period of three years.

3 Funding recipients

Research proposals may be submitted by commercial companies (which are headquartered and exploit their results mainly in Germany), universities, research and science institutions, public authorities and their research institutions, as well as similar establishments. As a rule, however, involvement on the part of universities and research and science institutions should be via research and development (R&D) 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 may only 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 which receive research funding. Universities of applied sciences are therefore specially invited to participate in the collaborative projects.

4 Prerequisites for funding

Cooperation between the partners in a joint project must be regulated in 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 and the ANR. The BMBF's terms and conditions are contained in a leaflet (BMBF form 0110), which can be downloaded from http://www.kp.dlr.de/profi/easy/bmbf/pdf/0110.pdf. As a rule, the coordinator of the German part of the collaborative project should be nominated by an industrial partner or an end-user. In addition, the German and French partners must jointly appoint a spokesman for the entire bilateral project.
Payment is linked to the funding of the French contribution to the German-French project by the ANR in accordance with the call for proposals "Concepts Systems and Tools for Global Security CSOSG 2011".

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 examplehttp://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/cooperation/security_en.html). The result of this examination should be briefly described in the application for national funding. The BMBF and ANR encourage German and French scientists to cooperate in conducting joint projects under the EU's Seventh Research Framework Programme.

5 Type, scope and rates of funding

Funds will be awarded as non-repayable project grants. Grants for commercial companies are calculated on the basis of the eligible project-related costs, up to 50 % of which can as a rule be covered by government grants, depending on the project's relevance to application. The BMBF's policy requires an appropriate own contribution of at least 50% towards the eligible costs incurred.

Grants for universities, research and science institutions and similar establishments 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 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 Nebenbestimmungen für Zuwendungen auf Kostenbasis des BMBF an Unternehmen der gewerblichen Wirtschaft für Forschungs- und Entwicklungsvorhaben (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. Steffen Muhle
Telephone: +49 (0) 211/62 14-375
Fax: +49 (0)211/62 14-484
E-mail: muhle@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.

7.2 Two-phase funding procedure

The funding procedure takes place in two phases.

7.2.1 Submission and selection of project outlines

In the first phase for the German part of the German-French project, project outlines are to be submitted to the project management organization, VDI Technlogiezentrum GmbH, in written form by post and in electronic form
by 28 April 2011 at the latest.

The deadline for submission is not a cut-off deadline. However, it may not be possible to consider project outlines received after this date. Furthermore, an application for funding in accordance with the call for proposals for "Concepts Systems and Tools for Global Security CSOSG" must also be submitted for the French part of the bilateral project.

The German 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, 1.5 spacing, double sided) in a form which can be evaluated. In addition, applications must also include a joint proposal in English describing the entire German-French project, including the work which is to be performed by the German and French parts of the collaboration. An identical version of the joint proposal in English is to be submitted in the course of the application procedure in France.

The German project outline must be structured as follows:

1. Objectives
2. • Overall objective of the project, summary of the project proposal
   • Scientific and technical working objectives, envisaged innovations, including a thorough analysis of the envisaged increase in security and/or comfort and the potential social impact of the technology in question
   • Project consortium: Project coordinator, distribution of roles
3. State of the art and applicants' own work
4. • State of the art
   • Patents already filed (by applicants and third parties)
   • Previous work of the applicants
5. Work plan
   Detailed description of the planned work of the partners in the collaboration (including cooperation with French partners and sub-contractors, if appropriate, and including all scientific and technical issues relevant for the project as well as the proposed solutions).
6. 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.
   Should utilization be linked to a public procurement measure or require an amendment/revision of current law, this must be explained separately in the utilization plan.
   The utilization plan must include information on compatibility with relevant national and international laws and regulations, provisions and standards.
7. Network plan
   Work packages, handover points, milestones and implementing decisions presented over time.
8. Financing plan
   Estimate of overall costs and breakdown of funding requirements for each individual partner in the collaboration.

The Joint Proposal in English is to be structured as follows:

• Joint abstract (overall objective, summary of the proposal)
• Scientific and/or technical working objectives, envisaged innovations
• Project consortium; project coordinators, assignment of roles, value added chain, if appropriate
• State of the art
• Patents filed (by applicants, third parties)
• Previous work of the applicants
• Work plan (no more than 15 pages), which shall include
• Detailed description of the work of the partners in the collaboration (including sub-contractors, if appropriate, as well as all scientific and technical issues relevant for the project, and the proposed solutions)
• A preliminary analysis of ethical and privacy issues (not applicable for projects exclusively surveying social dimensions)
• Utilisation plan (scientific, technical and economic utilisation of the results achieved by the partners involved; if appropriate, translation into provisions, guidelines, and legal framework conditions)
• Network plan (work packages, handover points, milestones and implementing decisions)
• Funding schedule (estimated overall costs and funding requirements for each partner in the collaboration. Budgets may include costs for salaries, researcher mobility, joint meetings, etc.)
• A description of:
  ongoing activities and specific advantages of the German and French groups, respectively, which form the basis for the proposed joint project
  how the project is expected to help strengthen research cooperation between Germany and France over the longer term
  Statements on how intellectual property and know-how arising from the accomplishment of the joint research projects will be handled in the consortium agreement
  Applicants are free to add further points to the project outline and the joint proposal 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. A legal claim cannot 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 "enhancing public security"
• Clear relevance to the content of the call for proposals
• Visible benefit for both the French and the German side
• Clearly identifiable innovativeness and knowledge gain
• Holistic character and large-scale effectiveness of the approach
• Inclusion of societal issues, including the viability of combining societal and technical aspects
• Practicability and marketability of the envisaged solution and its optimized economic leverage in both countries
• Quality of the project consortium, involvement of all relevant stakeholders
• Specific involvement of end users
• Involvement of SMEs

The selection of the eligible project outlines takes place in an evaluation process agreed between the BMBF and the ANR. The project management organization will inform the German collaboration coordinator of the decision (the result of the selection procedure) in writing. 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 phase, applicants whose project outlines have been evaluated positively will be invited to submit a formal application for funding on which a decision will be taken following 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).

8 Information and further support

8.1 In Germany:

Dr. Steffen Muhle
VDI Technologiezentrum GmbH
Projektträger Sicherheitsforschung
VDI-Platz 1
D-40468 Düsseldorf
Telephone: +49 (0)211 - 6214 375
Fax: +49 (0)211 6214 - 484
E-mail: muhle@vdi.de

8.2 In France:

Questions concerning the call for proposals:
Dr. François Murgadella
Agence Nationale de la Recherche
Telephone: +33 (0)1 78 09 50 52   
E-Mail: francois.murgadella@agencerecherche.fr

General or administrative questions:
Dr. Philippe Cornu
Université de Technologie de Troyes
Telephone: +33 (0) 3 25 71 56 89 
E-mail: phc.csosg@utt.fr

8.3 Partnering Platform:

The "Partnering Platform" Internet service will be made available free of charge to support the formation of German-French collaborations. This service can be used to publish requests to participate in projects as well as to seek project partners. The service is available at http://www.de-fr.info.

9 Entry into force

These funding regulations will enter into force on the date of publication in the Federal Gazette (Bundesanzeiger) and terminate at the end of the first funding period in 2013.

Bonn, 24 January 2011
Federal Ministry of Education and Research
Dr. Wolf Junker