Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership’s first joint transnational call (2023): “The way forward: a thriving sustainable blue economy for a brighter future”
OpenBeneficiary & submission
Submission Procedures A two-stage procedure will apply to this Joint Transnational Call; at stage 1 the submission of pre-proposals is mandatory, and at stage 2, applicants must submit full proposals upon invitation. (Pre-)proposals must be submitted electronically using the Electronic Proposal Submission System (EPSS): https://proposals.etag.ee/sustainable-blue. The online system may experience high traffic volumes in the last hours before the submission deadline and it is therefore highly recommended to submit the final version of the pre / full proposal well in advance of the deadline to avoid any last-minute technical problems. Requests for extensions of the deadline due to last-minute technical problems will not be considered. Any proposals not correctly submitted at this moment will be declared ineligible. Evaluation Procedures Detailed procedures are available in the call text. A two-stage evaluation procedure will apply. Pre-proposals will be evaluated at Stage 1, and full proposal at Stage 2. Stage 1: pre-proposals Pre-proposals that are submitted correctly and within the deadline will be checked for eligibility at both the international level by the Joint Call Secretariat (JCS; see general eligibility criteria defined in 5.1 of the call text) and at the national/regional level by the relevant research funding organisations according to their national/regional criteria (see national/regional regulations; Annex B of the call text). The eligible pre-proposals will be sent for scientific evaluation that will be carried out by at least three independent reviewers of the International Evaluation Committee (IEC). IEC members will have to sign a confidentiality, non-disclosure and conflict of interest policy and will have to declare all their potential conflicts of interest with submitted pre-proposals. The JCS will also check that no conflict of interest exists concerning the proposals evaluated. The evaluation of each pre-proposal will be based on the following criteria: Excellence and Impact. A ranking list of pre-proposals will be produced, including only pre-proposals that meet the minimum threshold, i.e., 3 out of 5 in each criterion. The final score will be calculated by summing up the calculated average scores of the two criteria given by the independent experts (from the IEC) for each criterion. The objective of this first step is to identify the best proposals to proceed to Step 2 and to ensure balance between requested and available funds at the national level. The eligible pre-proposals will be divided into 3 groups, according to their scores: Group A: highest evaluation scores, Group B (medium evaluation scores) and Group C (low evaluation scores). All pre-proposals in Group A, if funds are available, will be invited to stage 2. Among the pre-proposals in Group B, proposals will be selected to stage 2, taking into account the ranking list, the representativeness of all RFOs and the oversubscription ratio. Pre-proposals in Group C will be dismissed for their low ranking and unavailability of funding. Consortium coordinators will be informed of the outcomes by the JCS and, if appropriate, invited to submit a full proposal on the EPSS as well as any national documentation required by each participating FO according to national rules. Stage 2: full proposals After the submission deadline for full proposals, the submitted full proposals will be checked by the JCS and National Contact Points (NCPs) to ensure that they meet the eligibility criteria and have not changed substantially from the respective pre-proposals. Full proposals not meeting the formal conditions will be rejected without further review. All full proposals will be subject to a scientific evaluation by at least three independent reviewers of the International Evaluation Committee (IEC) based on three criteria: Excellence, Impact and Quality and efficiency of implementation. The threshold score for each criterion is 3 out of 5. IEC members will have to sign a confidentiality, non-disclosure and conflict of interest policy and will have to declare all their potential conflicts of interest with submitted full proposals. The JCS will also check that no conflict of interest exists concerning the proposals evaluated. The JCS will produce a preliminary ranking list of the full proposals based on scores calculated with the same methodology used for pre-proposals in stage 1 (first averaging the scores per criterion and, afterwards, summing up the averages). The IEC meeting will complete the evaluation procedure, agreeing on the final individual score for each criterion and the overall score for each proposal. An independent observer will be invited to the IEC meeting to assess the conformity of the general procedure. The decisions of the IEC should be taken collectively, preferably by consensus or by a simple majority of the panel members in case consensus cannot be reached. The IEC will produce a final score and a final Evaluation Summary Report for each proposal, which will be transmitted to the applicants. A ranked list of proposals will be produced based on the final scores. The threshold on the final score is 10/15: no project with a lower score will be funded. The final ranking list will be forwarded to the Call Steering Committee (CSC)which will meet to decide on the projects to be recommended for funding by the research funding organisations. For this decision, the CSC will consider the order of the ranking list from the IEC and the funding availability.
Further information
Applicants should refer to the details of the Call Text, which can be downloaded from the SBEP website: www.bluepartnership.eu and the online submission tool (EPSS): https://proposals.etag.ee/sustainable-blue. The Call Text comprises the objectives and the five priority areas of the Call. It provides information regarding the participating countries and research funding organisations, the eligibility criteria, the submission procedure, the evaluation procedure and modalities of project funding and reporting. Each partner involved in the project will be funded by its national/regional funding organisations. The consortium must therefore comply with all the relevant national/regional eligibility rules (Annex B of the Call Text). Therefore, before applying, each and every partner should verify their corresponding national/regional regulations and check their eligibility with their NCPs. The Consortium Coordinator should verify that all partners of the consortium verified their eligibility. National contact points will provide support about national/regional rules and requirements.