General conditions

1. Admissibility conditions: described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes

Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System

2. Eligible countries: described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes

A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide.

3. Other eligibility conditions: described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes

In order to achieve the expected outcomes, and safeguard the Union’s strategic assets, interests, autonomy, and security in the area of research covered by this topic, participation is limited to legal entities established in:

1. Member States that have designated a Competent PRS authority (CPA) in accordance with Decision No 1104/2011, and
2. third countries that have concluded (i) a specific agreement on participation in Galileo and EGNOS, in accordance with Article 7 of Regulation 2021/696, and (ii) have become PRS participants, on the basis of international agreements concluded with the Union, in accordance with Article 3 of Decision 1104/2011, and (iii) have designated a Competent PRS authority (CPA), in accordance with Decision 1104/2011.

The proposed activities shall be carried out in full compliance with the applicable PRS regulatory framework.

If projects use satellite-based earth observation, positioning, navigation and/or related timing data and services, beneficiaries must make use of Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS (other data and services may additionally be used).

4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion: described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes

5. Evaluation and award:

The evaluation procedure will take place in two steps:

Step 1: Pre-selection of the applicants through a request to participate:

Any interested applicants authorized by their national Competent PRS Authority (CPA) to access PRS information and perform PRS manufacturing activities shall submit a request to participate that includes the following evidence

1. Evidence of a valid authorization issued by the Security Accreditation Board (SAB) for the European Union Space Programme. This evidence can be provided in one of the following formats: either (a) a formal statement issued by the relevant CPA that the entity has a valid SAB authorisation. Copy of an email exchange will not be considered as a formal statement; or (b) a copy of the SAB (the Security Accreditation Board) authorisation statement issued by the SAB for the European Union Space Programme, including its technical annex when present. If none of these (a) or (b) requirements can be fulfilled at the moment of the submission of the pre-selection the applicant shall submit together with the request to participate 1) written proof that it has asked its national CPA to submit a request for the required SAB authorisation and 2) confirmation from the CPA that the request to the SAB was submitted or is in the process of being submitted. Requirements a) or b) above shall be fulfilled, for all concerned entities, by the moment of proposal submission in step 2, at the latest.
2. A PRS information Management Plan (PIMP) which follows the European GNSS PSI – PRS annex establishing the responsibilities of the applicants (including consortium members and subcontractors) for the management of the PRS information, how the need to know of the persons entitled to access information in each PRS category is managed (including an organisation chart clearly showing the units within the organisation and naming natural persons who may require access to classified PRS information), how PRS documents are marked, handled, transmitted within the applicant (including consortium members and subcontractors), with the Granting Authority and with third parties inside or outside the EU. The PIMP shall demonstrate how the PRS need to know is implemented.
3. A duly signed Non-Disclosure Undertaking (NDU). The NDU must be signed only by the sole-beneficiary or the consortium coordinator. The sole-beneficiary or consortium coordinator, with the signing of the NDU, further irrevocably and explicitly declares that it will ensure that the provisions under the NDU shall apply wholly and unconditionally to any members of the applicant’s consortium and any of the subcontractors and any personnel it may draw on for the preparation of the proposal in step 2. The sole-beneficiary or the consortium coordinator shall submit:

• The NDU itself, using the form provided in the call documentation. It must be signed electronically with a Qualified Electronic Signature (QES) of a person that is authorised to represent the applicant or, if a QES is not available, submitted in the original paper version signed with blue-ink by the applicant’s authorised representative.
• A Legal Identification Form (LEF) and its supporting documents (available at https://ec.europa.eu/info/publications/legal-entities_en). It should be noted that only entities which, according to the LEF and its supporting documents, are established in an EU Member State are eligible to receive proprietary information including classified information.
• A proof that the person signing the NDU is authorised to represent the applicant.
• A proof that the entity signing the NDU has a Local Security Officer (LSO).

The request to participate has to be submitted by 3 weeks from the publication opening of the call for submissions only on CD-ROM (plus possibly NDU in paper version) to:

EUSPA

Legal and Procurement Department

Grant ref: HORIZON-EUSPA-2023-SPACE-01-44

Janovskeho 438/2

170 00 Prague 7

Holesovice, Czech Republic

Upon submission, by post mail, express mail, commercial courier or hand-delivery, the applicant shall send an email of notification of submission to euspa-grants@europa.europa.eu. The subject of the email shall be: HORIZON-EUSPA-2023-SPACE-01-44: submission of request to participate by [name of applicant/consortium].

Step 2: Submission of the project proposal:

In line with the confidential nature of some of the proprietary information contained in the detailed requirements for this topic, will be provided only to the applicants who meet the detailed in Step 1 and have hence been pre-selected.

Invitation to Step 2, dispatch of guidelines to the pre-selected applicants and notification to unsuccessful applicants is expected to take place 3 weeks from the publication opening of the call for submissions.

After the two previous steps, the standard HE evaluation process will be followed.

• Award criteria, scoring and thresholds are described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes

• Submission and evaluation processes are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual

The evaluation committee will be partly composed of representatives of the EU institutions and/or EUSPA.

• Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement: described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes

6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants: described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes

Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum as defined in the Decision of 7 July 2021 authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2021-2027) – and in actions under the Research and Training Programme of the European Atomic Energy Community (2021-2025). [[This decision is available on the Funding and Tenders Portal, in the reference documents section for Horizon Europe, under ‘Simplified costs decisions’ or through this link: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/horizon/guidance/ls-decision_he_en.pdf]].

Specific conditions

7. Specific conditions: The evaluation committee will be partly composed by representatives of the European Commission and/or EUSPA and by external experts.

Activities are expected to achieve TRL 5-7 by the end of the project – The reference TRL definition is the ISO 16290:2013 applicable to the space sector.

Documents

Call documents:

Standard application form — call-specific application form is available in the Submission System

Standard application form (HE RIA, IA)

Standard application form (HE RIA IA Stage 1)

Standard evaluation form — will be used with the necessary adaptations

Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA)

MGA

Lump Sum MGA v1.0

Call-specific instructions

Detailed budget table (HE LS)

Information on financial support to third parties (HE)

Information on clinical studies (HE)

Guidance: "Lump sums - what do I need to know?"

Additional documents:

HE Main Work Programme 2023–2024 – 1. General Introduction

HE Main Work Programme 2023–2024 – 7. Digital, Industry and Space

HE Main Work Programme 2023–2024 – 13. General Annexes

HE Programme Guide

HE Framework Programme and Rules for Participation Regulation 2021/695

HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764

EU Financial Regulation

Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment

EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement

Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual

Funding & Tenders Portal Terms and Conditions

Funding & Tenders Portal Privacy Statement

Context: Over the years a cross-border cooperation between Member States (MS) Competent PRS Authorities (CPA) has been fostered through a number of activities related to the implementation of the PRS regulatory framework. These activities (e.g. the Joint Test Activity (JTA) and the market consultation for PRS conducted under FRAME SC2 grant in 2023), and the recent coordination among MS CPA have led to the identification of gaps related to the ongoing market development of PRS civilian applications.

The PRS technology aiming at supporting one or several use cases, the related technical specifications have been selected in such a way so as to be ambitious, but at the same time realistic, so that the market will be able to deliver PRS solutions that meet the operational needs of the authorities responsible for the implementation of the PRS user segment.

Expected Outcomes: Projects are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:

1. Develop the use cases for authorised civilian users based on the added value of PRS service.
2. Develop the PRS applications targeting civilian users by leveraging PRS technology.
3. Build on top of previous exploratory activities and lessons learnt on the development of PRS items by stimulating the corresponding downstream PRS uptake.
4. Foster a European-level cooperation of industrial entities for the development of authorised PRS applications.

Scope: Proposals should identify, design and create applications leveraging the items for the first generation of Galileo PRS. Applications should address the governmentally authorised user communities and scenarios for which the technical, operational and security related features requirements of PRS service constitute barriers to entry. The applications should target well-identified operational environments in which the PRS service features (e.g. continuity of service and access control) plays a differentiator role. Representatives of potential user communities should be involved as far as possible in the development of the prototypical applications.

Proposals should address one of the following:

Proposals submitted under this topic shall include a business case, exploitation strategy and the risk and threat analysis (highlight the risks related to the potential use of such technologies and proposed mitigations solutions on the user system level).

The submitted proposal, supported by the risk and threat analyses shall address specify of the PRS service considering the technological, policy and exploitation in the environment of use.

Development should build on existing standards or contribute to standardisation. European cross-border cooperation is requested.

Proposals submitted should ensure gathering at least 3 potential European user communities (at least from 3 different PRS participants).

Each proposal will be evaluated according to the SMART approach:

• Specific = The PRS applications/developments must bring a specific added value;
• Measurable =
  • The PRS applications/developments must be beneficial/shared for the whole targeted PRS User segment;
  • The PRS applications/developments shall brings a specific output with measurable results/outcome;
• Attainable/Realistic = The PRS applications/developments must be attainable and realistic in view of the operational, schedule, market and political related constraints;
• Timely = The PRS applications/developments must be completed/implementable and exploitable to a large extent by PRS FOC.

In this topic the integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content is not a mandatory requirement.

Activities are expected to achieve TRL 5-7 by the end of the project – The reference TRL definition is the ISO 16290:2013 applicable to the space sector.