This section is intended only as a guideline to remind (potential) Contractors and Participating Organisations of some financially and contractually relevant provisions of the TEN-Telecom contract. A copy of the full draft contract is available upon request to the European Commission We only mention points on which, in our experience, project participants have in particular asked questions.
3.1 Who may participate in a project with an EC financial contribution?
Only legal entities established in the Member States of the European Community, having the basic resources to carry out the activity concerned, may conclude a contract with the Commission.
3.2 Partners in a consortium and subcontractors
The Partners in a project are organisations which carry out the work and contribute towards the costs of the project. They may take the following roles :
- The Co-ordinating Contractor is a main contributor in the project. He is mandated to submit the proposal, to sign and fulfil the contract with the Commission as co-ordinator. He undertakes overall project management responsibility.
- The Contractors contribute technically and financially to the Project, sign the contract with the Commission and are responsible jointly and severally towards the Commission for carrying out the work under the contract. They have full and equal rights to the ownership and exploitation of the results of the projects.
- The Participating organisations contribute technically and financially to the Project, but do not sign the contract with the Commission. They must have an agreement directly with one of the contractors. This agreement should cover their participation in the project and define as far as possible the exploitation of results and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) issuing from the project. This is particularly suitable for projects involving a large number of participants or for organisations making smaller contributions to the project. Each Contractor must ensure that its Participating Organisations shall comply with the contract as if they were Contractors.
The Subcontractors are participants who undertake specific tasks under contract to a Partner and who are paid normal commercial rates by the contractors or participating organisations for their work. They are not contributing to the costs of the project. They are fully paid for their work. The partners shall impose on any subcontractor the same obligations as apply to themselves under the contract with the Commission. As a guideline, a partner should not subcontract more than 20% of its project contribution.
3.3 Financial issues
Joint and several responsibility All the Contractors participating in the consortium are responsible jointly and severally towards the Commission for carrying out the work under the contract. This implies that if, after having received a payment, one of the contractors is defaulting, the other contractors must jointly ensure that the entire project is executed without additional funding. When the defaulting contractor is the financial co-ordinator of the project, the other partners might suffer even higher losses (if a co-ordinator goes bankrupt just after having received the totality of any payment for the project, the other partners might loose their part of the payment). For this reason, particular care should be taken by the contractors to assess the financial viability of the other partners and in particular of the financial co-ordinator.
Actual Costs This is a cost-sharing contract which is based on the actual costs incurred for the work under the project. No budgeted or commercial rates are allowed. Contractors and Participating organisations cannot make any kind of financial profit from their participation in this project. The amounts which will be negotiated for the technical annex are only estimates and as such they cannot be claimed as actual costs. The fact that the Commission will make periodic payments for the costs claimed does not mean that these costs have been accepted. Costs can be considered as definitively accepted only after an audit on the spot or after expiration of a period of two years after the completion date or the termination of the contract.
Financial Contribution by the Contractors and Participating Organisations As a rule, the Commission is only funding a part of the costs incurred under the contract. This means that the remaining part of the costs has to be financed by the Contractors and Participating organisations from their own resources.
Additional Cost Model Funding All organisations, which cannot implement a cost accounting system that is adequate to identify and to calculate the general costs (overheads) related to work in the project under the contract, must participate under the additional cost funding model. This will often apply especially to the universities, research centres, public administrations, hospitals and similar organisations. Under this model of funding the Commission will reimburse 100% of the additional costs incurred for the project plus a maximum of 20% to cover the project’s general costs (overheads). Overheads do not need to be calculated.
Contractors and Participating Organisations using the additional cost funding model are allowed to claim the salaries, wages, social charges and pension costs of the scientific professional, postgraduate or technical staff working specifically under the contract. This labour cost must not include any overheads. Furthermore, these persons must be engaged under a temporary contract or under a contract which does not depend upon the normal recurrent funding of the contractor. The hours of the permanent scientific staff working on the project should be charged in the cost claims at zero cost.
Time sheets All Contractors and Participating organisations are obliged to keep a record, on a regular basis, of all the hours spent on the project. The actual number of hours spent on the project must be stated in the technical reports and in the cost statements. The absence of time sheets kept by the Contractor and Participating organisations may make it impossible for the Commission to contribute to the costs claimed for labour.
Justification of Costs All the documentation to support and justify the costs reported must be kept in order and made available for audits. In case of a control, Contractors and Participating organisations have the obligation to justify all the costs and the hours claimed for the project.
Financial Audits Financial audits may be carried out by the Commission or persons authorised by it. This can be done up to two years after the completion date or the termination of the contract. The Commission is obliged to reject all the costs which cannot be justified or which are disallowed by the contract. In case of any doubts on the interpretation of the contract and of its annexes, please contact the Commission Project Officer for explanation. Any serious irregularity in financial contractual matters might have to be considered as fraud against the Community funds and, as such, duly followed up.
Legal Representative The contract must be signed by the legal representative(s) of the Contractor(s). The contract must clearly state the name and the position (status) of the person who will sign. The Commission must be informed of every change regarding the ownership or the legal denomination of the contractor and every change of its legal representative.
The signature of the contract implies the acceptance of all the contractual provisions included in the contract and in its annexes.
3.4 Allowable costs
Allowable costs shall only include actual costs which are necessary for the project, can be substantiated, and are incurred during the period of the contract. Costs for kick-off meetings held before the commencement date of the contract are therefore not allowed.
Costs shall exclude any profit and be based on the historic (no budget cost) actual costs (no estimated costs). Any revenue generated by the project during the project phase is to be subtracted from the allowable costs.
All costs which cannot be justified will be disallowed and the Commission contribution will be recovered.
Allowable costs may include the following, subject to provision in the contract :
Personnel costs
The costs of actual hours worked in the Project by personnel directly employed by the Contractor may be charged. The productive hours are the total workable hours based on the contract of employment less a certain provision for non-chargeable time such as sickness, general administration etc.
Normally there are 210 productive days per person/year (17.5 per person/month) Multiplying this value by the number of workable hours in a day will give the annual productive hours per person (about 1.575 hours per person/year or 130 hours per person/month).
For Contractors using full costs, personnel costs shall be the actual employment costs (salaries, wages, social charges and pension costs) of the scientific professional, post-graduate or technical staff working on the project
For Contractors using additional costs, personnel costs shall be limited to the actual employment costs (salary, wages, social charges and pension costs) of personnel employed under temporary contracts on Community projects. Permanent employees paid for working full-time for the contractor are excluded from charging their costs.
Each organisation must participate in all cost sharing projects under the same funding model.
All personnel time charged must be recorded and certified. All contractors and Participating Organisations are obliged to keep time records. Estimates of hours worked are not acceptable. The absence of time sheets may make it impossible for the Commission to contribute to the costs claimed for labour.
Equipment
Equipment purchased or leased may be charged as a direct cost. The allowable costs for leased equipment shall not exceed any allowable costs for its purchase.
The allowable cost is the capital equipment cost depreciated over 3 years for computing equipment costing less than 25.000 ECU and over 5 years for all other equipment.
Third Party Assistance
The cost of subcontractors and external services should be reasonable and reflect the normal price of the market. Costs of subcontracts and external services shall be allowable costs.
Eligibility of subcontractors
- Prior written approval of the Commission is required for subcontractors, having more than 20% of associated partner effort within project.
- As a general rule, it is recommended that for contractors participating under the full cost model, the use of external consultants should be allowed only for special work which cannot be carried out by the contractor’s in-house personnel. This means in particular that legal entities with insufficient or with no personnel at all should not be allowed to participate in cost sharing contracts as contractors.
- It should be noted that contractors already participating in a contract as partners or participating organisations cannot also participate in the same contract as subcontractors of other partners.
Travel and subsistence
Travel and subsistence costs for missions related to the project may be charged, but written approval of the Commission is required for charging travel and subsistence outside Europe.
Consumables and Computing
On the basis of recorded use. (Only if the contractor is able to calculate their use for the project. Otherwise, they should be included in the overheads.)
Other significant specific project costs
Any other exceptional additional costs not falling within any of the other categories mentioned before may be charged with the written agreement of the Commission.
Overheads (indirect costs)
For Contractors using full costs, overheads include all the indirect general costs incurred to employ, manage, accommodate and support the direct personnel performing the work of the project (i.e. administration, management, salaries of support staff, depreciation of buildings and general equipment, accommodation and maintenance, telephones, heating, lighting, electricity, postal service etc.).
Overhead costs must be allowable costs, transparent and ready for verification and not included under direct costs.
For Contractors using additional costs, a contribution up to 20 % of the actual allowable costs with the exception of third party assistance. This contribution does not have to be documented.
VAT
No VAT should be included in the proposals' estimated costs.
Watch out: the following costs are not allowed :
- any costs related to the preparation of the proposal for the project
- unnecessarily high, extravagant or wasteful costs
- any costs related to other projects
- commercial, distribution, marketing, sales and advertising costs
- provisions for future losses or liabilities
- any profit (direct or inter-company)
- bad debts
- entertainment expenses
3.5 Terms of the contract
3.5.1 Form of contract
The Commission services will prepare a contract setting out the conditions of financial support for the selected proposals (model contract is available on request to EC). In this model contract, the word "Project" refers to the phase of project for which Community financial aid is requested.
3.5.2 Start of the contract
The commencement date of the project will normally be the first day of the month following the signature of the contract by the Commission.
3.5.3 Payments
- All payments will be made in ECU through the co-ordinator.
- An advance payment will be made after the signature of the contract by the Commission. Payment of the advance may be made conditional upon the furnishing by the Contractor of proof that he has lodged a deposit equal to the amount of the advance.
- Periodic payments, normally at 6 or 12 month intervals, will depend on the submission and approval of progress reports and appropriate cost claims.
- A retention (normally 30% of the EC contribution) is withheld until all the final documents have been received and approved by the Commission Services.
3.5.4 Project monitoring
- The co-ordinator shall be the channel for submitting all documents and for general liaison between the contractors and the Commission. All general communications with the Commission will be through the Co-ordinator. The co-ordinator shall be responsible for the overall management of the Project. He consolidates and summarises the work and results of all the Contractors. He receives all payments made by the Commission to him in trust for the Contractors and the participating organisations and transfers immediately the appropriate amount of each payment to each Contractor and participating organisation.
- The results of the project must be forwarded to the European Commission through a schedule of deliverables specified by the co-ordinator.
- At any time EC services can make on spot monitoring of project work progress, results and /or financial issues.
3.5.5 Reviews
An annual review may be established at a time specified by the Commission. The contractors will deliver an Annual Review Report on the previous year’s activities, including a critical self-evaluation, and a detailed plan for the following year. This report shall contain an evaluation of the results achieved with Community aid in the field of application, in terms of original objectives. This report can be evaluated by appropriate external experts. On the basis of the results of the annual review, the Commission will make a decision to continue, to modify or stop support to the project. A modification to the work content of the project, as well as the make-up of the partnership, may be included in this decision. The contract will be amended if necessary.
3.5.6 Ownership
Study results are owned by the contractors generating it. Consortium agreement should be prepared at the beginning of the project and shall handle the exploitation of these results covering IPR issues.
3.6 Negotiations of contracts
The proposals retained by the Commission after the evaluation process could be the subject of negotiations with the Commission before the contract is finally concluded. The negotiation process will normally take place in Brussels.
The Commission Services may ask the co-ordinators of the successful proposals to provide, where appropriate, more detailed information.
The Commission may require changes to the proposed project on the basis of the evaluation.
To facilitate the negotiation process, each partner should:
- be familiar with the allowable costs (draft Guidelines on major financial provisions, available on request to EC) which can be supported in EC financed project;
- rapidly provide all the detailed information requested by the Co-ordinator and/or the Commission Services.
If no agreement is reached during the negotiations, the negotiation process may be terminated.
4.1 PROPOSAL INTENTION FORM
Before submitting a proposal, the project co-ordinator should communicate his intention to make a proposal by returning the Proposal Intention Form (FORM 12), either by e-mail or by fax to the TEN-Telecom secretariat (Fax + 32 2 295 1071 or +32 2 296 1740, email: ten@bxl.dg13.cec.be).
To ensure a proper planning of the evaluation process, this form should be sent at least four weeks before the deadline of the call.
4.2 CONFORMITY, ELIGIBILITY and evaluation criteria
4.2.1 Conformity of the proposal
The conformity of the proposal will be verified before being considered for evaluation.
All proposals must be signed by the authorised representative or representatives of the co-ordinator.
Proposals should specify the total project investment cost, the cost of the feasibility/validation and the Community aid requested for these activities.
Proposals received after the deadline will not be considered further.
4.2.2 Verification of eligibility
The eligibility of projects and the conditions for Community aid defined respectively in articles 2 and 5 of the TEN Financial regulation will be verified (see also section 1.3.1 of this infopack).
4.2.3 Evaluation and selection of proposals
The Commission will ensure a confidential, fair and equitable evaluation of the proposals. The evaluation will take into account the criteria set out below, and will be carried out under the responsibility and co-ordination of the Commission Services, assisted by independent experts.
During the evaluation the Commission may invite the co-ordinator’s contact person to attend or to be represented by a person of his choice at a short meeting with the Commission services and the evaluators, with a view to clarifying the content of their proposal.
These meetings will not involve any negotiation with a view, for instance, to reducing costs or extending/modifying the scale of the work, supplies or services in the proposals. If organised, the Commission will invite the contact persons of all eligible proposals to such meetings, who will be free to attend or not, without any discriminatory effect.
Information included in the proposal, or the complete proposal itself, may be forwarded in confidence to the Member States' representatives in the TEN-Financial Committee (see list in this information package), established by article 17 of the TEN Financial Regulation.
4.2.4 Evaluation criteria
The proposal will be assessed with respect to the objectives and priorities laid down in articles 2 and 3 of the TEN guidelines and the general selection criteria defined in article 6 of the TEN Financial Regulation. The proposal must:
- facilitate the transition towards the information society, improving the competitiveness of Community firms, in particular SMEs, strengthening economic and social cohesion and accelerating the development of new growth areas activities leading to job creation;
- be potentially economically viable, and with the need for additional financing at the time of the proposal. Community contribution will help to enhance financial profitability and stimulate public - private financing for the scheme;
- present a sound business and financial case;
- be sufficiently mature to be implemented and operational within a defined maximum period of time, with clear identification of the phases;
- be supported by generic services that contribute to interoperability, under European recognised standards;
- have strong direct or indirect social-economic effects, in particular on employment;
- be transnational, in the sense of being conceived to satisfy needs existing in several Member States; in general, projects need to be implemented in several Member States.
The proposal will also be assessed in relation to the proposers’ background, their managerial capabilities and cost-effectiveness.
4.3 Call Schedule
The Commission’s planned schedule for this call for proposals is as follows :
- the Call For Proposals will open on 14 March 1998, and will close on 15 June 1998 ;
- the Commission, assisted by a group of independent experts will evaluate the proposals and propose a selection of projects ;
- the list of projects proposed for Community aid will then be presented to Member States committees for opinion ;
- after a Commission decision on Community contributions, contract negotiations will take place ;
- the start of project implementation can be expected during the last quarter of 1998.
According to Article 15 of the TEN financial regulation, the implementation of projects is subject to effective monitoring and evaluation by the Commission and the Member States. Projects may be required to be adapted as a result of monitoring and evaluation recommendations.
4.4 HOW TO SUBMIT A PROPOSAL
4.4.1 Proposal preparation
The proposal needs to be prepared in compliance with the proposal structure defined in the chapter 5 of this infopack. All the forms must be filled-in and FORM 7 must be signed by the Co-ordinating Contractor!!
4.4.2 Delivery of the proposal
Proposals should be sent by registered mail to the Commission Services' offices on 15th June 1998 at the latest, as shown on the postmark to the following address:
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
Directorate-General XIII
Telecommunications, Information Market and Exploitation of Research
TEN- TELECOM Programme
Call for Proposals TI-1/TI-2.1-TI-2.7
Rue de la Loi 200 (BU31 3/7)
B - 1049 Brussels - BELGIUM
or, they may be hand-delivered or sent by courier to arrive before the June 15 1998, 16.00 local time to:
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
Directorate-General XIII
Telecommunications, Information Market and Exploitation of Research
TEN- TELECOM Programme
Call for Proposals TI-1/TI-2.1-TI-2.7
Avenue de Beaulieu 31 (office 3/7)
B - 1160 Brussels - BELGIUM
or alternatively, proposals can be hand-delivered or sent by courier with the same deadline (15/06/98, 16.00 local time) to one of the offices of the Commission within the European Union.
In case of hand-delivery, a receipt dated and signed by an official of the European Commission will be given. This receipt is different from FORM 2, which will be returned to the co-ordinator once the proposal has been registered.
PLEASE NOTE THAT PROPOSALS CAN NOT BE SUBMITTED BY FAX, TELEX OR E-MAIL.
4.4.3 Copies
One original plus seven copies of all parts of the proposal should be delivered.
4.4.4 Packaging
The proposal must be sent in a sealed envelope contained within a second sealed envelope.
The inside envelope should indicate the following information :
- Address of the Commission Service (see above)
-
"Proposal by .......(firm)"
- "Proposal for TEN-TELECOM Programme TI-1/TI-2.1-TI-2.7
- "CONFIDENTIAL -Not to be opened by the postal service"
Self-adhesive envelopes which can be opened and re-closed without trace are not to be used for this purpose.
Remark : If a proposal is sent in more than one package then please clearly indicate on each of them: 'No. X of a total of Y packages'
Proposals should strictly adhere to the proposed structure below. This is to simplify the evaluation process. Each of the proposed sections and subsections corresponds to an evaluation criterion. In case one of the sections is not applicable to the proposal, this should be explicitly mentioned and explained.
The proposed structure consists of a textual description of the project, complemented by a series of forms. These forms contain summary and administrative information.
The proposal should be concise and factual. It should not exceed 50 pages. Supporting annexes may be provided. However, all the information required to evaluate the proposal must be provided in the core of the proposal.
The proposal constitutes the basis for the technical annex to a contract in case it is selected.
A proposal is composed of three sections clearly identified in a section heading.
- Section I describes all the 4 phases of a overall project (ref. figure 1).
- Section II describes the project phase for which TEN-Telecom funding is requested.
- Section II A is to be used for the feasibility and market validation phase.
- Section II B is to be used for the deployment phase.
- Section III contains summary and administrative information to be provided in a number of standard forms.
1. A proposal can only request funding for one project phase, not for the overall project
2. A proposal should contain either a section II A or a section II B, not both.
|
Section I: Description of the overall project |
The purpose of this section is to describe the proposed project in which the project promoters intend to invest. This description concerns the project as a whole, including the deployment phase. It should clearly define the long term objectives of the project and provide the necessary elements to assess its commercial long term viability and its eligibility for Community funding.
TEN-Telecom is only funding projects that have a potential for successful deployment. This first section must provide convincing evidence of that potential. It is understood that most of the information to be provided in this section are preliminary estimates based on a number of assumptions. The credibility of the estimates and of the underlying assumptions will determine the maturity and the credibility of the proposal. Proposals that fail to convince of their deployment potential cannot be selected.
The Community funding will not exceed 10% of the total investment cost (investment cost = feasibility and validation costs + construction and start-up costs. It excludes operating costs).
5.1 Marketing aspects
5.1.1 Description of the services
A concise and clear description of the services to be developed by the project. The services should be described from the point of view of the users of the services, not from a technical point of view.
5.1.2 Market analysis
The following information needs to be provided in the proposal:
- the estimated size of the market (expressed in terms of ECUs);
- a brief description of the main competitors, their products and market share;
- the expected market evolution over the coming five years.
The assumptions underlying the above information should be clearly stated and, if applicable, the information sources should be indicated.
5.1.3 Customers
The following information about the customers of the services should be provided:
- typology of the customers (e.g. industry sector, company size);
- geographical coverage (which countries within and outside the EU will be covered);
- expected number of customers.
5.2 Financial aspects
5.2.1 Costs
An initial estimate of the total project costs needs to be provided.
- Breakdown of the estimated investment costs, including the costs of studies, pilots and start-up costs. The costs already incurred need to be identified.
- Estimated operating costs. These should include all the costs necessary to run and market the service.
5.2.2 Preliminary financing plan
Description of a preliminary financing plan over the life cycle of the project. All the sources of financing, including the expected local, regional, national and Community funding.
5.3 Management aspects
Description of the members of the consortium responsible to exploit the services. The role of each member needs to be clearly defined. Any relevant experience of the consortium members should be highlighted. Evidence of commitment at board level of the organisation should be provided. The proposal should also indicate whether additional partners are likely to get involved in the deployment phases of the project.
5.4 Technical aspects
5.4.1 Overall technical description
The overall architecture of the system required to deliver the services needs to be described.
5.4.2 Technology and standards used
The key technologies and standards being used in the system need to be identified.
5.5 Project maturityThis section needs to provide information to enable the evaluators to assess the maturity of the project. More specifically, it should indicate the project activities already completed (e.g. technical studies, market validation, market survey, marketing plan). If the project has successfully completed the RDT phases in one of the Community programmes, this should be clearly indicated here.
5.6 Socio-economic benefits
The proposal must define the anticipated socio-economic benefits of the project, in particular in the following areas:
- impact on employment;
- contribution to the competitiveness of the European economy;
- contribution to the cohesion among EU member states and regions;
- elimination of social exclusion and contribution to overall quality of life of EU citizens;
- impact on environment.
5.7 Justification and eligibility for Community aid
The proposal must demonstrate that the project complies with the TEN-Telecom eligibility criteria (articles 2 and 5 of the TEN Financial regulations, see annex B of this infopack).
The amount of the requested funding needs to be indicated and a clear justification for this requested funding must be provided.
5.1 Objectives of the phase
A clear answer to the following questions needs to be provided.
- Why is this phase necessary, i.e. what are the risk factors and uncertainties identified in the overall project description that need to be assessed before moving into exploitation?
- What will be done during the project phase, e.g. market survey, pilot, detailed business plan?
This information (or a summary thereof) should be reproduced in FORM 1.
5.2 Description of the phase
This section should contain a more detailed description of what will be done during the phase. This description needs to contain as much as possible quantitative information, e.g.:
- countries and number of users involved in a pilot;
- number of users contacted in case a survey is conducted
It should be clearly described how the various aspects of the project phase will be performed.
5.3 Workplan of the project
5.3.1 Workbreakdown structure
This section describes the breakdown of the project phase into workpackages. Each workpackage is described using FORM 9, (one per work package).
The following guidelines should be used when defining the workpackages:
- The workbreakdown structure should be defined according to the needs of the project.
- Each workpackage must have clear objectives and produce one or several clearly defined deliverables.
- The interdependencies among workpackages need to be clearly described.
5.3.2 Deliverables of the project phase
A deliverable may be a report, an operational system, a technical specification, a demonstration etc. A deliverable produced by a workpackage is either a necessary input to another workpackage or is one of the results to be produced by the project phase.
Deliverables should be key tools required for the successful completion of the project phase.
5.3.3 Milestones of the project phase
A project phase must have at least one intermediate milestone. A milestone is characterised as follows:
- it corresponds to the availability of one or several project deliverables;
- it is associated with a major project decision;
- when a milestone is reached, a project meeting involving the Commission project officer needs to be organised.
Milestones should be defined in line with project objectives. The Commission may use project milestones to organise a technical project review to assess the progress of the project.
5.3.4 GANTT chart of the project phase
An overall GANTT chart, showing workpackage interdependencies, project phase deliverables and milestones needs to be produced.
5.4 Management of the project phase
A description of the project organisation needs to be provided. This description should clearly indicate the key roles that have been identified on the project (e.g. project manager, technical supervisor). The project management and quality assurance procedures need also to be described. The CV of the key project participants should be provided.
Project phase management and reporting must take account of the reporting requirements of the Commission as described below.
5.4.1 Periodic progress reports
A report needs to be produced every 3 months and must contain the following summary information:
- major achievements during the reporting period;
- major problems identified;
- deviations from the project plan;
- resources consumed during the period.
5.4.2 Final report
A final report needs to be provided at the end of the project phase. This report summarises the work achieved and indicates the intentions of the project consortium concerning the deployment phase.
5.4.3 Costs statements
- A final cost statement needs to be produced at the end of the project phase. One or several intermediate cost statements may be produced during the phase.
- An intermediate cost statement must be accompanied by a periodic progress report covering the same reporting period. An intermediate cost statement can only be issued after the successful achievement of at least one project milestone.
When a proposal concerns the deployment phase of a project, section I must be more detailed and specific than in the case of a validation project. The following additional information needs to be provided:
5.1 Marketing approach
The overall marketing approach needs to be defined. Following are the main aspects to be addressed:
- service differentiation (e.g. low price, quality, functionality);
- service tariffing policy;
- marketing plan (how will customers be approached, which distribution channels);
- service deployment strategy.
5.2 Revenue
Estimated revenue generated by the services. The key assumptions made for this estimate need to be clearly indicated.
5.3 Financial
- Provisional profit & loss statements for the service exploitation up to five years of operation.
- Calculation of the break even point and of the estimated internal rate of return.
5.4 Investment plan
The projected investments during the initial 24 months of deployment need to be specified on a quarterly basis (FORM 11).
Only costs related to deployment must be included.
The proposal needs to clearly state what are the possibilities to accelerate or to slow down the deployment process, depending on the commercial success of the service. Thresholds, in terms of revenue and/or user base, that might lead to modifications of the investment plan, should be given.
5.5 Workplan
A project plan that covers all the activities related to deployment (e.g. equipment purchase, marketing, sales, installation, acceptance testing) needs to be provided. Activities related to exploitation (e.g. system operation, customer support) are not to be included in the plan.
The plan is to cover the whole deployment period (5 years maximum). It is to reinsure the Commission that all the aspects related to deployment are taken into account and that the consortium has the expertise to successfully deploy the services.
The workpackage form (FORM 9) may be used to describe the workbreakdown structure, but its use is not mandatory.
5.6 Requested Community funding
The proposal must clearly indicate the level, the nature and the schedule of the requested Community funding. The total Community funding must not exceed 10% of the total investment costs.
This section is composed of a set of forms that need to be filled-in. These forms are an integral part of the proposal. Care must be taken to ensure that all the requested information is provided and that it is correct and consistent.
The information in the forms refers exclusively to the project phase to be funded by TEN-Telecom. Some of the forms are applicable only to market validation project phases. Others are only applicable for deployment project phases.
The following forms are provided:
FORM 1 Proposal Summary Information
FORM 2 Acknowledgement of Receipt
FORM 3 Information on Co-ordinator
FORM 4 Information on National Authority
FORM 5 Information on Participants
FORM 6 Public Entity or Equivalent Private Body
FORM 7 Budget Summary Information and Co-ordinator Signature
FORM 8 Estimated Breakdown of Costs/Partner (in Ecu) for the phase as a whole
FORM 9 Workpackage descriptions (mandatory only for feasibility and validation projects)
FORM 10 Estimated breakdown of costs per workpackage (for feasibility and validation projects only)
FORM 11 Investment plan (for deployment projects only)
FORM 12 Proposal intention form
All forms are available in electronic form on the TEN-Telecom Web site (www.echo.lu/tentelecom)
TEN-Telecom National Contact Points
|
Country |
Name |
Organisation |
Address |
Telephone
Fax |
|
Austria |
Ms. Ulrike RÖSSLER |
Büro für internationale
Forschungs-und
Technologiekooperation |
Wiedner Hauptstraße 76
A-1040 Vienna |
+43 1 5811616-115
+43 1 5811616-16 |
|
Belgium |
Mr. Guido POUILLON |
IBPT |
av. de l'Astronomie,
1 bte 21
B-1210 Brussels |
+32 2 2268799
+32 2 2232478 |
|
Danemark |
Mr. Jakob JUUL |
Ministry of Research and
Information Technology |
Bredgade 43
DK-1260 Copenhagen K |
+45 3392 9748
+45 3393 8403 |
|
Finland |
Mr. Erkki HIETANEN
or
Ms. Marja EROLA |
Technology Development
Centre (Tekes) |
PO Box 69,
Malminkat, 34
FIN-00101 Helsinki |
+358 1052 15865
+358 1052 15906
+358 1052 15817
+358 1052 15906 |
|
France |
Mr. Patrick
SCHOULLER |
Ministère de l'Industrie,
de La Poste et des
Télécommunications
(DGSI/SERICS/DSPI) |
rue Barbet de Jouy, 3/5
F-75353 Paris 07 SP |
+33 1 4319 3425
+33 1 4319 3551 |
|
Germany |
Dr. Rolf
Hochreiter
|
Bundesministerium für
Wirtschaft
Referat IV C2 |
Villemombler Straße 76
D-53123 Bonn |
+49 228 615 38 33
+49 228 615 2873 |
|
Greece |
Mr. Petros
IOANNIDES |
Ministère du Transport
et des Communications
Secretariat géneral
Dir. gén. des
Communications |
Syggrou Ave. 49
GR-117 80 Athens |
+30 1 9231339
+30 1 9237133 |
|
Ireland |
Mr. Paddy CAMPBELL |
Department of Transport,
Energy and Communications |
5th Floor
44 Kildare Street
IRL-Dublin 2 |
+353 1 6041106
+353 1 6041188 |
|
Italy |
Mr.Riccardo
PASSERINI |
Ministero delle Poste e delle Telecomunicazioni-
Ist. Sup. Comunicazioni
&TI
|
Viale America 201
I-00144 Roma |
+39 6 59584271
+39 6 5410904
|
|
Luxembourg |
Mr. Claude LUTTY |
Ministère des
Communications |
18 Montée de la Pétrusse
L-2945 Luxembourg |
+352 478 6710
+352 408940 |
|
Netherlands |
Mr. L. VAN WERKHOVEN |
Ministry of Economic Affairs
Directorate for Industry |
SENTER-EG Liaison
P.O.Box 30732
NL-2500 GS
The Hague |
+31 70 346 7200
+31 70 356 2811 |
|
Portugal |
Dra Carla AMOROSO |
Instituto das
Comunicaçoes de
Portugal |
Av. José Malhoa 12
P-1070 Lisboa |
+3511 881 40 00
+3511 888 11 11 |
|
Spain |
Mr. A. ALONSO
PARDO |
Dirección General de
Telecomunicaciones |
Plaza de Cibeles, s/n
Desp. 425-L.
E-28071 Madrid |
+34 1 346 15 27
+34 1 521 27 23 |
|
Sweden |
Mr. Anders HEDIN |
NUTEK |
S-11786 Stockholm |
+46 8 6819286
+46 8 6819280 |
|
United Kingdom |
Mr. Keith GUNNER |
Department of Trade and
Industry |
151 Buckingham Palace Road
UK-London SW1W 9SS |
+44 171 8151227
+44 171 2151370 |
ANNEX A
Information Day - Registration Request
|
Venue
Date 1 April 1998
Time 09:00 am - 16:30
Address European Parliament, LEO Building
rue Wierz 43, 1046 Brussels
room L3 C 50
To reach the location : 500 m. from the Schuman square, close to the Schuman Metro station.
Stop at Gare Léopold if you are coming from Zaventem Airport.
|
Agenda of the information day :
1. Presentation of the Call by the Commission
2. Questions and answers on the call
3. Presentation by companies seeking partners for consortia
|
|
Use this single page form to send your registration request at the latest by 27/03/98 to :
European Commission-XIII/A3 -Secretariat TEN-Telecom
Avenue de Beaulieu, 29 (BU29 7/30) 1160
fax : +32 2 29 61740 or +32 2 29 51071
The confirmed registration will be returned to your address (or fax)
|
Participant (in capital letters).
surname, name .......................................................................................................
organisation .......................................................................................................
address .......................................................................................................
city ..................................................... country ..............................
Fax nr ................................... Tel.nr ......................................
E-mail .................................................................
r
I intend to make a 5 minute presentation (Overhead projector available)
r
I will attend the following workshop:
r
SME/Generic Services r
Education/Culture
r
Transport/Environment r
Health/City Networks
|
|
Confirmation of the registration by the Commission
r
We confirm your registration.
Please show this slip to get access to the building!
Date
|
·
OJ L 228/1 1995:
Council Regulation (EC) No 2236/95 of 18 September 1995 laying down general rules for the granting of Community financial aid in the field of trans-European networks.
·
OJ L 183/12 1997:
Decision No. 1336/97/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 June 1997 on series of guidelines for trans-European telecommunications networks.
|
Technical and operational terms
|
|
Application |
A system or service offering users dedicated solutions enabling access to information through telecommunications and information technologies. |
|
Generic Service |
A service, either conversational, messaging, retrieval or groupware, of direct usage for a large number of users, which provide common tools for development and implementation of applications, whilst aiding their interoperability. |
|
Basic network |
The telecommunication infrastructure that provides physical access, transport and connectivity. |
|
Interoperability |
The ability of two or more systems (devices, databases, services or technology) to interact with one another in accordance with a prescribed method. |
|
Feasibility studies |
All studies related to an application/service project aiming at evaluating its technical, economic and financial characteristics. |
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Application/service deployment |
The construction and operation of the application to offer the services in a real life environment (generally in more than one country). |
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Financial Terms
|
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Interest rate subsidies |
Grants to reduce the interest costs of loans and their ancillary financial charges. |
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Guarantee fees contributions |
Grants to reduce the premium costs of guarantees and their ancillary financial charges. |
|
|
Grants |
Direct subsidies used in combination with one of the two previous forms of aid when the latter prove to be insufficient to attain the level of aid considered necessary or if the two previous forms cannot be applied (may take the form of equity or reimbursable advances). |
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Potential economic viability |
Refers to the general and long-term socio-economic net benefits of the project, as wider as its mere financial profitability and its economic profitability. |
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Economic profitability |
Refers to the capacity of a project to generate net benefits for society at large, whether captured or not by the market, when those effects can be expressed in monetary terms. The Economic Rate of Return provides a view of this profitability which is based on monetary valued elements, and which has to be interpreted at the light of the remaining elements non quantifiable in monetary terms. |
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Financial profitability |
Proportion on which the market value of the outputs derived from the project exceeds the market value of the inputs, where the latter comprises studies, investment costs and operating costs, thus allowing to reward the financial resources used in the process. |
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Financial rate of return |
Is the discount rate that makes the future project related revenues or cash inflows just match total project related costs or cash outflows. |
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Socio-Economic net benefits |
Capacity of a project to generate net benefits for society at large, whether captured or not by the market, and quantifiable in monetary terms or not. It allows for the inclusion of qualitative factors in the final judgement of a project. |
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Economic rate of return |
Discount rate at which the present value of the flow of net economic benefits generated by the project equals zero, this meaning that the expected future net economic benefits equals the expected present and future economic costs, starting with the initial investments ones. |
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Cost/benefit analysis |
Appraisal approach that evaluates the socio-economic profitability of a project by weighting its monetary valued socio-economic benefits against its monetary valued costs. |
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SME
|
An enterprise that satisfies the criteria laid down in the Commission Recommendation of April 3, 1996 concerning the definition of small and medium size enterprises ( OJ Nr L107 of 30.4.1996, p4 ):
has no more than 250 employees;
has annual turnover of no more than ECU 40 million;
is independent.
|
