Proposal Preparation

• Proposals need to define which IMAGINE-B5G facility they will be using/extending.
  
• To ensure that the proposed experiments or extensions are feasible on the selected facility, each proposal will first go through a Feasibility check which will be done up to 2 weeks in advance of the proposal submission, with the corresponding facility owner, and any proposal without a valid feasibility check approval will be disqualified.
• BEFORE YOU OFFICIALLY SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A PRELIMINARY OK FROM THE FACILITY YOU ARE PLANNING TO WORK WITH.
• The applicants will fill in the feasibility check template and email the open call mailing list with this template. IMAGINE-B5G will then carry out the evaluation of the feasibility and will get in touch with the applicants if more information is needed. The process can take 7-10 days. IMAGINE-B5G will then send the result of the feasibility check to the applicant. If the feasibility check is approved, the applicants will upload the result of the feasibility check along with the proposal to the submission portal.
  

Submission Stage

• An online submission system will be set up for the proposal submission.
• The submission system is expected to open in October 2024.
• All proposals must be submitted by the stated open-call deadline.
• The deadline for submission will be known in due time.

Evaluation of the Proposals 

• A team of internal and external evaluators will evaluate each Project. This team will be appointed based on the evaluators’ expertise while avoiding any conflict of interest.

Ranking of the proposals 

• Ranking will be based on a scoring system across excellence, impact, value and implementation criteria.
• The project will implement two ranking lists in order to fund two categories of stakeholders, including SMEs, scaleups and start-ups, and other (Academia, research, etc.) projects at 50% / 50% of budget.
• Distribute the top ranked projects (starting from the SME list) to the facilities based on the number of open call users each facility can support.
• To ensure a balanced portfolio covering as many strategic sectors as possible, grants will be awarded to proposals in order of ranking and considering broad coverage of different sectors. The sectors that are not covered by higher ranked proposals can be prioritised given that the proposals for these sectors attain all required thresholds.