Private and public organisations can apply to the Open Calls from industry and research (not individual researchers) located within the EU Member States or Associated Countries. The participation of SMEs, scaleups and start-ups in the open-calls is strongly encouraged by targeting a budget up to 50% of the total open-call budget.

No. In the project’s General Agreement and DoA, it is specified under grant eligibility, including definition of persons or categories that might receive financial support, as follows:

• Any legal entity in Europe and Associated country with a validated PIC number.

No. Unlike the rules on for-profit partners payments in an Innovation Action (IA), within the open calls of an IA, private for-profit companies (whether big, medium, or small) can receive 100% of the funding within the open calls of an IA.

There is nothing to prohibit an application to IMAGINE-B5G at the same time as an application to another SNS projects open call; however, under no circumstances is double funding for the same activity admissible and the SNS project teams will be coordinating with each other to determine multiple participations in open call projects.

The proposals are evaluated by independent teams of evaluators and ranked individually. In the final screening, if your team wins more than one project, the involved SNS projects will be coordinated to ensure that the projects satisfy the SNS programme’s double funding and operational capacity checks. In IMAGINE-B5G (and possibly other SNS Stream projects will have a similar requirement), each coordinator of the open call projects will have to sign a Declaration of Honour (DoH) stating there is no double funding and they have the operational capacity to carry out the work of the project.

Yes, but only to a maximum of two partners, as follows: The target number of participants per proposal is one partner (Coordinator only) or a maximum of two partners (1 Coordinator and 1 Distinct partner). Please check the guide for applicants, as the budget levels depend on the consortium’s number of partners. Also note that in the case of two partners, the proposal would be submitted by one (1) Coordinating partner the subgrant agreement would be with the Coordinating partner only, and the payments will be made to the Coordinator partner, who will distribute payment to the other consortium member(s). If more than one partner is involved, the 2 consortium members will have their own Consortium / Partnership Agreement.

Usually, mechanisms are in place to protect the IPR of the experimenters in open call projects. This will be discussed and agreed upon with the facility owners beforehand, and there will be clear text in relation to the IPR mechanisms included in the sub-grant agreement before the open call launches to avoid uncertainty on this important topic.

IMAGINE-B5G has shortlisted seven verticals and corresponding stakeholders related to: PPDR, media, education, smart agriculture & forestry, eHealth, transportation & logistics, and Industry 4.0. These will be defined in the open call text.

Yes, we are not limited to these seven verticals in particular. However, it will be necessary to explain and justify how this new vertical will fit within the proposed project scope and be relevant to the IMAGINE-B5G facility(ies) under consideration in the proposal.

No, participants can be located in other eligible countries to participate. This is possible as long as they pass the facility eligibility check and their proposal justifies well how their work applies to the IMAGINE-B5G facilities even if they are not located there. Although it may be advantageous in some respects to be in the same or nearby location to the facilities, the open calls are open to all EU Member States and Associated Countries. However, it would be expected that the final Vertical experiments and Platform extensions would be residing on the relevant IMAGINE-B5G facilities.

The platform extension projects aim to extend the facilities’ capabilities on a permanent and continuous basis to its wider community of experimenters and application developers in the end-to-end (E2E) 5G platform for large-scale trials and pilots in Europe. Therefore, it would be mandatory that the open call projects are designed to provide ongoing support during the entire lifecycle of the IMAGINE-B5G project. Towards this end, each open call project will be asked to provide a sustainability plan for the provision of ongoing support.

It is potentially more feasible for a Platform extension project; for example, radio equipment can be provided to multiple facilities, or the robotics/haptics equipment is also multi facility. However, it must be well justified in the proposal. It will need to undergo a feasibility check in all related IMAGINE-B5G facilities. As with all platform extension projects, support must be provided in all related facilities until the end of the IMAGINE-B5G project. It may be more difficult to justify Vertical experiment proposals as the project currently doesn’t have a cross-facility connection yet. However, this possibility can be discussed with the facilities in the feasibility checks with each facility if the proposer has a solid plan for this. 

Yes, one proposal can address both Vertical experiments with use cases and hardware and / or software extensions but you must first determine the best fit and only submit it to either OC-Ver – Vertical Experiments or OC-Ext – Platform Extensions. To determine where it best fits, use the following guideline: If most of the proposed work involves development, experiment, trials and validation, and requires some hardware and / or software extensions, it will fit best as an OC-Ver proposal. If most of the work involves hardware and / or software extensions and a smaller amount of experimentation, it is submitted as an OC-EXT project. Please also remember that OC-Ext projects are required to provide continued support on the implemented extensions to the end of the IMAGINE-B5G project.

No, submitting two different proposals to one open call is not allowed. However, you can submit one proposal that has elements from both Vertical experiments and Platform extensions in a single proposal (see FAQ above on how to determine which category to submit the proposal).

Yes. This result should be included in your application (in section F) to ensure that your proposed project is technically feasible. Failing to do so will make your application ineligible.

Yes. A Declaration of Honour will be requested to be signed once the final eligibility checks are made at the end of the evaluation period. All participant organisations in the project team should sign a DoH and return a signed copy to the designated IMAGINE-B5G contact email.   A template for the DoH is available on the open call website for you to examine.

Yes, they can. 

For Hungarian organisations, the European Commission informed all current and potential future coordinators of Horizon Europe projects, including SNS programme projects, to make sure that they are aware of the Council Implementing Decision 2022/2506. As of 16th December 2022, no legal commitments can be signed with Hungarian public interest trusts established under Hungarian Act IX of 2021 or any entity they maintain. The affected entities can be found here.

If you are a Hungarian organisation and feel that this decision does not apply to your organisation or there are exceptions to this decision. You can participate in Horizon Europe projects. We suggest you submit the feasibility check and also the proposal (if the feasibility check is positive), but please also provide us some evidence as early as possible that your organisation can be funded by Horizon Europe, including the SNS programme. This would avoid any disappointment later if the proposal is accepted for funding, which isn’t possible from our side due to this Council Decision.

No, they cant in IMAGINE-B5G Open calls, however this situation may change for a future Open Call.  According to Transitional arrangement programme year 2024 , “it is not possible for researchers and innovators in Switzerland to participate in further mono-beneficiary calls 2024”. They can however continue to participate in other Horizon Europe calls 2024 (for collaborative projects) as ‘associated partners’ where there are 3 or more EU partners.

As of 1 January 2024, the United Kingdom became an Associated Country to Horizon Europe (ref. https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_23_6327). For United Kingdom organisations, in relation to participation in our Financial Support for Third Parties (FSTP) Open Calls from 2024 and onwards, Imagine-B5G has been advised by the European Commission that legal entities based in the UK may participate in open calls for third parties and be recipient of FSTP funding, provided that the FSTP scheme, and, in particular, the persons or categories of persons that may receive financial support, complies with the conditions and specific rules enacted in the particular Work Programme (e.g. the General Annexes of the Main Work Programme 2023/2024, see p. 13, the Appendix 1 of Annex II of SNS Work Programme 2023, see p.50), in the call for proposals, and that it is not aimed at circumventing Horizon Europe funding rules.  If your project is ranked for funding, a final eligibility check will take place; however, from our current understanding, UK entities are indeed eligible to the SNS 2024 FSTP project calls, even if the Image-B5G project falls within SNS 2022.

The following EU Members States: 

• Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.

Any of the Associated Countries listed below:

• Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Faroe Islands, Georgia
• Iceland, Israel, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia
• Norway, Serbia, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine

A project team can consist of two partners.  Please fill in the details for partner #1 in the first table and the details for partner #2 in the second.  If you have only one partner, the second finance table must not be filled in.

Yes, they can submit as many times as they want until the deadline. The submission portal will overwrite and keep the latest one.

Yes, they will get an email from the portal each time they submit.