Applications to the Open Calls can be made by both private and public organisations 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.

There is nothing to prohibit 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 coordinating together to ensure that the projects satisfy the double funding and operational capacity checks of the SNS programme. 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 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 maximum two partners (1 Coordinator and 1 Distinct partner). Please check the guide for applicants as the budget levels are dependent on the number of partners in the consortium. Also note that in the case of two partners, the proposal would be submitted by one (1) Coordinating partner and 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 there is more than one partner involved, the 2 consortium members will have their own Consortium / Partnership Agreement.

It is usually the case that there are mechanisms in place to protect the IPR of the experimenters in open call projects. This will be discussed and agreed 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 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 is applicable 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 purpose of the platform extension projects is to extend the capabilities of the facilities 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 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 and will need to undergo a feasibility check in all related IMAGINE-B5G facilities, and as with all Platform extension projects, support must be provided until the end of the IMAGINE-B5G project in all related facilities. For Vertical experiment proposals, it may be more difficult to justify as the project currently doesn’t have 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-1-Ver – Vertical Experiments or OC-1-Ext – Platform Extensions. To determine where it best fits, use the following guideline: If the majority 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 the majority 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 keep in mind 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 allowable. However, you can submit one proposal that has elements from both Vertical experiments and Platform extensions in a single proposal (see FAQ above on this 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 the project you propose 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.  However, at the current time they are ineligible for funding; however this may change in future calls. 

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 be made up from two partners.  Please fill in the details for partner #1 in the first table and details for partner #2 in the second.  If you have only one partner, then the second finance table does not need to 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.