Knowledge Transfer Experiments FAQs

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Frequent Asks and Questions

What is KTE about?

KTE stands for Knowledge Transfer Experiments. A KTE is a short 3-month internship experiment where a Sending organisation will send a member of its staff to a Host organisation based in a different country in order to transfer a certain knowledge related to the SMART4ALL technologies and verticals. Beneficiaries will be provided up to EUR 8,000 to cover mobility allowance for implementing the internship.

Who can apply to the KTE Third Open Call?

The following types of organisations are eligible to participate in the call:

● Universities and other Academic Institutions.

● SME and Slightly Bigger Companies, as defined in the EU recommendation 2003/361. Slightly Bigger Companies are defined respectively as organisations with a staff headcount below 500 employees and a turnover below €100M.

● System Integrators and/or Technology Providers, i.e. any type of organisation specialised in technology transfer or system integration, serving the needs of end-users, provided they can be categorised in one of the two previous types of beneficiaries.

Can two Academic entities apply to KTE Open Call?

Any SMART4ALL Open Call requires that, at least, one entity is an SME/Slightly Bigger Company and that this entity is the leading partner. Therefore, two academic entities cannot apply together.

The possible combinations are:

Sending	Host
Academic	Industrial
Industrial	Academic
Industrial	Industrial

How do I find a partner to apply with?

Through the SMART4ALL Matchmaking & Partner Search Service you have access to SMART4ALL ecosystem for:

● Matchmaking among technological partners as well as between technological and business parties, based on specific requirements, offerings, and characteristics.

● Partner search for SMART4ALL Open Calls.

Can I still apply if I can not travel due to Covid-19 restrictions?

Yes, beneficiaries who cannot travel due to Covid-19 restrictions will have the option to change the amount of the financial support to a lump sum of up to EUR 6,000. In these cases, the experiment could be executed remotely. This decision can only be made prior to the signature of the Sub-Grant Agreement (SGA). After the SGA has been signed, no changes will be allowed and the beneficiary will have to carry out the experiment as per the agreement.

Can I apply if I don’t have a company or I am not a staff member of any Academic / Industrial organisation?

No, you must own or take part of a legal entity to apply to this KTE Open Call. You must be a staff member, meaning:

For an Academic Organisation:

• Early-Stage Researcher (ESR): a Researcher without a PhD and less than 4 years of experience;
• Experienced Researcher (ER): a Researcher with a PhD or more than 4 years of experience.
• Other researcher (holding a Master’s degree or higher) employed in third level education institutes, research infrastructures, non-profit organisations and charitable (scientific) foundations and public research centres.

For an Industrial organisation:

• Managerial staff
• Technical staff
• Innovation staff (i.e. Internet technologists)
• Other staff

Can I apply if I am a collaborator of one of the partners of the SMART4ALL consortium?

No, applicants shall not have any actual or/and potential conflict of interest with the SMART4ALL selection process and during the whole internship program. All cases of conflict of interest will be assessed case by case.

Does the staff member have to spend the whole duration of the internship in the host organisation premises or can he/she spend some time in the sending organisation?

By its nature and its short duration, the staff member has to spend the 3 months in the host organisation premises. A proof of travel will be required (outbound and inbound), in the form of tickets of flights, trains or other means of international transport. However, beneficiaries who cannot travel due to Covid-19 restrictions will have the option to change the amount of the financial support to a lump sum of up to EUR 6,000 and execute the experiment remotely. This decision can only be made prior to the signature of the Sub-Grant Agreement (SGA). After the SGA has been signed, no changes will be allowed, and the beneficiary will have to carry out the experiment as per the agreement.

What is the technology and verticals behind SMART4ALL?

SMART4ALL focuses on CLEC, i.e. low-energy computing technologies applied in four SMART4ALL verticals with European leadership and strategic importance, including but not limited to the following SMART4ALL competence fields (see summarised table below, the complete one being available in the Guide for Applicants):

	SMART4ALL VERTICALS
S M A R T 4 A L L C O M P E T E N C E	DIGITIZED TRANSPORT	DIGITIZED ENVIRONMENT	DIGITIZED AGRICULTURE	DIGITIZED ANYTHING
	1. Green Transport 2. Smart mobility 3. Shared mobility 4. Robotics 5. New platforms for efficient supply-demand matchmaking 6. Automotive electronics 7. Autonomous vehicles 8. Connected vehicles 9. Streamlining transport using big data 10. Aeronautics and space applications 11. Transport and Logistics 12. City Transport Mapping	1. Smartbuilding 2. Smarthome 3. Critical Infrastructure monitoring 4. Smart Hospitals 5. Water Polution monitoring 6. Smartgrids 7. Energy management 8. Environment monitoring 9. Bio-diversity 10. Wild/migratory animals monitoring 11. Smart industry 12. Data processing & data visualization	1. Smart farming 2. AI inspired agriculture 3. Information based site specific applications 4. Demand driven, sustainable agriculture 5. Mobile plant, soil and environment sensors 6. Sensor networks – EU wide – cross-border 7. Field robotics and automation systems 8. UAV based agriculture and plant monitoring 9. Selective plant protection 10. Closed nutrient cycles 11. Agricultural decision support systems 12. Zero-energy food systems 13. Circular economy 14. Water, Energy and Food (WEF) efficiency 15. Revalorisation of agricultural waste	1. Human-machine Interaction 2. Digital Education 3. Industrial Automation 4. Machine Learning 5. Market Intelligence 6. Medical and Health Applications 7. Active & Healthy Ageing 8. Support for disabled persons 9. Cybersecurity 10. Data Mining and Big Data 11. Personal security 12. Additive Manufacturing (3D printing) 13. Augmented and Virtual Reality 14. Audio/Video Processing 15. Location-based Technologies 16. Web and Mobile Applications 17. Wireless Sensor Networks 18. Disaster management 19. Digital heritage 20. Telemedicine 21. Rehabilitation, wellness, fitness 22. E-commerce

Can my consortium apply if my proposal is about CLEC but our competence field is not included in the previous list?

Yes, you can apply, provided your proposal is focused on CLEC and you can prove it deals with one of the four verticals. As mentioned in the introductory sentence, the above list does not pretend to limit the competence fields, it is just a guiding list.

Is SMART4ALL going to address COVID-19? How?

SMART4ALL will pay special attention to CLEC applications facilitating COVID-19 management crisis and all aspects of life before, during and after such crisis, focusing on the four verticals described in question 7.

In this second KTE Open Call, proposals addressing current and future problems stemming from the COVID-19 crisis will be given 1 extra point to the overall score, as explained in section 4.2 of the Guide for Applicants.

What countries are eligible for SMART4ALL?

For this KTE Open Call, the following countries will be eligible:

• the Member States of the European Union: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden.

• the Countries Associated to Horizon 2020 (those which signed an agreement with the Union as identified in Article 7 of the Horizon 2020 Regulation): the latest information on which countries are associated, or in the process of association to Horizon 2020 can be found at: https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/grants_manual/hi/3cpart/h2020-hi-list-ac_en.pdf

• Any other South-East Europe (SEE) country not listed above but included in Annex A of the H2020 Work Programme.

• United Kingdom. Additionally, since one of the goals of SMART4ALL is to support the digital transformation in mainly European countries underrepresented in European funding schemes, by means of cross-border experiments, consortia including at least one member from one of the SEE countries will be prioritised: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Serbia. Proposals including at least 1 member of the SEE region in their consortium will be given 1 extra point to the overall score.

Can a consortium apply if the two entities are from the same eligible country?

No, KTE and all the SMART4ALL experiment will be cross-border. In the case of KTE, the two members of the applying consortia must be from two different countries within the list of eligible countries.

Can a consortium or a member of a consortium submit more than one proposal?

Any legal entity will be able to apply to the second KTE Open Call in as many consortia as wished, but the staff member to be sent to the host organisation can only take part of one consortium.

What does the application form to the KTE Open Call include?

Proposals have to be submitted through the SMART4ALL microsite: https://smart4all-2nd-kte.fundingbox.com

Applications submitted by any other means will not be considered for funding.

All Applicants will be asked to acknowledge the Informed consent form – in order to submit the full Application.

The proposals – submitted through the online platform – will include the following sections:

● Contact info

● Information on Partner no. 1: SENDING organisation

● Information on Partner no. 2: HOST organisation

● Profile of the staff member from the SENDING organisation

● KTE key data

● Description of the KTE

• o (Scored) EXCELLENCE
• o (Scored) IMPACT
• o (Scored) IMPLEMENTATION

● Covid-19 related solutions

● Ethical issues, data protection and privacy

● Questions for statistical purposes

● Declaration of Honour and Absence of conflict of interest – acceptance

● Informed consent form – acceptance

● Processing of personal data – information clause acceptance

Additional material, which has not been included and specifically requested in the online application form, will not be considered for the evaluation of the proposals. Data not included in the proposal will not be taken into account. The SMART4ALL consortium makes its best effort to keep all provided data confidential; however, for the avoidance of doubt, the applicant is solely responsible to indicate its confidential information as such.

The applicants are strongly recommended not to wait until the last minute to submit the proposal. Failure of the proposal to arrive in time for any reason, including extenuating circumstances, will result in rejection of the proposal.

The applicants are solely responsible for verification of the completeness of the form. Data not included in the form will not be taken into account during assessment regardless of the reason for not being included.

How long does it take to fill in the application?

In order to successfully fill in the application form you will probably need 1-2 days of writing, but we imagine that your team is composed of members specialized in their area of expertise you can divide and conquer. You’ll be able to add contributors to your application so that each team member can tackle their application area and you will be done quicker.

Considering specific character limits have been established in each section of the online application form, we encourage you to keep your application focused on the requested information keeping in mind the challenges and domains covered by this open call.

We also recommend that you start the submission process quite before the deadline in order to avoid last minute circumstances.

When is the deadline for my application submission?

Applications must be submitted by the closing time and date published in the open call. Only proposals submitted before the deadline will be accepted. After the call closure no additions or changes to received proposals will be taken into account.

The deadline for this call is 15 June 2021 (18:00 CEST).

What is the selection process procedure and how long does it take?

The selection process is as follows:

General eligibility check:

A proposal will be considered eligible for evaluation if it meets the following conditions:

● the online proposal template has been completed as required,

● the proposal was submitted by the closing date as stated in the open call text, and

● the eligibility criteria set out in section 3 were met.

Proposals that do not fulfil all conditions will not be considered for evaluation.

External evaluation

The proposals will be evaluated on the following criteria:

EXCELLENCE, IMPACT and IMPLEMENTATION. See more details in section 4.2 of the Guide for Applicants.

Consensus phase

The consensus meeting will select the proposals awarded financial support.

Formal decision

Formal decision of the financial support is subject to signing the SMART4ALL funding agreement. To do so, the selected applicants will be asked to provide documents regarding their formal status within the deadlines that will be communicated to them (for the details, please check our Frequently Asked Questions Document). If a selected applicant fails to deliver the requested documents on time, without clear and reasonable justification, it will be excluded from the further formal legal assessment. In case that a member of the applicant consortium refuses to sign the funding agreement, the proposal will be excluded from financial support. In the event of one of the mentioned cases the first proposal, taken from a Reserve List of the top ranked proposals initially rejected, will replace the excluded one, after a formal meeting by the Selection Committee.

Communication after the evaluation

Applicants will be informed on the results after the evaluation has been completed and the final decisions have been made. Applicants of proposals rejected will receive an email including the reasons for rejection.

Will all the evaluation criteria have the same weight?

Each evaluator will rank the application assigning a score from 0 to 5 for each criterion and produce an Individual Evaluation Report. The final score will be calculated as the weighted sum of the individual assessments provided by the Evaluators.

Applicants including at least 1 member of the SEE region in their consortium will be given 1 extra point to the overall score (obtained by adding the three individual criteria)

To determine the final ranking, the weight of each criterion will be as follows:

Criterion	Score Threshold	weight	weighted threshold
Excellence	3	1	3
Impact	3	1.5	4.5
Implementation	3	1	3
Inclusiveness of SEE partners	1 extra point
COVID-19 solutions	1 extra point

Ties will be solved using the following criteria, in order:

• Number of partners from a SEE country in the consortium
• Implementation score
• Excellence score
• Impact score

What costs are eligible in KTE? Do we need to detail them in the proposal?

The total financial support per KTE includes only the following cost forms:

• Salaries or staff manpower needed to implement a granted specific KTE experiment.
• Necessary travel, accommodation and subsistence costs for the member of the staff of the Sending organisation to be sent to the Host one (only applicable to those consortia applying for an EUR 8,000 funding support.
• Social security costs due by the Host organisation.
• Institutional environment requirements if any (hosting arrangement, infrastructure).

The Financial Support reimburses 100% of the eligible costs of the Selected Third-Parties that are non-profit legal entities (universities and other academic institutes) and 70% of the eligible costs of the Selected Third-Parties that are for-profit legal entities (SMEs or Slightly Bigger Companies). However, these reimbursement rates have already been considered in the lump sum calculation and will not affect the distribution rate among partners as mentioned in section 2.7 of the Guide for Applicants.

Will each member of the consortium receive the funds we are requesting?

Each selected applicant will sign the Sub-Grant Agreement with the SMART4ALL consortium. The funds awarded under the Sub-Grant Agreement are provided directly from the funds of the European Project SMART4ALL and are therefore funds owned by the European Commission.

As mentioned above, the consortia will be free to distribute the requested funds among the two partners. However, the grant will be paid to the Leading Partner who will be responsible for its distribution within the consortium.

When will we receive the funds?

The SMART4ALL Financial Authority will make the payments to the Leading Partner of the KTE based on deliverable submission and approval by the SMART4ALL Mentoring Committee:

Deliverable	Submission date	Instalment (% of the lump sum)
Inception Report	15 days after Sub-Grant Agreement Signature	50.0
Final Report	End of Month 3	50.0

The Inception Report will be an Individual Mentoring Plan that the selected applicants will have to define together with the coaches they will be assigned after the Sub-Grant Agreement signature.

The Individual Mentoring Plan will include:

• The Technical and Business KPIs to be accomplished during the experiment.
• The template of the Final Report.

Will a consortium getting funded by KTE be able to apply to subsequent Open Calls from the SMART4ALL programme?

Yes, any consortium or any member of a consortium will be able to apply and get funding to subsequent SMART4ALL open calls, including other KTE open calls.

The only restriction is that, in total, an organisation will be able to request an amount of EUR 100,000.

Does the ‘de minimis’ rule apply for KTE? Is there any additional restriction about funding?

No, the ‘de minimis’ rule will not apply in KTE nor any other SMART4ALL open call.

However, as per European Commission’s rules, financial support will not be awarded to individual legal entities that have already received more than EUR 100,000 via open calls from H2020 I4MS https://i4ms.eu and SAE https://smartanythingeverywhere.eu projects.

This limited amount does not include any EC contribution that your organisation receives or has received within an EU-funded project (within FP7 or H2020) as a beneficiary. Participation as a beneficiary within EU-funded projects does not affect the participation in SMART4ALL open calls.

What is the schedule of the Open Call and Evaluation phases?

Description	Indicative Days
Second KTE Open Call Launch	15 March 2021 at 00:00 CET
Second KTE Open Call Deadline	15 June 2021 at 18:00 CEST
Second KTE Open Call Evaluation and Selection	June-July 2021
Consensus Meeting	August 2021
Communication of Results	August 2021
Start of Experiment	Start of October 2021
End of Experiment	End o December 2021

What type of support will be available to prepare the application?

The Guide for Applicants is the main reference document. It provides detailed information about the requirements of the evaluation and selection process.

For further information on the Open Call, in case of any doubts regarding the eligibility rules, the information that is to be provided in the Application Form, or if you encounter technical issues or problems with the Application Form, please contact SMART4ALL Helpdesk at helpdesk@smart4all-project.eu

The Helpdesk will also be available in the FundingBox Online Community in spaces at https://spaces.fundingbox.com/spaces/smart4all-helpdesk