AIBC EUROCLUSTERS Info&Match

SMEs established in the Member States of the European Union (EU) and Countries participating in the Single Market Programme (SMP) are eligible to apply to AIBC Open Calls.  

The list of SMP participating countries is available here: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/smp/guidance/list-3rd-country-participation_smp_en.pdf   

Bear in mind that only countries with signed agreements are eligible, meaning Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Turkey and Ukraine. Countries that have confirmed interest to join the SMP Programme but have not yet do so at the moment of opening the calls (6th June, 2023) are not eligible.

The solutions can tackle just AI, just Blockchain or both Ai and Blockchain technologies.

Service providers can also be based in countries different that the EU member States and countries participating to the SMP, but only if there is a valid justification for the specific services the provider is carrying out, i.e. the activity is a continuation of a previous project where the continuity of the service provider is important.

As stated in the Guidelines: "The funding amount must cover the costs for the services and activities described in the Section 3.3 and in the Application form based on a justified quotation. The costs are exclusively meant for performing the eligible services and activities as listed above."

Moreover, "The beneficiary SME must include in the application the offer and quotation from their selected service provider. The offer must address the specific service(s) requested in the application form and provide proof of the expertise and quality of the provider."

Therefore, the lump sum will cover only the costs of the services and the activities that the provider will conduct to reach the objective of the proposal.

Service providers can also be based in countries different that the EU member States and countries participating to the SMP, but only if there is a valid justification for the specific services the provider is carrying out, i.e. the training involves entering specific geografical markets, etc.

As described in section 4.1.1 Consortium composition from the AIBC Project proposals Guidelines, a consortium can be composed by at least 2 SMEs, meaning that more than 2 SMEs can conform a consortium if they meet the required eligibility criteria and respect the limit of maximum of 65.000,00 EUR requested by each consortium.

For consortia composed by 3 or more application, on the Application Form in EUSurvey, there is a question "Is there another partner?" which opens a new module for entering the administrative and legal information of the other partner(s).

Yes, the selected Consortium beneficiaries must have internal arrangements regarding their operation and coordination, to ensure that the action is implemented properly.
These arrangements must be set out in a written consortium agreement between the Beneficiaries.

The consortium can be composed by SMEs from different countries or from the same country. The countries must be EU Member States or countries participating in the SMP. Consortia composed by companies from different countries will receive a bonus in the evaluation process. Please check section 4.1.1.

As stated in the Guidelines "Each applying SME can be part of only one consortium.

Only one proposal per consortia will be evaluated (and possibly selected for funding). In the case of multiple submissions by the same applicant consortium, only the last one received (as per timestamp of the IT system) will enter the evaluation process, the rest will not be considered, meaning, the other applications will be declared non-eligible. ..." (section 6.2. NUMBER OF PROPOSALS PER APPLICANT)

As stated in the Guidelines (section 7.3) the lump sum will be paid after the company has participated in the event and has presented the reporting document with proof of participation to the event.

The payment will be carried out by bwcon research, partner of AIBC EUROCLUSTERS, within 60 days (2 months) after receiving the reporting documents.

Bear also in mind that the event must happen after the signature of the agreement and before the AIBC project ends, meaning between November 2023 and October 2024 (section 3.3.).

The event must happen after the signature of the agreement and before the AIBC project ends, meaning between November 2023 and October 2024 (section 3.3.).