BETA

Activities of Vicky FORD related to 2011/0399(COD)

Shadow reports (1)

REPORT on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down the rules for the participation and dissemination in 'Horizon 2020 – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2014-2020)' PDF (816 KB) DOC (1 MB)
2016/11/22
Committee: ITRE
Dossiers: 2011/0399(COD)
Documents: PDF(816 KB) DOC(1 MB)

Amendments (57)

Amendment 164 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 19
(19) Rules governing the exploitation and dissemination of results should be laid down to ensure that the participants protect, exploit and disseminate those results as appropriate, in particular the possibility of additional exploitation conditions in the European strategic interest. It is necessary to place more emphasis on the widest possible use and dissemination of knowledge generated by the supported activities whilst recognising the importance of protecting intellectual property.
2012/07/02
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 182 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 4
(4) 'background’ means any data, know- how and/or information whatever their form or nature as well as any rights such as intellectual property rights which are (i) held by participants prior to their accession to the action and (ii) identified by the participants in accordance with Article 42or prior to the application which has been filed before their accession to the action and (ii) identified by the participants in accordance with Article 42 and (iii) which is needed for carrying out the indirect action or for using the results of the indirect action;
2012/07/02
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 188 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 4 a (new)
(4a) 'needed access' means: (a) in the context of the implementation of the action the access is needed if, without the grant of access rights, carrying out the tasks assigned to the recipient Party would be impossible, significantly delayed, or require significant additional financial or human resources. (b) in the context of the use of own results: access is needed if, without the grant of such access rights, the use of own results would be technically or legally impossible.
2012/07/02
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 198 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 7 a (new)
(7a) 'experimental development' means the acquiring, combining, shaping and using of existing scientific, technological, business and other relevant knowledge and skills for the purpose of producing plans and arrangements or designs for new, altered or improved products, processes or services. These may also include, for example, other activities aiming at the conceptual definition, planning and documentation of new products, processes and services. The activities may comprise producing drafts, drawings, plans and other documentation, provided that they are not intended for commercial use. The development of commercially usable prototypes and pilot projects is also included where the prototype is necessarily the final commercial product and where it is too expensive to produce for it to be used only for demonstration and validation purposes. In case of a subsequent commercial use of demonstration or pilot projects, any revenue generated from such use must be deducted from the eligible costs. The experimental production and testing of products, processes and services are also eligible, provided that these cannot be used or transformed to be used in industrial applications or commercially. Experimental development does not include the routine or periodic changes made to products, production lines, manufacturing processes, existing services and other operations in progress, even if such changes may represent improvements
2012/07/02
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 215 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 15
(15) 'results' means any artefacts and other tangible outputs, data, knowledge and information whatever their form or nature, whether or not they can be protected, which are generated in the action as well as any rights attached rightsto them, including intellectual property rights;
2012/07/02
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 222 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 15 a (new)
(15a) 'use' means the direct or indirect utilisation of results in further research activities other than those covered by the indirect action concerned, or by exploitation, including, but not limited to, developing, creating and marketing a product or process, or for creating and providing a service;
2012/07/02
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 224 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 15 b (new)
(15b) 'sustainable open access' means that funds have been provided by Horizon 2020 grants or other funding or business models to cover the full publication cost of making free on the internet peer-reviewed scholarly articles which describe, interpret, or analyze data, knowledge or information that is generated from research funded by Horizon 2020, recognising also that the reputation of research publications themselves can sometimes be considered an endorsement of excellence and that participants in projects funded by Horizon 2020 should not be disadvantaged by being forced to publish in formats which may be considered of lesser quality.
2012/07/02
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 230 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 3 – paragraph 1
Subject to the conditions established in the implementing agreements, decisions or contracts, any data, knowledge and information communicated as confidential in the frame of an action shall be kept confidential by the Union institutions and bodies and the participants in an action, taking due account of any rules regarding the protection of classified information.
2012/07/02
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 277 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 11 a (new)
Article 11a Time to Bid Shortening time periods for deciding on successful bids is a priority. However, depending on the nature of any specific call, due consideration shall also be given to the following: (a) clear and transparent mechanisms to develop calls on specific topics will enable a level playing field and the inclusion and growth of participation. This should, where possible, be consistent across programmes and themes; (b) reasonable advance notice of upcoming calls can allow potential participants to form bidding consortia in advance of publication of calls and thus result in higher quality bids; (c) maintaining a reasonable time period between the publication of a call and the deadline for submitting bids can result in higher quality bids and a more level playing field between participants with different degrees of administrative capacity, experience of participation in Union funded programmes, different languages and varying levels of English language skills and - call deadlines should be scheduled taking into account the full scope of Union calls and the academic and business calendar of potential participants.
2012/07/02
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 283 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 12 – paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Where appropriate, e.g. if it is expected that there will be a high volume of applications, the Commission may decide to use a two stage application procedure, provided that the evaluation is undertaken thoroughly in the first stage (objectives, scientific approach, competences of participants, added value of scientific collaboration and overall budget) and provided that it is not at the expense of materially longer time-to- contract or grant periods;
2012/07/02
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 287 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 12 – paragraph 2
2. Any proposal for research on human embryonic stem cells shall include, as appropriate, details of licensing and control measures that will be taken by the competent authorities of the Member States as well as details of the ethical approvals that will be provided, as appropriate. As regards the derivation of human embryonic stem cells, institutions, organisations and researchers shall be subject to strict licensing and control in accordance with the legal framework of the Member States involved.
2012/07/02
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 299 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 13 – paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. The Commission shall make the process of ethics review as transparent as possible to the project officers and to participants.
2012/07/02
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 300 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 13 – paragraph 1 b (new)
1b. The Commission shall try to ensure that ethics reviews do not, where possible, result in undue delay in the start, continuation or completion of projects.
2012/07/02
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 327 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 14 – paragraph 5
5. TBy means that are compatible with national law, the Commission or the relevant funding body shall verify the financial capacity in advance only for coordinators when the requested funding from the Union for the action is equal or superior to EUR 5100 000, unless where, on the basis of available information, there are grounds to doubt the financial capacity of the coordinator or other participants. The Commission shall provide a simple, user- friendly electronic tool to applicants to carry out their financial viability check.
2012/07/02
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 330 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 14 – paragraph 5 – subparagraph 1 a (new)
Where the potential SME coordinator does not meet all financial criteria the Participant Guarantee Fund as outlined in Article 32 of this Regulation may cover the risk.
2012/07/02
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 345 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 15 a (new)
Article 15a Redress The Commission shall set up a formal complaints procedure for participants, which may include appointing an ombudsman specifically dedicated to research and innovation projects under Horizon 2020. The Commission shall ensure that participants are aware of all complaints/redress procedures available to them by publishing details of the redress/complaints procedures on all correspondence with participants or applicants. The procedure shall be transparent and the results and decision- making process shall be made available to participants. Participants shall be allowed to register complaints concerning any area of their involvement in Horizon 2020. The complaints procedure shall not be limited to procedural aspects of the evaluation of proposals. The Commission shall respond to complaints within 30 days of receiving them with a preliminary decision. In line with Directive 2008/52/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2008 on certain aspects of mediation in civil and commercial matters and European Parliament resolution of 13 September 2011 on the implementation of the directive on mediation in the Member States, its impact on mediation and its take-up by the courts 1, when a complaint cannot satisfactorily be solved through the Commission's internal formal complaint handling procedure (the ombudsman or equivalent body), the European Commission and the participants may agree to attempt to resolve the dispute through a mediation process in accordance with the rules of a Mediation Centre procedure. The Mediation Centre shall be agreed beforehand by the Commission and the participant(s) or with a list of mediation centres accepted by the Commission. The Commission shall set aside 0.5% of the Horizon 2020 budget for projects which are initially unsuccessful and which, following the redress procedure, are positively evaluated. __________________ 1 Texts adopted, P7_TA(2011)0361.
2012/07/02
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 353 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 16 – paragraph 2
2. The grant agreement shall establish the rights and obligations of the participants, and either of the Commission or the relevant funding bodies. It shall also establish the rights and obligations of legal entities which become participants during the implementation of the action.
2012/07/02
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 367 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 17 a (new)
Article 17a Time to Grant 1. The average time to grant shall be six months from the date of the negotiation offer. The cumulative time taken by the Commission to complete their internal process including preparation of all relevant information and documentation, evaluation and signature of grant agreements shall be no more than 60 working days. Participants shall be given no less than 60 working days cumulatively to prepare all relevant information and documentation required. 2. Where appropriate to the nature of any specific call, due consideration should be given to a two stage evaluation procedure in order to reduce the costs of preparing proposals which are unsuccessful. For two stage procedures the average time to grant shall be nine months. There should be consistency in the format of the outline of proposals where a two stage process is used and applicants must have sufficient time to prepare stage two of the bid. 3. The Commission shall endeavour to make decisions or requests for information as promptly as reasonably practical. The Commission shall avoid obliging participants to re-draft or re- negotiate parts of an initial successful bid, unless there is a reasonable and justified reason for doing so. 4. Participants shall be given reasonable amounts of time to prepare information and documentation required for projects. 5. When designing the application documents and setting time limits, the Commission shall be sensitive to the fact that SMEs and university academics in particular typically have little, if any, specific capacity to deal with the preparation of administrative documents. Repetitive elements of the application, grant agreement or supporting documents should be avoided. The Commission shall refrain from asking participants for information which is already available within the administration, unless it needs to be updated. In this respect, the Commission shall apply the "only once" principle whereby information submitted once to the administration should not be asked for again by another service of the administration i.e. enterprises should not be obliged to provide information all over again that authorities have already received by another route. 6. The Commission shall seek, where possible, to avoid timing calls such that they will require potential participants to submit documentation during standard academic and business vacation periods. 7. The Commission shall aim to limit the time it takes to prepare the necessary paperwork once a grant agreement has been made to 15 working days. 8. In appropriate cases, such as for SMEs, the Commission may usefully be allowed to waive the obligation for participants to submit part or all of the documentary evidence required if such evidence has already been submitted to them recently for another procedure and provided the relevant documents were issued within a fixed reasonable time period and are still valid. In such cases, the participant concerned could be invited to declare on his honour that the documentary evidence has already been provided in a previous procedure - to be specified - and to confirm that there has been no change in the situation. 9. The Commission shall not be allowed to request participants to provide facts or data which the Commission can verify easily and free of charge in an authenticated, electronically accessible database (e.g. company data). 10. The Commission shall not set targets on the level of subscription for individual calls.
2012/07/02
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 369 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 17 b (new)
Article 17b Time to Pay 1. Participants who have delivered the work which they were contracted to do, should be paid in a timely fashion. 2. The Commission shall ensure that participants receive money owed to them within 30 days of the necessary paperwork being submitted to the Commission. The Commission shall notify the project coordinator and participants of any irregularities or additional paperwork within 2 weeks of information being submitted to the Commission. If no such notification is received the Commission shall be liable to the pay amounts owed. 3. The Commission shall put in place measures to ensure that project coordinators distribute project money promptly as well as fairly and proportionally in accordance with the grant agreement and that money is shared among partners in proportion to what is owed to each partner. Unless agreed between all participants, project coordinators shall not withhold or phase pre-financing payments without the approval of the project officer, in particular for SMEs. Such arrangements should be made clear in consortium agreements and have the approval of the project officer. 4. Once a payment has been made to the project coordinator, the Commission shall notify the participants of the amount that has been paid and the date on which the payment was made. 5. If one or more partner(s) have not completed the work they have been contracted to do or they have not submitted the required information or documentation to the project Coordinator or the Commission, it shall not prevent the project coordinator from submitting documentation to the Commission on behalf of other partner(s) or the Commission from issuing payment to other partner(s). 6. In cases where new partners enter into a project after the grant agreement has been negotiated, this shall not alter the amount of funding allocated to the original partners unless agreed by the original partners or unless the amount of work required by them will be significantly different. 7. The Commission shall implement a hierarchical auditing process where they will ensure the beneficiaries' auditors are to an approved standard and comply to the auditing requirements of Horizon 2020. This will avoid the need for multiple audits, making the administrative process clearer and easier for participants. The Commission shall refrain from asking for extra information once an audit has already been submitted. 8. The EU will be required to report on its payment performance by producing bi- annual statistics that present payment times for completed work pieces. Payment times shall be defined as the time from final sign-off of the completed project by both the project coordinator and project officer (this time period itself to be no longer than one month from project completion date) to the availability of cleared funds in the participant's bank account. 9. At the request of the participant, grant agreements shall respect the academic and business calendar. For example, this will especially apply to projects which need to recruit PhD students and who are not likely to be available during the middle of the academic calendar.
2012/07/02
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 370 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 17 c (new)
Article 17c Communications 1. The ethics approval process shall be transparent to participants and to applicants, especially when this process is the source of a delay in the initiation of projects. Information that has already been submitted in the bid should not need to be re-drafted for the ethical approval. Where possible, the Commission shall use all the information that has already been submitted by the applicant(s) in the bid in order to make its approval and shall only ask for additional information where it can prove that this information is absolutely necessary. 2. Participants shall be able to communicate directly with project officers in cases where they have repeated concerns regarding the management of a project or the actions of the project coordinator. If the project officer is absent, he/she shall ensure that participants have the contact details for his/her deputy, who should be able to make decisions in the project officer's absence. Contact details for the relevant Commission officials must be made available and made known to participants. 3. At the request of participants, and to enable them to prepare for future bids, the Commission shall give feedback to applicants on unsuccessful bids including the strengths and weaknesses as considered by the independent experts referred to in Article 37 of the Regulation.
2012/07/02
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 389 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 20 – paragraph 2
2. The members of a consortium participating in an action shall conclude an internal agreement (the consortium agreement), except in duly justified cases provided for in the work programme or work plan or call for proposalsthat establishes the rights and obligations of the members in the consortium (the consortium agreement). This however shall not prevent individual members of the consortium from being able to enter into direct dialogue with the Commission or the relevant funding body, in particular when they have concerns over the actions of the coordinator.
2012/07/02
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 407 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 22 – paragraph 3 – table (new)
Type of activity Method of cost Type of participant calculation University/ Industry RTOs/ Other direct costs + Research & Development 100% + 20% 100% + 20% flat rate full costs 75% - direct costs + Experimental Development 100% + 20% 70% + 20% flat rate full costs 75% -
2012/07/03
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 421 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 22 – paragraph 4
4. The Horizon 2020 grant may reach a maximum of 100 % of the total eligible costs for research and development activities for all participants and for Experimental Development activities for universities, RTOs and publically-funded institutions and bodies, without prejudice to the co-financing principle.
2012/07/03
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 432 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 22 – paragraph 5 – introductory part
5. The Horizon 2020 grant shall be limited to a maximum of 70 % of the total eligible costs for the following actions:Experimental Development activities for non-publically funded institutions or bodies and industry participants.
2012/07/03
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 439 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 22 – paragraph 5 – point a
(a) actions primarily consisting of activities such as prototyping, testing, demonstrating, experimental development, piloting, market replication;deleted
2012/07/03
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 445 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 22 – paragraph 5 – point b
(b) programme co-fund actions.deleted
2012/07/03
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 462 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 22 – paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Universities, RTOs and publically- funded institutions and bodies may decide to use full cost accounting, in which case the Horizon 2020 grant shall be limited to a maximum of 75% of full costs for all types of activities.
2012/07/03
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 468 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 22 – paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. In cases where projects are completed under-budget or money allocated to a project has not been spent, the Commission shall provide the appropriate means to allow money to be returned to the Horizon 2020 budget.
2012/07/03
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 472 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 23 – paragraph 1
1. Conditions for eligibility of costs are defined in Article X of Regulation (EU) No xx [the Financial Regulation/Delegated Regulation]. Costs incurred by third parties under the action may be eligible according to the provisions of this Regulation and of the grant agreement. Costs associated with the use of internal or shared facilities, equipment and services may also be eligible according to the provisions of this Regulation and of the grant agreement.
2012/07/03
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 482 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 23 – paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Where publications resulting from Horizon 2020 are to be published in an open access, free-to-read format, the cost of publishing may be determined as an eligible cost.
2012/07/03
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 516 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 25 – paragraph 3
3. The grant agreement shall contain the minimum requirements for the time recording system as well as the number of annual productive hours to be used for the calculation of the hourly personnel ratean option to calculate hourly personnel rates based on a set number of annual productive hours.
2012/07/03
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 548 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 28 – paragraph 1
The certificate on financial statements shall cover the total amount of the grant claimed by a participant under the form of reimbursement of actual costs and under the form of scale of unit costs referred to Article 27(2). The certificate shall only be submitted when that amount is equal to or greater than EUR 3275 000 at the time of claiming the payment of the balance of the grant.
2012/07/03
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 618 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 38 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 1
2. Where participants in an action have jointly generated results and where their respective share of the work cannot be ascertained, they shallit is not possible to separate such joint invention, design or work for the purpose of applying for, obtaining and/or maintaining the relevant patent protection or any other intellectual property right, they can decide to attribute ownership of those results to one of the participants, or they can have joint ownership of those results. TIn case of joint ownership, the joint owners shall establish an agreement regarding the allocation and terms of exercise of that joint ownership in accordance with their obligations under the grant agreement.
2012/07/03
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 638 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 39 – paragraph 1
1. Where results are capable or may reasonably be expected to be capable of commercial or industrial application, the participant owning these results shall examine the possibility for protection and, if possible and justified given the circumstances, shall adequately protect them for an appropriate period of time and with an appropriate territorial coverage, having due regard to its legitimate interests and the legitimate interests, particularly the commercial interests, of the other participants in the action.
2012/07/03
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 640 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 39 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 1
2. Where a participant that has received Union funding intends not to protect results generated by it for reasons other than impossibility under Union or national law or the lack of potential for commercial exploitation, and unless the participant intends to transfer them to another legal entity established in a Member State or associated country in view of their protection, it shall inform the Commission or funding body before any dissemination relating to these results takes place. The Commission on behalf of the Union or the funding body, with the consent of the owning participant, may assume ownership of these results and take the necessary steps for their adequate protection.
2012/07/03
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 645 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 39 – paragraph 3
3. Where a participant that has received Union funding intends to abandon the protection of results or not to seek extension of such protection for reasons other than the lack of potential for commercial exploitation within five years following the end of the action, it shall inform the Commission or the funding body which may, with the consent of the owning participant, continue or extend protection by assuming ownership thereof. The Commission or the funding body shall take this decision within 45 days. The participant may refuse consent only if it demonstrates that its legitimate interests would suffer significant harm. The grant agreement shall lay down time-limits in this respect.
2012/07/03
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 660 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 40 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 3
With regard to dissemination through research publications, which describe, interpret, or analyse data, knowledge or information generated as a direct result of Horizon 2020 funding, sustainable open access shallmay apply under the terms and conditions laid down in the grant agreement. With regard to dissemination of other results, including research data, the grant agreement may lay down the terms and conditions under which sustainable open access to such results shall be provided, in particular in ERC frontier research or in other appropriate areas.
2012/07/03
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 670 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 40 – paragraph 3
3. Each participantDuring the duration of the action and for a period of one year after its end each participant, upon request by the Commission, shall report to the Commission or funding body on its exploitation and dissemination related activities. For the purposes of monitoring and dissemination by the Commission or funding body, participants shall provide any information and documents useful in accordance with the conditions laid down in the grant agreement.
2012/07/03
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 680 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 41 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 3
Following notification, a participant may object to the transfer of ownership if it demonstrates that the intended transfer would adversely affect the exercise of its access rights. In such case, the transfer may not take place until agreement has been reached between the participants concerned. The grant agreement may lay down time-limits.deleted
2012/07/03
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 687 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 41 – paragraph 2
2. Provided that any access rights to the results can be exercised and that any additional exploitation obligations are complied with by the participant who owns results, the participant who owns results may grant licences or otherwise give the right to exploit them results to any legal entity, including on an exclusive basis. Exclusive licences for results may be granted subject to written confirmation by all the other participants that they waive their access rights thereto.
2012/07/03
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 699 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 43 – paragraph 1
1. Any request to exercise access rights or any waiving of access rights shall be made in writing. Waiving of access rights can only be done on a case-by-case basis, after the particular result or background has been generated.
2012/07/03
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 703 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 43 – paragraph 4
4. For the purposes of access rights, fair and reasonable conditions may be royalty- free conditions.deleted
2012/07/03
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 706 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 44 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1
1. A participant shall enjoy access rights to the results of another participant in the same action, if such access isresults are needed by the former to carry out its work under the action.
2012/07/03
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 709 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 44 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 1
2. A participant shall enjoy access rights to background of another participant in the same action, if such baccesskground is needed by the former to carry out its work under the action and subject to any restrictions pursuant to Article 43(3).
2012/07/03
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 710 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 45 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1
1. A participant shall enjoy access rights to the results of another participant in the same action, if such access isresults are needed by the former to exploit its own results.
2012/07/03
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 712 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 45 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 2
Subject toUnless otherwise agreementd, such access shall be granted under fair and reasonable conditions.
2012/07/03
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 715 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 45 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 1
2. A participant shall enjoy access rights to background of another participant in the same action, if such baccesskground is needed by the former to exploit its own results and subject to any restrictions or limits pursuant to Article 43(3).
2012/07/03
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 717 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 45 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 2
Subject toUnless otherwise agreementd, such access shall be granted under fair and reasonable conditions.
2012/07/03
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 719 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 45 – paragraph 3
3. An affiliated entity established in a Member State or associated country shall, unless otherwise provided for in the consortium agreement, also have access rights to results or background under the samfair and reasonable conditions if such access isresults or background are needed to exploit the results generated by the participant to which it is affiliated. Such access shall be requested and obtained directly from the participant owning the results or background.
2012/07/03
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 721 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 45 – paragraph 4
4. A request for access rights under paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 may be made up to one year after the end of the action or after the termination of the requesting participant's participation in the action. However, the participants may agree on a different time- limit.
2012/07/03
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 724 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 46 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1
1. The Union institutions and bodies shall, for the purpose of developing, implementing and monitoring Union policies or programmes, enjoy access rights to the results of a participant that has received Union funding. Such access rights are limited to non-commercial and non- competitive use and do not include the right to sub-license. The Union shall provide sufficient evidence to the owning participant that the access rights will contribute to developing, implementing and monitoring Union policies or programmes.
2012/07/03
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 727 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 46 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 2
Such access shall be granted on a royalty- free basisterms to be agreed.
2012/07/03
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 728 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 46 – paragraph 2
2. Regarding actions in the activity ‘Secure societies’ within the specific objective ‘Inclusive, innovative and secure societies’, the Union institutions and bodies as well as Member States' national authorities shall, for the purpose of developing, implementing and monitoring their policies or programmes in this area, enjoy access rights to the results of a participant that has received Union funding. Notwithstanding Article 43(2), such access rights shall include the right to authorise third parties to use the results in public procurement in the case of the development of capabilities in domains with very limited market size and a risk of market failure, and where a predominant public interest exists. Such access shall be granted on a royalty- free basis, except for use in public procurement where it shall be granted on fair and reasonable conditions to be agreed upon. The Union funding received in generating the results shall be fully taken into account in the determination of the fair and reasonable conditions. The Commission rules on security shall apply regarding classified information.deleted
2012/07/03
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 738 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 47 – paragraph 2
2. In the case of actions to support the operation of existing or new research infrastructures, the grant agreement may lay down specific provisions relating to users' access of the infrastructure.
2012/07/03
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 751 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 49
Article 49 Procurement, pre-commercial procurement and public procurement of innovative solutions 1. Unless otherwise stipulated in the call for tenders, results generated by procurement carried out by the Commission shall be owned by the Union. 2. Specific provisions regarding ownership, access rights and licensing shall be laid down in the contracts regarding pre-commercial procurement to ensure maximum uptake of the results and to avoid any unfair advantage. The contractor generating results in pre- commercial procurement shall own at least the attached intellectual property rights. The contracting authorities shall enjoy at least royalty-free access rights to the results for their own use as well as the right to grant, or require the participating contractors to grant, non-exclusive licences to third parties to exploit the results under fair and reasonable conditions without any right to sub- licence. If a contractor fails to commercially exploit the results within a given period after the pre-commercial procurement as identified in the contract, it shall transfer any ownership of the results to the contracting authorities. 3. Specific provisions regarding ownership, access rights and licensing may be laid down in the contracts regarding public procurement of innovative solutions to ensure maximum uptake of the results and to avoid any unfair advantage.deleted
2012/07/03
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 757 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 49 a (new)
Article 49a Procurement, pre-commercial procurement and procurement of innovative solutions Procurement, pre-commercial procurement and procurement of innovative solutions 1. Any procurement carried out by the Commission jointly with Member States shall be subject to the rules on public procurement set out in Regulation (EU) No XX/XX [the Financial Regulation] and Regulation (EU) No XX/XX [the Delegated Regulation]. 2. Union funding may take the form of pre-commercial procurement or procurement of innovative solutions carried out by the Commission jointly with contracting authorities from Member States and associated countries. The procurement procedures: (a) shall comply with the principles of transparency, non-discrimination, equal treatment, sound financial management, proportionality, and with competition rules and, where applicable, with Directives 2004/17/EC, 2004/18/EC and 2009/81/EC. (b) may provide for specific conditions such as the place of performance of the procured activities being limited for pre- commercial procurement to the territory of the Member States and of countries associated to Horizon 2020 where duly justified by the objectives of the actions; (c) may authorise the award of multiple contracts within the same procedure (multiple sourcing); (d) shall provide for the award of the contracts to the tender(s) which are the most economically advantageous. The most economically advantageous tender from the point of view of the contracting authority shall be identified on the basis of criteria linked to the subject-matter of the public contract in question. Those criteria shall include, in addition to the price or costs, other criteria linked to the subject-matter of the public contract in question, such as: quality, including technical merit, aesthetic and functional characteristics, accessibility, design for all users, environmental characteristics and innovative character, including inter alia additional innovative solutions that are in addition to minimum requirements laid down in the contract notice, the descriptive document or the invitation to confirm interest; 3. Specific provisions regarding ownership, access rights and licensing shall be laid down in the contracts regarding pre-commercial procurement to ensure maximum uptake of the results and to avoid any unfair advantage. The contractor generating results in pre- commercial procurement shall own at least the attached intellectual property rights. The contracting authorities shall enjoy at least royalty-free access rights to the results for their own use as well as the right to grant, or require the participating contractors to grant, non-exclusive licences to third parties to exploit the results under fair and reasonable conditions without any right to sub- license. If a contractor fails to commercially exploit the results within a given period after the pre-commercial procurement as identified in the contract, it shall transfer any ownership of the results to the contracting authorities. 4. Specific provisions regarding ownership, access rights and licensing may be laid down in the contracts regarding public procurement of innovative solutions to ensure maximum uptake of the results and to avoid any unfair advantage.
2012/07/03
Committee: ITRE
Amendment 766 #
Proposal for a regulation
Annex 0 (new)
ANNEX 0 Commission Code of Best Practice The Commission, including agencies and bodies acting on behalf of the Commission, shall respect the following principles in relation to all Horizon 2020 projects: Time to Bid Shortening time periods for deciding on successful bids is a priority. However, depending on the nature of any specific call, due consideration should also be given to the following: Clear and transparent mechanisms to develop calls on specific topics will enable a level playing field and the inclusion and growth of participation. This should, where possible, be consistent across programmes and themes. Reasonable advance notice of upcoming calls can allow potential participants to form bidding consortia in advance of publication of calls and thus result in higher quality bids. Maintaining a reasonable time period between the publication of a call and the deadline for submitting bids can result in higher quality bids and a more level playing field between participants with different degrees of administrative capacity, experience of participation in Union funded programmes, different languages and varying levels of English language skills. Call deadlines should be scheduled taking into account the full scope of EU calls and the academic and business calendar of potential participants. Time to Grant The average time to grant shall be six months from the date of the negotiation offer. The cumulative time taken by the Commission to complete their internal process including preparation of all relevant information and documentation, evaluation and signature of grant agreements shall be no more than 60 working days. Participants shall be given no less than 60 working days cumulatively to prepare all relevant information and documentation required. Where appropriate to the nature of any specific call, due consideration should be given to a two stage evaluation procedure in order to reduce the costs of preparing proposals which are unsuccessful. For two stage procedures the average time to grant shall be nine months. There should be consistency in the format of the outline of proposals where a two stage process is used and applicants must have sufficient time to prepare stage two of the bid. The Commission shall endeavour to make decisions or requests for information as promptly as reasonably practical. The Commission shall avoid obliging participants to re-draft or re-negotiate parts of an initial successful bid, unless there is a reasonable and justified reason for doing so. Participants shall be given reasonable amounts of time to prepare information and documentation required for projects. When designing the application documents and setting time limits, the Commission shall be sensitive to the fact that SMEs and university academics in particular typically have little, if any, specific capacity to deal with the preparation of administrative documents. Repetitive elements of the application, grant agreement or supporting documents should be avoided. The Commission shall refrain from asking participants for information which is already available within the administration, unless it needs to be updated. In this respect, the Commission shall apply the "only once" principle whereby information submitted once to the administration should not be asked for again by another service of the administration i.e. enterprises should not be obliged to provide information all over again that authorities have already received by another route. The Commission shall seek, where possible, to avoid timing calls such that they will require potential participants to submit documentation during standard academic and business vacation periods. The Commission shall aim to limit the time it takes to prepare the necessary paperwork once a grant agreement has been made to 15 working days. In appropriate cases, such as for SMEs, the Commission may usefully be allowed to waive the obligation for participants to submit part or all of the documentary evidence required if such evidence has already been submitted to them recently for another procedure and provided the relevant documents were issued within a fixed reasonable time period and are still valid. In such cases, the participant concerned could be invited to declare on his honour that the documentary evidence has already been provided in a previous procedure - to be specified - and to confirm that there has been no change in the situation. The Commission shall not be allowed to request participants to provide facts or data which the Commission can verify easily and free of charge in an authenticated, electronically accessible database (e.g. company data). The Commission shall not set targets on the level of subscription for individual calls. Time to Pay Participants who have delivered the work which they were contracted to do, should be paid in a timely fashion. The Commission shall ensure that participants receive money owed to them within 30 days of the necessary paperwork being submitted to the Commission. The Commission shall notify the Project Coordinator and participants of any irregularities or additional paperwork within 2 weeks of information being submitted to the Commission. If no such notification is received the Commission shall be liable to the pay amounts owed. The Commission shall put in place measures to ensure that Project Coordinators distribute project money promptly as well as fairly and proportionally in accordance with the grant agreement and that money is shared among partners in proportion to what is owed to each partner. Unless agreed between all participants, Project Coordinators shall not withhold or phase pre-financing payments without the approval of the Project Officer, in particular for SMEs. Such arrangements should be made clear in consortium agreements and have the approval of the Project Officer. Once a payment has been made to the Project Coordinator, the Commission shall notify the participants of the amount that has been paid and the date on which the payment was made. If one or more partner(s) have not completed the work they have been contracted to do or they have not submitted the required information or documentation to the project Coordinator or the Commission, it shall not prevent the Project Coordinator from submitting documentation to the Commission on behalf of other partner(s) or the Commission from issuing payment to other partner(s). In cases where new partners enter into a project after the grant agreement has been negotiated, this shall not alter the amount of funding allocated to the original partners unless agreed by the original partners or unless the amount of work required by them will be significantly different. The Commission shall implement a hierarchical auditing process where they will ensure the beneficiaries' auditors are to an approved standard and comply to the auditing requirements of Horizon 2020. This will avoid the need for multiple audits, making the administrative process clearer and easier for participants. The Commission shall refrain from asking for extra information once an audit has already been submitted. The EU will be required to report on its payment performance by producing bi- annual statistics that present payment times for completed work pieces. Payment times shall be defined as the time from final sign-off of the completed project by both the Project Coordinator and Project Officer (this time period itself to be no longer than 1 month from project completion date) to the availability of cleared funds in the participant's bank account. At the request of the Participant, grant agreements shall respect the academic and business calendar. For example, this will especially apply to projects which need to recruit PhD students and who are not likely to be available during the middle of the academic calendar. Redress The Commission shall set up a formal complaints procedure for participants, which may include appointing an ombudsman specifically dedicated to research and innovation projects under Horizon 2020. The Commission shall ensure that participants are aware of all complaints/redress procedures available to them by publishing details of the redress/complaints procedures on all correspondence with participants or applicants. The procedure shall be transparent and the results and decision- making process shall be made available to participants. Participants shall be allowed to register complaints concerning any area of their involvement in Horizon 2020. The complaints procedure shall not be limited to procedural aspects of the evaluation of proposals. The Commission shall respond to complaints within 30 days of receiving them with a preliminary decision. In line with Directive 2008/52/EC and European Parliament resolution of 13 September 2011 on the implementation of the directive on mediation in the Member States, its impact on mediation and its take-up by the courts (2011/2026(INI)), when a complaint cannot satisfactorily be solved through the Commission's internal formal complaint handling procedure (the ombudsman or equivalent body), the European Commission and the participants may agree to attempt to resolve the dispute through a mediation process in accordance with the rules of a Mediation Centre procedure. The Mediation Centre shall be agreed beforehand by the Commission and the participant(s) or with a list of mediation centres accepted by the Commission. The Commission shall set aside 0.5% of the Horizon 2020 budget for projects which are initially unsuccessful and which, following the redress procedure, are positively evaluated. Communications The ethics approval process shall be transparent to participants and to applicants, especially when this process is the source of a delay in the initiation of projects. Information that has already been submitted in the bid should not need to be re-drafted for the ethical approval. Where possible, the Commission shall use all the information that has already been submitted by the applicant(s) in the bid in order to make its approval and shall only ask for additional information where it can prove that this information is absolutely necessary. Participants shall be able to communicate directly with Project Officers in cases where they have repeated concerns regarding the management of a project or the actions of the Project Coordinator. If the Project Officer is absent, he/she shall ensure that participants have the contact details for his/her deputy, who should be able to make decisions in the Project Officer's absence. Contact details for the relevant Commission officials must be made available and made known to participants. At the request of participants, and to enable them to prepare for future bids, the Commission shall give feedback to applicants on unsuccessful bids including the strengths and weaknesses as considered by the independent experts referred to in Article 37 of the Rules for Participation and Dissemination.
2012/07/03
Committee: ITRE