Accelerate 2023 Terms Conditions
Accelerate 2023 Terms Conditions
Accelerate 2023 Terms Conditions
EIT Manufacturing
Permanently Open Call for applications for
financial support to start-ups:
Accelerate 2023
Table of Contents
1. Call summary ..................................................................................................... 2
2. General conditions ............................................................................................. 4
3. Call specific conditions ....................................................................................... 5
3.1 Call thematic and applicant's profile ...................................................................5
3.2 Budget and funding ..............................................................................................7
3.3 Mandatory deliverables .......................................................................................7
4. Reporting and monitoring .................................................................................. 8
5. Proposal preparation and submission................................................................. 8
6. Proposal evaluation and selection process ....................................................... 11
6.1 Eligibility and admissibility check...................................................................... 11
6.2 Evaluation of proposals ..................................................................................... 12
6.3 Communication of results ................................................................................. 15
6.4 Procedure for complaints and appeal .............................................................. 15
6.5 Selected applicants and follow-up ................................................................... 16
7. Other terms and Conditions ............................................................................. 17
7.1 Communication, Dissemination, Visibility of funding...................................... 17
7.2 Intellectual Property Rights .............................................................................. 17
7.3 Right to activate audits ..................................................................................... 18
7.4 Withdrawal of the funding — Recovery of undue amounts ........................... 18
7.5 Data protection ................................................................................................. 18
7.6 Acceptance of the Guidelines ........................................................................... 19
7.7 Confidentiality ................................................................................................... 20
7.8 Exclusion Criteria ............................................................................................... 21
7.9 Applicable Law ................................................................................................... 21
Disclaimer: This document provides the applicants with detailed information on the EIT Manufacturing
call Accelerate 2023 of the EIT Manufacturing Business Plan 2023-2025. The information given is
subject to revision, according to new potential rules or requirements provided by EIT and/or by the EC
(European Commission).Note: for additional details please refer to the other sections of this document.
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1. Call summary
EIT Manufacturing aims to build European industry startups that show high
growth and impact and addresses all range of technologies and business
models, incremental improvement, and disruption. Furthermore, EIT
Manufacturing encourages inclusive and gender-balanced teams to apply for
this funding.
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The total
budget
4,000,000 EUR1
allocated to
this call
Link to the
submission The submission platform will be available as of July 31st, 2023.
portal
List of
documents to Application form available on the submission platform (HERE)
be submitted
- Call Manual
- EIT Manufacturing Strategic Agenda
List of - Eligibility of expenditure
documents to - Appeal procedure
take into - Horizon Europe (Model) Grant Agreement (specifically Articles, 6.2 D.1
consideration 16 and 17)
- Declaration of Honour
- Financial Support Agreement
Evaluation stages:
1
The total amount could be increased based on the budget availability.
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2. General conditions
EIT Manufacturing boosts manufacturing innovation in Europe by connecting people
with skills, technologies with markets, and innovators with investors. Technological
progress is changing the industrial, social, and competitive landscape faster than ever
before. Our aim is that Europe leads in manufacturing innovation. To do so, we need
to overcome value network fragmentation and bring stakeholders together. We need
to better use our knowledge and infrastructure to create value and deploy agile
mechanisms to accelerate and steer innovation, shaping the future role of
manufacturing in our society. With the needs, concerns, and ideas of the economy
and society at its core, the mission of EIT Manufacturing is to empower its partners
and stakeholders to fundamentally transform the manufacturing system and meet
the global demands of present and future generations.
The primary objectives of the Business Creation team of EIT Manufacturing in 2023-
2025 are to support, scale, and accelerate innovative ventures and small businesses
into impactful technology suppliers. In this context, we will foster activities supporting
the growth of scaleups and startups, taking them beyond the regional and national
borders of the European ecosystems. This will be accomplished by Access-to-Market
and Access-to-Finance support services, but also through newly created financing
envelopes in our Create, Accelerate, and Transform programmes.
EIT Manufacturing Accelerate programme has a primary objective to support, scale
and accelerate industry startups into impactful players in the European
manufacturing ecosystem. Accelerate programme supports and grants financing to
startups and scaleups with innovative solutions and technologies, that address critical
challenges in the manufacturing sector, and are helping the European manufacturing
sector to become more efficient, resilient, green, and globally competitive.
EIT Manufacturing aims to build European industry startups that demonstrate high
growth and high impact and therefore addresses all range of technologies and
business models, incremental improvement as well as disruption. Furthermore, EIT
Manufacturing encourages inclusive and gender-balanced teams to apply for this
funding.
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3. Call specific conditions
PURPOSE
EIT Manufacturing accelerates startups and scaleups that address critical challenges
in manufacturing sector, building European high growth industrial scaleups. The goal
of Accelerate Call is to support growth in mature startups and scaleups that are high
growth, profitable, with societal impact. Tailored internationalisation and financing
support is provided to startups and scaleups from across Europe to support their
product development and go to market capabilities.
The purpose of this call is to support startups with innovative product/service that
address at least one of the following four EIT Manufacturing focus areas (flagships):
The Accelerate Call is open to startups with solutions at Technology Readiness Level
(TRL) 6 or higher, that are currently fundraising or preferably already in an ongoing
funding round with the following characteristics:
• Developing new product/services/solutions serving the manufacturing
sector.
• Significantly improving an existing product/services/solutions for
expansion into a new industry sector or a new geographic area.
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• Innovative product/service contributing to at least one of the EIT
Manufacturing Focus Areas (flagships).
• Ideas demonstrating commercial prospects and track-record.
• Management and technical expertise available.
This Call for Applications is open for-profit private businesses established in the
Member States (MS) of the European Union (EU), and/or in Third countries associated
to Horizon Europe with at least 2 team members.
This financial support call includes mentoring and hands-on support to scale your
company with increased visibility and access to top-tier events. Also, this financial
support call includes fast-track introduction to the largest pan-European
manufacturing network including corporates, Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs),
universities and research organisations, and other sister European organisation such
as the EIB (European Investment Bank), the EIC (European Innovation Council) and
the EIF (European Investment Fund). Finally, this financial support call includes access
to exclusive funding opportunities to scale sustainable through innovation projects
and follow-on financial support opportunities.
These are the requirements that companies must fulfil in order to be granted financial
support:
• Conclude the Financial Support Agreement.
• Agree to the proposed EIT Manufacturing's Financial Sustainability
Mechanisms and conclude the relevant agreements to this effect, related to
Future Equity or a Share transfer and any other related agreement to them.
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3.2 Budget and funding
The total maximum EIT funding allocated to this call is 4,000,000 EUR. The available
financial support (also known as “sub-grant”) is up to 500,000 EUR per company to
pursue activities which are in line with the overall EIT Manufacturing objectives and
based on submitted project budget by the applicant.
The costs of the project’s budget should be planned according to the document
Eligibility of expenditure and the Horizon Europe Model Grant Agreement, Article 6.2
D.1, that are published on the Call webpage.
Important: all project deliverables and outputs must be achieved within the project
duration. The templates for the deliverables are provided by EIT Manufacturing.
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4. Reporting and monitoring
Reporting periods and technical reporting follow the rules and procedures established
in the EIT Manufacturing Monitoring guide with a focus on the successful completion
and approval of the mandatory deliverables.
If the rejection of the mandatory deliverable is confirmed, the total project budget (or
the percentage) linked to it is not paid/recovered.
Furthermore, EIT Manufacturing will monitor all activities up to 5 years after activity
completion to track long-term impact and the status of commercialisation and to
ensure the achievement of KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) after the activity end.
Cut-off Dates
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Third cut-off date November 6th, 2023, 12:00 pm CET
NOTE: Only applications submitted through the online link (as noted above) before
the deadline will be accepted and considered. The organizers reserve the right to
extend the submission deadline; any extension of the deadline will be communicated
to the public on the Call website.
An indicative timeline is outlined in the table below. Please note that this calendar is
indicative. The dates might be subject to slight changes.
2
Applicants selected for the Investment Committee evaluation may be invited to an online pitch
session with the Investment Committee.
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- Communication of results: October 2023
3rd Cut-off date: November 6th, 2023, 12:00 pm CET
- Eligibility and admissibility check: November 2023
- Evaluation of applications: November 2023
- Communication of results: November 2023
4th Cut-off date: December 1st, 2023, 12:00 pm CET
- Eligibility and admissibility check: December 2023
- Evaluation of applications: December 2023
- Communication of results: December 2023
All applicants may contact EIT Manufacturing to ask questions and clarify any points
on general or technical procedures and call content by sending an email message to
business.creation@eitmanufacturing.eu.
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6. Proposal evaluation and selection process
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eligibility and admissibility check and explaining why the proposal failed to meet the
criteria.
The applicant deemed ineligible who disputes the ineligibility decision may appeal.
This appeal must be made within 5 calendar days from the official EIT Manufacturing
notification of ineligibility (see section 5.4 of this document and the document Appeal
procedure linked to the call and available from the Call website).
Score Description
Extremely The information provided is considered irrelevant or inadequate compared to
1 poor or the specific call provisions
None
The information provided lacks relevant quality and contains significant
2 Bad
weaknesses, compared to the specific call provisions
The overall information provided is adequate, however, some aspects are
3 Average
unclearly or insufficiently detailed, compared to the specific call provisions
The information provided is adequate with sufficiently outlined details,
4 Good
compared to the specific call provisions
The information provided is outstanding in its details, clarity, and coherence,
5 Excellent
compared to the specific call provisions
The scores shall be given at the criteria level and then summed together to come with
a final score.
One (1) External Expert Evaluator and one (1) Internal Evaluator from EIT
Manufacturing Business Creation will evaluate each application that successfully
passes the eligibility and admissibility check. They will assess the Solution and
technology, Growth plan and business model, Potential impact on manufacturing
sector, Team structure, and Traction and references. The applications are evaluated
and scored against the criteria listed below:
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with the trends, positive impact entrepreneuri technology.
potential of the attractiveness. for the al drive. Customer
solution to Realistic manufacturing Technical and references
improve calculation of sector. business- validating the
manufacturing. market size, Improving oriented co- benefits of the
Innovativeness / revenue model, efficiency or founders, solution. The
overall grade of pricing strategy. environmental strengths, and solution has a
novelty of the Plausible go-to- performance of complementar product-
product / service market strategy. manufacturing y skills of the market fit.
USP – Unique Ambitious but systems. management
Selling realistic growth Enabling new team.
Proposition & objectives. market
market opportunities for
advantage European
e manufacturers.
Score 1 to 5 1 to 5 1 to 5 1 to 5 1 to 5 up to 25
Threshold 3/5 3/5 3/5 3/5 3/5 15/25
Thresholds apply to individual criteria and the total score. The maximum score for a
proposal is 25. The default threshold for individual criteria is 3 and the default overall
threshold is 15. The final scoring from the External Expert Evaluator will have a total
weight of 60%, and the final scoring from the Internal Evaluator will have weight of
40% in the total weight.
Once the evaluators have concluded their assessment a Consensus Meeting is
organised and a ranking list with recommendations is produced, together with a
Summary Evaluation Report. Only applications with a total score equal or over 15
points (threshold) can be considered for the next steps, by being invited to the due
diligence process conducted by EIT Manufacturing Business Creation team.
The EIT Manufacturing Business Creation team will request supporting business,
financial and legal documentation to the investor deck that should be provided by the
startups within 15 calendar days. The EIT Manufacturing Business Creation team will
invite the startups for an interview during the due diligence process in order to clarify
any open questions. Based on the provided documents the EIT Manufacturing
Business Creation team will produce a Due Diligence Report and provide it to the
Investment Committee. The Investment Committee is composed of three (3) External
Expert Evaluators and two (2) Internal Evaluators from EIT Manufacturing Business
Creation. The Investment Committee will invite the applicant that finished the due
diligence process to an online live pitch at the Investment Committee session. The
Investment Committee will review the Summary Evaluation Report and Due Diligence
Report prior to the Investment Committee session and will assess the projects’
alignment with EIT Manufacturing vision and flagships, as well as the Excellence,
Impact and the Implementation of the projects, and the Team. The Investment
Committee will evaluate and score the proposal against the criteria listed below:
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Evaluation Excellence Implementation Impact Team Alignment TOT
criteria with EITM
vision and
flagships
Score 1 to 5 1 to 5 1 to 5 1 to 5 1 to 5 up to 25
Threshold 3/5 3/5 3/5 3/5 3/5 15/25
Thresholds apply to individual criteria and the total score. The maximum score for a
proposal is 25. The default threshold for individual criteria is 3 and the default overall
threshold is 15.
At the Investment Committee session, the evaluators will discuss and produce a
ranking list with recommendations. Only applications with a total score equal or over
15 points (threshold) can be considered for the next steps, by being invited to submit
final investment terms and legal framework that will incorporate the Investment
Committee recommendations. The final agreements need to be submitted at the
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email address: business.creation@eitmanufacturing.eu within 30 days 3 from the
notification date. The Investment Committee will evaluate the submitted final
proposals considering the following strategic factors (see table below) and will grant
an additional maximum 10 points.
Score 1 to 5 1 to 5 up to 10
Threshold 3/5 3/5 6/10
Thresholds apply to individual criteria and the total score. The maximum score for a
proposal is 10. The default threshold for individual criteria is 3 and the default overall
threshold is 6.
In the Final selection the proposals that have more than 6 points will be selected for
the monetary grant of up to 500,000 EUR.
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The Investment Committee keeps the right to extend the deadline.
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applicant will have 5 calendar days after receipt of the final evaluation results to
submit an appeal to the Evaluation (see document Appeal procedure).
The information above is provided for information only and does not constitute any
kind of commitment on behalf of EIT Manufacturing.
The exact number of startups to be selected for funding will depend on the quality of
the applications received.
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7. Other terms and Conditions
For the purposes of these obligations, the applicants that have been awarded funding
may use the emblem without first obtaining approval from EIT Manufacturing. This
does not, however, give them the right to exclusive use. Moreover, they may not
appropriate the emblem or any similar trademark or logo, either by registration or by
any other means. Any communication or dissemination activity related to the funding
must use factually accurate information.
The EIT Manufacturing may use, for their communication and publicising activities,
information relating to the funding, as well as photos or audio-visual material that
they receive from the applicants (including in electronic form), and photos and videos
taken either in preparation for the dedicated EIT Manufacturing event or during the
dedicated EIT Manufacturing event. The EIT Manufacturing will publish the name of
both the shortlisted/s and the selected applicants, their origin, the amount of the
funding, and their nature and purpose.
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Applicants agree to indemnify and hold harmless EIT Manufacturing and/or any
assignee or affiliate from any third-party allegations or claims of intellectual property
rights infringement by the product or service of applicants. Applicants shall have the
right to further develop, use and license their intellectual property rights for creating,
making, marketing, and distributing products, services, and technology. Applicants
agree to respect the IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) Rules (Article 16 of the Model
Grant Agreement). Applicants also agree to respect the EIT Manufacturing IP Policy
EIT Manufacturing keeps the right to request any data related to the Accelerate Call
applicants that have been awarded funding for 5 years after completion to ensure
transparency and allow monitoring from EIT.
EIT Manufacturing ensures that any processing of personal data shall be performed
in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the
Council of 27 April 2016, on the protection of natural persons with regard to the
processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and in
accordance with Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation). As a data
subject, you have the right of access, the right to rectification, the right to erasure,
the right to restrict processing, the right to data portability, the right to object, and
the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing. If you
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have a question about personal data processing or want to exercise your data subject
rights, you can contact our Data Protection Officer at dpo@eitmanufacturing.eu. In
the case of complaints, you can address them to the French regulator CNIL.
The collected personal data will be used solely for the procedure and assessment of
the applications and the management, completion, organisation, dissemination of
information, and publicity of the Call. The data controller is EIT Manufacturing and/or
its subsidiaries.
Personal data shall be deleted 5 years after the announcement of the call awarded to
applicants.
Applicants can indicate that EIT Manufacturing may grant access to parts of their
submission to trusted investors and partners.
The application submission and evaluation process will be done via Submittable
(http://www.submittable.com), an online submission management tool by
Submittable Holdings, Inc.
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EIT Manufacturing also reserves the right to cancel or declare the Call unsuccessful
provided all applicants are informed and sufficient justification is given (for example
no applications received, or all applications do not pass the default thresholds).
7.7 Confidentiality
EIT Manufacturing undertakes to use any Confidential Information shared by the
applicants solely for Accelerate Call. Confidential information shall mean data and/or
information that is proprietary to, or possessed by, the applicants and not generally
known to the public, or that has not yet been revealed whether in tangible or
intangible form, whenever and however disclosed and might also be included in the
application form. Confidential information must be expressly labelled as such in the
application form.
Applicants agree that EIT Manufacturing and its subsidiaries can disseminate, publish,
and make use of non-confidential information regarding the call, to promote the
activities of EIT Manufacturing or establish reports or other necessary documents for
EIT.
The applicants agree that data and information in the application form not labelled as
confidential may be disclosed in connection with the activities of EIT Manufacturing.
Considering the confidential nature of the data and information referred to above,
EIT Manufacturing also undertakes to (i) not disclose them in any way and any form,
without the prior written authorization of the company concerned; and (ii) not to use
them for purposes other than those strictly necessary for participation in the
Accelerate Call.
Confidential Information may be shared among EIT Manufacturing and its subsidiaries
(e.g., CLCs (Co Location Centers)) solely for the Accelerate Call Activity. EIT
Manufacturing undertakes to impose this confidentiality obligation on its employees
and the employees of its subsidiaries and its collaborators, as well as on Rapporteurs
and independent experts and all subjects who, by virtue of participating in the call for
proposal as members of the Selection Committees or Jury, will take knowledge of or
may have access to such confidential data and information.
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7.8 Exclusion Criteria
Start-ups applying or participating in the program can be excluded at any time (during
the assessment, the contracting phase, or the implementation phase) if they are in
any of the situations of exclusion defined in Article 136 of the EU Financial Regulation.
Applicants shall sign a Declaration of Honour to confirm that they respect the above-
mentioned criteria at the application stage. All applicants may be requested to
provide relevant recent documentation substantiating the Declaration of Honour.
Failure to provide adequate documentation may result in the exclusion of the
applicants concerned.
The present guidelines are governed by the applicable European Union laws (i.e., the
EIT Regulation, the EU Financial Regulation, and the Horizon Europe Regulation) and
are complemented, where necessary, by the law of France. The applicants agree to
observe the obligations outlined in the (Model) Grant Agreement signed between the
EIT and EIT Manufacturing and particularly Articles 12 (conflict of interest), 13
(confidentiality and security), 14 (ethics), 17.2 (visibility), 18 (specific rules for carrying
out action), 19 (information) and 20 (record-keeping). These obligations will also be
mentioned in the contracts to be signed if the application is successful.
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