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Open until June 30, 2025

Korea-Czech Bilateral Co-funding R&D projects 2024

A Call for Proposals for Joint R&D Projects between the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic (TA CR) and the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology (KIAT) is hereby announced. Joint R&D projects will be focused on specific outcomes in the field of applied research, i.e. they will lead to achieving new findings and skills for the development of new or significantly improved products, processes or services, and new product, process or services. Beneficiaries are expected to develop applied results.

Areas of R&D projects :

All areas are mutually accepted. However, projects for products or services in the following topics are particularly appreciated:

1. Green Car and automobile parts
2. Green Machinery
3. Electronics/Electrical engineering
4. ICT (including cybersecurity)
5. AI
6. Robotics and cybernetics

Within this call for proposals, TA CR cannot solely support defence projects and medical
research projects with a predominance of clinical studies activities, as these areas are being
supported by different funding institutions/schemes in the Czech Republic.

Applicant Eligibility :

Applicants shall take the form of consortiums consisting of R&D participants based in the Czech Republic making up one side of the partnership, and R&D participants based in Korea making up the other side of the partnership.

Czech
An enterprise, regardless of the size, must be the main applicant on the Czech side. Universities or research organizations may apply for the SIGMA Programme funding only provided that the consortium constitutes at least one Czech company.

Korea
The Korean lead organization must be a company that operates a research institute or department as its subsidiary. Companies, universities, research institutes, research associations, business associations, and medical institutions may apply as participating organizations.

All Czech and Korean applicants are subjected to initial screening which examines the institution’s capability to carry out the project. Examination criteria include, but are not limited to, bankruptcy history, disposition for tax delinquency, default history of the head of the enterprise, debt ratio, review of the recent financial statement in terms of capital erosion, etc. Failure in any of the criteria will disqualify the applicant and the respective proposal will not proceed to the next step of proposal evaluation.

Programme Procedure and Schedule :

Launch of the Call : (CZ) May.15, 2024 / (KR) May.16, 2024
Project Submission deadline: Jul.17, 2024
Evaluation period : ~Nov.15, 2024
Final and binding results announcement : Nov.29, 2024
Project Kickoff & Start of funding : (CZ) Jan, 2025 / (KR) Dec, 2024

Project duration and funding :
The TA CR and KIAT will fund the respective nationals in the selected consortia in accordance with their national/regional funding rules. Supplementary funding may come from the participant’s own resources should the total project cost exceed the government funding. Matching funds are the basis of the funding scheme but flexibility in the funding ratio may be allowed depending on the roles each participant undertakes.

Information about the Czech funding scheme “SIGMA” is available [here]

Information about the Korean funding scheme is available [here]

Czech
Budget and intensity of support
- The total max. budget of the 2024 bilateral call for proposals under the SIGMA programme for nuclear research cooperation is 75 mil. CZK (approx. 3.2 mil. USD).
- The max. budget per project is 20 mil. CZK (approx. 850 000 USD).
- The subsidy is provided annually on a grant basis.
- The project funding limitation is derived from the (EU) No 651/20144.
- Should the project be found to be disqualified from the interim evaluations, the TA CR may retrieve the unused government funding.
- Funding will be awarded with a funding intensity of up to 75 %. Funding intensity per each project participant follows the EU rules.
- Eligible project costs include personal costs, subcontracting costs, other direct costs, and stipends.

Project duration
- The project must begin between January & February 2025 and end either by December 31, 2027, or January 31, 2028 (based on the project start date).
- The TA CR will award funding from January 2025 following the conclusion of an agreement on the provision of funding with the main beneficiary.
- Government contribution is available for 36 months maximum.

Korea
Budget and intensity of support
- The total maximum number of projects receiving funding under the Korean-Czech joint call is one.
- Funding will be awarded not to exceed KRW 1,500 million (appx USD 1,118,4185) per project for the entire duration of the project (funding will be paid on a yearly basis).
- The subsidy is provided on a grant basis.
- Should the project be found to be disqualified during the project period, KIAT may retrieve the government funding.

- Project funding consists of government contributions and civilian dues (cash and in-kind). The amount of government contributions will vary depending on the type of executing organizations and projects in accordance with Article 24 (Funding criteria) and Article 25 (Civilian dues) of the Common Operational Regulations for the Industrial Technology Innovation Programs.

Project duration
- The project must start on 1st December 2024.
- KIAT will award funding from December 2024 following the conclusion of an agreement on the provision of funding with the lead applicant.
- Government contribution is available for 36 months maximum.

Proposal Submission :

By the Call Deadline on 17 July 2024, the main applicants from both countries shall file to the respective organization the documents as follows:

1. A Common Proposal, written in the English language. The proposal shall be signed by all participants (both Czech and Korean).
2. Funding documents as required by the respective organization pursuant to the rules set forth within.

Czech
- Czech applicants shall upload a complete funding application at the time of the proposal submission.
More information is available [here] (CZ) or [here] (ENG).
- Consultation at an early stage (before the call is launched) is highly recommended.

After the call launch only consultations via the official TA CR online helpdesk (https://helpdesk.tacr.cz/) are available in order to secure the same access to information to all applicants.

Korea
- Korean participants shall upload a complete funding application at the time of the proposal submission.
- Consultation at an early stage (before the call is launched) is highly recommended.
- Additional documents related to the evaluation process will be required.

Contacts :