1. In the rules of the call, it is stated that the applications must be submitted online. Is there a place to submit the application on the website, or shall we just send it through?

   Applications have to be submitted by e-mail at: openaire[at]corallia.org in PDF form accompanied with the related Annexes of the Open Call.

2. Is it necessary to submit all the Annexes together with the 10 pages application form or are there to be submitted later?

   Each Application has to be followed by the Annexes that concern each team. Not all the Annexes are related to the profile of the participants. Thus, each applicant has to choose carefully the Annexes that will accompany its Application.

3. Our company is currently in the process of being registered. Shall we apply as a team of natural persons or as a company in the process of registration?

   Each Applicant/team has to deposit its Application by taking into consideration the legal status of their team the closing day of the Tender.

4. How do I submit my application?

   Applications shall be submitted by e-mail at together with all the necessary documents (Annexes) related to the profile of the Applicant.

5. Is there a recorded version of the Open Consultation Market Debate?

   Yes, interested applicants may find a recorded version of the discussions:

1. Online session
2. Next Generation Repositories
3. Services and OpenAIRE Graph

   6. Where I can find the document entitled Economic offer in order to sign it?

The economic offer can be described at the Annex 5b.

   7. Is the pen signature sufficient or do we need to sign the PDF also digitally?

The pen signature is sufficient.

   8. The mail for the submission of the application has to contain one single zip archive with the pdfs or the applicant needs to attach every single doc to the mail?

The applicant may choose what is more convenient to him/her. Both ways are acceptable.

   9. What does it mean that “OpenAIRE will allocate a total budget of €360,000 to successful project proposals”?

It means that OpenAIRE has a total budget equal up to 360.000,00 € which will be allocated through this Open Call for Tenders to successful applicants.

  10. A winning team can be awarded up to 60.000 euros?

Yes. Each applicant can submit a Proposal for being funded for up to 60.000,00 € maximum. Thus, a Proposal may not exceed this amount for completing all the 3 Phases. An applicant can, however, apply for a grant less than 60 K.

*Tenders may be submitted by a single entity or in collaboration with others. The latter can involve either submitting a joint tender or subcontracting) - please, see par. 3.1 of the Open Call for Tenders.

  11. Which is the meaning of the phrase "Contractors are notified as to whether they have completed this phase satisfactorily and successfully."?

This section is explicitly explained in the section 5.5 of the Open Call for Tenders. Successful applicants will be evaluated at the end of each Phase of the Open Call. More in particular:

Satisfactory completion in each of the phases does not mean successful completion. A Phase of the Open Call could, for instance, be satisfactorily completed even if it concludes that the innovation is not feasible. 

The assessment will consider the efforts made by contractors to take into account the feedback from the supervisor or the monitoring team.

Where the assessment committee judges the completion of deliverables or milestones to be unsatisfactory, the possible consequences are at a first place, reduce or withdrawal of the payment for that phase and at a second level (in case no remedies take place by the contractor) termination of the contract.

Eligibility for participation in the next phase will be subject to successful completion of the current phase.

Note: There is a difference between satisfactory completion (requirement for payment) and successful completion (prerequisite for passing from one phase to the next).

   12. Shall we budget to pay for the VAT out of our winnings?

According to the Open Call for Tenders (section 4.3),  the fixed total price is stated as being “Delivery Duty Paid” (DDP) for all deliverables, exclusive of import duties and VAT. The price furthermore includes all costs relative to the Contractor’s obligations.

Note: All contractors will be paid by the procurer (centralized payments) thus it will be the VAT regime of the procurer that applies. 

In other words, if an applicant is subject to VAT, it has to include it in the price that he/she will declare. If not, the applicant does not have to do it.

 *We suggest you to check whether the VAT regime applies for you in the provision of services within the EU.

13. Eligibility criteria

Applicant's cannot be associated to OpenAIRE partners, i.e. work for a partner of have other contractual relationship with them.
a. Does it mean the proposal would be rejected if the applicant aims to set up a consortium with one or more OpenAIRE partners?
b. Is a MoU between the applicant and OpenAIRE an exclusion criterion?
Any and all, contractual or not, relations, connections, affiliations, dependencies, agreements etc. with any OpenAIRE party should be disclosed and substantiated by the applicants in order to be assessed on grounds of conflict of interest. No preliminary assessment can be provided at this stage, given that such authority falls within the scope of the pertinent committee and Athena RC Board of Directors.

14. Would the OpenAIRE-Advance team consider given an extension for the submission of proposals?

Regarding the prolongation of the deadline, we strongly advise you to proceed to the submission by taking into consideration the initial deadline issued by the Open Call: 12.12.2019 – 17h00 CET.
Potential extension will be considered at the end of the deadline.

15. Is the inclusion of more detailed metadata (the abstracts for projects) on the roadmap for Openaire, they currently don’t appear to be in the api. If so, is there a timeline for this inclusion?

There are abstracts for H2020 and a few other funders. For FP7 we will have them, but priority is low, so we do not have a date. Abstracts are not visible via the index but they are available in the data.

 16. We are a research lab, and we do not plan commercial exploitation. So we would provide the project outcome to OpenAIRE for maintenance free of charge. What should we write in this case to Business Plan and Business model canvas sections?

Please, consult the page 25 of the Open Call: Tenderers that do not comply with the selection criteria will be excluded. Part of the selection criteria is the completion of the Business Model Canvas.
The fact that you would like to provide the project outcome free of charge does not mean that it would not be valuable to the users. Thus, we recommend you to mention in the relevant section which would be the value for the OpenAIRE community and to what it is consisted of.

17. Template of Annex 5a doesn't provide a section to fill in with responsible data, signature and stamp. Annex 4 and 5b do have such sections. Does this mean that Annex 5a doesn't have to be signed?

Annex 5a doesn’t have to be signed. However, applicants have to submit it in a PDF form.