# C_2010048EN.01000701.xml

| 26.2.2010 | EN | Official Journal of the European Union | C 48/7 |
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26.2.2010

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 48/7

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Call for proposals 2010 for indirect actions under the multi-annual Community Programme on protecting children using the Internet and other communication technologies — Safer Internet

(Text with EEA relevance)

2010/C 48/07

1.   In accordance with Decision No 1351/2008/EC of 16 December 2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council adopting a multi-annual Community Programme on protecting children using the Internet and other communication technologies (1) (Safer Internet), the European Commission hereby invites proposals for actions to be financed under the programme.

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Safer Internet is based on four actions:

| (a) | ensuring public awareness; |
| --- | --- |

(a)

ensuring public awareness;

| (b) | fighting against illegal content and tackling harmful conduct online; |
| --- | --- |

(b)

fighting against illegal content and tackling harmful conduct online;

| (c) | promoting a safer online environment; |
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(c)

promoting a safer online environment;

| (d) | establishing a knowledge base. |
| --- | --- |

(d)

establishing a knowledge base.

The programme is a successor of the Safer Internet plus programme (2005-2008).

2.   In conformity with Article 3 of the European Parliament and Council Decision, a Work Programme (2) was drawn up by the European Commission to serve as the basis for implementing the programme in 2010. The Work Programme contains further information about the objectives, priorities, indicative budget and types of actions referred to in this call notice and the eligibility rules for taking part.

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3.   Information on how to prepare and submit proposals and on the evaluation process is given in the Guide for Proposers (3).

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This documentation can be obtained, along with the Work Programme and any other information relating to this call, from the European Commission using the following address:

| European Commission |
| --- |
| Directorate-General for the Information Society and Media |
| Safer Internet |
| EUFO 1195 |
| Rue Alcide de Gasperi |
| 2920 Luxembourg |
| LUXEMBOURG |
| Fax +352 4301-34079 |
| E-mail: saferinternet@ec.europa.eu |
| Internet: http://ec.europa.eu/saferinternet |

European Commission

Directorate-General for the Information Society and Media

Safer Internet

EUFO 1195

Rue Alcide de Gasperi

2920 Luxembourg

LUXEMBOURG

Fax +352 4301-34079

E-mail: saferinternet@ec.europa.eu

Internet: http://ec.europa.eu/saferinternet

4.   Proposals may be made for the call parts identified below. Applicants wishing to make proposals for more than one call part should make separate proposals for each part.

5.   The indicative total budget available for this call under the 2010 budget is EUR 3 million of Community contribution.

Grants to proposals submitted in response to this call will be awarded through grant agreements.

The evaluation of proposals will give rise to a list of proposals to be funded. This list may be complemented by a reserve list of proposals of sufficient quality, to be funded in case of budget availability.

6.   The call for proposals under this Work Programme is open to all legal entities established in the Member States. It is also open to participation of legal entities established in EFTA States which are contracting parties to the EEA Agreement (Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein).

It is further open to participation of legal entities established in other countries under the conditions set out in Article 2 of the Programme Decision (4), provided that a bilateral agreement is signed. If proposals submitted by legal entities from these countries are selected for funding, a grant agreement will only be signed once the necessary steps have been taken for the country concerned to join the Programme through signature of a bilateral agreement. Up to date information on which countries are part of the Programme is available on the programme website at http://ec.europa.eu/saferinternet

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Legal entities established in non-EU countries other than those referred to above and international organisations may take part in all projects at their own expense.

PART 1

CALL PARTS

CALL PARTS

Action 1 and action 2:   ENSURING PUBLIC AWARENESS and FIGHTING AGAINST ILLEGAL CONTENT AND HARMFUL CONDUCT ONLINE

Action 1 and action 2

7.   Identifier: 1.1. INTEGRATED NETWORK: SAFER INTERNET CENTRES

The Programme promotes the set up of Safer Internet Centres all across Europe to coordinate activities and to bring together a variety of stakeholders to ensure action and facilitate transfer of knowledge.

All Safer Internet Centres will perform awareness-raising activities among parents, carers, teachers and children in close cooperation with all relevant actors at European, regional and local levels, addressing issues related to content considered unsuitable for children. For instance racism and xenophobia, bullying and harassment, grooming, use of peer-to-peer services, broadband video, instant messaging, chat-rooms, social networking sites and access to content and interactive information and communication brought about by the rapid take-up of Internet, mobiles and game consoles by children. The actions take into account related issues of consumer protection, data protection, information, network security issues (viruses/spam).

In addition, the Safer Internet Centres should also include (a) hotlines where the public can report illegal content; and/or (b) helplines where parents and children can obtain advice on how to deal with harmful contact (grooming), harmful conduct (cyberbullying), harmful content and uncomfortable or scary experiences related to their use of online technologies.

The tasks of the Safer Internet Centres are set out in further detail in the Work Programme.

Funding at 50 % of eligible costs (which may be increased to 75 % for public bodies, SMEs and non-profit organisations).

The call 2010 will only be open for:

| — | proposals for setting up a Safer Internet Centre in the countries where no Safer Internet Centre was recommended for funding under the 2009 call (5), |
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proposals for setting up a Safer Internet Centre in the countries where no Safer Internet Centre was recommended for funding under the 2009 call (5),

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| — | proposals for adding hotlines to Safer Internet Centres which were recommended for funding under the 2009 call, |
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proposals for adding hotlines to Safer Internet Centres which were recommended for funding under the 2009 call,

| — | proposals for adding helpline to Safer Internet Centres which were recommended for funding under the 2009 call. |
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proposals for adding helpline to Safer Internet Centres which were recommended for funding under the 2009 call.

Action 3:   FIGHTING AGAINST ILLEGAL CONTENT AND HARMFUL CONDUCT ONLINE

Action 3

8.   Identifier: 2.5. THEMATIC NETWORK: FACILITATING COOPERATION OF LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES IN EUROPE AND INTERNATIONALLY

Proposals will be invited for a thematic network to stimulate organised and extensive cross-border exchange of best practice between law enforcement agencies in the fight against production and online distribution of child sexual abuse material within Europe and internationally. The expected result is a coordinated approach across Europe and globally targeted at limiting the distribution of child sexual abuse material, with the effect of reduction of the amount of material that is produced and distributed through communication technologies. This coordinated approach will include the establishment of a European list of URLs which contain child sexual abuse images, which is accessible for national Law Enforcement Agencies.

Funding at 100 % of a reduced set of eligible costs (direct costs of co-ordinating and implementing the network) for thematic networks.

9.   Identifier: 2.6. ENHANCING LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES’ ANALYSIS OF ILLEGAL MATERIAL WITHIN PEER-TO-PEER (P2P) NETWORKS

Proposals will be invited for a targeted project that could enhance the analysis of child sexual abuse material by law enforcement authorities, aiming at developing or enhancing technological tools for the specific needs of the police, aiming at identifying and facilitating the analysis of evidence material found in P2P networks. The tools would help to cope with the sheer volume of illegal material found on P2P networks identifying and improving ways of distinguishing likely illegal material for further examination by law enforcement, or by linking different pieces of evidences together.

Proposals are invited from law enforcement agencies, research institutions (public and private), technology suppliers and engineering companies within the fields of content-based information retrieval, computer vision, in particular facial recognition, age estimation based on pictures or videos, pattern recognition, geographic localisation techniques, image enhancement from distorted image/video etc.

Funding at 50 % of eligible costs (which may be increased to 75 % for public bodies, SMEs and non-profit organisations).

Action 4:   ESTABLISHING A KNOWLEDGE BASE

Action 4

10.   Identifier: 4.1. KNOWLEDGE ENHANCEMENT PROJECT: INTERNET ADDICTION

Proposals are invited for a knowledge enhancement project on Internet addiction of minors. The expected outcome of the project is to understand to what extent Internet addiction is an online risk among minors in Europe, in terms of both intensity and prevalence and how it develops and can be prevented.

Findings would feed into child welfare work, and awareness-raising as well as providing topics for further actions and studies.

The methodology of the project should involve both a quantitative as well as qualitative approach. The qualitative part should involve minors who show signs of addictive Internet use.

Knowledge enhancement projects will be funded at 100 % of direct eligible costs (as defined in the model grant agreement), but without indirect costs (overheads).

11.   Identifier: 4.2. THEMATIC NETWORK: STIMULATING AND COORDINATING INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF NEW MEDIA BY CHILDREN

Proposals are invited for a thematic network to bring together social scientists and experts engaged in the field of child safety online at EU level in order to stimulate and coordinate investigation in Member States into the way people, especially children, use new media, with the purpose of identifying areas of particular concern for child safety and of recommending effective ways of raising awareness and other practical action in the field.

The network should gather and promote existing research in the EU (including through a common repository), analyse the results and identify key gaps in the evidence base.

The network should share expertise and develop or keep up to date with high quality and innovative research standards.

The network will encourage new research to be carried out in Europe on a comparable basis taking into account the methodological framework (research guide) developed by the EUKidsOnline project. The national network members should liaise with other research teams in their country and cooperate with national Safer Internet Centres (in particular awareness centres).

Funding at 100 % of a reduced set of eligible costs (direct costs of coordinating and implementing the network) for thematic networks.

PART 2

EVALUATION CRITERIA

EVALUATION CRITERIA

The evaluation of proposals will be based on the principles of transparency and equality of treatment. It will be carried out by the Commission with the assistance of independent experts. Each submission will be assessed on the basis of the evaluation criteria, which are divided in three categories: eligibility criteria, award criteria, selection criteria. Only proposals meeting the requirements of the eligibility criteria shall be evaluated further. The description of these criteria is presented below.

12.   Eligibility criteria

Eligibility criteria

On receipt, all proposals and applications will be subject to an eligibility check, to ensure that they conform to the requirements of the call, and to the submission procedure.

The following checks will be carried out:

| — | receipt of proposal by the Commission on or before the deadline date and time established in the call, |
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receipt of proposal by the Commission on or before the deadline date and time established in the call,

| — | proposal completeness. Proposals which are substantially incomplete — that is to say that the forms do not include sufficient information to identify the partners, their legal status and to evaluate the scope of the proposed project — will be excluded. |
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proposal completeness. Proposals which are substantially incomplete — that is to say that the forms do not include sufficient information to identify the partners, their legal status and to evaluate the scope of the proposed project — will be excluded.

In addition, proposers must certify that they are not in one of the situations listed in the Work Programme which would exclude them from participation.

13.   Award criteria

Award criteria

In order to evaluate the relative merit of proposals received, each means to implement the programme (integrated networks, targeted projects and thematic networks) will have its specific set of award criteria, with specific weightings. The description of these award criteria is presented in the Safer Internet 2010 Work Programme.

14.   Selection criteria

Selection criteria

Selection criteria will ensure that the applicants possess the resources to co-finance the project and the professional competencies and qualifications required to complete the work successfully.

Selection criteria are applied on the basis of the information supplied in the proposal. If this identifies cases of weak financial capacity or professional competence it may necessitate compensating actions such as financial guarantees or other actions. Successful proposals called to negotiations will be the subject of a formal legal and financial validation as a requirement to the issuing of a grant agreement.

The description of the selection criteria is presented in the Safer Internet 2010 Work Programme.

PART 3

ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS AND DEADLINE

ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS AND DEADLINE

15.   Proposals must be prepared using the forms in the Guide for proposers, and sent on paper in one (1) original and five (5) copies, accompanied by an electronic copy on CD-Rom, to the Commission at the following address:

| European Commission |
| --- |
| Directorate-General for the Information Society and Media |
| Safer Internet |
| Office EUFO 1194 |
| Rue Alcide de Gasperi |
| 2920 Luxembourg |
| LUXEMBOURG |

European Commission

Directorate-General for the Information Society and Media

Safer Internet

Office EUFO 1194

Rue Alcide de Gasperi

2920 Luxembourg

LUXEMBOURG

16.   Deadline for receipt of all proposals: 27 May 2010 at 17.00 (Luxembourg local time).

27 May 2010 at 17.00 (Luxembourg local time)

Proposals arriving later than the deadline, or sent by fax or e-mail will be excluded.

17.   Indicative evaluation and selection timetable: the evaluation will take place within two months from the closing date of this call. Applicants will be informed on the results of their application after the evaluation has taken place. The timing of some new projects will take account of existing contracts so as to ensure the most efficient use of funding.

18.   In all correspondence relating to this call (e.g. when requesting information or submitting a proposal) please make sure to cite the applicable call part identifier.

In submitting a proposal, applicants accept the procedures and conditions as described in this call and in the documents to which it refers.

All proposals received by the European Commission will be treated in strict confidence.

The European Community pursues an equal opportunities policy and, in this context, women are particularly encouraged to either submit proposals or to be involved in their submission.

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(1)  OJ L 348, 24.12.2008, p. 118.

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(2)  Commission Decision C(2009) 8301 of 29.10.2009, http://ec.europa.eu/saferinternet

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(3)  http://ec.europa.eu/saferinternet

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(4)  Decision No 1351/2008/EC (OJ L 348, 24.12.2008, p. 118).

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(5)  Information about which proposals have been recommended for funding will be given on our website http://ec.europa.eu/saferinternet after the evaluation of the 2009 Call for proposals has been finalised early 2010.

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