Source: EURLEX
Language: en
Format: md

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| 17.4.2023 | EN | Official Journal of the European Union | C 133/2 |

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Call for proposals

GR/003/23

Intellectual Property Awareness Raising Activities

(2023/C 133/02)

1.   Objectives and description

For Strands A and B

The call for proposals in respect of these strands aims to raise awareness about the benefits of protecting IP rights and about the damage caused by the infringement of these rights by highlighting the importance of IP in supporting creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship to young Europeans. It intends to increase knowledge and engage priority audiences to foster respect for IP, with a view to ultimately changing people’s behaviour: reducing their purchases of counterfeit goods or their accessing digital content from illegal sources.

The call’s specific objectives are to:

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| 1. | increase knowledge of the value of IP as a tool to protect creativity and innovation by providing concrete and objective information about IP in this context and raising awareness of the risks and damages caused by IP rights infringement; |

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| 2. | engage priority audiences regarding these issues, taking relevant opportunities for leverage into account, and especially how audiences expect to be addressed on these matters (non-patronising, objective and neutral) with a view to changing behaviour and reducing the appeal of counterfeiting and piracy. |

For Strand C

The call for proposals in respect of this strand aims to raise awareness among SMEs about the benefits of creating, exploiting and protecting IP rights as part of their business’ activities and strategies. It intends to increase the numbers of SMEs taking advantage of the opportunities offered by IP rights through the building of knowledge and skills, while also seeking to involve influential partners. Overall, the core goal is to raise awareness of the benefits of IP rights for SMEs. As such, the specific objectives of the call for this strand are to:

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| 1. | improve IP awareness, knowledge and skills among EU SMEs; |

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| 2. | help EU SMEs learn how to successfully use IP to strengthen and grow their businesses, including valorising their intangible assets; |

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| 3. | support EU SMEs in enforcing their IP rights and the benefits to be gained from this; |

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| 4. | engage EU SMEs regarding IP matters, taking relevant opportunities for leverage into account. |

Targeted projects by strand:

Strand A: reaching out to children, young people and/or teachers/future teachers through educational activities in academic and non-academic learning environments. Strand A aims to complement and build on the IP in education project.

(Available budget: EUR 400 000)

Specifications

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| — | Scope: educational actions inside and outside school targeting children aged approximately 6 to 18, but also young people in vocational and tertiary education and/or current or future educational professionals who are or will be directly engaging with children and young people (train the trainers). |

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| — | Activities suggested must be in line with the new ‘Key Competences for Lifelong Learning’ approved by the Council on Education of 22 May 2018, and with the new Digital Education Action Plan (2021-2027) issued by the European Commission in September 2020 and, in particular, with the importance of IP to support creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship and responsible digital engagement among young Europeans. |

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| — | Official involvement of institutions, such as a ministry of education or other relevant policymakers/stakeholders, to approve the programme and disseminate it. |

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| — | Involvement of teachers and/or academic experts in the development of materials or educational activities. |

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| — | Proven track record developing education programmes or materials for schools or universities by the applicant. |

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| — | The eligible awareness-raising activities must be delivered through two or more of the four channels specified in point 2.2. |

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| — | Please see point 2.2 for complementary information. |

Strand B: reaching out to consumers (especially young consumers).

(Available budget: EUR 600 000)

Specifications

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| — | Scope: awareness raising activities targeting consumers, especially young consumers from 15 to 24. |

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| — | Activities must be cross-border and involve several EU Member States (to be implemented in at least three). |

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| — | Involvement of relevant leverage partners for dissemination and reach to the target audiences (influencers such as bloggers or artists and multipliers such as relevant media, public authorities, consumer organisations, etc.). |

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| — | Originality and modern/creative methods using new technologies and a digital approach are preferable. |

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| — | The eligible awareness-raising activities must be delivered through two or more of the four channels specified in point 2.2. |

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| — | Please see point 2.2 for complementary information. |

Strand C: reaching out to SMEs.

(Available budget: EUR 1 000 000)

Specifications

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| — | Scope: awareness raising activities targeting EU SMEs. |

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| — | Involvement of relevant leverage partners for dissemination and reach to EU SMEs. |

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| — | Originality and modern/creative methods using new technologies and a digital approach are preferable. |

For Strands A & B, the results expected are to:

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| — | reach the EU public and especially priority target groups in an appropriate, affordable way (including by making an optimised use of digital solutions) – the target audience being children and young people at schools and in tertiary education (in curricular and/or in extracurricular learning activities), current or future teachers / academic experts / young educators, as well as consumers (particularly young consumers between 15-24 years); |

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| — | facilitate the engagement of relevant partners and multipliers such as consumer associations, influencers (e.g. bloggers and artists) or other relevant multipliers who can reach the target audience through a clearly defined process; |

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| — | ensure the sustainability and scalability of the project’s results. |

For Strand C, the results expected are to:

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| — | reach EU SMEs, in an appropriate and affordable way, including by making an optimised use of digital solutions; |

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| — | facilitate the engagement of relevant partners and multipliers; |

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| — | ensure the sustainability and scalability of the project’s results; |

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| — | create awareness targeted specifically to the needs and reality of EU SMEs. |

For more details please refer to Chapter I of the Guidelines for applicants.

2.   Eligibility

2.1.   Eligible applicants

Eligible applicants must be: public or private bodies or non-profit making private entities, registered in one of the 27 EU Member States for more than 2 years. Public entities that receive funds or support from the Office by means of other financing measures such as cooperation programmes, which aim to pursue the same objectives as this call, are not eligible (e.g. national and regional IP offices, international organisations).

2.2.   Eligible activities

The maximum duration of projects is 12 months.

The types of activity eligible to be financed under this call for proposals, for both Strand A and Strand B, are awareness-raising activities in line with Chapter I, Sections 3 and 4 of these guidelines, including the following, non-exhaustive examples:

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| — | media and social media activities; |

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| — | production and dissemination of audio-visual materials or publications; |

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| — | organisation of events, fairs, exhibitions or training activities that are part of the specific project; |

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| — | infotainment (debates, youth educational programmes, quizzes, video games or music programmes, etc.); |

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| — | web-based tools, activities, solutions, etc. |

Furthermore, to be eligible for Strand B, the proposed activities must take place in at least three EU Member States.

The eligible awareness-raising activities must be delivered through two or more of the following four channels:

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| — | ‘Events’, |

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| — | ‘Online resources’, |

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| — | ‘Social media’, |

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| — | ‘Traditional media’. |

Please refer to Annex 3 – Performance indicators estimation and assessment for further description and information of channel categories and activities.

For Strand C applicants should carry out the following activities (NB this list of examples is non-exhaustive):

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| — | awareness-raising activities on the value of IP for EU SMEs; |

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| — | activities involving relevant leverage partners for dissemination and reach to EU SMEs; |

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| — | media and social media activities; |

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| — | production and dissemination of audio-visual materials or publications; |

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| — | organisation of events, fairs, exhibitions or training activities that are part of the specific project; |

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| — | web-based tools, activities, solutions, etc. |

Regarding the funding conditions, the activities must comply with the following:

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| — | Strand A: A budget between EUR 20 000 and 60 000. |

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| — | Strand B: A budget between EUR 40 000 and 100 000: |

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| — | Strand C: A budget between EUR 60 000 and 100 000: |

The following activities/projects are ineligible:

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| — | projects concerned only or mainly with individual sponsorships for participation or speaking activities in workshops, seminars, conferences, congresses or any similar events; |

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| — | projects concerned only or mainly with individual scholarships for studies or training; |

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| — | For strand C, activities supported in the frame of the ‘Ideas powered for business SME FUND Intellectual property vouchers’ call for proposals are not eligible under the present call. Please refer to section 1.3. Eligible activities of Call for proposals GR/001/23. |

Applicants can only submit one proposal per strand, but may be eligible for funding in more than one strand under the condition that activities be different and specific for the strands and do not overlap.

For more details please refer to Chapter II of the Guidelines for applicants.

3.   Exclusion & selection criteria

Applicants must not be in a situation that will exclude them from participation and/or from award as defined by the Financial Regulation 2018/1046 [(1)](#ntr1-C_2023133EN.01000201-E0001) applicable to the general budget of the Union and its rules of application.

Applicants must have the financial and operational capacity to complete the proposed activities.

Please refer to Chapter II of the Guidelines for applicants for further details on the supporting documents to be provided.

4.   Award criteria

The award criteria for assessing eligible proposals are allocated out of a total of 100 on the basis of the following weighting:

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| Criteria | Minimum threshold | Maximum score |
| |  |  | | --- | --- | | 1. | Relevance and interest of the project proposal | | 20 | 30 |
| |  |  | | --- | --- | | 2. | Methodology and sustainability | | 20 | 30 |
| |  |  | | --- | --- | | 3. | Dissemination and performance | | 30 | 40 |
| Total | 70 | 100 |

To be considered for funding, proposals must score:

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| — | at least 70 points overall  and |

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| — | at least the minimum points in each of the criteria. |

For more details please refer to Chapter II of the Guidelines for applicants.

5.   Budget

The total budget available for the financing of actions under this call for proposals is estimated at EUR 2 000 000 (strand A: EUR 400 000, strand B: EUR 600 000 and strand C: EUR 1 000 000). This amount will be spread over two budget annualities and the availability of funds corresponding to the budget 2024 will be subject to the adoption of the budget by the Office’s budgetary authority.

The Office reserves the right not to distribute all available funds.

6.   Deadline for submission of applications

The application package is available on the Internet at the following address: https://euipo.europa.eu/ohimportal/en/grants

Applications must be submitted to the EUIPO using the online application form (e-Form) no later than 31 May 2023 at 13:00 (local time).

No other method of submission of an application will be accepted.

Applicants shall ensure that all the documents requested and mentioned in the e-Form are provided.

Applications which do not include all the stipulated annexes and which are not submitted before the deadline will not be considered.

For more details please refer to Chapter IV of the Guidelines for applicants.

7.   Full details

The detailed conditions of this call for proposals can be found in the guidelines for applicants at the following Internet address: https://euipo.europa.eu/ohimportal/en/grants

Applications must comply with all the terms of the guidelines and be submitted on the forms provided.

8.   Contact

For any further information please contact the following mailbox: grants@euipo.europa.eu

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