Topic Description

Technologies and innovations in the field of CBRN are developed by SMEs or larger companies which often face difficulties in bringing them to markets: because they address local, small niche markets; or because these SMEs have neither the capabilities nor the strategic objective to go for foreign markets; or because the individual technologies that they develop can make it to the market only if integrated and combined with other tools by other companies that have the capabilities and the strategy to market its products abroad, and possibly on the global market.

Such synergies among companies are not frequent in the area of CBRN technologies, which is to the detriment of industrial competitiveness, and which limits considerably the offer made to the practitioners if one compares with the actual technological state-of-the-art.

A CBRN cluster could articulate two kinds of actions:

Part a) (2016): A CSA supported by a "complementary grant"^[1] will gather the largest number of European companies capable and willing to market their products globally (e.g. companies producing integrated equipment for First Responder's, CBRN software systems, detectors, decontaminators, waste management and encapsulation equipment). The participants in the CSA will provide platforms (toolkits and systems in the field of CBRN) in which to integrate the technologies and innovations developed by other companies under Part B). They will develop interfaces with financial institutions potentially interested in the sector, including through InnovFin instruments and accompanying measures. ^[2] The CSA will issue a list of technologies that need to be developed with a view to integrating them into the platforms, possibly building upon the inventory developed by the EDEN project^[3] once made public. The CSA will deliver the first version of the catalogue on time for use in the implementation of Part b). The participants in the CSA will provide commercial and other services enabling access to the global market for the results of the RIA selected for support under Part b). The CSA will report publicly on its discussions, and assess and provide feedback on the impact of the business deals implemented with the research and innovation activities led by SMEs under Part b) of this topic.

Part b) (2017): Several RIA aiming at research and development of novel CBRN technologies and innovations identified in the above-mentioned catalogue will be selected by the European Commission. Each of these actions will be led by an SME. Each consortium implementing such a RIA must not only establish a consortium agreement among its members, but also a collaboration agreement with the participants in the CSA supported through Part a). Such a collaboration agreement must settle how the results from the RIA will be exploited and integrated into platforms managed by the CSA.

The outcome of the proposal is expected to lead to development up to Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 4 to 7 for the RIA under part b); please see part G of the General Annexes.

Indicative budget: The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of about € 2 million per action in 2016 and about € 3.5 million per action in 2017 would allow for this topic to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

The following options of the Model Grant Agreement will be implemented:

• For grants awarded under this topic SEC-05-DRS-05-2016-2017 part a), beneficiaries will be subject to the following additional obligations aiming to ensure exploitation of its results: the CSA must commit to issue: at months 3 and 9 each year, during at least four years of activities, the catalogue of technologies mentioned in the scope of this topic and to make it available upon request; at month 6 each year, the reports of their discussions; and at month 12 each year, the above-mentioned assessment of impact. The respective option on additional exploitation obligations of Article 28.1 of the Model Grant Agreement will be applied.
• For grants awarded under this topic SEC-05-DRS-05-2016-2017 part b) option 1 of Article 41.3 of the Model Grant Agreement will be applied.
• Grants awarded under this topic SEC-05-DRS-05-2016-2017 part a) will be complementary to the grant agreements under SEC-05-DRS-05-2016-2017 part b). The respective options of Article 2 and Article 41.4 of the Model Grant Agreement^[4] will be applied
• Grants awarded under this topic SEC-05-DRS-05-2016-2017 part b) will be complementary to the grant agreement under SEC-05-DRS-05-2016-2017 part a). The respective options of Article 2, Article 31.6 and Article 41.4 of the Model Grant Agreement^[4] will be applied

• Shorter time to market for novel CBRN technologies and innovations, and more business deals leading to industrial products of interest to more practitioners in Europe (and world-wide).

The larger the number of European companies involved in the CSA, the higher its impact will be.

In 2016 only, this activity directly aimed at supporting the development and implementation of evidence base for R&I policies and supporting various groups of stakeholders is excluded from the delegation to the Research Executive Agency and will be implemented by the Commission services.

[1]See Model Grant Agreement

[2]^{http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/news/innovfin-%E2%80%93-eu-finance-innovators-new-financial-instruments-help-innovative-firms-access-finance}

[3]https://www.eden-security-fp7.eu/

[4]http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/grants_manual/amga/h2020-amga_en.pdf

[5]http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/grants_manual/amga/h2020-amga_en.pdf