worth partnership project … · by applying for the worth open call, your project partnership will...

WORTH Partnership Project is funded by COSME Programme

of the European Union for the Competitiveness of

Enterprises and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs)

Last date of revision:

28.09.2017

WORTH PARTNERSHIPPROJECT

Guide for Applicants

Date of last revision:

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28.09.2017

Table of Contents

WORTH Overview........................................................................................................................ 3

Open Call ..................................................................................................................................... 4

Who can Apply?........................................................................................................................... 5

ELIGIBLE APPLICANTS .................................................................................................................. 5

How to Apply? ............................................................................................................................. 6

1st STAGE.............................................................................................................................. 6

Project Development Phase ................................................................................................ 7

2nd STAGE............................................................................................................................. 7

Evaluation Process....................................................................................................................... 8

1st STAGE.............................................................................................................................. 8

2nd STAGE............................................................................................................................. 9

Administrative Duties................................................................................................................ 13

Funding Scheme ........................................................................................................................ 14

Results and Deliverables............................................................................................................ 14

Services Delivery Model ............................................................................................................ 14

Other Considerations ................................................................................................................ 15


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WORTH OverviewWORTH Partnership Project fosters connection opportunities for SMEs and designers

supported by EASME to encourage partnerships from fashion and lifestyle industry to:

- Enhance competitiveness.

- Integrate creativity, design and innovative technologies in SMEs.

- Foster new, innovative or high-added value products, processes, businesses

models or services developed in collaboration between designers and

manufacturers or technology companies.

Sectoral and geographical coverage encompasses Creative-minds, designers, artists,

crafters, start-ups, and SMEs from EU and COSME associated countries from sectors such

as fashion, textile, jewellery, footwear, leather, fur, furniture, home decoration, accessories.

WORTH Partnership Project will support the selected innovative partnerships through:

- A tailor-made coaching on either technical or soft skills to elevate the relevance

of projects and increase their capabilities.

- Facilitating market-positioning and professional links between members of

partnerships from the different rounds of projects and other key players by

organizing networking activities and attendance at relevant industry events,

trade fairs, and relevant exhibitions to showcase the product/prototype

developed. This will entail facilitating professional links between project

partners and other players, such as buyers, retailers, financial intermediaries,

investors, and media, tailored to the specific needs of each partnership to trigger

further potential activities, business cooperation and access to finance.

- Facilitating access to markets by identifying and organising participation of

each of the partnerships in at least two relevant exhibitions or trade fairs to

showcase the results of the partnerships.

- Intellectual property rights organization and guidance.

- Financial support to develop products or prototypes with high-added value and

profitability in terms of innovation.


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Open CallThe WORTH Open Call is seeking applications targeting a combination of designers, SMEs

manufacturers, start-ups and technology firms for innovative projects in fashion and

lifestyle sectors for the reinforcement of the sectors’ innovation, competitiveness &

internationalisation.

Picture 1: Call Process

By applying for the WORTH Open Call, your project partnership will compete to get the

following type of support:

1. Financial support up to 10.000€ (per project) to 150 awarded partnershipsprojects. Some partnerships, that demonstrate the technology and/or materialsto be used in the project development require an extra support, could eventuallybe awarded an extra 20% support. This support will be assessed by the SteeringCommittee.

2. Tailor-made and customized coaching to participants on either technical or softskills to elevate the relevance of projects and increase capabilities of the partners.

3. Facilitation of tailored professional links and market positioning betweenprojects partners and other players (buyers, retailers, financial intermediaries,investors and media) by organizing networking activities, trade fairs/relevantexhibitions and providing links with key stakeholders. With the aim to triggerfurther potential activities, business cooperation and access to finance.


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4. Facilitating access to markets by identifying and organising participation of

each of the partnerships in at least two relevant exhibitions or trade fairs to

showcase results of partnerships.

The standard projects’ duration is set at 9 months. An extraordinary 3 months might be

requested by partnerships and subject to the Steering Committee assessment by

considering the complexity and the TRL of the project.

The WORTH Open Call will have several cut-off dates.

The WORTH Call opens on 18th September 2017 with the first cut-off date 31st ofDecember 2017.

Who can Apply?

ELIGIBLE APPLICANTS

WORTH Project is about collaboration between talented fashion designers, creative

people, manufacturing enterprises (SMEs) and technology firms willing to enter into a

partnership to develop innovative products. WORTH Project aims to increase added value

and impact, through the combination of creativity, teamwork, and commitment.

We invite creatives, designers, artists, crafters, start-ups and Small Medium Sized

Enterprises (SMEs) from fashion and lifestyle industries such as fashion, textile,

jewellery, footwear, eyewear, furniture, fur, leather and home decoration.

In order to apply, potential partners must be eligible individually, the partnership must

also fulfill some eligibility criteria in order to get through all stages of the evaluation

process.

The following eligibility criteria must be individually met:

• Applicants must be a SME (under de EU definition)1, a start-up, self-employed orprofessional freelancers legally established as a business under the national law andbased in an EU member state (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, CzechRepublic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy,Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania,Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom) or a COSME associatedcountry (Iceland, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the former Yugoslav Republic ofMacedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey, Moldova, Ukraine and Armenia),

• Applicants must be active in an eligible WORTH industry sector,

1 What is an SME? (http://ec.europa.eu/growth/smes/business-friendly-environment/sme-definition_en)

Staff headcount <250 and either Turnover<= €50M or Balance sheet total <=€43M


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• SMEs companies must be legally established for at least six months prior the date ofthe application submission.

• Self-employed applicants must be legally established according to the laws of eachparticipating country from the signature of the Grant Contract or Agreement andduring the whole duration of the partnership project. For self-employed applicants, itis not required the legal establishment six months prior the date of the applicationsubmission.

• Applicants must have completed the application form in full conformity,

• Applicants must have attached the– signed - Declaration of Honour to theirapplication.

The following eligibility criteria must be met by the partnership:• The WORTH Call is open to partnerships formed by, at least, two legal entities

which must come from different sectors. (Maximum 3 partners per proposal)

• Partners must come from at least 2 different EU member states or COSME associatedcountries.

• Research organisations (research centres, universities, etc.) can participate in apartnership project but cannot be the lead partner.

• Partnerships’ proposals must deliver an innovative, cutting-edge product, processor service in the fashion and lifestyle industry value chain.

• No Technology Readiness Level (TRL) is required. The selection will be based on theexcellence of the proposed idea to address the identified challenge, the maturity andthe management capacity of the team to drive the project to the market, and thepotential of the proposed solution to scale-up to the international market.

• Already existing products without a clear advance or innovation beyond the state-of-art will be rejected.

• Project activities that have already been funded or are being funded will be rejected.Double funding is not allowed.

• Each partner can participate in more than 1 partnership proposal per cutoff date.

How to Apply?

1st STAGE

All interested partners will be able to submit their application through the WORTH

Platform (http://www.worthproject.eu/participate-copy-copy/#sign) at any time.

Interested applicants will fill in the online application form and upload the supporting

documents (Declaration of Honour, signed by the legal representative of the applicant).

Application forms must be filled out in English.

Partners can register even if they do not have a specific project idea or an ally to submit

the project partnership proposal. The Consortium will provide them support in the

development of the idea and find the suitable partner to work with. The submission of the

expression of interest must be a partnership project proposal.


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After the submission, the performance of the eligibility check takes place and applicants

are informed by email about their eligibility/ineligibility, in 5 working days at maximum.

Project Development Phase

After this 1st stage, the eligible applicants will gain access to the Gallery, by completing their

profile (http://www.worthproject.eu/register-copy/), as well as they will get full access to

other participants’ profiles. Partnerships are formed by at least 2 or 3 members.

To co-develop the project application 2nd stage. WORTH project

([email protected]), will provide assistance and support to partners – when

needed/ requested- to facilitate the partner search process even outside the Gallery and

the further development of the idea.

This is also an ongoing procedure, and as shown in the diagram above, if a partner misses

the opportunity to form a partnership and submit a project, the profile remains active on

the Gallery and it keeps searching for partners for the next cut-off. Same way, if a

partnership is formed on-time to catch a cut-off date but finally loses it, of course, keeps

active on drafting its idea for the next cut-off date.

* the Second stage follows, for those submitted on time.

2nd STAGE

Partnerships are formed at this stage, as well as the co-development of the partnership

project proposal to be submitted for evaluation. Partnerships will fill in the expression of

interest form including a video/presentation explaining their project (in English).

The expressions of interest will be evaluated by the Steering Committee formed by

renowned experts in the fields of fashion, design, technology, business, etc…The Evaluation

criteria can be found in the following section.


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Evaluation Process

1st STAGE

In the first stage of assessment, the consortium screens the applications against the

minimum eligibility criteria. Eligibility requirements will be specified in the open call

documents and are as follows:

Must be registered in a member state or associated country

Must be a recognised legal established business according to the national rules of

their country as above explained

Must have been legally established for at least six months prior to the date of

submission of a proposal.

Self-employed applicants must be legally established according to the laws of each

participating country from the signature of the Grant Contract or Agreement and

during the whole duration of the partnership project. For self-employed

applicants, it is not required the legal establishment six months prior the date of the

application submission.

Must have completed the application form in full conformity and submit it prior

the cut-off date

Must have submitted the declaration of honor properly filled out and signed

If applicants fail on the above eligibility criteria, applications will be rejected at this stage

and applicants informed by email accordingly.

The consortium will evaluate and inform the applicants in 5 working days. Once eligibility

is validated eligible applicants will get:

a) Access to the Gallery to create “Partner Profile”

b) Access to profiles of other eligible partners

c) Access to the 2nd stage of the application procedure through the platform

d) Access to the “Partner Search Service”

e) Support from the Consortium to further develop the idea and to scout a partner

outside the gallery.

At this point, partners can search for a partner/partnership through the Gallery to co-

develop and complete the 2nd stage application and submit the expression of interest. The

consortium will facilitate the matching process when needed and/ or requested.


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2nd STAGE

Consortium partners will assess the quality and the operational capacity of the submitted

applications and they will provide their suggestions to the Steering Committee which is

responsible for the final selection of the awarded projects. All applications that have

reached this stage, will receive the evaluation report, right after the selection is made.

They will evaluate the applications against two sets of criteria, project quality criteria

and operational capacity criteria. A detailed description can be found in the document

Selection Criteria. Consortium partners will form a selection panel that will assess the

quality and the operational capacity of the submitted applications and they will provide

their suggestions to the Steering Committee, which is responsible for the final selection of

the awarded projects. The selection panel will report to the Steering Committee on the

selection process and outcomes to ensure a fair and transparent process. The selection

panel will score each criterion in the range 0-5 (or 0-10, depending on the weight of the

criterion).

0Inadequate

Proposal fails to address the criterion.

1Poor

The criterion is inadequately addressed, or there are serious inherentweaknesses.

2Fair

The proposal broadly addresses the criterion but there are serious

inherent weaknesses.

3Good

The proposal addresses the criterion well, but a number of shortcomingsare present.

4Very good

The proposal addresses the criterion well with few shortcomings.

5Excellent

The proposal successfully addresses all relevant aspects of the criterion.

Once evaluated by the selection panel, applications will be ranked and the highest-scoring

proposals will be proposed to the Steering Committee for funding.

The maximum total quality score is 100 points

Proposals that receive less than 60% of the maximum possible mark for the whole

quality evaluation will be eliminated and their final score will not be calculated. Proposals

that do not reach the minimum quality levels will be rejected and will not be ranked.


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150 partnerships proposals will be funded over the course of the project with 4 cut-off

dates.

To ensure transparency, final decisions on funding will be made during the Steering

Committee Evaluation Session, where proposals near the threshold having the same score,

equality and diversity data will be taken into account in the final selection. At each stage of

the selection process, applicants will receive notifications and/or feedback accordingly.

The Steering Committee will score each criterion in the range 0-5 (or 0-10, depending on

the weight of the criterion). This process will be applied to each application being scored

by 2 members of the Committee who will also consider the inputs from the selection panel.

At this stage, all applicants will receive one of the following responses;

Proposal not selected as it was not of sufficient quality

The proposal was of sufficient quality but unfortunately did not rank high enough

to receive funding. The best 15 proposals, will be kept on a reserve list.

Proposal selected. Selected proposal will submit the requested documents to the

Consortium and sign both the grant and partnership agreements.

Following that, awarded partnerships will send the necessary documents and sign their

contracts. Those not selected will be split into two groups. The first 15 not selected, will be

those who will consist the reserved list, in case some of those selected do not implement

their projects or have other issues during the signature of the contract. The rest of them

will be encouraged to resubmit their proposal, considering the recommendations of the

evaluation report. The same applies to the reserved list projects if not selected afterward

to substitute a previously selected project.


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Evaluation Criteria – 2nd Stage

Criteria Group Assessment Questions Analysis

Organizationaland technical

capacity of thepartnership

Max: 10 points

Min points to beeligible: 5

To what extent applicant has theexperience and competence in the

thematic field concerned, as well asthe necessary capacity to successfullyimplement the idea (human resources,

etc.)Max: 5 points

Excellent (5 points)High (4 points)

Very Good (3 points)Adequate (2 points)

Basic (1 points)No experience (0 points)

Applicant’s potential for growthMax: 5 points




Skills andexperience of the

partnership

Max: 10 points


Portfolio of the applicantMax: 5 points



Basic (1 points)No experience (0 points

Credentials and track record of theApplicant

Max: 5 points




Commitment

Max: 10 points


Attitude and motivation of theconsortium



Basic (2 points)No (0 points)

Innovation andcreativity Degree

Max: 30 points


Innovativeness of proposed projectMax: 10 points





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Technology and/ or techniquematurity

Max: 10 points




Benefits to potential clientsMax: 10 points




Added-value,scalability, and

durability of thepotential results

Max: 10 points


Merit and potential of proposal




Social and/ orenvironmental

and/or economicimpact

Max: 5 points(Extra points)

Does this project address typicalproblems in an innovative way with

regard society?Max: 2.5 points

Excellent (2,5 points)High (2 points)

Very Good (1,5 points)Adequate (1 points)

Basic (0,5 points)No (0 points)

Does this project address typicalproblems in an innovative way with

regard to environment?Max: 2.5 points

Excellent (2,5 points)High (2 points)

Very Good (1,5 points)Adequate (1 points)

Basic (0,5 points)No (0 points)

Market potential

Max: 25 points

Min points to beeligible: 12,5

Potential for commercializationMax: 10 points




Potential for brand creation/plans forinternationalisation)/ new market

orientationMax: 10 points





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Market ImpactMax: 5 points




Maximum total: 100 points

Threshold: 60 points

Administrative DutiesSelected Partnerships will become WORTH Grantees.

Contracts with the Grantees will be managed by the Consortium The administrative tasks

for the Grantee, including activity reporting obligations and related documents will be

provided during the negotiation and contracting phase.

Preparation of Grant Agreement

Selected Partnerships from Open Calls applicants will be requested to sign a Grant

Agreement. The main objective of this process is to validate financial and technical

operational capacity from the SMEs Partnerships and to establish some minimum ground

rules for receiving support from the WORTH project.

Partnerships will have to submit proof of:

• Legal existence: Legal Entity Form accompanied with the supporting documents

(registration, tax certificates). Legal entity form can be found here.

• Financial statements: P&L, Balance sheets (from the previous year). In case of being their

first operational year and they lack any previous balance sheet, it will be required a

business plan.

• Bank Account information: Financial Identification Form. Financial Identification form

can be found here.

• Founders IDs

• Existence of an Internal Consortium Agreement between the Granted Project participants

All documentation for grant preparation will be submitted electronically via email. The

WORTH consortium may request official translation of documents submitted in a language

that cannot be processed by the consortium partners. Languages that can be processed:

English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Greek, Romanian, and Catalan.


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Funding SchemeThe following payment scheme will apply to the Direct Funding:

- The first 30% will be provided at the time the contract is signed.

- Based on the positive evaluation of the midterm report, another 40% will be

transferred.

- The remaining 30% payment will be carried out following the formal approval of

the final report and corresponding work validation by the Key Mentor (KM).

- Payment of vouchers is detailed in section Services Delivery Model below.

- Funds will be disbursed to the team leader (an SME) of a project. Teams will have

to provide a breakdown of the distribution of funds among the SMEs in the team;

only SMEs can be beneficiaries.

Results and DeliverablesApplicants must clearly indicate in their proposal, the expected achievements from their

participation in the WORTH Open Call. This information will be discussed and validated

during the Grant negotiation, and used during the mid-term and final reviews, to receive

the distributed payments.

No cost reporting will be necessary, but it will be compulsory to deliver a mid-term report

and a final project report on project achievements, to receive subsequent payments.

Services Delivery ModelAll the selected Partnerships entitled to receive funding and Innovation Support Services

will be assigned a KM (Key Mentor) who will mentor and guide them through the whole

process.

The assigned KM will evaluate each project partnership needs and will recommend the

most suitable services, provided either by Consortium or external providers, to overcome

each project challenges or difficulties.

The Innovation support services offered by the consortium and external providers are

listed in section Open Call will be managed in different ways.

Additional Services provided by WORTH Consortium:

The mentoring and guidance of the KM is considered as part of the Consortium Services.

Based on the needs of the granted projects the KM will assist the SME to access the services

provided by WORTH consortium partners and external experts. A non-exhaustive

summary of these services will include:

Business Plan Drafting and Elaboration

Market analysis and technology evaluations

Product and market development strategy and business scaling for target markets

IRP strategy and freedom to operate analysis

Coaching by experienced SME Owners and qualified coaches


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EU funding consultancy, support in screening and national and EU funding

landscape

Partnering, networking and traveling to selected events

Targeted support to access private capital market for product development and

scale-up

Design Thinking services and/ or coaching

Access to exhibitions

Other Considerations

Data Protection

WORTH partners are committed to protect and respect applicants' privacy. The personal

data collected in the context of the present Open Call will be processed in accordance with

the Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC in regards to the processing of personal data and

on the free movement of such data. Applicants files will be retained in WORTH archives

until the end of the project activities for which the applicants submitted a proposal idea.

The information you provide will be retained in compliance with the regulation (EC)

45/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2000. It will be

entered and held securely on the WORTH Consortium computer systems and online

databases. It is possible that the information we collect from you could be transferred,

stored and processed in a destination outside of the European Economic Area (EEA) during

our processing. By submitting your information, you agree to this transfer, storing and

processing, even where the country or territory in question does not maintain similar data

protection standards.

WORTH Consortium is working with partners to provide enhancement to the WORTH

PARTNERSHIP PROJECT through the European Union, the information you provide will be

used for the purposes of assessing or managing your application, and for other purposes

connected with the WORTH PARTNERSHIP project and your participation in it. The

information may also be shared with project partners’ sponsors and agents. We will retain

your information on our files and contact you about other projects we may run that we

believe could be of interest to you. If you do not wish for your information to be retained

for these purposes, and would not like to be contacted about other projects, you may let us

know using the email [email protected].

It is possible to exercise your access, rectify, cancel or opposition rights through the private

profile of the entity (delete profile) or by contacting WORTH data controller by sending an

email to [email protected]


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Useful Documents:

• Application Forms (Examples only and none-editable versions)

Form 1: Eligibility check

Form 2: Quality and Operational Capacity Assessment

Selection criteria

Questions

Please check out the FAQs section in the WORTH website.

For further enquiries, you can contact us via live chat on the Website platform or

[email protected]

The mere fact of participating in this Open Call means that the participants know

and fully accepts the present rules.