A project management body is being announced for the further development and administrative implementation of the funding instrument.
Together with the client, the project management agency develops the funding announcement, provides technical and administrative advice, supervision and support for prospective funding applicants before and during the application process and in the implementation of funded projects. It organises the one-stage jury and review process and takes over the professional and administrative approval, monitoring and examination of projects. The project promoter will be loaned for this purpose in accordance with Section 44 paragraph 2 of the State Budget Code of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (LHO) of 26 April 1999. After the project funding has expired, an evaluation of the established cooperation platforms and the funding instrument is to be carried out.
Unrestricted and guaranteed provision of the necessary human and material resources in the necessary scientific breadth (open funding) for the implementation of the aforementioned work packages must be ensured. This requires an experienced project management company that is well-connected in the German research scene. Experience in the area of knowledge transfer/cooperation between science and industry is also essential. With a view to aligning the instrument towards innovation-enhancing federal and EU funding competitions, the project promoter must have a correspondingly broad knowledge of existing or foreseeable funding opportunities.
Approximately seven cooperation platforms can be funded over a period of four years. The respective project volume amounts to approx. 0.5 million EUR per year. A total of 3.5 million EUR in funding is available per year (12 months). The call for tenders depends on the availability of the required financial resources in the state budget and is therefore subject to budget reservation.
Should a decision be made in the future on the establishment of a higher-level governance structure for research funding from MKW NRW, the selected project management agency must be prepared to position its activities there. As part of the contract, the use of an in-house funding process for research funding is envisaged, which is currently being implemented at MKW. The selected project management agency undertakes to use this technical procedure for administration and to create the necessary technical conditions for this as soon as the procedure has been introduced. If a technical connection to IT processes of the state network (e.g. SAP) is required, access via the federal network (“BDBOS”) is required.
As part of this service contract, MKW intends to commission a project sponsor who, on the basis of the new general orientation, has to provide the following essential services:
1. Preparation
1.1 Participation in the preparation of competition documents for the funding instrument
a. participation in the development of publication documents,
b. Creation of the application documents and forms, including the preparation of appropriate evaluation sheets,
c. Additional distribution of the documents via appropriate distributors.
1.2 Information and advice for applicants on questions about the procedure and the conditions.
2. Organization and implementation of the review process for full proposals
2.1 Pre-sorting, content classification and pre-evaluation of full proposals,
2.2 Identification, selection and approach (in consultation with the client) of reviewers and jury members,
2.3 Preparation and dispatch of review documents for and to reviewers and jury members,
2.4 Organization, support and implementation of the review process for the evaluation of applications, contact persons for the reviewers and jury members in all professional matters related to the review process,
2.5 Organization and implementation of the jury session and participation in the jury meeting
2.6 Preparation of jury minutes with the arguments relevant to the decision and the proposed ranking,
2.7 Handling financial concerns of reviewers and jury members (settlements, compensation for expenses),
2.8 Informing applicants about the funding decision.
3. administrative processing
3.1 Advising on applications and assisting applicants in discussing the potential conditions of approval and billing,
3.2 Application processing, application review, application approval, administration of funded projects,
3.3 Ongoing project support and project completion:
a. Examination and assessment of requested changes,
b. Examination and assessment of funding requirements and proof of use (intermediate proof and end use proof),
c. Examination of reports and documentation of the examination results in examination notes / reports etc.,
d. Deciding on disbursements of funds, collecting incoming repayments and reimbursements, further checks in the event of violations of ancillary provisions of the funding notices,
e. Close project support also with a view to the program-specific impact analysis,
3.4 Special funding processes, in particular assertion and enforcement of claims against funding recipients,
3.5 Processing of inquiries and requests on the basis of the Freedom of Information Act.
4. Technical support for projects
4.1 Technical support of projects during the funding phase, also with regard to the implementation of funding decisions made,
4.2 Support with possible follow-up to achieve project objectives,
4.3 Support for projects in the development of concrete strategies for stabilization (e.g. after the funding phase has ended).
5. Final evaluation of projects and funding instrument
Evaluation of the projects and the funding instrument after completion of project funding and development of recommendations for possible further development and updating of the funding instrument.
6. reporting to MKW
Continuous and comprehensive reporting to the client, also on a case-by-case basis. This also includes a six-monthly written progress report on the current status of the work. At the end of each calendar year, the contractor also submits a written summary report of the results of the activities of the previous year to the client by the end of February of the following year. In addition, work progress must be presented to the client in an annual meeting. After the funding measure has been completed, a written final report should be drawn up on all of the activities carried out by the project sponsor during the contract period. This final report is a technical report on the activities carried out and their effects (technical report).
As a basis for calculating applications, a maximum of 20 draft proposals can be calculated on the basis of the university and non-university research landscape in NRW and derived from developments in innovation policy structured lead markets.