KAPPA Programme: The opportunity to increase the budget for additional activities of the projects supported in the 1st Call for Proposals

The Technology Agency of the Czech Republic (TA CR) encourages the beneficiaries within the projects supported in the 1st Call for Proposals of the KAPPA Programme financed by the EEA and Norway Grants, to prepare requests for a change of the project for the budget increasing and related extension of new additional activities that contribute to the project objectives but are beyond the original plan of the implemented project, e.g.:

  • enhancing the project result(s)/ adding new result(s), 
  • involving young and female researcher(s),
  • mapping the socio-economic impact of the project, 
  • organising bilateral activities with donor partner(s) resulting in further collaboration or other European funding programmes application, 
  • enhancing dissemination activities including presentation at events, organising capacity-building events, etc.

Who can submit the request for a change
The Project Promoters of the projects supported within the 1st Call for Proposals of the KAPPA Programme.

Deadline for submitting the requests for a change
This call for project changes is launched on 9 June 2023 and will be open until 7 July 2023

After the request for a change is submitted, a confirmation of submission shall be generated and sent to the TA CR data box (afth9xp) no later than 23:59 on 7 July.

Results of the evaluation
The decision on the results will be published on 30 August 2023 at the latest.

Conditions

  • The total allocation of funding for this call is25 000 000 CZK.
  • Maximum increase of the funding is5 000 000 CZK per project.
  • The Project Promoters shall submit a request for a project change in ISTA to increase the budget by the amount of the costs related to thenew additional activities only withinalready supported projects of the KAPPA Programme. 
  • The Project Promoters may submit onlyone request for a change per project.
  • The request shall be submitted inEnglish, with all requirements and annexes according to the process for submitting the project change described in theImplementation Guide, chapter 5 and Annex No. 3 – Typology of changes (change “Increase in the total eligible expenditure of the beneficiary and, if applicable, the related amount of funding”, according to type A, approved by the Board of the TA CR). For the ‘budget calculator’ (Table with a distribution of the total eligible costs of the project after the change), please contact the project officer Stanislav Toman (stanislav.toman@tacr.cz).
  • If the request is submitted incomplete, a maximum of5 working days is set for its completion. An incomplete request will not be included in the further evaluation.
  • The project can only be extended toadditional project activities that are in line with the project objectives, but are beyond the planin the project proposal. 
  • The additional activities shall be implemented within the projectsuntil 30 April 2024 at the latest, i.e. the projects ending in 12/2023 could simultaneously request a prolongation of the project till 04/2024 related to the additional activities, while the projects ending in 04/2024 cannot request further prolongation.
  • The increase of thebudget and related funding shall not exceed 50% of the original budgetof the implemented project in accordance with Act No. 130/2002 Coll. on support for research, experimental development and innovation.
  • The budget can be increased in all cost categories, all costs shall respect theeligibility rules set in the KAPPA Terms and Conditions and the Guideline for eligible expenditures.
  • The increased funding shall not exceed the maximum of96% funding intensity per project. Individual beneficiaries shall not exceed thefunding intensity per type of entity

Note
In case a beneficiary has a certain amount of unspent funding from the previous years of the project implementation, this amount shall be used at first.  Transfers between years and cost categories compared to the original plan are possible.

Evaluation
Each submitted request for a change will be assessed by a project rapporteur according to the change procedure in the Implementation Guide and according to the following criteria for extra points:

  1. Extension of the project with new result(s) with a clearly justified bilateral cooperation or a copy of the application to other grant instruments of international cooperation involving both Czech and donor partners.
    • 3 points
  2. Improvement of the current result(s) or involvement of entity(ies) that will expand the use or commercialisation of the result(s).
    • 2 points
  3. Involvement of a female researcher(s) or Ph.D. student(s) in the project.
    • 1 point
  4. Activity(ies) without a reportable result such as a knowledge transfer meeting, mapping of the socio-economic impact of the project, dissemination of results to a wider public or participation in a conference corresponding to the results of the project and other project activities.
    • 1 point

The Programme Committee of the KAPPA Programme will set up the ranking lists on the basis of the above-mentioned criteria and the Board of the TA CR will make the final decision to provide additional funding to the projects.

ELIMINATION OF CORRUPTION EFFECTS
In order to eliminate corruption effects during the calls for proposals in research, development and innovation, TA CR asks all beneficiaries including project partners to inform TA CR without delay of any suspected corruption activity of which they become aware. Notification together with justification of the decisive facts can make it easier for TA CR to identify potential corruption efforts and eliminate them. Please send the notice to www.tacr.whistlelink.com.