Who can benefit from Assistance under the EAFIP–initiative?
All public procurers from EU member states are eligible to apply for assistance.
The public procurers to receive this assistance are chosen through a transparent selection procedure against the following four criteria:
- Concrete interest / commitment in starting a PCP/PPI project and maturity of the business case
(business case means the business case for the public procurer, i.e. the cost/benefit analysis that justifies the procurer’s investment in the innovation procurement) - Potential impact of the PCP/PPI procurement, with priority to high impact ICT solutions (e.g. Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity, Big Data and virtual/augmented reality), innovative ICT solutions contributing to economic recovery, the European Green Deal and national digital/ICT strategies.
- Geographical balance of the cases to be assisted across the EU member states.
- Lack of experience and existence of prior cases in the implementation of PCP/PPI under the legal system of the country in question.
The selection of the procurers to receive assistance is carried out together with the European Commission Services on the basis of interest shown via the online questionnaire. All expressions of interest received via the questionnaire are assessed according to the above criteria, based on the information provided in the questionnaire, and any additional information the European Commission may have decided to request.
The European Commission can decide to support additional cases if there is a high level of interest from eligible applicants.
Please note that projects that receive EU funding for the costs related to the preparation and/or management of an innovation procurement (e.g. from Horizon 2020, Horizon Europe or ESIF programmes) are not eligible for eafip assistance for activities that are eligible costs under the EU funding they already receive.
Nor does the EAFIP-initiative provide assistance in the formulation/preparation of proposals/offers for Horizon Europe calls.