TITLE IV

Union funding may take the form of prizes as defined in Title VII of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 and Regulation (EU) No 1268/2012. Any prize awarded shall be conditional upon the acceptance of the appropriate publicity obligations. Regarding the dissemination of results, Title III of this Regulation shall apply. The work programme or work plan may contain specific obligations regarding exploitation and dissemination. Any procurement carried out by the Commission on its own behalf or jointly with Member States shall be subject to the rules on public procurement set out in Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 and Regulation (EU) No 1268/2012. Union funding may take the form of pre-commercial procurement or the procurement of innovative solutions carried out by the Commission or the relevant funding body on its own behalf or jointly with contracting authorities from Member States and associated countries. The procurement procedures: shall comply with the principles of transparency, non-discrimination, equal treatment, sound financial management, proportionality, with competition rules and, where applicable, with Directives 2004/17/EC, 2004/18/EC and 2009/81/EC, or, where the Commission acts on its own behalf, with Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012; may provide for specific conditions such as the place of performance of the procured activities being limited for pre-commercial procurement, to the territory of the Member States and of countries associated to Horizon 2020 where duly justified by the objectives of the actions; may authorise the award of multiple contracts within the same procedure (multiple sourcing); shall provide for the award of the contracts to the tender(s) offering best value for money. Unless otherwise stipulated in the call for tenders, results generated by procurement carried out by the Commission shall be owned by the Union. Specific provisions regarding ownership, access rights and licensing shall be laid down in the contracts regarding pre-commercial procurement to ensure maximum uptake of the results and to avoid any unfair advantage. The contractor generating results in pre-commercial procurement shall own at least the attached intellectual property rights. The contracting authorities shall enjoy at least royalty-free access rights to the results for their own use and the right to grant, or require the participating contractors to grant, non-exclusive licences to third parties to exploit the results under fair and reasonable conditions without any right to sub-license. If a contractor fails to commercially exploit the results within a given period after the pre-commercial procurement as identified in the contract, it shall transfer any ownership of the results to the contracting authorities. Specific provisions regarding ownership, access rights and licensing may be laid down in the contracts regarding public procurement of innovative solutions to ensure maximum uptake of the results and to avoid any unfair advantage. Financial instruments may take any of the forms referred to in, and shall be implemented in accordance with, Title VIII of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 and may be combined with each other and with grants funded under the Union budget, including under Regulation (EU) No 1291/2013. By way of derogation from the second subparagraph of Article 140(6) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012, both revenues and annual repayments generated by a financial instrument established under Regulation (EU) No 1291/2013 shall be assigned, in accordance with Article 21(4) of Regulation No 966/2012, to that financial instrument. By way of derogation from the second subparagraph of Article 140(6) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012, both revenues and annual repayments generated by the Risk Sharing Finance facility set up under Decision No 1982/2006/EC and the early stage part of the High-Growth and Innovative SME Facility (GIF1) set up under Decision No 1639/2006/EC, shall be assigned, in accordance with Article 21(4) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012, to the succeeding financial instruments under Regulation (EU) No 1291/2013. Only SMEs may apply for calls for proposals issued under the dedicated SME instrument referred to in Article 22 of Regulation (EU) No 1291/2013. They may cooperate with other companies, and with research organisations or universities. Once a company has been validated as an SME, that legal status shall be assumed to prevail for the entire duration of the project, even in cases where the company, due to its growth, later exceeds the ceilings of the SME definition. In the case of the SME instrument or grants by funding bodies or by the Commission targeting SMEs, the grant agreement may lay down specific provisions, in particular on ownership, access rights, exploitation and dissemination. In accordance with Article 7, any legal entity may participate in a Fast Track to Innovation ("FTI") action. Actions funded under FTI shall be innovation actions. The FTI call shall be open to proposals relating to any technology field under the specific objective "Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies" set out in point 1 of Part II of Annex I to Regulation (EU) No 1291/2013 or to any of the specific objectives under the priority "Societal challenges" set out in points 1 to 7 of Part III of Annex I to that Regulation. Proposals may be submitted at any time. The Commission shall set three cut-off dates per year to evaluate proposals. The period between a cut-off date and signature of the grant agreement or notification of the grant decision shall not exceed six months. Proposals shall be ranked according to the impact, quality and efficiency of implementation and excellence, with the criterion of impact given a higher weighting. No more than five legal entities shall participate in any one action. The amount of the grant shall not exceed EUR 3 million. In the case of actions involving security-related activities, the grant agreement may lay down specific provisions, in particular on pre-commercial public procurement, procurement of innovative solutions, changes to the consortium's composition, classified information, exploitation, dissemination, open access to research publications, transfers and licences of results. In the case of actions to support existing or new research infrastructures, the grant agreement may lay down specific provisions relating to users of the infrastructure and to the users' access to them. In the case of ERC frontier research actions, the grant agreement may lay down specific provisions, in particular on access rights, portability and dissemination, or relating to participants, researchers and any party concerned by the action. In the case of training and mobility actions, the grant agreement may lay down specific provisions on commitments relating to the researchers benefiting from the action, ownership, access rights and portability. In the case of coordination and support actions, the grant agreement may lay down specific provisions, in particular on ownership, access rights, exploitation and dissemination of results. In the case of the Knowledge and Innovation Communities of the EIT, the grant agreement may lay down specific provisions, in particular on ownership, access rights, exploitation and dissemination.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-11-04 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.