1. Research, Development & Innovation 2014 - 2020

2. Contents Scope of R&D&I framework GBER aid for R&D&I
Research Organisations and State aid

3. Scope of R&D&I framework
Research and knowledge dissemination organisations
Indirect state aid via publicly funded research organisations
Public procurement of research and development services
Individual aid awards outside of the GBER
Research organisations – includes Universities. Now extended to explicitly cover technology transfer agencies & innovation intermediaries).
A lot more detail on economic & non-economic activities.
Indirect state aid – e.g. when contract research or collaborative projects may constitute state aid to a company
NEW: Public procurement of R&D services and particularly pre-commercial procurement. Conditions for ensuring that there is no state aid in these contracts.
Indepth and (I think) very helpful advice on the criteria for assessing individual aid – a lot more detail and easier to approach than old rules were.

4. GBER Aid for R&D&I R&D projects and feasibility studies
Research Infrastructure investment
Innovation cluster investment & operating aid
Innovation support for SMEs
Process & organisational innovation
Local infrastructure investment aid
(Young innovative SMEs finance)
Articles 25 – 29, 56 and 22 (Aid for start ups)
SME consultancy – 18
RDI – notification thresholds and commercially exploitable revenues

5. Article 25 R&D projects
Notification thresholds doubled for all types of research
Repayable advance = add 50% to threshold and 10% to max aid intensity
Revenues from commercially usable prototypes & pilots – no longer deductible
Feasibility studies simplified at 50% (+SME bonuses)

6. Article 29 Process & organisational innovation
Mainly for SMEs, but smaller amount available for collaborating large companies
For introduction of new and significantly improved processes & methods of working
Must be able to show the change is not driven by usual business cycle / pressures
50% and 15% for SME and non-SME respectively
SME must incur 30% of costs in order for large company to be eligible

7. Eligible costs for Art. 25 & 29
Must be directly incurred for the project and eligible only to the extent used for the project:
Personnel costs
Costs of instruments and equipment
Costs of buildings and land
Additional overheads
Other operating expenses, including materials, supplies and similar products

8. Article 26 Research infrastructure
Only applies to research structures (partly) used for economic purposes
Allows 50% aid for the economic part (and 100% for non-economic part)
Industrial partners contributing at least 10% can get preferential access - must be proportionate & terms publicly available.
'research infrastructure' means facilities, resources and related services that are used by the scientific community to conduct research in their respective fields and covers scientific equipment or set of instruments, knowledge-based resources such as collections, archives or structured scientific information, enabling information and communication technology-based infrastructures such as grid, computing, software and communication, or any other entity of a unique nature essential to conduct research. Such infrastructures may be 'single-sited' or 'distributed' (an organised network of resources);
See Article 2(a) of Council Regulation (EC) No 723/2009 of 25 June 2009 on the Community legal framework for a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC), OJ L 206, , p. 1.
Monitor & claw-back must in place for mixed use
Access to the infrastructure must be open and non-discriminatory
Max E20m under GBER
Charge market price

9. Article 27 Innovation clusters
For investment & operational costs
Investment costs – 50% of construction or upgrade of facilities
Operating costs - 50% for up to 10 years Personnel & admin costs of:
Start up costs of knowledge sharing & business support activities
Marketing
Management of facilities, training programmes & conferences
Same rules apply as for R infrastructures plus…
Threshold E7.5m

10. Article 28 Innovation aid for SMEs
Single category covering:
Creating and defending IPR
Secondment of highly qualified personnel
Costs for innovation advisory & support services
50% aid intensity
Can provide 100% for old Article 36 up to De minimis level
E 5m per SME per project

11. Research Organisations and state aid
“Research and knowledge-dissemination organisation”
Considered outside of state aid rules when:
If 100% public funded, economic activity <20%
If public & private funded, public funding does not exceed costs of non-economic activities.
Otherwise, public funding of economic activities by research organisations are subject to state aid rules
Need to identify beneficiary and exemption
(such as universities or research institutes, technology transfer agencies, innovation intermediaries, and research-oriented physical or virtual collaborative entities),
Where such entity also pursues economic activities, the financing, the costs and the revenues of those economic activities must be accounted for separately. Undertakings that can exert a decisive influence upon such an entity, for example in the quality of shareholders or members, may not enjoy a preferential access to the results generated by it.

12. Economic & non-economic activities
Renting out infrastructure
Contract research
Supplying goods or services
Non-economic activities:
Public education
Independent or collaborative research
Wide knowledge dissemination
Economic activities:
Yes, even if there is limited supply privately, it’s an economic activity
Non-economic activities:
public education organised within the national educational system
Independent or Collaborative research - Provision of R&D services and R&D carried out on behalf of undertakings are not considered as independent R&D. – WITHIN THE definition as set out in the RDI framework (e.g. T&C set out before project starts, IPR goes to who pays)

13. Avoiding in-direct aid
Market price
Collaborative projects
Joint project (design, division of labour, access to results) with shared risks
Terms & conditions must be set before start
IPR must be held by Research organisation and may be widely disseminated unless paid for by industrial collaborative partner
Market price:
reflects the full costs of the service and generally includes a profit margin benchmarked against other providers of contract research (established by reference to those commonly applied by undertakings active in the sector of the service concerned) or
- is the result of arm's length negotiations where the research organisation or research infrastructure, in its capacity as service provider, negotiates in order to obtain the maximum economic benefit at the moment when the contract is concluded and covers at least its marginal costs.
If full costs covered and IPR is retained by RO – market value of IPR can be deducted from costs
IPR:
effective collaboration where at least two independent parties pursue a common objective based on the division of labour and jointly define its scope, participate in its design, contribute to its implementation and share its financial, technological, scientific and other risks, as well as its results. One or several parties may bear the full costs of the project and thus relieve other parties of its financial risks. The terms and conditions of a collaboration project, in particular as regards contributions to its costs, the sharing of risks and results, the dissemination of results, access to and rules for allocation of IPR, must be concluded prior to the start of the project. This does not include definite agreements on the market value of resulting IPR and the value of contributions to the project.
Contract research and provision of research services are not considered to be forms of collaboration.

14. Further Sources of Info
European Commission website