1. EUopSTART – EDF - General Terms and Conditions
1.1. Purpose
EUopSTART aims to intensify the participation of Danish research institutions and companies in European research and innovation. In 2024, EUopSTART provides support to Danish companies and knowledge institutions’ preparatory work to prepare applications for the European Defence Fund (EDF).
1.2. Call deadlines and procedures
In 2024, there is two application deadlines for EUopSTART EDF:
- Wednesday 22 May, 12.00 p.m. (noon) CET (opened 25 January)
- Tuesday 24 September, 12:00 p.m. (noon) CET (opening 23 May).
For these application deadlines, you can only apply for funds from EUopSTART for EDF calls that have a deadline in 2024. You can only apply for EUopSTART grants for preparing your EDF proposal when the work programme is published.
After the deadline the Agency for Higher Education and Science will process the applications which have been received.
The Agency will perform a qualitative evaluation of all applications; see the criteria in section 3.2. Grants will be awarded to those applications which the Agency assesses as best meeting the criteria.
You can expect a response to your application approx. 25 working days after the application deadline.
In order to be eligible for a grant, applications must meet the requirements described in the following subsections.
1.3. Who can Apply for Funding?
All organisations (public, including municipalities and regions, as well as private) eligible and approved to apply for funding from EDF (see section 1.4.) may apply for EUopSTART grants. It is not possible to apply for EUopSTART on behalf of other organisations. Applications submitted by third parties will not be processed.
EUopSTART grants are given to applicants based in Denmark. It is the organisation, not the individual researcher or employee, who receives funding from EUopSTART.
Please note that legal entities that wish to participate in projects financed via EDF must have sufficient financial resources to enable them to co-finance their project participation on an ongoing basis and to document the wage costs of participation.
In addition, participants must have the necessary research/innovation capacity and ability to engage in international, high-level research and innovation collaborations. Through the research and innovation projects under EDF, the project participants must contribute to the development of new, ground-breaking knowledge and technology that in the long term can help solve some of the major societal challenges in Europe.
1.4. Which Calls for Proposals are Covered?
You can apply for EUopSTART grants for proposals for all calls in the 2024 EDF work programme.
It is a pre-requisite that the application is aimed at EDF calls, which implement competitive funding and require the participation of at least 3 partners from 3 different EU countries (including Norway). However, when applying for EDF calls on disruptive technologies, a minimum of 2 partners from 2 different EU countries (including Norway) are required.
1.5. The Amount of Subsidy
The amount of the grant depends on the activity for which the grant is requested.
- As a partner in a project, you can receive a grant of up to DKK 75,000 to prepare a full proposal.
- If you are a mono-beneficiary or if you are coordinator for a consortium of 2-3 partners and you are coordinating the proposal for Horizon Europe, you can apply for a grant of up to DKK 75.000 to prepare full proposal.
- If you are coordinating a consortium with more than 3 partners and you coordinate the proposal for Horizon Europe, you can apply for a grant of up to DKK 100,000 for the full proposal.
Top-up grants may not be applied for subsequently, and grants will not be awarded retroactively. You may therefore not apply for funding for activities which you have undertaken in advance of your application for EUopSTART funding. A grant award is valid from the date on which the Agency receives your application and until the deadline for submission of the application to Horizon Europe.
1.6 The Grant Period
The grant period must be at least one month (30 days). It starts on the date of submission of the application to EUopSTART and ends no later than the deadline for submitting the application EDF (22 November 2023).
Expenditure falling outside the grant period will not be covered by the EUopSTART grant.
Please note that you must submit your application to EUopSTART no later than 30 calendar days before your EU deadline.
1.7. Eligible Expenses
You may apply for funding to cover eligible expenses defrayed during the grant period, and which are relevant and necessary, and relate directly to preparation of the application.
For all types of applications, you can apply for funding to cover:
- payroll costs for the applicant organisation's staff.
- relevant travel and per diem expenses for the applicant organisation's staff, and expenses for hosting meetings, seminars and the like.
external assistance (consulting services paid for against invoices).
Please note that an EUopSTART grant may not be used to fund research and innovation activities.
You can apply for funding to cover up to 50% of your expenses. The maximum amount is shown in the table in section 3. The payroll costs must be calculated using a set hourly rate of DKK 600/hour. This hourly rate also includes overheads. Expenses must be itemised exclusive of VAT.
Funding for external assistance may amount to no more than 70% of the total grant which the applicant applies for.
Funding for external assistance may amount to no more than 70% of the total grant which the applicant applies for.
Self-financing may consist of either cash or the value of staff hours (based on DKK 600/hour) contributed to the EUopSTART project.
Note, however, the following restrictions:
- additional funding will not be awarded if multiple partners apply for EUopSTART for preparation of the same EU application
- EUopSTART funding for the same EU application must be applied for only once. The Agency does not award funding to the improvement or update of an application which has already received an EUopSTART grant.
- funding applications cannot be accepted for expenses already funded by another public-sector fund.
The Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science’s "Terms & Conditions for Grants" applies to the disbursement, utilisation and administration of all grants. The current version is published at:
2. Special Terms and Conditions Applicable to Grants for Enterprises
2.1. Who is Eligible for Funding?
Eligible enterprises must:
- not have been declared bankrupt or be in suspension of payments.
- not have any past due debts to any public authority (including any debts to a public authority for which the payment-due date has been exceeded).
- meet the EU's requirements for SME validation, and be eligible for funding according to this.
Private-sector enterprises will receive funding from EUopSTART in accordance with the de minimis rule on state aid (Commission Regulation (EC) No 2023/2831 of 13 December 2023 on the application of Articles 107 and 108 in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union to de minimis aid – the general de minimis regulation).
The de minimis rule means that an enterprise that applies for funding over a period of three years is permitted to have received a maximum of EUR 300,000 in state aid. Please note there are specific de minimis regulations for enterprises in the agriculture sector(*) as well as fishery and aquaculture sector (**).
Private-sector enterprises must be able to document that the maximum amount has not been exceeded at the time of application. This must be documented by signing a State Aid De Minimis Declaration. The declaration is provided below as well as in the electronic application form. The declaration must be signed and appended to the application form.
Read more
For more information about de minimis aid, please consult the European Commission’s website:
- Information about de minimis aid (European Commission)
- Template for the De-minimis Declaration (ufm.dk)
Companies can only submit one application for each deadline.
2.2. Special Terms Conditions for SMEs
In the EDF work programmes, there are specific calls targeting SMEs. And consortia can obtain a funding bonus if there is an SME involved in the consortium.
Only companies that fulfil the EU’s conditions for being an SME can get EUopSTART funds to search for calls targeted at SMEs.
The SME definition is available at the European Commission’s website:
3. How to Apply
3.1. General Requirements for the Application
The applicant must be eligible for funding (see section 1.3.) and the grant period must be of a minimum duration of one month (see sections 1.6. and 1.7.). The application must be written in Danish or English. You can apply for funding from the EUopSTART scheme for EDF calls with an application deadline in 2024.
Applications must reflect the requirements imposed on applicants for consortium formation in EDF.
For calls requiring support from the Danish Ministry of Defence/ The Danish Ministry of Defence Acquisition and Logistics Organisation (DALO), the applicant must attach documentation of support for the project to the EUopSTART application. For example, the annex can be a letter of intent/support.
SMEs must attach the signed de minimis declaration (see section 2.1.).
It is also a prerequisite for the payment of grants that an application is submitted to the EDF call to which the EUopSTART application relates and that no significant changes are made to the project in relation to the information provided in the EUopSTART application. The Horizon Europe application must fulfil all formalities in order to be evaluated.
3.2. Processing of Applications
The Agency will process your application on the basis of all material submitted in a timely manner. Post hoc submissions are, as a rule, not admissible. This is why the project will only be evaluated on the basis of the application. However, the Agency reserves the right to collect further documentation.
Applications will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
- the applicant has described the concept for the research and development project in explicit and concrete terms (purpose and content). The description must be comprehensible to lay persons.
- the applicant gives a convincing account of how the project concept relates to the EU call (topic) or programme for which the funding application is being made.
- the applicant accounts for the way in which the combination of the project concept and applying organisation/the outlined consortium match the proposed sub-programme, EU call and project type.
The evaluation criteria form the basis for the Agency's evaluation of applications and its grant-award decision. As this is a competitive call for funding applications, fulfilment of the criteria is no guarantee that funding will be awarded. If the Agency receives a number of applications whose total sum exceeds the funds available, grants will be awarded to those applications that are assessed as best meeting the criteria.
3.3. Link to the Application Form
The electronic application form for EUopSTART is to be found in the e-Grant system:
A link for the application form will be available here on 24 January 2024.
(*) Find more information about de minimis regulation for undertakings in the primary production of agricultural products:
(**) Find more information about de minimis regulation for undertakings in the fishery and aquaculture sector:
Contact
Concerning EUopSTART
Stefanie Bondy Jørgensen
Specialkonsulent
Tlf.: +45 72 31 82 17
E-mail: stbj@ufm.dk
Concerning EDF
National Focal Point for EDF, DI FOS: DIFOS-EDF@DI.DK
The Danish Ministry of Defence Acquisition and Logistics Organisation (DALO): DALO-EDF@MIL.DK