New Call for Proposal Under Cosme Programme

“Supporting European SMEs to participate in public procurement outside EU”

COS-PPOUT-2020-2-03

CoSME Programme “Supporting European SMEs to participate in public procurement outside EU” COS-PPOUT-2020-2-03 call for proposal has been published.

The main goal of this call for proposals is to contribute to the growth and the global competitiveness of target SMEs via strategic approaches that can support their internationalisation through public procurement outside the EU. 

Projects that help SMEs seize these opportunities can contribute to economic growth, as well as support the internationalisation of European companies and their global competitiveness. These goals are especially important in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic.

This call for proposals, the first of this kind, aims at improving SMEs’ access to public procurement in non-EU countries, with which the European Union has signed a bilateral or plurilateral agreement covering public procurement. Up to five projects will be selected, which will benefit from an EU grant of maximum EUR 400,000 covering 75% of the eligible costs. 

Expected Results

The selected consortia will carry out a broad range of activities, such as creating awareness raising tools, providing overall training and advisory services, exchanging good practices, organising matchmaking, etc. 

Projects must be structured in two phases. 

1. A preparatory phase to develop an internationalisation strategy through public procurement; and
2. An implementation phase of the internationalisation strategy to gather data, promote the project and disseminate results.

Expected results of the Preparatory Phase: An internationalisation strategy and its implementation roadmap. Beneficiaries will deepen their knowledge of the identified target group of SMEs and of the potentially attractive sectors from a public procurement perspective in the target third countries. They will also identify the needs of SMEs and the specific measures to help them as well as the scope of the strategy.
Expected results of the Implementation Phase: Implementation of the internationalisation strategy. Beneficiaries will implement, and possibly test, some activities and further develop the internationalisation strategy. In addition, they will also develop an exit strategy for follow-up activities once the COSME co-financing period comes to an end. 

Eligible Applicants

Applicants must be legal entities forming a consortium composed by at least three partners from EU Member States and COSME participating countries. At least two partners of the consortium shall be from EU Member States. Natural persons are not eligible. 
Applicants have to be representing business support organisations (Chambers of Commerce, federations, etc.), cluster organisations, non-profit organisations (private or public), public bodies (national, regional, local), universities or educational institutions, research centres.

As some of the COSME participating countries are also members of the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) or signatory of bilateral or plurilateral trade agreements with the EU, they could potentially be at the same time part of the consortium and target third country. The countries falling into this category are: Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Ukraine.
Therefore, to be eligible a consortium must meet the following conditions:

• There must not be more than one partner from non-EU COSME participating country per consortium. 
• The proposal must explain in detail the added value of such a situation and show a clear separation of activities and roles between the consortia members and the partner institutions contributing from the third country perspective.

Submission of Proposals

The deadline for electronic submission is 15 September 2020, 17:00h (Brussels time). 

Please refer to the Call for Proposals and Guide for Applicants before commencing the electronic submission. The link to the submission system is available on the Funding and Tenders Opportunities Portal.

Questions/Answers

Potential applicants should address questions related to the content of this call by e-mail to: EASME-COSME-PP-OUTSIDE-EU@ec.europa.eu 
Only questions sent to this functional mailbox will be answered. Answers will only be published periodically and within a reasonable period of time on this page. Last questions to be answered are those submitted at least 7 days prior to the closing date of this call.

For reference documents please click below:

https://ec.europa.eu/easme/en/section/cosme/cos-ppout-2020-2-03-public-procurement-outside-eu

If you are searching partners from Türkiye please consult to National Cooordinator of CoSME Programme:

Small and Medium Enterprises Development Organization-KOSGEB

https://cosme.kosgeb.gov.tr  

cosme@kosgeb.gov.tr