Globalstars Japan call for projects

• Call for projects opens: 9 September 2024
• National application deadline (exact timings may vary): 4 December 2024
• Eureka deadline (date of receipt): 4 December 2024 at 11:59 am Brussels time
• Notification of funding and project set-up: March 2025
• Projects can begin: 1 June 2025

This call is open for R&D projects, but excludes technologies associated with nuclear power and drug discovery. Examples of scope include:

• Quantum
• Artificial intelligence
• Robotics
• Semiconductors
• Electronics
• Energy and environment
• Biotechnology
• New materials
• Medical devices
• Aerospace
• Mining and other industrial technologies

Japan funding (NEDO)

Type of funding: Grant

Call for projects budget: 2 billion yen (total amount of programme period)

Grant of up to 100 million yen per project for SMEs only.

Austria (FFG)

Type of funding: Grant

Call for projects budget: 1 million euro

Grants for Austrian companies participating in Eureka projects: Up to 60% of the eligible costs for small companies; up to 50% for medium-sized companies and up to 40% for large companies.

All companies registered in Austria are eligible for funding, universities and research centers can be funded as subcontractors.

More information

Canada (NRC IRAP)

Type of funding: Contribution

Call for projects budget: 1 million Canadian dollars

Eligible Canadian SMEs may receive up to 50% reimbursement of eligible project costs up to a maximum total funding of 500,000 Canadian dollars.

Other Canadian organizations, such as research institutes, universities, research and technology organizations, large enterprises and other companies may participate on a self-funded basis or as subcontractors.

Finland (Business Finland)

Type of funding: Enterprises can apply for grant funding for research projects or loan funding for development and piloting projects.

A grant can cover up to 50% (70% in certain cases) of the eligible costs. Public research organisations can receive up to 80% funding. Specific national co-innovation project funding rules apply.

Call for projects budget: No specific euro limit for the project size

France (Bpifrance)

Type of funding: Reimbursable advance or loan

Call for projects budget: Open

French companies with fewer than 2,000 FTEs may receive a loan or reimbursable advance up to 65% of their R&D costs. For deeptech projects, a mix of a grant and reimbursable advance could be possible but applicants must check this option with Bpifrance before applying.

Universities can only join as a subcontractor or on a self-funded basis, as an additional partner.

Singapore (EnterpriseSG)

Type of funding: Grant

Grant of up to 70% (startups and SMEs) or 50% (non-SMEs) of the total qualified project costs.

If there is no allocated budget for your organisation type in your country and you want to participate in a project consortium, contact your national funding body using the form below to see whether there are other funding opportunities available or talk to them about self-funding.

United Kingdom funding (Innovate UK)

Type of funding: Grant

Call for projects budget: 2 million pounds

Grant of up to 600,000 pounds per project for businesses and research and technology organisations, which must include an SME and be business-led.

Eligible costs for UK partners

More information

Eureka has limited eligibility criteria for organisations participating in a Globalstars consortium:

• Your project idea must represent international cooperation in the form of a specific project.
• The project must be directed at researching or developing an innovative product, process or service with the goal of commercialisation.
• The project must have a civilian purpose.
• Your consortium must include at least two independent legal entities, from Japan and a minimum of one other Eureka country listed in this call (United Kingdom, Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Singapore).
• No single organisation or country can be responsible for more than 70% of the project budget.

This call for projects has additional criteria for organisations to be eligible to receive funding:

• All partners must express their will to cooperate to the development of a new product, industrial process or service. The product, process or service must be innovative and there must be a technological risk involved.
• The project should have an obvious advantage and added value resulting from the technological cooperation between the participants from the countries (e.g., increased knowledge base, commercial leads, access to R&D infrastructure, etc.).
• The project should demonstrate the contribution of all participants and the project must be significant to them.
• The duration of a project may be between 12-36 months.
• The participants must have signed a project consortium agreement on the execution of the project and commercialisation of the projects results before starting the project. This must be sent to the relevant national funding agencies after the results of the evaluation have been communicated and before the start of the project.

Japan eligibility rules

NEDO has additional criteria for Japanese applicants to be eligible to receive funding:

• Applicants must be unlisted Japanese small or medium-sized companies with their main research and development bases in Japan. The applicant’s principal investigators must also be residents of Japan. Other companies, research institutes, universities, etc. can also join the project as subcontractors and joint research partners if the project is represented and applied by Japanese business operators with the conditions above.

Note: If an approved project participant company is listed after the project starts, funding will be terminated as the requirements are no longer fulfilled at that time.

Canada eligibility rules

NRC IRAP has additional criteria for Canadian organisations to be eligible to receive funding, which include:

• Your organisation must be a small and medium-sized enterprise in Canada, incorporated and profit-oriented.
• Your organisation must have 500 or less full-time equivalent employees.
• You must have the objective to grow and generate profits through development and commercialisation of innovative, technology-driven new or improved products, services, or processes in Canada.
• Canadian SME applicants must be eligible for funding as NRC IRAP clients before they can be considered for funding through this call for proposals. For more information, please contact your Canadian representative using our contact form.

Finland eligibility rules

Business Finland eligibility criteria and rules apply to this call for projects.

Different rules apply for small and medium-sized enterprises, midcap companies (large companies with turnover less than 300 million euro), large companies and research organisations.

The impact of the international cooperation should be clear, and the participating companies should have a credible internationalisation plan and business goals, including export targets. If public research organisations are involved in a co-innovation project, a minimum of three companies must also participate, and at least two of them have to apply Business Finland funding.

• Business Finland will advice you about these rules before you submit your Eureka application.

Funding from Business Finland is for intended to be for challenging and innovative research, development and innovation projects.

More information

Singapore eligibility rules

EnterpriseSG has additional criteria for Singapore applicants to be eligible to receive funding:

• Be locally owned (the applicant should have ≥ 30% of its ordinary shares held directly or indirectly by Singaporeans/Singapore PRs); and
• Be in a financially viable position to start and complete the project; and
• The lead applicant (if more than one Singapore entity is involved) should be a business entity that is registered/incorporated and operating in Singapore.

Your project application will be reviewed according to our Network projects evaluation methodology.

1. Impact

• Is the market properly addressed (i.e. size, access and risks)?
• Is the value creation properly addressed (i.e. employment opportunities and environmental and societal benefits)?
• What are the competitive advantages of your project (i.e. strategic importance, enhanced capabilities and visibility)?
• Are your commercialisation plans clear and realistic (i.e. return on investment, geographical and sectoral impact)?

2. Excellence

• What is the degree of innovation? (i.e. is the proposed product, process or service state-of-the-art? Is there sufficient technological maturity and risk)?
• How is the new knowledge going to be used?
• Is your project scientifically and technically challenging for consortium partners?
• Is the technical achievability and risk properly addressed?

3. Quality and efficiency of implementation

• What is the quality of your consortium (i.e. balance of the partnership and technological, managerial and financial capabilities of each partner)?
• Is there added value through international cooperation?
• Is your project management and planning realistic and clearly defined (i.e. methodology, planning approach, milestones and deliverables)?
• Is your cost structure reasonable (i.e. costs and financial commitment for each consortium partner)?

4. Overall perception

Experts will list three positive and negative points to your application and finally state whether they recommend your project for public investment.

Your national funding body may carry out a further evaluation (performed by the national project coordinator and technical experts) according to national rules before allocating funds to successful applicants.

1. Contact your national funding body using the contact form on Eureka’s website to discuss your project idea, financial viability, eligibility and national procedures.
2. Create an account on our application portal (one per consortium) and select the funding opportunity you want to apply to.
3. Using the portal, complete one application form per consortium (in English) and invite other consortium partners to fill in a partner form.
4. Upload a GANTT chart (one per consortium), a signed and completed co-signature form (which you can download from the platform) and any additional required annexes.
5. Your application will be checked for completeness and eligibility before being reviewed using a standard evaluation procedure. If successful, your project will receive a Eureka label.
6. Your national funding body may carry out a further evaluation (performed by your national contact and technical experts) according to national rules before allocating funds to successful applicants.
7. The final step is to complete and sign a consortium agreement. We recommend that you seek legal advice when drafting your consortium agreement.

Apply steps for Japanese applicants

In addition to the Eureka application, submit the required NEDO application on NEDO’s website by 4 December 2024 at 12:00 noon JST (Japan Standard Time), along with the supporting documentation listed in the guidance for application.

Apply steps for Austrian applicants

In addition to the Eureka application, the Austrian participant must submit a separate national full project proposal to FFG General Programme (Basisprogramm) via eCall.

The deadline for the national application is the same as for the Eureka application: 4 December 2024 at 12:00 CET.

The evaluation follows the national deadlines.

Funding in Austria is provided on an annual basis only. Therefore, follow-on applications must be submitted for a maximum duration of 3 years.

Information about Eureka projects in Austria

More information

Apply steps for Canadian applicants

Canadian applicants must register for this call for proposals with NRC IRAP by 10 October 2024 on the NRC IRAP International opportunities webpage, so that we can determine basic NRC IRAP eligibility and send an Expression of Interest form.

Complete and submit the Expression of Interest form to NRC IRAP by 20 October 2024. We strongly recommend Canadian applicants complete the Expression of Interest phase as early as possible, for NRC IRAP to confirm the firm’s potential eligibility for funding before assembling and submitting a proposal.

Only qualified applicants will be invited to submit a Eureka project proposal with their project partner(s). Qualified Canadian applicants will be provided additional templates and will need to submit the required supporting documentation (NRC IRAP Canadian Annex and draft consortium agreement) along with the Eureka Network projects application.

Apply steps for French applicants

French participants may attend Bpifrance’s webinar dedicated to the call on 12 September. Register here.

Contact Bpifrance prior to the application to conduct an eligibility check with the International Collaborative Innovation team and their regional account manager (“Chargé d’Affaires Innovation”).

In addition to the Eureka application, French applicants must submit their national application to Bpifrance by 4 December 2024 (an email will give you access to the Bpifrance En Ligne platform once you contact Bpifrance prior to the deadline). If the funding application’s documents are not submitted in time, the project will be rejected. The evaluation will be conducted by the regional account manager (“Chargé d’Affaires Innovation”) and the International Collaborative Innovation team.

Apply steps for Singaporean applicants

Fill in the preliminary assessment form hosted on FormSG by 27 November 2024.

Thereafter, when notified, submit the full application via the Business Grants Portal by 4 December 2024 23:59 SGT, with the following documents:

• Latest ACRA business profile (retrieved within six months from application date)
• Applicant’s latest and previous two years audited financial statements (company and group level), or official management account
• Supplementary Project Proposal Form (please find the template here)
• Relevant key quotations (e.g., equipment and software, materials and consumables, professional services).

Apply steps for United Kingdom applicants

In addition to the Eureka application, the UK lead participant has to submit the required Innovate UK application on the Innovation Funding Service along with the supporting documentation listed in the guidance for applicants by 4 December 2024 at 11:00 GMT (UK time).

Call for projects text