Regulation (EU) 2021/695 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 April 2021 establishing Horizon Europe – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, laying down its rules for participation and dissemination, and repealing Regulations (EU) No 1290/2013 and (EU) No 1291/2013 (Text with EEA relevance)

TITLE I GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1

Subject matter

This Regulation lays down the objectives of the Programme, the budget for the period 2021 to 2027, the forms of Union funding and the rules for providing such funding.

• (a) the specific programme established by Decision (EU) 2021/764;

• (b) a financial contribution to the European Institute of Innovation and Technology established by the EIT Regulation;

• (c) the specific programme on defence research established by Regulation (EU) 2021/697.

Article 2

Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions apply:

• (1) 'research infrastructures' means facilities that provide resources and services for the research communities to conduct research and foster innovation in their fields, including the associated human resources, major equipment or sets of instruments; knowledge-related facilities such as collections, archives or scientific data infrastructures; computing systems, communication networks and any other infrastructure of a unique nature and open to external users, essential to achieve excellence in R&I; they may, where relevant, be used beyond research, for example for education or public services and they may be 'single sited', 'virtual' or 'distributed';

• (2) 'smart specialisation strategy' means the national or regional innovation strategies which set priorities in order to build competitive advantage by developing and matching R&I own strengths to business needs in order to address emerging opportunities and market developments in a coherent manner, while avoiding duplication and fragmentation of efforts, including those that take the form of, or are included in, a national or regional R&I strategic policy framework, and fulfilling the enabling condition set out in the relevant provisions of the Common Provisions Regulation for 2021-2027;

• (3) 'European Partnership' means an initiative, prepared with the early involvement of Member States and associated countries, where the Union together with private and/or public partners (such as industry, universities, research organisations, bodies with a public service mission at local, regional, national or international level or civil society organisations including foundations and NGOs) commit to jointly supporting the development and implementation of a programme of R&I activities, including those related to market, regulatory or policy uptake;

• (4) 'open access' means online access, provided free of charge to the end user, to research outputs resulting from actions under the Programme in accordance with Article 14 and Article 39(3);

• (5) 'open science' means an approach to the scientific process based on open cooperative work, tools and diffusing knowledge, and includes the elements listed in Article 14;

• (6) 'mission' means a portfolio of excellence-based and impact-driven R&I activities across disciplines and sectors, intended to: (i) achieve, within a set timeframe, a measurable goal that could not be achieved through individual actions; (ii) have an impact on society and policy-making through science and technology; and (iii) be relevant for a significant part of the European population and a wide range of European citizens;

• (7) 'pre-commercial procurement' means the procurement of research and development services involving risk-benefit sharing under market conditions, and competitive development in phases, where there is a clear separation of the research and development services procured from the deployment of commercial volumes of end-products;

• (8) 'public procurement of innovative solutions' means procurement where contracting authorities act as a launch customer for innovative goods or services which are not yet available on a large-scale commercial basis, and may include conformity testing;

• (9) 'access rights' means rights to use results or background under terms and conditions laid down in accordance with this Regulation;

• (10) 'background' means any data, know how or information whatever its form or nature, tangible or intangible, including any rights such as intellectual property rights, that is: (i) held by beneficiaries prior to their accession to a given action; and (ii) identified by the beneficiaries in a written agreement as needed for implementing the action or for exploiting its results;

• (11) 'dissemination' means the public disclosure of the results by appropriate means, other than resulting from protecting or exploiting the results, including by scientific publications in any medium;

• (12) 'exploitation' means the use of results in further R&I activities other than those covered by the action concerned, including among other things, commercial exploitation such as developing, creating, manufacturing and marketing a product or process, creating and providing a service, or in standardisation activities;

• (13) 'fair and reasonable conditions' means appropriate conditions, including possible financial terms or royalty-free conditions, taking into account the specific circumstances of the request for access, for example the actual or potential value of the results or background to which access is requested and/or the scope, duration or other characteristics of the exploitation envisaged;

• (14) 'funding body' means a body or organisation, as referred to in point (c) of Article 62(1) of the Financial Regulation, to which the Commission has entrusted budget implementation tasks under the Programme;

• (15) 'international European research organisation' means an international organisation, the majority of whose members are Member States or associated countries, whose principal objective is to promote scientific and technological cooperation in Europe;

• (16) 'legal entity' means a natural person, or a legal person created and recognised as such under Union, national or international law, which has legal personality and the capacity to act in its own name, exercise rights and be subject to obligations, or an entity which does not have legal personality as referred to in point (c) of Article 197(2) of the Financial Regulation;

• (17) 'widening countries' or 'low R&I performing countries' means countries where legal entities need to be established in order to be eligible as coordinators under the 'widening participation and spreading excellence' component of the 'Widening Participation and Strengthening ERA' part of the Programme; from the Member States, those countries are Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia, for the whole duration of the Programme; for associated countries, it means the list of eligible countries as defined based on an indicator and published in the work programme. Legal entities from outermost regions as defined in Article 349 TFUE shall be also fully eligible as coordinators under this component;

• (18) 'non-profit legal entity' means a legal entity which by its legal form is non-profit-making or which has a legal or statutory obligation not to distribute profits to its shareholders or individual members;

• (19) 'small or medium-sized enterprise' or 'SME' means a micro, small or medium-sized enterprise as defined in Article 2 of the Annex to Recommendation 2003/361/EC ([^E0001]);

• (20) 'small mid-cap' means an entity that is not an SME and that has up to 499 employees where the staff headcount is calculated in accordance with Articles 3 to 6 of Annex to Recommendation 2003/361/EC;

• (21) 'results' means any tangible or intangible effect of a given action, such as data, knowhow or information, whatever its form or nature and whether or not it can be protected, as well as any rights attached to it, including intellectual property rights;

• (22) 'research output' means the results generated by a given action to which access can be given in the form of scientific publications, data or other engineered results and processes such as software, algorithms, protocols and electronic notebooks;

• (23) 'Seal of Excellence' means a quality label which shows that a proposal submitted to a call for proposals exceeded all of the evaluation thresholds set out in the work programme, but could not be funded due to lack of budget available for that call for proposals in the work programme and might receive support from other Union or national sources of funding;

• (24) 'strategic R&I plan' means an implementing act laying out a strategy for realising content in the work programme covering a maximum period of four years, follows a broad mandatory multi-stakeholder consultation process and specifies the priorities, suitable types of action and forms of implementation to be used;

• (25) 'work programme' means a document adopted by the Commission for the implementation of the specific programme in accordance with Article 14 of Decision (EU) 2021/764 or a document equivalent in content and structure adopted by a funding body;

• (26) 'contract' means an agreement concluded between the Commission or the relevant funding body with a legal entity implementing an innovation and market deployment action and supported by Horizon Europe blended finance or EIC blended finance;

• (27) 'reimbursable advance' means the part of the Horizon Europe blended finance or EIC blended finance that corresponds to a loan under Title X of the Financial Regulation, but that is directly awarded by the Union on a non-profit basis to cover the costs of activities corresponding to an innovation action, and which is to be reimbursed by the beneficiary to the Union under the conditions provided for in the contract;

• (28) 'classified information' means European Union classified information as defined in Article 3 of Decision (EU, Euratom) 2015/444 as well as classified information of Member States, classified information of third countries with which the Union has a security agreement and classified information of international organisation with which the Union has a security agreement;

• (29) 'blending operation' means an action supported by the Union budget, including within a blending facility or platform as defined in point (6) of Article 2 of the Financial Regulation, that combines non-repayable forms of support and/or financial instruments from the Union budget with repayable forms of support from development or other public finance institutions, as well as from commercial finance institutions and investors;

• (30) 'Horizon Europe blended finance' means financial support to a programme implementing innovation and market deployment action, consisting of a specific combination of a grant or reimbursable advance and an investment in equity or any other repayable form of support;

• (31) 'EIC blended finance' means direct financial support provided under the EIC to an innovation and market deployment action consisting of a specific combination of a grant or reimbursable advance and an investment in equity or any other repayable form of support;

• (32) 'research and innovation action' means an action primarily consisting of activities aiming to establish new knowledge or to explore the feasibility of a new or improved technology, product, process, service or solution. This may include basic and applied research, technology development and integration, testing, demonstration and validation on a small-scale prototype in a laboratory or simulated environment;

• (33) 'innovation action' means an action primarily consisting of activities directly aiming to produce plans and arrangements or designs for new, altered or improved products, processes or services, possibly including prototyping, testing, demonstrating, piloting, large-scale product validation and market replication;

• (34) 'ERC frontier research action' means a principal investigator-led research action, including ERC Proof of Concept, hosted by single or multiple beneficiaries receiving funding from the European Research Council (ERC);

• (35) 'training and mobility action' means an action geared towards the improvement of the skills, knowledge and career prospects of researchers, based on mobility between countries and, if relevant, between sectors or disciplines;

• (36) 'programme co-fund action' means an action to provide multi-annual co-funding to a programme of activities established or implemented by legal entities managing or funding R&I programmes, other than Union funding bodies; such a programme of activities may support networking and coordination, research, innovation, pilot actions, and innovation and market deployment actions, training and mobility actions, awareness raising and communication, dissemination and exploitation, and provide any relevant financial support, such as grants, prizes and procurement, as well as Horizon Europe blended finance or a combination thereof. The programme co-fund action may be implemented by those legal entities directly or by third parties on their behalf;

• (37) 'pre-commercial procurement action' means an action the primary aim of which is to realise the pre-commercial procurement implemented by beneficiaries that are contracting authorities or contracting entities;

• (38) 'public procurement of innovative solutions action' means an action the primary aim of which is to realise the joint or coordinated public procurement of innovative solutions implemented by beneficiaries that are contracting authorities or contracting entities;

• (39) 'coordination and support action' means an action contributing to the objectives of the Programme, excluding R&I activities, except when undertaken under the component 'widening participation and spreading excellence' of the part 'Widening participation and strengthening the ERA'; and bottom-up coordination without co-funding of research activities from the Union that allows for cooperation between legal entities from Member States and associated countries in order to strengthen the ERA;

• (40) 'inducement prize' means a prize to spur investment in a given direction by specifying a target prior to the performance of the work;

• (41) 'recognition prize' means a prize to reward past achievements and outstanding work after it has been performed;

• (42) 'innovation and market deployment action' means an action which embeds an innovation action and other activities necessary to deploy an innovation in the market, including the scaling-up of companies, Horizon Europe blended finance or EIC blended finance;

• (43) 'indirect actions' means R&I activities to which the Union provides financial support and which are undertaken by participants;

• (44) 'direct actions' means R&I activities undertaken by the Commission through its JRC;

• (45) 'procurement' means procurement as defined in point (49) of Article 2 of the Financial Regulation;

• (46) 'affiliated entity' means an entity as defined in Article 187(1) of the Financial Regulation;

• (47) 'innovation ecosystem' means an ecosystem that brings together at Union level actors or entities whose functional goal is to enable technology development and innovation; it encompasses relations between material resources (such as funds, equipment, and facilities), institutional entities (such as higher education institutions and support services, research and technology organisations, companies, venture capitalists and financial intermediaries) and national, regional and local policy-making and funding entities;

• (48) 'project-based remuneration' means remuneration that is linked to the participation of a person in projects, is part of the beneficiary's usual remuneration practices and is paid in a consistent manner.

Article 3

Programme objectives

• (a) to develop, promote and advance scientific excellence, to support the creation and diffusion of high-quality new fundamental and applied knowledge, of skills, technologies and solutions, to support training and mobility of researchers, to attract talent at all levels and contribute to the full engagement of the Union's talent pool in actions supported under the Programme;

• (b) to generate knowledge, strengthen the impact of R&I in developing, supporting and implementing Union policies and support the access to and uptake of innovative solutions in European industry, in particular SMEs, and in society to address global challenges, including climate change and the SDGs;

• (c) to foster all forms of innovation, facilitate technological development, demonstration and knowledge and technology transfer, strengthen deployment and exploitation of innovative solutions;

• (d) to optimise the Programme's delivery with a view to strengthening and increasing the impact and attractiveness of the ERA, to foster excellence-based participation from all Member States, including low R&I performing countries, in the Programme and to facilitate collaborative links in European R&I.

Article 4

Programme structure

• (a) Pillar I 'Excellent Science', with the following components:
• (i) the ERC;
• (ii) Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA);
• (iii) research infrastructures;

• (b) Pillar II 'Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness', with the following components, taking into account that SSH play an important role across all clusters:
• (i) cluster 'Health';
• (ii) cluster 'Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society';
• (iii) cluster 'Civil Security for Society';
• (iv) cluster 'Digital, Industry and Space';
• (v) cluster 'Climate, Energy and Mobility';
• (vi) cluster 'Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment';
• (vii) non-nuclear direct actions of the JRC;

• (c) Pillar III 'Innovative Europe', with the following components:
• (i) the EIC;
• (ii) European innovation ecosystems;
• (iii) the EIT;

• (d) Part 'Widening Participation and Strengthening the ERA', with the following components:
• (i) widening participation and spreading excellence;
• (ii) reforming and enhancing the European R&I System.

Article 5

Defence research and development

Activities to be carried out under the specific programme referred to in point (c) of Article 1(2) and which are laid down in Regulation (EU) 2021/697, shall have an exclusive focus on defence research and development, with objectives and broad lines of activities aiming to foster the competitiveness, efficiency and innovation capacity of the European defence technological and industrial base.

Article 6

Strategic planning and implementation and forms of Union funding

The Commission shall ensure the early involvement of Member States and extensive exchanges with the European Parliament, to be complemented by consultations with stakeholders and the general public.

Strategic planning shall ensure alignment with other relevant Union programmes and consistency with Union priorities and commitments and increase complementarity and synergies with national and regional funding programmes and priorities, thereby strengthening the ERA. Areas for possible missions and areas for possible Institutionalised European Partnerships shall be established in Annex VI.

A call for proposals under the FTRI procedure shall have the following cumulative characteristics:

• (a) bottom-up calls for proposals;

• (b) a shorter time-to-grant, not exceeding six months;

• (c) a support provided only to small collaborative consortia composed of maximum six different and independent eligible legal entities;

• (d) a maximum financial support per consortium not exceeding EUR 2,5 million.

The work programme shall identify the calls for proposals which use the FTRI procedure.

Article 7

Principles of the Programme

Article 8

Missions

• (a) using SDGs as sources for their design and implementation, have a clear R&I content and Union added value, and contribute to reaching Union priorities and commitments and the Programme objectives referred to in Article 3;

• (b) cover areas of common European relevance, be inclusive, encourage broad engagement and active participation from various types of stakeholders from the public and private sector, including citizens and end-users, and deliver R&I results that could benefit all Member States;

• (c) be bold and inspirational, hence have wide, scientific, technological, societal, economic, environmental or policy relevance and impact;

• (d) indicate a clear direction and clear objectives, be targeted, measurable and time-bound and have a clear budgetary envelope;

• (e) be selected in a transparent manner and be centred on ambitious, excellence-based and impact-driven, but realistic goals and on research, development and innovation activities;

• (f) have the necessary scope, scale and mobilisation of the resources and leverage of additional public and private funds required to deliver their outcome;

• (g) stimulate activities across disciplines (including SSH) and encompass activities from a broad range of TRLs, including lower TRLs;

• (h) be open to multiple, bottom-up approaches and solutions which take into account human and societal needs and benefits and recognise the importance of diverse contributions to their achievement;

• (i) benefit from synergies with other Union programmes in a transparent manner as well as with national and, where relevant, regional innovation ecosystems.

Article 9

The European Innovation Council

The EIC shall operate in accordance with the following principles:

• (a) clear Union added value;

• (b) autonomy;

• (c) ability to take risk;

• (d) efficiency;

• (e) effectiveness;

• (f) transparency;

• (g) accountability.

Article 10

European Partnerships

• (a) participation in European Partnerships set up on the basis of memoranda of understanding or contractual arrangements between the Commission and the partners referred to in point (3) of Article 2, specifying the objectives of the European Partnership, related commitments of the Union and of the other partners regarding their financial and/or in-kind contributions, key performance and impact indicators, the results to be delivered and reporting arrangements. They include the identification of complementary R&I activities that are implemented by the partners and by the Programme (Co-programmed European Partnerships);

• (b) participation in and financial contribution to a programme of R&I activities, specifying the objectives, key performance and impact indicators, and the results to be delivered, based on the commitment of the partners regarding their financial and/or in-kind contributions and the integration of their relevant activities using a Programme co-fund action (Co-funded European Partnerships);

• (c) participation in and financial contribution to R&I programmes undertaken by several Member States in accordance with Article 185 TFEU or by bodies established pursuant to Article 187 TFEU, such as Joint Undertakings or by the EIT's KICs in accordance with the EIT Regulation (Institutionalised European Partnerships). Institutionalised European Partnerships shall be implemented only where other parts of the Programme, including other forms of European Partnerships, would not achieve the objectives or would not generate the necessary expected impacts, and where justified by a long-term perspective and a high degree of integration. European Partnerships in accordance with Article 185 or Article 187 TFEU shall implement a central management of all financial contributions, except in duly justified cases. In the case of central management of all financial contributions, project level contributions from one participating state shall be made on the basis of the funding requested in proposals from legal entities established in that participating state, unless otherwise agreed among all participating states. The rules for Institutionalised European Partnerships shall specify, among other things, the objectives, key performance and impact indicators, and the results to be delivered, as well as the related commitments for financial and/or in-kind contributions of the partners.

• (a) be established for the purpose of addressing European or global challenges only in cases where the objectives of the Programme would be achieved more effectively through a European Partnership than by the Union alone and when compared to other forms of support under the Programme; an appropriate share of the budget of the Programme shall be allocated to those actions of the Programme that are implemented through European Partnerships; the majority of the budget in Pillar II shall be allocated to actions outside European Partnerships;

• (b) adhere to the principles of Union added value, transparency and openness, and to having impact within and for Europe, strong leverage effect on sufficient scale, long-term commitments of all involved parties, flexibility in implementation, coherence, coordination and complementarity with Union, local, regional, national and, where relevant, international initiatives or other European Partnerships and missions;

• (c) have a clear life-cycle approach, be limited in time and include conditions for phasing-out the Programme funding.

Article 11

Review of missions and partnership areas

By 31 December 2023, the Commission shall carry out a review of Annex VI to this Regulation as part of the overall monitoring of the Programme, including missions and Institutionalised European Partnerships established pursuant to Article 185 or 187 TFEU and present a report on the main findings to the European Parliament and to the Council.

Article 12

Budget

• (a) EUR 23 546 000 000 for Pillar I 'Excellent Science' for the period 2021 to 2027, of which:
• (i) EUR 15 027 000 000 for the ERC;
• (ii) EUR 6 333 000 000 for MSCA;
• (iii) EUR 2 186 000 000 for research infrastructures;

• (b) EUR 47 428 000 000 for Pillar II 'Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness' for the period 2021 to 2027, of which:
• (i) EUR 6 893 000 000 for cluster 'Health';
• (ii) EUR 1 386 000 000 for cluster 'Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society';
• (iii) EUR 1 303 000 000 for cluster 'Civil Security for Society';
• (iv) EUR 13 462 000 000 for cluster 'Digital, Industry and Space';
• (v) EUR 13 462 000 000 for cluster 'Climate, Energy and Mobility';
• (vi) EUR 8 952 000 000 for cluster 'Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment';
• (vii) EUR 1 970 000 000 for the non-nuclear direct actions of the JRC;

• (c) EUR 11 937 000 000 for Pillar III 'Innovative Europe' for the period 2021 to 2027, of which:
• (i) EUR 8 752 000 000 for the EIC;
• (ii) EUR 459 000 000 for European innovation ecosystems;
• (iii) EUR 2 726 000 000 for the EIT;

• (d) EUR 3 212 000 000 for Part 'Widening Participation and Strengthening the ERA' for the period 2021 to 2027, of which:
• (i) EUR 2 842 000 000 for 'widening participation and spreading excellence';
• (ii) EUR 370 000 000 for 'reforming and enhancing the European R&I System'.

• (a) EUR 1 286 000 000 in constant 2018 prices for Pillar I 'Excellent Science', of which:
• (i) EUR 857 000 000 in constant 2018 prices for the ERC;
• (ii) EUR 236 000 000 in constant 2018 prices for MSCA;
• (iii) EUR 193 000 000 in constant 2018 prices for research infrastructures;

• (b) EUR 1 286 000 000 in constant 2018 prices for Pillar II 'Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness', of which:
• (i) EUR 686 000 000 in constant 2018 prices for cluster 'Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society';
• (ii) EUR 257 000 000 in constant 2018 prices for cluster 'Civil Security for Society';
• (iii) EUR 171 000 000 in constant 2018 prices for cluster 'Digital, and Industry and Space';
• (iv) EUR 171 000 000 in constant 2018 prices for cluster 'Climate, Energy and Mobility';

• (c) EUR 270 000 000 in constant 2018 prices for Pillar III 'Innovative Europe', of which:
• (i) EUR 60 000 000 in constant 2018 prices for European innovation ecosystems;
• (ii) EUR 210 000 000 in constant 2018 prices for the EIT;

• (d) EUR 159 000 000 in constant 2018 prices for Part 'Widening Participation and Strengthening the ERA', of which:
• (i) EUR 99 000 000 in constant 2018 prices for 'widening participation and spreading sharing excellence';
• (ii) EUR 60 000 000 in constant 2018 prices for 'reforming and enhancing the European R&I System'.

• (a) in so far as they are related to the objectives of the Programme: expenses relating to studies, to meetings of experts, information and communication actions;

• (b) expenses linked to information technology networks focusing on information processing and exchange, including corporate information technology tools and other technical and administrative assistance needed in connection with the management of the Programme.

Article 13

Resources from the European Union Recovery Instrument

• (a) 25 % to cluster 'Health';

• (b) 25 % to cluster 'Digital, Industry and Space';

• (c) 25 % to cluster 'Climate, Energy and Mobility';

• (d) 25 % to the EIC.

Article 14

Open science

• (a) open access to scientific publications resulting from research funded under the Programme;

• (b) open access to research data, including those underlying scientific publications, in accordance with the principle 'as open as possible, as closed as necessary'.

Article 15

Alternative, combined and cumulative funding and transfers of resources

• (a) co-funded actions selected under the Programme; and

• (b) actions which were awarded a Seal of Excellence provided that they comply with all of the following conditions:
• (i) they have been assessed in a call for proposals under the Programme;
• (ii) they comply with the minimum quality requirements of that call for proposals; and
• (iii) they have not been financed under that call for proposals only due to budgetary constraints.

Article 16

Third countries associated to the Programme

• (a) Members of the European Free Trade Association, which are members of the EEA, in accordance with the conditions laid down in the Agreement on the European Economic Area;

• (b) acceding countries, candidate countries and potential candidates, in accordance with the general principles and general terms and conditions for the participation of those countries in Union programmes established in the respective framework agreements and Association Council decisions or similar agreements and in accordance with the specific conditions laid down in agreements between the Union and those countries;

• (c) European Neighbourhood Policy countries, in accordance with the general principles and general terms and conditions for the participation of those countries in Union programmes established in the respective framework agreements and Association Council decisions or in similar agreements and in accordance with the specific conditions laid down in agreements between the Union and those countries;

• (d) third countries and territories that fulfil all of the following criteria:
• (i) a good capacity in science, technology and innovation;
• (ii) commitment to a rules-based open market economy, including fair and equitable dealing with intellectual property rights, respect of human rights, backed by democratic institutions;
• (iii) active promotion of policies to improve the economic and social well-being of citizens.

• (a) ensures a fair balance as regards the contributions and benefits of the third country participating in the Union programmes;

• (b) lays down the conditions of participation in the Union programmes, including the calculation of financial contributions to individual programmes, and their administrative costs;

• (c) does not confer on the third country any decision-making power in respect of the Union programme;

• (d) guarantees the rights of the Union to ensure sound financial management and to protect the Union's financial interests.

The contributions referred to in point (b) of the first subparagraph of this paragraph shall constitute assigned revenues in accordance with Article 21(5) of the Financial Regulation.

TITLE II RULES FOR PARTICIPATION AND DISSEMINATION

CHAPTER I General provisions

Article 17

Funding bodies and direct actions of JRC

• (a) such a departure is provided for in the basic act setting up the funding body or entrusting budget implementation tasks to it; or

• (b) for funding bodies under points (ii), (iii) or (v) of point (c) of Article 62(1) of the Financial Regulation if it is provided for in the contribution agreement and if their specific operating needs or the nature of the action so require.

Article 18

Eligible actions and ethical principles

The following fields of research shall not be financed:

• (a) activities aiming at human cloning for reproductive purposes;

• (b) activities intended to modify the genetic heritage of human beings which could make such modifications heritable ([^E0002]);

• (c) activities intended to create human embryos solely for the purpose of research or for the purpose of stem cell procurement, including by means of somatic cell nuclear transfer.

Article 19

Ethics

Particular attention shall be paid to the principle of proportionality, to the right to privacy, the right to the protection of personal data, the right to the physical and mental integrity of a person, the right to non-discrimination and to the need to ensure protection of the environment and high levels of human health protection.

• (a) an ethics self-assessment identifying and detailing all the foreseeable ethics issues related to the objective, implementation and likely impact of the activities to be funded, including a confirmation of compliance with paragraph 1 and a description of how it will be ensured;

• (b) a confirmation that the activities will comply with the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity published by All European Academies and that no activities excluded from funding will be conducted;

• (c) for activities carried out outside the Union, a confirmation that the same activities would have been allowed in a Member State; and

• (d) for activities making use of human embryonic stem cells, as appropriate, details of licensing and control measures that shall be taken by the competent authorities of the Member States concerned as well as details of the ethics approvals that shall be obtained before the activities concerned start.

Ethics checks shall be carried out with the support of ethics experts.

Article 20

Security

CHAPTER II Grants

Article 21

Grants

Grants under the Programme shall be awarded and managed in accordance with Title VIII of the Financial Regulation, unless otherwise specified in this Chapter.

Article 22

Legal entities eligible for participation

• (a) at least one independent legal entity established in a Member State; and

• (b) at least two other independent legal entities each established in different Member States or associated countries;

Article 23

Legal entities eligible for funding

• (a) the third country is identified in the work programme adopted by the Commission; or

• (b) the Commission or the relevant funding body considers that the participation of the legal entity concerned is essential for implementing the action.

Article 24

Calls for proposals

• (a) are to be carried out by the JRC or legal entities identified in the work programme;

• (b) do not fall within the scope of a call for proposals, in accordance with point (e) of Article 195 of the Financial Regulation.

Article 25

Joint calls for proposals

The Commission or the relevant funding body may issue a joint call for proposals with:

• (a) third countries, including their scientific and technological organisations or agencies;

• (b) international organisations;

• (c) non-profit legal entities.

In the case of a joint call for proposals, the applicants shall fulfil the requirements under Article 22 and joint procedures shall be established for the selection and evaluation of proposals. Such procedures shall involve a balanced group of experts appointed by each party.

Article 26

Pre-commercial procurement and public procurement of innovative solutions

• (a) shall comply with competition rules and with the principles of transparency, non-discrimination, equal treatment, sound financial management, proportionality;

• (b) may authorise the award of multiple contracts within the same procedure (multiple sourcing);

• (c) shall provide for the award of the contracts to the tenders offering best value for money while ensuring absence of conflicts of interest.

In the case of pre-commercial procurement, where appropriate and without prejudice to the principles enumerated in point (a), the procurement procedure may be simplified or accelerated and may provide for specific conditions such as limiting the place of performance of the procured activities to the territory of the Member States and of the associated countries.

Article 27

Financial capacity of applicants

Article 28

Award criteria and selection

• (a) excellence;

• (b) impact;