ESA pays directly to the prime (not to subcontractors).
Archives: Faq
Is there a limit on how much external costs I can include?
All products/services of external providers whose cumulative value exceeds 5.000 euros shall be provided with details of the procurement source (Name of the company, country, number of person-hours quoted and rate/hour, detailing any major additional cost item quoted in the service).
External providers with a total cost above 100k euros shall provide their separate, signed PSS forms (A1, A2 and Exhibit A).
It is not allowed to quote hours of external providers of any kind, those costs shall be only listed in exhibit A to PSS-A2.
Costs above 50 k euros outside of the countries of the bidding consortium members (i.e. in other ESA Member States and/or outside of the ESA Member States) shall be authorised by the relevant National Delegation/s.
Can I add marketing costs to my activity?
Yes, this is allowable, with limitations provided in the allowable costs. In InCubed, up to 5 % of the total cost is allowed for marketing.
Can I use the time and the person-hours/facilities/services provided by my customers to cover the co-funding part?
Yes, two cases are possible:
1) If the customer/user provides facilities, manpower, etc, and they are not subcontractors, these costs shall be detailed in the Exhibit A of the Prime PSS forms as external costs.
If these costs exceed 20.000 Euro, the Customers/Users shall provide separate PSS form (PSS A1, A2, Exhibit A) detailing the costs they will incur and that will not be charged to the Prime.
Eligibility of such costs will be assessed by ESA, however as a general principle they can be eligible if required for the project, fully dedicated to the project and not entangled with normal business.
2) If the customer/user is a subcontractor, they can charge this cost in their PSS forms asking ESA zero co-funding. This cost will go in the overall bucket of the activity costs.
What is object code?
Object code is the compiled version of the source code. It is machine-readable and gives little user-readable information. Therefore it is a secure method to distribute software. Upon the completion of your InCubed activity, we require you to give ESA access to the final product, either as object code or in the form of a link (e.g. to a web platform).
What is Background Intellectual Property?
Background Intellectual Property is a product’s IPR that is needed to produce the result of a contract (e.g. another product or a service), but which is not created under this contract (instead, it has been created prior to or during execution of the contract).
The access to a background IPR product not created under ESA contract shall be granted for ESA use
- free of charge (in fully funded contracts; for partially funded contracts the access is granted on favorable conditions to the contractor), and
- fully, but only for the use under the new ESA contract and not for any other purpose.
- If a 3rd party requires the use of the background IPR protected product, to modify/use it in another ESA contract, the license has to be granted but it can be at market rates.
Please refer to the General Clauses and Conditions for ESA Contracts (ESA/REG/002 rev. 3) for the complete definition of Background Intellectual Property rights.
I need to add a major change to my proposal during the application process (ie. any time after the pitch session has happened). What should I do?
Any major change with respect to the pitch (like the addition of a subcontractor) should be at least notified and explained to ESA. You are required to be transparent towards ESA – we act as your partner in the activity and want to help you succeed.
I’m going to miss a deadline. What should I do?
Remember to actively communicate the status of your proposal to us. You shall request an extension of the deadline (just informing us is not enough), and you shouldn’t consider the extension granted until an InCubed team member has confirmed this on the ideas.esa.int. In addition, we need your commitment to a new submission date, not just a supposition. Please note that the new deadline may require the approval of your corresponding national delegation(s).
You may be granted one extension to a deadline of submitting an application stage. Please be aware that ESA may reject your proposal at any time in case you do not respect the deadlines or fail to communicate to requested inputs. In the case of a rejection, you may be granted an opportunity to resubmit your proposal from scratch.
Which Entity shall be the prime?
The Prime must be an existing entity registered in esa-star, with the intent to commercialize the product developed under the InCubed contract. An academic player can be prime, but it would have to demonstrate commercial intent and comply to a maximum co-funding corresponding to that of a large entity.
In case a proposal includes the setup of a company/joint venture to commercialize the developed product during the contract, the prime shall be the main stakeholder and the contract may be transferred to the new entity via a Contract Change Notice.
What are in-kind contributions?
In-kind contribution (IKC) (in ESA terms) refers to a type of allowable cost that can be accrued to the activity total cost. The ESA definition of in-kind contribution is the following:
- The expenditure has actually been incurred and separately recorded as being company funded product development.
- The IKC cost quoted for the proposed activity is at least 2/3 directly attributable to hardware elements. The remainder, at the maximum 1/3, is for software/assembly/ integration/test to make the hardware a functional unit.
- The IKC has not been paid with any public funds.
- Contributions such as but not limited to materials, information, equipment and services obtained by the Contractor free-of-charge do not qualify as eligible costs and therefore cannot be claimed as in-kind contributions.
- The item cost/depreciation related to the item (in case the item has been capitalised) has not been recovered through the rates (including overhead rates) or other cost elements.
- The item has not been subject to revaluation in the two calendar years before that of the start of the current activity.
- The maximum depreciation for IKC shall not exceed 20% of the overall cost of the activity.
- The IKC is of direct benefit to the proposed activity, as described above. Payments related to the IKC shall only take place upon use of the IKC and shall otherwise be forfeited.
Please also refer to the question “What is an allowable (eligible) cost for the activity?”
Please refer to the General Clauses and Conditions for ESA Contracts (ESA/REG/002 rev. 3) Annex 1, Section 4 for the allowable costs.