FAQ

For detailed information on consortium eligibility, please refer to the Legal Framework in the Call for Pilots Manual (available at https://www.ds4sscc.eu/cfp-two ).

1.Who can apply (e.g., public administrations, companies, academia, NGOs)?

Consortia must comprise at least two public administrations from different EU member states or Digital Europe Programme Associated countries. Companies, academia, and NGOs can also be part of the consortium.

2. Is a public regional agency considered as a public administration?

Yes, if the public regional agency is considered as a recognised public authority.

3. Can organisations from countries outside the EU apply?

To be eligible for this call, all partners forming the consortium and the respective Pilot Sites must be located in the EU Member States and/or in the Digital Europe Programme associated countries. Please note that only associated countries who have been part of DEP since 2022 can participate in the call, as the European data space for smart communities project is funded from the 2022 call.

The pilot consortium members are subject to restrictions due to security reasons. Entities must not be controlled by an ineligible country. If there is a risk for such a case, entities will be offered an opportunity to provide a guarantee.

4. Who can be the lead of the consortium (e.g., companies, municipalities, universities)?

Everyone can be a Lead Applicant, although it’s preferred that the consortium is led by a EU local or regional public administration.

Update: It is important to clarify that the call for pilots is not restricted by the EU NUTS (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics) classification, unlike other programs such as Interreg or the Interregional Innovation Investment (I3) programme.

The call specifies that any eligible organisation can lead the application. This broad eligibility criterion means that there is flexibility in who can act as the Lead Partner. That said, there is a preference for the lead partner to be an eligible local public administration. This preference is based on the understanding that local public administrations often have the requisite experience and capacity to effectively coordinate and manage such projects. Ultimately, the appropriateness of the Lead Partner and the project will be evaluated by the evaluators based on the criteria laid out in the call.

5. Can there be more than one city/municipality from the same EU state?

There can be more than one city/municipality from the same EU member state, but it is a requirement to have at least two public administrations from different member states.

6. Can the same city apply for two different applications and be part of two different consortia? Can two offices from the same city administration apply?

Yes. However, according to the Granting Authority (European Commission) guidelines, the max support for one third party can be up € 1 000 000, and the amount per consortium can be up to € 1 500 000 (https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/digital/wp-call/2022/call-fiche_digital-2022-cloud-ai-03_en.pdf).

For detailed information on funding and eligible costs, please refer to the Financial Framework in the Call for Pilots Manual (available at https://www.ds4sscc.eu/cfp-two ).

1.Is the max budget for a proposal 3M€, independently from the number of public administrations involved?

Depends on the co-financing that must be at least 50% of the budget. The EU contribution is max 1.5M€, but the co-financing can be higher (e.g., in theory you can bring in 10M€ in co-financing).

According to the Granting Authority (European Commission) guidelines, the max support for one third party can be up € 1 000 000, and the amount per consortium can be up to € 1 500 000 (https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/digital/wp-call/2022/call-fiche_digital-2022-cloud-ai-03_en.pdf).

2. Can the total cost of the budget be less than 2M€ (1M€ co-financing)?

The amount of 2-3M€ is suggested, but there is no minimum amount set according to the Granting Authority (European Commission) guidelines. The total budget can be less than 2M€ if sufficient justification is provided about the implementation of the pilot and related budget (50% co-financing obligation still applies).

3. Are there any rules on how the budget must be divided between pilot partners?

We do not prescribe the budget split between the countries and partners, but it should be distributed according to their role in the pilot. However, we expect the budget per pilot partner not to exceed 2/3 of the total project budget.

According to the Granting Authority (European Commission) guidelines, the maximum support for a third party can be up € 1 000 000, and the amount per consortium can be up to € 1 500 000 (https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/digital/wp-call/2022/call-fiche_digital-2022-cloud-ai-03_en.pdf).

4. Should the 50% co-financing come from all pilot project partners?

In principle, the Grant Agreement will be made with the Lead Partner of the consortium, who ensures that 50% of the co-financing is available and auditable across the project partners. It’s a best practice that each partner co-finances their participation in the pilot project from their own means, although it is up to the consortium to agree on how co-financing is sourced and distributed.

5. Are in-kind contributions allowed as part of co-financing?

In-kind contributions are not accepted as co-financing.

6. What is considered as in-kind? Are software or data considered as in-kind?

In-kind contributions are not accepted as co-financing. Co-financing must be directly stated in the budget.

7. Can personnel costs be in the 50% of co-funding?

All costs must be directly visible in the pilot budget to be eligible during the pilot period. They will have to be documented and accountable. We don’t distinguish between permanent staff and temporary staff (individuals).

They must hand in timesheets as documentation for their work alongside their employment contract.

8. Can the 50% co-funding come from other European programs or programs like the RRF?

Co-financing must be a dedicated cost as indicated directly in the budget for the pilot and it must be auditable. This is to avoid double funding. All activities must observe relevant regulations, including state-aid rules and risks of double funding.

9. If 50% co-financing should be in the data space pilot and not in the application?

We look at the pilot budgets on the project level – the total grant received by the European Commission needs to be matched at least with 50% of co-financing that is both accountable and auditable.

10. Is hardware eligible cost if it is needed for use-case to plugin to Data Space?

It must be documented that it is for the project and needed by the project. This also needs to consider the depreciation rate. For example, if the hardware’s expected lifetime is 80 months and the pilot project runs for 16 months, only 20% (16/80) of the cost is eligible.

11. You have stated that 'Subcontracting may only cover a limited and reasonable part of the pilot’s action' without indicating any reference of the potential percentage this could be. Are there any restrictions?

We have followed the usual practice in the European projects and confirmed that a limited and reasonable part of the action could be subcontracted. This said, it is not possible for us to define a clear limit with a specific percentage as that depends on the context of the proposed pilot project and the activities that would be necessary to outsource.

Please consider that subcontracting may not cover tasks such as pilot management and coordination. Subcontracting is also not allowed between members of the consortium.

12. Is VAT an eligible cost?

Value-added tax is considered as eligible where it is not recoverable under the applicable national VAT legislation and is paid by a beneficiary other than a non-taxable person as defined in Article 13(1) of Council Directive 2006/112/EC13 of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax.

13. What is the overhead rate?

The overhead rate is 7%, following Digital Europe funding schemes.

For detailed information on technical requirements, please refer to the Technical Framework in the Call for Pilots Manual (available at https://www.ds4sscc.eu/cfp-two).

1.What is the technological readiness level expected from the pilots?

An example of “high level of technological maturity” is having at least a data platform or digital twin in place in the city or community. Emerging data space is also welcome.

We recommend the applicants to use the LORDIMAS Digital Maturity Assessment tool to self-assess the digital maturity of the region or a city. This said, it’s not required during the application phase.

2. Applicants need to have done the “LORDIMAS Digital Maturity Assessment” and come out as Digitally native or digitally optimised. How is this self-assessment validated? It seems to me, easy to ‘state’ that one is in a more advanced state, and indeed this is very often the case in self-evaluation, to think and hope that one has come some way. Also, if this applies to all partners in a consortium, how is it applied to those with a non-technical background/contribution?

Having a LORDIMAS score is recommended, but not required. In order to be eligible for the piloting programme, Pilot Site(s) need to have at least a data platform, digital twin or emerging data space in place. This will need to be confirmed, and further elaborated in the application.

3. Are there requirements for compliance? E.g., on Gaia-X or FIWARE Data Spaces Connectors

You can follow any implementation that is compliant with the indications in the Technical Blueprint which is also following the recommendations of the Data Spaces Support Centre blueprint.

4. Will DS4SSCC blueprint be implemented with SIMPL framework? What is as-is and to-be connection between both?

The components of data spaces can be implemented from different implementers, SIMPL is one source of implementations, but others can also be considered.

5. Apart from SIMPL middleware, what other preparatory works and frameworks should be followed/adhered to?

Please check the Technical Framework chapter in the Call for Pilots Manual which provides a distinct list of technical requirements that pilots should follow.

6. Can existing projects whose outcome will be the design of a DS be combined with this initiative?

We recommend not replicating the work and instead relying on available assets provided by the DS4SSCC and Data Spaces Support Centre. However, the European Data Space for Smart Communities aims to federate all existing and upcoming data spaces at the local, regional, or national level. By following the same approach in the blueprint, all can be interoperable. We recommend compliance with our Technical Blueprint to make the federation feasible.

7. If there is existing infra (IDM-identity management) what should be taken into consideration? Is data shared between organisations or individuals?

See the following link for followed approach for IDM: https://inventory.ds4sscc.eu/reference-architecture

8. Should both sites connect from the technological point of view (e.g., data exchange) or is it enough that each site executes cross-domain use cases independently? Are only DS building blocks then shared between both sites?

All the Pilot Sites must show the data sharing across domains. The proposed use case must use data from both domains to create value from cross-domain data sharing.

For further guidance on the scope of work for piloting activities, please refer to the section “Scope” in the Call for Pilots Manual (available at https://www.ds4sscc.eu/cfp-two ).

1. You have already mentioned that the inclusion of AI and/or digital twins in the project is valuable, but exactly how important are the development of AI models in this project? Most use case examples "predict traffic" or "predict weather", etc. are not possible without AI, and they place a lot of focus on AI.

It is not the main purpose, AI services can be part of the use case, if they bring value to the users, but the important focus is to show how to share data across domains to build services on top. The main goal is the validation of the blueprint, set up the data space and showcase that sharing of data is feasible to provide value.

Further regarding the role of AI, it's a very relevant aspect, and it would be expected that AI is a natural (but not explicitly required) element in many pilot proposals. AI starts with data, and data naturally leads to AI. The cross-sectorial data space for smart communities is closely linked to the AI Testing Facility CitCom.ai TEF, so the link is natural.

This said, having an AI aspect will not save a bad proposal, just as not having an AI focus would not disqualify an excellent proposal. But in reality, AI is probably relevant in some way for many, in various parts of the data pipelines.

2. It was mentioned that stakeholders from two different domains have to be included. Does it mean that stakeholders that are providing data have to be partners of the consortia, even if the data they are providing is publicly available?

Some of the aspects we will assess are the datasets that will be made available through the dataspace. If you organise your pilots without adding new datasets (not accessible now) it would be too limiting. You can also add datasets from third parties, but if you do not have a link to the owners and need to work on the datasets, it seems tricky. This said, It is not necessary for all stakeholders involved in data sharing within the data space to be members of the consortium in order for you to access their data.

For further guidance on Impact & Sustainability, please refer to the Monitoring and Assessment in the Call for Pilots Manual (available at https://www.ds4sscc.eu/cfp-two ).

1.Do projects have to contribute to sustainability aspects? How? Will this be included in the selection criteria?

Yes, pilots should identify areas that contribute to the objectives of the Green Deal and specify their contributions in the Application Form.

For detailed information on ethical requirements, please refer to the Ethical Framework in the Call for Pilots Manual (available at https://www.ds4sscc.eu/cfp-two ).

1.Which guidelines should be considered for ethics?

Applicants must identify possible work/challenges for the GDPR or trustworthy AI and use the proposal to plan tasks and deliverables to show that you will work on these challenges. Please refer to the principles and frameworks described in the Ethical Framework in the Call for Pilots Manual.

1. Can we include some graphics / figures in the Application Form, apart from the text limited to the maximum characters allowed per section?

Including additional figures and graphics to the application form is allowed in order to complement the textual information, but these should not be used for by-passing the character limits. Hence, characters on the images will be accounted for when checking the character amounts. 

Please also note that the evaluators are not required to take the figures and graphics into consideration, so the textual information should still be sufficiently comprehensive to understand your proposal.

2. How many projects will be selected in each submission round?

We expect to select 1-2 pilots in the first round and 4-6 in the second and third rounds. Applicants are also welcome to re-submit their applications, so you can apply for all three rounds. There is no risk that no more projects will be selected after the 1st and 2nd rounds due to the high number of applicants.

3. When will the first round of applications be evaluated and granted with funding?

The evaluation of applications from the first round is expected to start in September 2024, and first pilots are expected to start in November 2024.

4. When applying in the first application round, is it possible to extend the beginning of the pilot to a later date?

We will have three application rounds, so you can apply in a later round if you wish to start later.

5. Is there any possibility to extend the piloting period?

The expected duration of the piloting is 12-18 months for rounds 1 and 2, while the expected duration for the pilots in round 3 is 12-16 months.

6. How is eligibility assessed?

The Evaluation Team will pre-screen applications for eligibility before expert evaluation begins, using the Eligibility Check Grid (general, legal, financial, technical, ethical) as detailed in Table 6 of the Call for Pilots Manual. We assess in-time submission, respecting character limits, the applicant’s legal status and passing ethical checks, amongst others.

7. How does the evaluation process work?

All eligible applications go through an evaluation process that includes the following steps:

i.Evaluation by the Evaluation Committee(s) and Ethics Board (individual expert evaluations and a consensus group meeting).

ii. Final ranking and selection of the pilots by the Evaluation Team.

All eligible applications will be matched with expert evaluators according to their fields of expertise, with at least three expert reviewers per application. The assigned experts assess the proposals using the predefined evaluation structure. For more details, refer to section 3.5, Evaluation Framework and Road to the Implementation Stage, in the Call for Pilots Manual.

8. Is there a reserve list of applications?

A reserve list is created from each application round in case the selected projects do not meet the requirements after financial and legal checks.

9. If the project is not accepted in the first round, which are the conditions to apply for the second or third round?

Resubmission is permitted for the future rounds. You will also receive short feedback to your proposal with the scores received across the criteria, which you can then take into consideration in the iteration of the proposal. 

Please also note that we will select 1-2 proposals in the 1st round, and increase the number for the 2nd and 3rd rounds