EUROPEAN COMMISSION
Directorate-General Information Society
COM(2004)407 13.02.2004
A multiannual Community programme to stimulate the development and use of European digital content on the global networks and to promote the linguistic diversity in the Information Society
Update of the workprogramme for the year 2004
Update of the workprogramme for the year 2004 1. INTRODUCTION
The eContent programme supports the increased availability, use and distribution of European digital content. It aims at improving access for all to high-quality digital content on the global networks, in a multiplicity of languages. A work programme for the years 2003 and 2004 was adopted by the Commission on 19 December 20021 defining priorities of actions for these two years. The object of this update for year 2004 to the eContent workprogramme 2003-2004 is to provide detailed information of the actions to be carried out in 2004, notably in order to comply with new provisions of the Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 of 25 June 2002 on the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities2. This financial regulation requests that for programmes such as eContent an annual work programme with detailed financial information is drawn up every year thus constituting a financing decision within the meaning of Article 75(2) of the aforementioned Council Regulation. The budget figures indicated in this update include the contributions of the ten acceding countries3. This budget will become effective only after adoption of the rectified 2004 budget for the 25 Member States following accession. This update defines (1) (2) (3) (4) the content of the calls for proposals for 2004, objectives and expected results; the indicative time table for publication; the indicative budget for each call and; the criteria to be used for evaluating proposals responding to these calls.
The current workprogramme 2003-2004 remains applicable for 2004 in all those provisions that are not the subject of this update. 2. ACTIONS TO BE CARRIED OUT IN 2004 2.1 Fixed-deadline call (Call IV)
The fixed-deadline call IV is open only for demonstration projects (DM). These consist of experiments in which European partners work together towards a common result to showcase the objectives of the action line. Depending on the action line, this can be a concrete information product/service or an improvement in the information infrastructure that will help develop the European cross-border content market. The Community contribution will normally be up to 50% of the project costs and will not exceed € 2.5 million. The average total project cost is expected to be in excess of € 2 million.
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C(2002) 5132, 19.12.2002 - available on www.cordis.lu/econtent OJ L 248, 16.9.2002, p.1. The increment for 2004 is in the order of 12% with respect to the EU 15 budget.
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In year 2004 demonstration projects addressing the following action lines of the Work-programme will be called: Action Line 1: Improving access to and use of public sector information Subline 1.1: Cross-border information services based on public sector information – Identifier: AL 1.1 – DM Action Line 2: Enhancing content production in a multilingual and multicultural environment Subline 2.2: Strengthening the linguistic infrastructure – Identifier: AL 2.2 – DM Indicative budget for fixed deadline Call: € 26.8 Mio. Indicative schedule for call notice: publication in January 2004, closure three months after publication. 2.2 Continuous submission call (Call III)
The continuous submission call, launched on 20 December 20024, is open only for feasibility projects (FP). These are small scale projects lasting six to nine months designed to provide a framework for early experimentation and appraisal of new ideas. These projects are expected to result in a concrete project ready for further development and implementation with a defined partnership revenue model at the end of the feasibility phase. By their nature they are expected to ease the participation of small size businesses, especially from Acceding and Candidate Countries that have not previously participated in the first phase of the programme. The Community will contribute financially to feasibility projects up to 50% of the eligible costs, up to a maximum of € 200,000. In year 2004 feasibility projects addressing the following action lines of the Workprogramme are called under the open continuous submission scheme: Action Line 1: Improving access to and use of public sector information Subline 1.1: Cross-border information services based on public sector information Identifier: AL 1.1 – FP Subline 1.2: Establishment of European digital data collections - Identifier: AL 1.2 -FP Action Line 2: Enhancing content production in a multilingual and multicultural environment Subline 2.1: Partnerships Identifier: AL 2.1 – FP for multilingual and multicultural content -
Subline 2.2: Strengthening the linguistic infrastructure - Identifier: AL 2.2 – FP Indicative budget for continuous submission scheme € 1.5 Mio.
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OJ C 320, 20.12.2002.
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The current open call that was published on 20.12.20025 with a closing date of 28 May 2004, will be shortened so that its deadline will coincide with that of the fixed deadline call mentioned in section 2.1. The corresponding corrigendum to the call notice will be published in the OJ and the eContent website together with the publication of the new fixed deadline call. Indicative schedule for corrigendum call notice: publication in January 2004, closure three months after publication. 2.3. Studies, evaluations, reviews A benchmarking study on public sector information subject to a call for tenders would be awarded in the first half of 2004. This study, corresponding to the Action Line 3.2. of the workprogramme 2003-2004, will serve as a basis and 0-measurement for the review of the Public Sector Information (PSI)-directive. It shall deal with the methodological issues of measuring use of PSI, in order to allow a comparison between the present situation and the situation at the moment of the review, and shall lead to a concrete measurement of the present conditions for re-use. The closing date for submitting tenders can be expected to be towards the end of March 2004. Indicative budget € 400,000. A call for tender will be launched for the final evaluation of the programme, in compliance with Article 6(4) of the Council decision6. Indicative budget € 250,000. The above actions will be complemented with reviews of projects. Indicative budget € 100,000. 3.
ELIGIBILITY, AWARD AND SELECTION CRITERIA FOR THE FIXED DEADLINE AND THE CONTINUOUS SUBMISSION SCHEME CALLS
The evaluation process for the fixed deadline and continuous submission calls will be based on the following set of criteria. This evaluation criteria will be incorporated in a corrigendum to the call notice of the continuous submissions scheme to be published in the Official Journal. A detailed explanation of the criteria and their application is given in the Guide for Proposers and the Guidelines for Evaluators (available on www.cordis.lu/econtent after publication of the Call notices): Eligibility criteria: – – – – Timely arrival. Eligible consortium. Proposal completeness. Within the scope of the call.
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OJ C 320, 20.12.2002. OJ L 14, 18.1.2001, p.32.
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Award criteria: They are grouped in four categories with a weight attached to each category that expresses its relative priority: – Quality, relevance, innovation and impact – Partnership, resources and management – European added value and contribution to relevant policies – Contribution to economic development and social objectives Selection criteria: Financial and operational capacity to carry out the project – – Capacity to cofinance the proposed project as demonstrated by the organisation accounts; Capacity to allocate adequate human resources to carry out the project in question; 35% 35% 15% 15%
Professional competencies and qualifications – 4. Documented relevant experience in the field of the proposed action
SUMMARY OF EXPENDITURES FOR THE YEAR 2004 The table below summarises the revenues and expenditures foreseen for the year 2004 as described above. Indicative figures for exercise 20047: Econtent credits – year 2004 Credits foreseen in the programme Council Decision Additional credits due to enlargement Additional credits due to participation of EFTA and candidate countries8 Carry over from 2003 Total credits Credits of candidate countries Contribution by EU 15 Member States Contribution by the 10 additional acceding countries Million EURO 24.55 2.95 1.25
0.30 29.05
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Figures based on the preliminary draft budget 2004, pending the adoption by the budgetary authority. EFTA (Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) contribution is estimated at 0.60 million EURO. Candidate countries (Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey) have signed memoranda of understanding with the Communities that fix the year 2004 contribution to 0.65 million EURO.
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Econtent foreseen expenditures – year 2004 Fixed deadline call Continuous submission call Studies, evaluations, reviews Total expenditure See section 2.1 of this document See section 2.2 of this document See section 2.3 of this document
Million EURO 26.80 1.50 0.75 29.05
The allocation of budget by action line is tabled below. The final budget allocation will depend on the quality of the proposals received for the calls. Indicative budget split by action line 2004 Action Line Improving access to and expanding use of public sector information Enhancing content production in a multilingual and multicultural environment Increasing dynamism of the digital content market Programme evaluation, project reviews, etc. Total expenditure Million EURO 15.30 13.00 0.40 0.35 29.05
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