01 Proposal · Page Limit and Layout Not specified in the available documents. The documents do not contain explicit page limit or layout requirements for proposals. Applicants should refer to the EU Funding & Tenders Portal submission system guidelines and the FAQ on proposal submission for specific formatting requirements.
02 General · Eligibility Criteria The general eligibility criteria are verified in section 2.2 of the call for proposals. The following requirements must be met: (1) At the day of deadline for submission of proposals, the applicant and in case of consortium also its partner/s are on the list of competent organisations designated by the Member States in accordance with Article 36 of Regulation (EC) 178/2002 and Commission Regulation (EC) 2230/2004; (2) Applicant and in case of consortium also its partner/s participate in the project financially; (3) Applicant and in case of consortium also its partner/s are involved in the execution of the project; (4) Subcontracting, if any, is justified in the proposal and indicated in the estimated budget; (5) Subcontracting, if any, must be established only in countries subject to an Adequacy Decision in terms of personal data protection; (6) Following the Council Implementing Decision (EU) 2022/2506, as of 16th December 2022, no legal commitments can be signed with Hungarian public interest trusts established under Hungarian Act IX of 2021 or any entity they maintain.
03 Article · 36 Competent Organisations Yes, applicants must be on the list of competent organisations designated by the Member States in accordance with Article 36 of Regulation (EC) 178/2002 and Commission Regulation (EC) 2230/2004. This is a mandatory eligibility requirement. To be eligible, applicants must check if they are included in the Article 36 list of competent organisations before submitting an application. The full list of Article 36 organisations can be found on the EFSA website.
04 Eligible · Countries and Participants The call is restricted to organisations on the Article 36 list of competent organisations designated by Member States. The documents indicate that EU Member States and EEA countries (Iceland and Norway are mentioned in travel cost tables) are eligible. Non-EU participants may participate under special conditions as outlined in Article 10 of the grant agreement. The call does not explicitly restrict participation to EU Member States only, but rather to organisations designated as competent organisations by Member States in accordance with Article 36 of Regulation (EC) 178/2002.
05 Additional · Eligibility Conditions Beyond the general criteria in section 2.2, additional eligibility conditions include: (1) Applicants and partners must participate financially in the project; (2) Applicants and partners must be involved in the execution of the project; (3) Subcontracting must be justified in the proposal and indicated in the estimated budget; (4) Subcontracting must be established only in countries subject to an Adequacy Decision in terms of personal data protection; (5) No legal commitments can be signed with Hungarian public interest trusts established under Hungarian Act IX of 2021 or any entity they maintain; (6) Proposals must be submitted within the deadline (08/12/2026 at 17:00 CET); (7) Administrative data for grant application form must be duly signed by the authorised representative of the applicant; (8) Proposal must be complete and include all supporting documents.
06 Financial · and Operational Capacity Section 2.4 of the call specifies two main selection criteria: (A) Financial capacity and (B) Professional and operational capacity. For financial capacity, the applicant and in case of consortium also its partner/s must have stable and sufficient financial resources to maintain their activity throughout the period during which the project is being carried out and to participate in its funding. If the Authority considers that financial capacity is weak, it may request further information, decide not to give pre-financing, decide to give pre-financing paid in instalments, decide to give pre-financing covered by a bank guarantee, or require the joint and several financial liability of all the co-beneficiaries. For professional and operational capacity, the applicant or in case of a consortium, the consortium as a whole, must have the professional resources, competencies and qualifications necessary to complete the proposed project. The applicant must have extensive and demonstrable experience in the field of alternatives to chemical plant protection, integrated pest management and pesticide risk assessment as well as conducting extensive literature reviews. A minimum of 4 Experts must be involved in the tasks permanently with a university degree at post-graduate level (minimum master's degree). The team of experts must cover: (a) at least 2 years of work experience on alternatives to chemical plant protection; (b) at least 2 years of work experience on integrated pest management; (c) at least 2 years of work experience on literature search and systematic reviews. The team coordinator and at least one additional team member should have a very good level of spoken and written English.
07 Grounds · for Exclusion The exclusion criteria are specified in section 2.3 of the call for proposals. The applicant and partner/s must sign a declaration on their honour certifying they are not in one of the exclusion situations referred to in Article 138(1) of the EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509. The specific grounds for exclusion under Article 138(1) of the EU Financial Regulation include: (1) conviction by final judgment for offences concerning professional conduct; (2) grave professional misconduct; (3) serious breach of professional obligations; (4) financial interests conflicting with the performance of duties; (5) being subject to administrative sanctions; (6) being subject to restrictive measures adopted under Article 29 TEU or Article 215 TFEU; and other grounds as specified in the Financial Regulation. For subcontracting, if the subcontractor is a legal entity not included in the Article 36 list, the applicant must provide a Declaration on Honour section C (Confirmatory statement of professional conflicting interest).
08 Evaluation · and Award Criteria The evaluation process consists of five steps: (1) Verification of submission requirements (section 2.1); (2) Eligibility criteria (section 2.2); (3) Exclusion criteria (section 2.3); (4) Selection criteria (section 2.4); (5) Award criteria (section 2.5). If the proposal fails at any step it is automatically excluded from further evaluation. The award criteria serve to assess the quality of the proposals in relation to the objectives of the Call. Six award criteria are applicable: (1) Expected Impact (MAX 25 POINTS, MIN 15 POINTS) - The extent to which the proposal achieves the objectives of this call and is likely to deliver output that will be useful; (2) Project methodology (MAX 25 POINTS, MIN 15 POINTS) - The extent to which the project is described in detail, as well as the proposed methodology is well described and of high quality; (3) Project programme description clarity (MAX 15 POINTS) - including phases, clear timelines for the project tasks completion, detailed milestones per task (e.g. via a project Gantt chart), expected outcomes and deliverables, task distribution among individual team members; (4) Measures to ensure risk management and quality of deliverables (MAX 15 POINTS) - including a description of identified risks and proposed mitigating actions, if any and specific quality assurance measures proposed for the project to guarantee high quality of deliverables; (5) Cost effectiveness (MAX 10 POINTS) - comparison between the expected added value (i.e. number of pests added to the database) and the costs of the project; (6) Technical and financial consistency of the proposal (MAX 10 POINTS) - consistency between the proposed project and its estimated budget, e.g. how it reflects the task distribution/role of partners.
09 Scoring · Methodology and Thresholds The scoring methodology for award criteria is based on a maximum of 100 points distributed across six criteria. Criterion 1 (Expected Impact) has a maximum of 25 points and minimum of 15 points. Criterion 2 (Project methodology) has a maximum of 25 points and minimum of 15 points. Criterion 3 (Project programme description clarity) has a maximum of 15 points with no specified minimum. Criterion 4 (Measures to ensure risk management and quality of deliverables) has a maximum of 15 points with no specified minimum. Criterion 5 (Cost effectiveness) has a maximum of 10 points with no specified minimum. Criterion 6 (Technical and financial consistency of the proposal) has a maximum of 10 points with no specified minimum. In order to be considered for a reserve list, the proposal must score a minimum of 70 points out of maximum possible 100 points and score a minimum of 15 points for criteria 1 and 2. Proposals which have satisfied these quality thresholds will be ranked in a reserve list. The reserve list will be valid for six months from the signature of the feedback letter.
10 Submission · Modalities and Procedures Proposals must be submitted electronically via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal before the deadline for submission of proposals (08/12/2026 at 17:00 CET). Applicants must be registered in the Participant Register - an online register of organisations and natural persons participating in European Commission's calls for tenders or proposals. On registering, each participant obtains a Participant Identification Code (PIC, 9-digit number) which acts as its unique identifier in the Participant Register. A participant needs to register only once. Proposals may be submitted in any official language of the European Union. However, as EFSA's working language is English, the submission of proposals in English would speed up the evaluation process. Supporting documents (e.g. CVs) are required and are an integral part of the proposal. If these supporting documents are in a language other than English, a reliable translation of the relevant parts of the documents into English is appreciated. Hard copy paper applications will not be accepted. Applicants are advised to start completing their application early and to submit several hours before the deadline to avoid complications with regard to late receipt/non-receipt of applications. It is not possible to submit an application after the deadline.
11 Evaluation · and Grant Agreement Timeline The indicative procedure timetable is as follows: Launch date: 06/10/2026 - Date of call publication on EFSA's website and Funding & Tender portal. Deadline for applicants to raise clarification questions to EFSA: 30/11/2026. Deadline for EFSA to reply to clarification questions: 02/12/2026 - Question and answers will be published with the Call documents in the Funding & Tender portal. Deadline for submission of proposals: 08/12/2026 at 17:00 (CET). Notification of the evaluation results: JAN 2027 (Estimated) - Outcome of the present call will be communicated to all applicants to the e-mail address indicated in their proposal. Grant agreement(s) signature: FEB 2027 (Estimated). In accordance with Article 197(2) of the Financial Regulation, the maximum time-limits for the procedure are as follows: All applicants will be informed of the decision regarding their application within 6 months of the deadline for submission of proposals. Signature of the grant agreement will take place within 3 months from the date the successful applicant/s has/have been informed of the decision on their application.
12 Legal · and Financial Setup Requirements The grant is awarded as a Direct Agreement between EFSA and one or several partners. The maximum budget EFSA has available is 500,000 EUR. The maximum duration of this Direct Agreement is 24 months from the kick-off meeting. The project to be supported under this Call is co-financed by EFSA at maximum 90% of the total eligible project costs. In addition, the maximum possible amount of EFSA grant for the project is 500,000 EUR. In other words, the grant has double ceiling: the maximum amount and the reimbursement rate applied on the total eligible project cost. The form of grant is a budget-based mixed actual cost grant (i.e. a grant based on actual costs incurred), but which may also include other forms of funding, such as unit costs or contributions. The funding rate for costs is 90% of the action's eligible costs. Contributions are not subject to any funding rate. Eligible indirect costs are reimbursed at a flat-rate of 10% of the eligible direct costs. The grant agreement is governed by the applicable EU law, supplemented if necessary, by the law of Belgium. The Agreement is composed of: Preamble, Terms and Conditions (including Data Sheet), Annex 1 (Call for proposals including the rules on eligibility of costs and the awarded action), Annex 2 (Estimated budget for the action), Annex 3 (Accession forms if applicable), Annex 4 (Model for the financial statements), and Annex 5 (Specific rules). The beneficiaries must implement the action as described in Annex 1 and in compliance with the provisions of the Agreement, the call conditions and all legal obligations under applicable EU, international and national law.