Suitability assessment of new PPP initiatives
Suitability assessment
The Programme Councils of the Top Consortium for Knowledge and Innovation for Chemistry (‘ChemistryNL Office’) will be assessing all new initiatives for public-private partnerships (PPPs) in the Top Sector Chemistry as to their suitability with regard to that Top Sector’s Roadmaps. Why will they be doing that? What exactly will the assessment entail? How does it work?
Suitability
ChemistryNL challenges entrepreneurs and outstanding researchers to develop innovative products and services. To serve as a source of inspiration for them, the Top Sector has created four Roadmaps. How well do new PPP proposals respond to the challenges and opportunities presented in one or more of the Roadmaps? In other words: how suitable are those proposals within the framework of the Roadmaps? The assessment of the suitability of PPP proposals will be carried out by the four Programme Councils of ChemistryNL Office.
Suitability assessment
By means of the Roadmaps and the suitability assessment, ChemistryNL wants to give entrepreneurs and researchers plenty of room to further develop their innovative ideas, while at the same time working towards compiling a cohesive portfolio of PPP initiatives.
The Programme Councils will carry out suitability assessments for all projects and programmes that receive public funding related to ChemistryNL. Those concern in any case the following:
- any proposals submitted to NWO for ChemistryNL agreed in the national Knowledge and Innovation Contract (“KIC”)
- the projects and programmes of the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) and other applied research institutes realted to the KIC
- projects for which ChemistryNL Office has made available a ‘TKI programme allowance’
While both the content and the approach of the assessment procedure will be the same in every case, the actual implementation may differ from case to case. ChemistryNL Office will clearly communicate any differences in advance to the parties concerned.
Content and approach of the suitability assessment procedure
The ‘Topteam Chemistry’ has asked four Programme Councils to carry out the suitability assessments depending on the discipline or theme covered in the proposal. Each of the Programme Councils will perform their work in an atmosphere of flexibility, trust and consultation:
- Flexibility: As this concerns innovative initiatives, it goes without saying that the Programme Councils will have an open mind with regard to suitability. At the same time, the initiatives obviously need to aim at advancing the development of the Dutch chemical sector.
- Trust and confidentiality: The members of the Programme Councils are prominent entrepreneurs or researchers in their fields; they have a good overview of the entire field of chemistry; they have a duty of confidentiality with regard to all information that is presented to them as Programme Council members, and they have also signed a confidentiality agreement to that effect. For the sake of completeness: the director and staff of ChemistryNL Office also have a duty of confidentiality.
- Consultation: In the event of an apparent disagreement with regard to the suitability of an initiative, the relevant Programme Council members and ChemistryNL Office will make an effort to discuss the situation with the applicants and to effect a settlement of the dispute through consultation; to that end there is a procedure for the settlement of disputes. In the end, the objective remains the stimulation and strengthening of innovation in chemistry.
The initiators of a new PPP can apply to have ChemistryNL Office perform a suitability assessment of their proposed project or programme by filling in an Assessment of fit and mailing it to aanvragen@tkichemie.nl. The applicants are to indicate which Roadmaps they think their initiative best fits in with. Depending on the scale of the initiative, two or more members of the Programme Council(s) concerned will assess it. If they find the initiative suitable, ChemistryNL Office will normally send the applicants a declaration of suitability within three weeks. For smaller-scale initiatives (e.g. KIEM) deemed suitable, ChemistryNL Office will provide the declaration of suitability within a week.
If the Programme Council members involved in an assessment have questions regarding the suitability of an initiative, ChemistryNL Office will contact the applicants for consultation on whether the suitability could be improved and, if so, how. ChemistryNL Office will be happy to be of service to applicants if they wish to receive advice about the suitability of their ideas. Please contact ChemistryNL Office for more information on this.
The ‘weight’ of the assessment will depend on the scale of the PPP initiative concerned
As a general rule of thumb: the larger the scale of the initiative, the more experts will be involved in the assessment (see the table below). For initiatives that are submitted to ChemistryNL Office for suitability in connection with more than one Roadmap, ChemistryNL Office will make use of expertise from different Programme Councils as much as possible.
| Total budget of initiative (cash + in kind; public + private) | Assessment by: | NWO ENW PPS-fonds |
| ≤ k€ 50 | Managing director ChemistryNL Office | KIEM |
| k€ 50 < x ≤ k€ 750* | Chair and vice-chair of the most relevant Programme Council | LIFT, smaller Technology Area (TA) |
| k€ 750 < x ≤ k€ 2.000* | Chair, vice-chair and 2 members of the most relevant Programme Council | bigger TA, IPP |
| x > k€ 2.000** | All members of the most relevant Programme Council | Research programmes *** |
* Initiatives with a total budget of k € 2,000 or less can be submitted to ChemistryNL Office on a continuous basis for assessment. Note: however, the
deadlines of the NWO ENW PPP fund and the related deadlines of ChemistryNL Office.
** For initiatives with a total budget of more than k € 2,000, a review moment is twice a year, when all Program Councils meet in full. The exact dates will
be published on this website. The deadline for registration at ChemistryNL Office is one month before the meetings of the Program Councils for these major
initiatives.
*** Programmes for which calls for proposals will be published are reviewed by ChemistryNL Office on the basis of (a summary of) the program text. Once the programme is suitable, the projects that are selected on the basis of the calls do not have to be assessed separately. After all, the selected projects fit within the programme and the programme fits within one or more roadmaps.