Do you have a question about BIC Membership for the CBE open call?
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There is no need to be a BIC member to participate in CBE JU projects. Calls are open to any eligible entity under Horizon Europe rules.
However CBE JU calls include an ‘award criterion’ integrated into the evaluation process under ‘Impact’: every proposal for RIA, IA and IA-Flagship topics has to ensure that a minimum level of in-kind contribution to operational activities (IKOP) is met.
The minimum thresholds to be met by proposals are:
• 5% of the total eligible costs of the project in RIA,
• 15% of the total eligible costs of the project in IA projects, and
• 20% of the total eligible costs in IA-Flagship projects
These percentages are calculated on the total eligible costs of the project for the consortium as a whole.
Under CBE rules, IKOP is defined as the in-kind contributed by BIC members. In-kind contribution is defined as the share of eligible costs incurred by a beneficiary and that are not covered by the grant.
Thus, the level of IKOP of a proposal is calculated as the sum of eligible costs incurred by beneficiaries who are BIC members, minus the sum of grant contributions from the CBE JU to those costs.
In order to reach the IKOP threshold, a suitable share in RIA projects and a majority (if not all) participating companies in IA and IA-flagship proposals should be (or become) a BIC Industry Member and hold or request a valid BIC membership certificate before the closing date of the CBE JU call 2025 (17 September 2025, 17:00 Brussels time).
In IA and IA-Flagship actions, the funding rate for for-profit entities is 60%, so each for-profit entity that is a BIC member automatically generates in-kind contribution (and thus IKOP) equal to 40% of its own eligible costs.
In RIAs, the funding rate is by default 100% for all participants: in this case, participants can voluntarily request a lower funding rate in order to generate in-kind contributions (and thus IKOP).
