Objectives
The IPCEI Design Support Hub aims to provide dedicated technical and expert support to the Member States involved in the design phase of an IPCEI candidate to streamline the IPCEI process, to increase efficiency and to better prepare the subsequent assessment phase.
Tasks
Each new candidate IPCEI will receive support from its own Design Support Hub. It comprises a team led by the Directorate General for Competition (DG COMP), in close collaboration with relevant experts from different Directorate Generals of the Commission, including, whenever relevant, the Joint Research Centre.
IPCEI is a State aid tool and Member States are in the driving seat. The Design Support Hub will support and make suggestions to the Member States in the design phase but will neither replace national processes nor Member States' ownership of the process, including selecting individual projects.
The Design Support Hub will provide continuous feedback and explanations of IPCEI criteria according to the IPCEI Communication and case practice, including on:
- Identifying the scope and structure of a potential IPCEI in a manner that can demonstrate its integration
- Providing guidance to identify and demonstrate the important market failures to be addressed by the potential IPCEI;
- Co-creation’ of the ‘Chapeau’ document, which is the overall description of the IPCEI as an important, integrated project;
- Actively support Member States in properly designing national processes, also in compliance with recommendations included in the collection of national best practices of the JEF-IPCEI;
- Actively support Member States in setting up national calls for expression of interest in a coordinated manner including on timing, as per the collection of national best practices of the JEF-IPCEI;
- Dedicated logistical and technical support concerning the organisation, purpose and content of match-making events;
- Following the national selection of projects, facilitate an early pre-screening of selected possible projects to ensure sufficient quality documents and evidence for the subsequent assessment phase;
- Providing sector specific guidance to the Member States how to arrange the participation of projects to demonstrate integration;
- Providing guidance to Member States to identify technology-, sector- and IPCEI-specific positive spillover-effects.
Background
The lifecycle of an IPCEI consists of four phases: (i) identification, (ii) design, (iii) assessment and (iv) implementation.
After the identification phase, once Member States have endorsed an IPCEI candidate in a high-level meeting of the JEF-IPCEI, the design phase starts. During the design phase, the participating Member States, led by the coordinator Member State(s), shape the IPCEI, decide on its scope and select and screen projects on national level. The phase concludes with the IPCEI pre-notification to the European Commission, thus initiating the assessment phase.