How to Apply

HOW to APPLY

 

WEAR Sustain seeks artists, designers and creative people of all forms to work with technologists to develop critical approach to design an ethical, sustainable, environmental, and aesthetic wearable device project. Scope includes wearables and e-textiles worn on the body that may collect body
data and/or data about your environment.

 

Open Call 2 launches on 15th November 2017 with a submission deadline of 15th January 2018. This is the second of our two Open Calls, the previous one closed on May 2017.

 

All applicant teams must have one artist or designer and one technologist /engineer AND their organisations must register before applying.

 

The main steps of WEAR Sustain Open Call 2 are as follows.

 

Applying teams must:

  1. Register via the WEAR Sustain F6S portal, which will process the applications and be the central interface for managing and interacting with the project team throughout the selection procedure;
  2. Check compliance with eligibility criteria for participation to the WEAR Sustain accelerator project via the Open Call Entry Guidelines and FAQ document, which outlines that applicants must:
    1. Be prepared to set up as a legal entity based in the EU or associated countries after team selection June 30th, 2017 for Call 1, or February 16th, 2018 for Call 2. This is a requirement for signing the EC sub-grant agreement, to be paid, and to officially start your project;
    2. Propose a solution that already attains a ‘Technology Readiness Level’ of 3, i.e. that has an experimental proof of concept;
    3. Being available for a tele-pitch (or in person) session on either the  7th, 8th or 9th of February;

Call 2 proposals need to be submitted before January 15th 2018, 23h59 CET (Central European Time).

 

 

How to submit a proposal Step-by-step

 

  1. Register online via the WEAR Sustain F6S Portal  and complete an application electronically in English before the January 15th deadline.
  2. All projects should address one of the Open Call Themes in some way, with emphasis on the ethical and sustainability dimensions and new approaches to the life-cycle of a product. Research more on these topics and come to one of our Open Call events to find out more from our experts.
  3. Submit a complete proposal that consists of the following items:
  • Executive summary (max. 1 page) (Q1) – a summary of the vision and innovation of the project idea that addresses one of the Open Call Themes and your unique idea;
  • A presentation of the team and how you intend to collaborate (Q2-4): including very short bios for each team member (100-150 words), their expertise, previous realised projects on wearables, electronic or smart textiles incl. contact details and links to full CV’s of the team members (max. 1 page);
  • A project pitch (max. 5 pages) (Q5-9). The team needs to explain to how their project is ethical and sustainable. Then the project should be proposed on the basis of the NABC method: Need (social, personal, etc.), Approach (how you will source, design, develop and implement the project), Benefit (this is innovative elements of your idea, or what is uniqueness about it), and Competition (any known product competition) (more on this method can be found here NABC Method from Stanford Research Institute). **Please include a description of the technology and design thinking and implementation methodologies to be used in the project.
  • A prototype plan (Q10-2): Provide details of how your prototypes will be developed over the course of the 6 months after selection, including an outline and timeline of the development process from selection to a prototype that is as close to market-ready as possible. The plan will describe the key milestones for the project and timing, with a brief description of the deliverables or Gantt Chart (you can also use the upload on Q12 to complete your response to Q11). All teams should review the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) criteria to see where their project sits on the scale, and be at level TRL 3-4 to be able to submit, with the objective to reach TRL 6 or 7 within the 6 months of WEAR Sustain support during the development of their project.
  • A concrete business case (max. 1 page) (Q13) for the application of the idea – this is the justification for this project/product. It should describe its potential social/ethical, environmental/sustainability and aesthetic/design impact, as well as justifying the costs, plus a calculation of the financial case and your overall budget, using the Voucher system described in the  Support for Selected Teams section.
  • A Video Pitch of the project (max. 3 minutes) (Q14) consisting of all above topics. Make sure your video explains your project, team, project plan and business idea. (Max file size 30MB.)

    Technical specs/reqs: to to help you upload your video and to make it easier for selection, videos must be a file type MOV, MPEG, AVI, MP4, 3GP, WMV, or FLV, no bigger than 30MB. For info on how to shoot and edit a video from Kickstarter see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3h828EtWoA and Vimeo video basics https://vimeo.com/blog/post/video-101-shooting-basics
  • Required Project Support and Implementation Services (max. half page) (Q15), see this  section Support for Selected Teams for details on the types of support we can offer and indicate exactly what support you will need. If there is some form of support we don’t offer, please contact us at info@wearsustain.eu to ask if it something we can offer.
  1. Once your proposal is submitted an email will be sent to confirm the acknowledgement of receipt – this  does not imply that your proposal has been selected or shortlisted, just a receipt of submission.
  2. If you discover an error in your proposal, you can update the information saved in the F6S application system – IF it has not  been submitted and the deadline has not yet passed. Once a proposal is submitted, you can no longer modify it or retrieve uploaded documents for further editing or updates.
  3. Late proposals, or proposals submitted to any other address or by any other means will not be evaluated. Do not wait until the last minute to submit your proposal. The submission deadline is final.

 

Please make sure you have made a clear plan of your costs and deliverables. See details below.

 

Eligible Costs

 

 

  • Only costs generated during the duration of the project can be eligible. Generally, costs must be actually incurred (actual costs). This means that they must be real and not estimated, budgeted or imputed.
  • Costs must be made in line with the usual accounting and management principles and practices of the the team receiving the funding (the beneficiary). The accounting procedures used in the recording of costs and receipts must respect the accounting rules of the country in which the beneficiary is established. The team’s internal accounting and auditing procedures must allow for direct balancing of all the project costs and receipts that are declared, and all corresponding financial documents. In other words, keep all relevant documents to ensure all costs are justified.
  • Costs incurred must be for the sole purpose of achieving the objectives of the project and its expected results, in a consistent, simple, efficient and effective way. Finally, anticipated costs incurred must be indicated in the proposal.
  • Personnel costs are the costs of the actual hours worked by the persons working directly on the project (the “team”) and must reflect the total payment: salaries plus social security charges (holiday pay, pension contribution, health insurance, etc.) and other statutory costs included in the remuneration. This applies to each team member’s fees to work on the project. Such personnel must:
    • be directly hired by the participant in accordance with its national legislation,
    • be working under the sole technical supervision and responsibility of the latter, and
    • be remunerated in accordance with the normal practices of the participant.
  • A subcontractor (i.e. a third party which has entered into a business agreement with your team or your organisation in addition to the services provided by some hubs) is not considered eligible for completing your planned core work since a subcontractor that would carry out part of the work of the project would work without the direct supervision of your organisation and without a relationship of subordination.
  • Sufficient travel and dissemination/ PR materials budget is allowed, and even encouraged, in order to present the team’s project at WEAR Sustain related events and activities.
  • We would not recommend to plan for equipment purchase, since it is a relatively short time period for the project, thus the time for depreciation would be too long. However, if you see an explicit need for small scale equipment, please explain at sufficient detail in your proposal why it is necessary, in order to clarify for the external reviewers to assess the proposal’s eligibility.

 

 

The following costs shall be considered as non-eligible and may not be charged to the project:

 

  1. interest owed (e.g. for loans),
  2. provisions for possible future losses or charges,
  3. currency exchange losses, cost related to return on capital,
  4. costs declared or incurred, or reimbursed in respect of another project of the European Union or of Euratom,
  5. debt and debt service charges, excessive or reckless expenditure.