Permanent Open Call for Technology Transfer Demonstrators

Cover Letter

SUBJECT: Permanent Open Call for Technology Transfer Demonstrator Proposals

REF:

Dear Madam, Dear Sir,

As part of efforts to promote the use of space technologies, a Permanent Open Call for
Technology Transfer Demonstrator Proposals (hereinafter called the Call) has recently been
opened.

MST-Aerospace GmbH (hereinafter called MST)

is entrusted by the European Space Agency (hereinafter called the Agency) with the set-up,
administration and implementation of this Call. MST acts as a prime contractor of the Agency in
the field of technology transfer from space and leads a European network of technology experts
and brokers for the exploitation of space technologies in different branches.

MST hereby invites you to submit a proposal for the above subject and for a firm fixed price of
maximum 40,000.00 Euro.

Please find attached hereto the following documents:

Chapter I: Permanent Open Call for Technology Transfer Demonstrator Proposals

Section I: Information about the Call
Section II: Instruction for proposals
Section III: Formal requirements, evaluation process and evaluation criteria
Section IV: Draft Contract

Chapter II: Template for proposals

1. Cover Letter
2. Executive Summary
3. Proposal for technology transfer demonstrators
4. Additional comments

Your attention is drawn to the following:

Nature and purpose of this Call for Proposals:

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1. The purpose of this Call is to allow space and non-space entities1 or individuals to submit
proposals for demonstrators to determine and eliminate the technical risk particular to the
new terrestrial application.

2. This Call is of a permanent nature meaning that it has no closing date for the submission
of proposals so long as MST has not indicated otherwise.

3. Applications are only considered from nationals of one of the European Space Agency’s
Member States2 and Canada.

4. In case the Applicant is an individual (and not an entity), (s)he must be over eighteen
years of age, of sound mind and therefore able to enter into a binding Agreement.

5. This Call explicitly excludes activities promoting, or being related to, the military,
alcohol, tobacco, religion, politics, intolerance, violence, firearms, pornography,
obscenity, gambling or illegal drugs.

Requirements

6. Applicants are required to closely follow the instructions provided in this Call when
producing and submitting their proposal (see Section II of Chapter I).

7. Only those Applicants fulfilling all formal requirements (see Section III of Chapter I) will
be accepted for evaluation.

Procedure and planning

8. The evaluation of all proposals received shall be carried out as outlined in Section III of
Chapter I. All Applicants will be informed of the outcome of their application.

9. The evaluation of the demonstrator proposal is carried out by a joint Evaluation Board
composed of staff of both MST and the Agency in accordance to the Agency’s rules and
procedures as implemented by MST.

10. The Evaluation Board will meet on a regular basis to evaluate the proposals received in
the previous period. Proposals will be accepted for the current evaluation round provided
they reach MST at least 15 working days before the Evaluation Board’s meeting, the
dates of which are published on www.mst-aerospace.de and on www.esa.int/ttp.

1
E.g. Organisations, institutes, universities, companies, associations, etc.
2
The European Space Agency is an intergovernmental organisation constituted of the following Member States:
Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands,
Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Canada is an associated Member State of
the Agency.

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11. The period between the closing date and the placement of the demonstrator contract is in
principle no longer than 6 months.

Evaluation

12. Per evaluation round, the 9 proposals with the highest marks, and if above 60, will be
selected. If a proposal has a score of 75 or higher, but is not one of the ten proposals
selected, the proposal will be put on a waiting list. The proposal will be taken into
account in one of the following evaluation rounds. The proposal will not be re-evaluated
but keeps its previous score and will compete with other proposals in the relevant
evaluation round.

Validity

13. The proposal shall be valid for a minimum period of 6 months after its submission. Every
time when a proposal is placed on the waiting list, as described in point 12, the applicant
will be asked by MST to extend the validity of the proposal.

Miscellaneous

14. The contents of Applicant proposals shall be treated as confidential by all parties
involved in the Call (MST and the Agency).

15. In spite of the efforts undertaken by MST to ensure full confidentiality, the Applicant’s
idea may, through the application process with MST (if not specifically protected like for
example by patent rights), fall into the public domain. Therefore we strongly recommend
that the Applicant discuss the protection of their idea with a dedicated expert in this field
prior to submitting a proposal to MST. MST will not be held liable for any infringements
of intellectual property rights or any disclosure of confidential information by any parties.

16. As far as allowed by law, any title held by the Applicant to their idea shall remain vested
in them.

17. No expenses incurred in either stage of the application procedure and the execution of the
contract will be reimbursed to the Applicant by MST and/or the Agency.

18. In no event shall this Call be construed as imposing any obligation whatsoever upon MST
and/or the Agency to enter into negotiations with any Applicant.
Submission of proposals

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19. A signed paper original of the proposal is to be sent to the attention of:
MST-Aerospace GmbH

Dr. Werner Dupont

Rommerskirchener Strasse 21/31

50259 Pulheim
Germany

In parallel, your complete proposal and all supporting documents is to be submitted, in

electronic form (.pdf and .doc) to the following email address:
opencall@technology-forum.com

Please note that only the signed paper original can be considered as the formal
application and will be subject to evaluation.

20. Any queries relevant to the submission of proposals are to be addressed, in writing, to:

opencall@technology-forum.com

Please be aware that when a question is deemed of general interest, it will be published on the

http://www.technology-forum.com/demonstrators/faq

Yours faithfully,

Dr. Werner Dupont

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