Based on Article 13 of the Law on Innovation Activities (“Official Gazette of Montenegro”, number 82/20) and the Rulebook on the Evaluation Process

 

INNOVATION FUND OF MONTENEGRO

 

Announces

 

PUBLIC CALL FOR SELECTION OF INVESTMENT COMMITTEE MEMBERS FOR EVALUATION OF PROJECT PROPOSALS SUBMITTED TO THE PUBLIC CALL FOR COLLABORATIVE GRANTS FOR INNOVATION

 

The Innovation Fund of Montenegro is announcing a Public Call for selection of Investment Committee members for evaluation of proposals submitted to the Public Call for Collaborative Grants for Innovation. The Innovation Fund of Montenegro is looking for three independent experts who will perform the evaluation process as an independent international Investment Committee (IC) during first and second evaluation phase of project proposals submitted to the Public Call for Collaborative Grants for Innovation. The experts appointed in the evaluation of the proposals will be chosen on the basis of their skills, experience and knowledge relevant to the tasks which will be assigned to them.

1. Background

The Public Call for Collaborative Grants for Innovation with total budget of 670.000€ was opened on 28 of June with the deadline for submission of project proposals on 27 of September 2022. The main objective of this Call is to encourage micro, small and medium size enterprises to collaborate with R&D institutions and/or other micro, small and medium size enterprises in commercially focused innovative projects with the goal of creating new or improved market-oriented products, services, technologies and processes. The main task of experts is to assess and evaluate the submitted proposals on the basis of pre-established criteria and provide recommendation to award financing to the Innovation Fund. The evaluation process will be carried out in October and November, while the Evaluators’ Pitch is planned for mid-November and will take place in Podgorica or virtually.

1. Criteria for the selection of Investment Committee members

According to the Rulebook on the Evaluation Process, the minimum criteria that a member of Investment Committee must meet are as follows:

• excellent and fluent knowledge of written and spoken English;
• at least VII1 qualification level of education or corresponding level of international education;
• at least 3 years of experience working in a managerial position in the business sector and/or;
• at least 3 years of experience in establishing and developing new companies and/or raising funds for financing from the private or public sector (venture capital) and/or;
• at least 3 years of experience in management positions in the field of financing that includes venture capital and/or;
• at least 3 years of relevant experience in management positions or positions that involve making investment decisions in large or medium-sized companies.

 

• Functions of Investment Committee in the evaluation process

Investment Committee Members are involved in both phases of evaluation. During both evaluation phases, the IC members will work remotely apart from evaluation pitch which might be organised in Podgorica in mid-November, if pandemic conditions are suitable for travelling.

During the first evaluation phase, Investment Committee members shall:

• Receive access to the Applications for review through the Fund Portal;
• Examine the Review Guidelines and instructions;
• Review all Applications for conflicts of interest or the appearance of conflicts of interest in accordance with the Fund Confidentiality and Prevention of Conflict of Interest Policy and inform the Fund Program Managers if any issues exist;
• Within the time frame agreed with the Fund, the Investment Committee must prepare a written evaluation via the Fund portal for each Application assigned, based on the defined evaluation criteria and judgment of merit. The evaluators must give concise, pertinent and well justified comments for each criterion of the evaluation grid, in a wording that may be given directly to the Applicant, if requested. Strong and weak points must be reflected. In particular, comments should not include only the summary of the Application, but should provide critical analysis based on (but not limited to) the respective questions of the evaluation grid;
• Assign the appropriate numerical score to each evaluation criterion in a manner which reflects the corresponding comments in written form;
• Within the time frame agreed with the Fund, the IC must prepare for discussions on the Applications at the Investment Committee first evaluation phase meeting;
• Summarize the Applications assigned to them and discuss each Application’s merits and shortcomings during the meeting, taking into account the Peer Reviewer comments;
• Prepare the First evaluation phase report (summary for each Application), and the subsequent First evaluation phase decision – Ranking list.

All Applications which pass the threshold will advance to the Second evaluation phase.

The Investment Committee will hold live evaluation pitch with all Applicants which have passed into the Second evaluation phase (either physically in person or via videoconference, as decided by the Fund) in the form of an investment pitch. The format of the pitch is envisaged as a 20-minute event, where the Applicant should ideally present their project within the first 5 minutes and leave 15 minutes for the questions and answers session steered by the Investment Committee. The live pitch will be conducted in the English language.

Based on the results of this live presentation, the Investment Committee will evaluate all the projects using the same evaluation criteria and scoring system as for the first evaluation phase.

During the second evaluation phase, Investment Committee Members shall:

• Review all the Application documents and come well prepared for discussions for each Application which will be presented at the final pitch event;
• Provide each Applicant with a 20-minute time to present their Applications to the IC and answer specific questions that the IC may have for each project;
• Following the presentations of all Applications in this phase, the IC will score each of the Applications individually and provide written comments for each evaluation criterion;
• Prepare the final evaluation summary for each Application;
• Prepare the final scoring table – Ranking list with IC’s scores for each Application.

After the IC assigns scores for all Applications in the final scoring table as instructed by the Fund during the final pitch event, the final scoring table will display the final scores for all Applications and sort them from highest to lowest.

Following the finalization of this scoring table and based on the amount of available funds, the IC will confirm the Applications which will be recommended for financing, and will also:

• Prepare a written evaluation for each Application assigned, based on the defined evaluation criteria and judgment of merit. The IC must give concise, pertinent and well justified comments for each criterion of the evaluation grid, in a wording that will be given directly to the Applicant. Strong and weak points must be reflected. In particular, comments should not include only the summary of the Application, but should provide a critical analysis based on (but not limited to) the respective questions of the evaluation grid;

The outputs of this phase are:

• Final evaluation summary report for each Applicant, to be sent by the Fund to each Applicant who participated on the final Pitch event;
• Final evaluation ranking list contains the list of all projects from the Second evaluation phase, ranked by the total number of points, signed by the members of the IC or the IC member authorized by the IC.
• Recommendation on financing, contains the list of all projects which are recommended for financing, signed by the members of the IC or the IC member authorized by the IC.

For more information, please check Review Guidelines at: https://fondzainovacije.me/en/programi/collaborative-grants/#1648123721421-302afee5-92dc

1. EVALUATION CRITERIA

The Applications are evaluated by based on the following criteria:

1. Key team members’ credentials, skills and the ability to deliver the proposed project;
2. Quality and collaborative potential of the consortium members;
3. Competitive advantage of the proposed innovation, including a clear IP or know-how position and further development potential;
4. Clear market need, competitive (preferably global or EU) market positioning and commercialization potential;
5. Go-to-market strategy, scalability of the revenue model and viability of the return-on-investment projections;
6. Level of co-financing, use of funds and adequacy of the project budget (preference will be given to applications with higher co-financing participation);
7. Development methodology, organizational design, work plan feasibility and risk management

The evaluation grid that shall be used by both peer reviewers and Investment Committee is available at  Review Guidelines which can be downloaded from the following link: https://fondzainovacije.me/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/c.-Collaborative-Program-Review-Guidelines-final.pdf

1. Conflict of interest and maintaining data confidentiality

The evaluator must not be in a conflict of interest in relation to the innovation or research and development project in the process of evaluation or support for project monitoring, nor be business-related to the company whose project he evaluates or provides support in monitoring, that is, he must not be related or business-related to members or associates of the project team.

In the event that the Innovation Fund determines, on the basis of a signed declaration of confidentiality, impartiality and avoidance of conflicts of interest or in another way, that the evaluator is in a conflict of interest in relation to the specific project, the Innovation Fund is obliged to exclude the evaluator from the review of the disputed project with the discretionary right to exclude that evaluator from working on the entire Call. In the event of such termination of the contract, the evaluator is not entitled to compensation. In particular, the situation in which the evaluator participated in the preparation of any project proposal in any of its parts for a particular Call is considered a conflict of interest.

The evaluator is obliged to keep all the data he becomes familiar with during the execution of the task secret, regardless of the medium on which they are saved, and may only use them for the execution of the work.

The chosen evaluator signs the declaration on maintaining the data confidentiality and the absence of conflicts of interest (Code of Conduct) when signing the Agreement.

1. FEES, ALLOWANCES AND REIMBURSEMENT OF EXPENSES

The IC members are entitled to the expert fee for remote work and in presence evaluation pitch, reimbursement of expenses related to travel expenses, daily allowance and accommodation allowance.  The offer related to evaluation fees will be sent directly to selected experts. Upon expert’s acceptance, the fees and reimbursement of expenses will be set out by the Contract along with the rights and obligations and the terms and conditions that govern the relationship between the Innovation Fund of Montenegro and the expert appointed to assist with tasks in the context of evaluating project proposals submitted to the above-mentioned Call for proposal.

• Submitting your expression of interest

To express your interest in being considered for the Investment Committee Member, please submit the following documents by 15 September 2022 to info@fondzainovacije.me using the subject line “Expression of interest for the Investment Committee”:

• A cover letter, indicating your motivation to apply and how you satisfy the selection criteria; and
• Your curriculum vitae.