In October 2020, we submitted our Battery Thermal Management System (BTMS) project to the SME Instrument programme. Our ambition was to receive valuable evaluation and financial support for about a quarter of the total planned costs of a high-risk but also very promising project.
Thousands of companies and institutions from all over Europe, including the big players, regularly apply for this programme, with only less than 5% of applicants being successful. The probability that we would succeed with our project in this programme is very close to zero. Also, this was the last call for which there was minimal funding left in the budget. Despite that, we went for it and we succeeded.
Our company received the Seal of Excellence certificate delivered by the European Commission under the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. Following evaluation by an international panel of independent experts was scored as a high-quality project proposal in a highly competitive evaluation process. This means passing all stringent horizon 2020 assessment thresholds for the 3 award criteria (excellence, impact, quality and efficiency of implementation) required to receive funding from the EU budget Horizon 2020. Unfortunately, there was not enough funds left in the budget for the Qoolers project and a few others, so the certificate was the only thing we received. However, it soon became clear that the certificate was worth much more than we had applied for.
