REBEL - proposal - service offer proposal support Steinbeis - EGT

Steinbeis 2i GmbH

CEO Dr. Jonathan Loeffler Registry Court Stuttgart HRB 758508 – USt.-Ident.-Nr.: DE308838809 Bank Deutsche Bank AG Stuttgart – BIC: DEUTDESSXXX – IBAN: DE34 6007 0070 0138 3926 00

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Stuttgart (Germany), 11.08.2025

Quote No: 2025-08-11/EU-Conform/EGT/MG Offer of support for the preparation of a proposal for a European research project call Dear Birgit Mets, Steinbeis 2i GmbH (hereafter referred to as S2i) is proposing the following offer of support in preparing a proposal for a European research project as part of the HORIZON EUROPE work programme, with the call identifier HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D2-03 (Sustainable processing and refining of raw materials to produce battery grade Li-ion battery materials (Batt4EU Partnership)) and the submission deadline on 02.09.2025. The project is an Innovation Action (IA) with one submission stage, and a recommended total EC contribution of 10 Mio EUR.

1. CONTENT AND SCOPE OF THE SERVICE For a successful service provision to the satisfaction of Geological Survey of Estonia (EGT) (hereafter referred to as “client”), S2i offers the following activities throughout the duration of the service period: • Regular bilateral meetings and consortium meetings to address open questions and

compare the progress of the proposal against the planned timeline • Provision of efficient online collaborative tools: Microsoft Teams for communication between

project partners and SharePoint infrastructure for efficient real-time file sharing and collaboration on documents

The offered service package is composed of 2 steps as outlined in ANNEX I.

Steinbeis Europa Zentrum – Leuschnerstr. 43 – 70176 Stuttgart Steinbeis 2i GmbH Stuttgart site Leuschnerstr. 43 D-70176 Stuttgart T +49 711 25 24 2000 Karlsruhe site Steinhäuserstr. 12 D-76135 Karlsruhe T +49 721 93519 0 [email protected] steinbeis-europa.de

Geological Survey of Estonia F. R. Kreutzwaldi 5, 44314 Rakvere, Estonia

Steinbeis 2i GmbH

CEO Dr. Jonathan Loeffler Registry Court Stuttgart HRB 758508 – USt.-Ident.-Nr.: DE308838809 Bank Deutsche Bank AG Stuttgart – BIC: DEUTDESSXXX – IBAN: DE34 6007 0070 0138 3926 00

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2. FINANCIAL OFFER The financial offer for the above-mentioned services consists of 2 components:

• Service fee payment: o Service fee payment for a single-stage proposal1: S2i charges a total net fee for the

entire consortium of 32.040 EUR net (+VAT). This amount will be split among the consortium partners. The distribution of the total costs to each partner will be in the responsibility of the coordinator.

▪ TU Clausthal will be taking over 16.807 EUR net ▪ NTNU will be taking over 4.000 EUR net

o The remaining service fee of

11.233 EUR net will be distributed evenly among the remaining consortium partners (excluding TU Clausthal, NTNU; and Steinbeis Europa Zentrum (SEZ), as service provider). Since the ultimate number of confirmed consortium partners is still subject to final changes, the exact service fee applicable to the client will be calculated upon submission of the proposal, when the consortium is fixated.

o As an indication at this point: currently there are 15 expected partners outside of TU Clausthal, NTNU and SEZ. This would result in a service fee of approx.

749 EUR net (+VAT) per partner

Success fee: In the event of approval of the proposal by the European Commission or their Executive agencies, each consortium partner will be charged a success fee of 2 % (+VAT) of their total EC contribution in addition to the above-mentioned service fee payment (for example, the success fee is 10.000 EUR (+VAT) if the partner has a total EC contribution of 500.000 €).

3. REQUIREMENTS FOR THE SERVICE EXECUTION At the beginning of the joint work, a binding timetable for the provision of relevant information and text sections is agreed on by all partners of the consortium. The implementation of the work requires the continuous commitment of at least one technical coordinator and one client employee from each partner, who will be responsible for the supply of text modules and information but is also authorised to validate the text modules drafted by S2i. Please note that S2i relies on the information provided by the client and, if the client does not provide the required information, S2i's responsibility for the quality and successful submission of the proposal is limited.

Partners' Commitment: To ensure the effective development of the proposal, a close collaboration between S2i and the project partners is required – with a special focus on the project coordinator as well as work package and task leaders in the following activities: • Participation in workshops (both within step 1 and step 2) organised by S2i • Participation in regular bilateral meetings and consortium meetings organised by S2i to

address open questions and compare the progress of proposal against the planned timeline

1 Stated prices include a discount of 10%, which applies as long as the following conditions are fulfilled: S2i is taking part in the proposal as a project partner with a focus on communication, dissemination, stakeholder engagement, exploitation activities and/or administrative project management with a budget of >300 000 EUR.

Steinbeis 2i GmbH

CEO Dr. Jonathan Loeffler Registry Court Stuttgart HRB 758508 – USt.-Ident.-Nr.: DE308838809 Bank Deutsche Bank AG Stuttgart – BIC: DEUTDESSXXX – IBAN: DE34 6007 0070 0138 3926 00

Page 3 / 6 Paper is certified following FSC and EcoLabel

• Timely provision of relevant information, text input, technical expertise for the development of parts A and B (incl. Annexes)

• The complementary collaboration for the development of the proposal between S2i and project partners is an essential factor for the success of the proposal

4. CONFIDENTIALITY AND LIABILITY AGREEMENT S2i commits to not disclosing any confidential information of which it becomes aware. We offer our services in accordance with the general terms and conditions of Steinbeis 2i GmbH2.

5. PAYMENT TERMS Invoicing of the service fee payment will take place when the proposal work is terminated, but no later than upon submission of the proposal. The invoice must be paid within 30 days of receipt. In case the proposal work is terminated before submitting the application, the client is not entitled to a refund of the already billed work. The invoice fee will be based on the work already undertaken at the time of termination. Invoicing of the success fee will take place only after approval of the proposal by the programme authorities. The invoicing will take place after transfer of the pre-financing to the coordinator but not later than 120 days after receiving the invitation for grant agreement preparation and negotiation by the European Commission (even if the pre-financing amount was not received yet on the coordinators bank account).

6. DURATION OF VALIDITY This offer is valid until August 25th, 2025.

7. SERVICE PROVISION BY S2I The services specified in the offer will be executed until the official proposal deadline of the European Commission. After this time, you will be sent a form to be signed by both parties to confirm the services provided. We assure you a prompt and careful execution of our services and look forward to a successful outcome. Sincerely, Heike Fischer

Head of Department Steinbeis 2i GmbH

2 https://www.steinbeis-europa.de/en/imprint?file=files/steinbeis/dist/img/Ueber%20Uns/AGB- S2i%20english.pdf&cid=4868

Steinbeis 2i GmbH

CEO Dr. Jonathan Loeffler Registry Court Stuttgart HRB 758508 – USt.-Ident.-Nr.: DE308838809 Bank Deutsche Bank AG Stuttgart – BIC: DEUTDESSXXX – IBAN: DE34 6007 0070 0138 3926 00

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ANNEX I Step 1: Proposal conceptualisation and eligibility check This step comprises the initiation phase of the proposal in which S2i will in particular fulfil the following activities: • Setting up a detailed timetable and milestones to be reached before the deadline • Call analysis, review and adaptation of the project concept and structure including the

technical and socio-economic objectives and the role of each partner to check whether all call specifications are met

• Organisation and implementation of workshops (including all consortium partners) to review and adapt the concept

• Eligibility check according to the European Commission's criteria including the consultation with the relevant National Contact Point in Germany regarding eligibility, concept, budget and any other open questions that may arise

• Identifying, approaching and involving further project partners, if applicable Step 2: Preparation of the proposal S2i will take responsibility for the coordination of the overall project proposal, in particular the following will be fulfilled by S2i: • Acting as the main point of contact between the client and the other consortium partners

throughout the proposal development process • Performing the final quality check • Compilation of final submission • Taking care of the timely submission of the proposal • Linguistic consultation • Professional visualisation of core elements of the proposal. With S2i’s expertise in design and

visualisation, S2i will ensure that the application is not only technically convincing but also stands out on a visual level and thus gains the attention and approval of the evaluators.

Further, S2i will ensure to prepare a proposal that meets the formal and content-related requirements for the respective Horizon Europe call as well as the quality criteria of the European Commission. The specific activities within step 2 by S2i are outlined below, distinguished by the individual sections of the Proposal:

Part A Proposal Submission Forms

• A3. Budget for the proposal: S2i will carry out controls, including optimising the budget balance, verifying the proper allocation of resources and entering the budget in the participant portal. Please note that the coordinator is responsible for the negotiation and distribution of budget.

• A4. Ethics and security: S2i will check all questions in the Ethics and Security section and draft texts to justify relevant issues (e.g. non-EU countries)

Part B Research Proposal

• Drafting of the proposals according to the official EC guidelines and procedures. This includes:

Steinbeis 2i GmbH

CEO Dr. Jonathan Loeffler Registry Court Stuttgart HRB 758508 – USt.-Ident.-Nr.: DE308838809 Bank Deutsche Bank AG Stuttgart – BIC: DEUTDESSXXX – IBAN: DE34 6007 0070 0138 3926 00

Page 5 / 6 Paper is certified following FSC and EcoLabel

For all sections

• design attractive visualisations like tables, figures, Gantt chart, etc. • perform a critical review and proofreading of the proposal • advise on EU Policy relevant to the topic • advise on evaluation criteria

Excellence

• S2i will craft an initial page to offer the evaluator a concise overview of the entire proposal, encompassing the rationale behind it (why), the proposed solution (what), and a brief outline of the methodology (how)

• S2i will collect the data for the objectives (incl. KPIs), ambition section and technical methodology through a template, review, structure and adapt the information provided by the partners

• S2i will draft all non-technical parts of the methodology section (interdisciplinary approach, open science practices, gender dimension, data management plan)

Impact

S2i will draft with the input from partners - from the workshops, bilateral meetings and templates:

2.1: The whole section project’s pathway towards impacts

2.2: Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation Strategy (only in case, S2i is lead partner in the proposal for these activities)

2.2 Key exploitable results, business cases and exploitation strategies for industrialisation, from end-TRL 7 on a strategy to achieve future full-scale deployment in the EU

2.3: Clear layout of the impact summary

Implementation

• Advice regarding the breakdown of work packages, deliverables and milestones. • S2i will collect the information from the work packages using templates, review and

adapt the information • S2i and the coordinator will jointly draft the WP Management • S2i will perform checks on budget-related tables, the tables with the deliverables and

support the definition of risks and milestones and the creation of the chart showing the interactions between work packages

Steinbeis 2i GmbH

CEO Dr. Jonathan Loeffler Registry Court Stuttgart HRB 758508 – USt.-Ident.-Nr.: DE308838809 Bank Deutsche Bank AG Stuttgart – BIC: DEUTDESSXXX – IBAN: DE34 6007 0070 0138 3926 00

Page 6 / 6 Paper is certified following FSC and EcoLabel

Steinbeis 2i GmbH Melanie Gralow/Heike Fischer Leuschnerstr. 43 70176 Stuttgart

Acceptance of offer

Offer of support for the preparation of a proposal for a European research project call

We hereby commission Steinbeis 2i GmbH to carry out the services described in the offer. Offer number: 2025-08-11/EU-Conform/EGT/MG Offer dated: 11.08.2025 Name of signatory: Place, date: Signature and organisation seal: VAT number: Purchase number (where applicable and if desired on invoice): Billing address (if deviating from address in offer):

Geological Survey of Estonia F. R. Kreutzwaldi 5, 44314 Rakvere, Estonia

Steinbeis 2i GmbH

CEO Dr. Jonathan Loeffler Registry Court Stuttgart HRB 758508 – USt.-Ident.-Nr.: DE308838809 Bank Deutsche Bank AG Stuttgart – BIC: DEUTDESSXXX – IBAN: DE34 6007 0070 0138 3926 00

Page 1 / 6

Paper is certified following

FSC and EcoLabel

Stuttgart (Germany), 11.08.2025

Quote No: 2025-08-11/EU-Conform/EGT/MG Offer of support for the preparation of a proposal for a European research project call Dear Birgit Mets, Steinbeis 2i GmbH (hereafter referred to as S2i) is proposing the following offer of support in preparing a proposal for a European research project as part of the HORIZON EUROPE work programme, with the call identifier HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D2-03 (Sustainable processing and refining of raw materials to produce battery grade Li-ion battery materials (Batt4EU Partnership)) and the submission deadline on 02.09.2025. The project is an Innovation Action (IA) with one submission stage, and a recommended total EC contribution of 10 Mio EUR.

1. CONTENT AND SCOPE OF THE SERVICE For a successful service provision to the satisfaction of Geological Survey of Estonia (EGT) (hereafter referred to as “client”), S2i offers the following activities throughout the duration of the service period: • Regular bilateral meetings and consortium meetings to address open questions and

compare the progress of the proposal against the planned timeline • Provision of efficient online collaborative tools: Microsoft Teams for communication between

project partners and SharePoint infrastructure for efficient real-time file sharing and collaboration on documents

The offered service package is composed of 2 steps as outlined in ANNEX I.

Steinbeis Europa Zentrum – Leuschnerstr. 43 – 70176 Stuttgart Steinbeis 2i GmbH Stuttgart site Leuschnerstr. 43 D-70176 Stuttgart T +49 711 25 24 2000 Karlsruhe site Steinhäuserstr. 12 D-76135 Karlsruhe T +49 721 93519 0 [email protected] steinbeis-europa.de

Geological Survey of Estonia F. R. Kreutzwaldi 5, 44314 Rakvere, Estonia

Steinbeis 2i GmbH

CEO Dr. Jonathan Loeffler Registry Court Stuttgart HRB 758508 – USt.-Ident.-Nr.: DE308838809 Bank Deutsche Bank AG Stuttgart – BIC: DEUTDESSXXX – IBAN: DE34 6007 0070 0138 3926 00

Page 2 / 6 Paper is certified following FSC and EcoLabel

2. FINANCIAL OFFER The financial offer for the above-mentioned services consists of 2 components:

• Service fee payment: o Service fee payment for a single-stage proposal1: S2i charges a total net fee for the

entire consortium of 32.040 EUR net (+VAT). This amount will be split among the consortium partners. The distribution of the total costs to each partner will be in the responsibility of the coordinator.

▪ TU Clausthal will be taking over 16.807 EUR net ▪ NTNU will be taking over 4.000 EUR net

o The remaining service fee of

11.233 EUR net will be distributed evenly among the remaining consortium partners (excluding TU Clausthal, NTNU; and Steinbeis Europa Zentrum (SEZ), as service provider). Since the ultimate number of confirmed consortium partners is still subject to final changes, the exact service fee applicable to the client will be calculated upon submission of the proposal, when the consortium is fixated.

o As an indication at this point: currently there are 15 expected partners outside of TU Clausthal, NTNU and SEZ. This would result in a service fee of approx.

749 EUR net (+VAT) per partner

Success fee: In the event of approval of the proposal by the European Commission or their Executive agencies, each consortium partner will be charged a success fee of 2 % (+VAT) of their total EC contribution in addition to the above-mentioned service fee payment (for example, the success fee is 10.000 EUR (+VAT) if the partner has a total EC contribution of 500.000 €).

3. REQUIREMENTS FOR THE SERVICE EXECUTION At the beginning of the joint work, a binding timetable for the provision of relevant information and text sections is agreed on by all partners of the consortium. The implementation of the work requires the continuous commitment of at least one technical coordinator and one client employee from each partner, who will be responsible for the supply of text modules and information but is also authorised to validate the text modules drafted by S2i. Please note that S2i relies on the information provided by the client and, if the client does not provide the required information, S2i's responsibility for the quality and successful submission of the proposal is limited.

Partners' Commitment: To ensure the effective development of the proposal, a close collaboration between S2i and the project partners is required – with a special focus on the project coordinator as well as work package and task leaders in the following activities: • Participation in workshops (both within step 1 and step 2) organised by S2i • Participation in regular bilateral meetings and consortium meetings organised by S2i to

address open questions and compare the progress of proposal against the planned timeline

1 Stated prices include a discount of 10%, which applies as long as the following conditions are fulfilled: S2i is taking part in the proposal as a project partner with a focus on communication, dissemination, stakeholder engagement, exploitation activities and/or administrative project management with a budget of >300 000 EUR.

Steinbeis 2i GmbH

CEO Dr. Jonathan Loeffler Registry Court Stuttgart HRB 758508 – USt.-Ident.-Nr.: DE308838809 Bank Deutsche Bank AG Stuttgart – BIC: DEUTDESSXXX – IBAN: DE34 6007 0070 0138 3926 00

Page 3 / 6 Paper is certified following FSC and EcoLabel

• Timely provision of relevant information, text input, technical expertise for the development of parts A and B (incl. Annexes)

• The complementary collaboration for the development of the proposal between S2i and project partners is an essential factor for the success of the proposal

4. CONFIDENTIALITY AND LIABILITY AGREEMENT S2i commits to not disclosing any confidential information of which it becomes aware. We offer our services in accordance with the general terms and conditions of Steinbeis 2i GmbH2.

5. PAYMENT TERMS Invoicing of the service fee payment will take place when the proposal work is terminated, but no later than upon submission of the proposal. The invoice must be paid within 30 days of receipt. In case the proposal work is terminated before submitting the application, the client is not entitled to a refund of the already billed work. The invoice fee will be based on the work already undertaken at the time of termination. Invoicing of the success fee will take place only after approval of the proposal by the programme authorities. The invoicing will take place after transfer of the pre-financing to the coordinator but not later than 120 days after receiving the invitation for grant agreement preparation and negotiation by the European Commission (even if the pre-financing amount was not received yet on the coordinators bank account).

6. DURATION OF VALIDITY This offer is valid until August 25th, 2025.

7. SERVICE PROVISION BY S2I The services specified in the offer will be executed until the official proposal deadline of the European Commission. After this time, you will be sent a form to be signed by both parties to confirm the services provided. We assure you a prompt and careful execution of our services and look forward to a successful outcome. Sincerely, Heike Fischer

Head of Department Steinbeis 2i GmbH

2 https://www.steinbeis-europa.de/en/imprint?file=files/steinbeis/dist/img/Ueber%20Uns/AGB- S2i%20english.pdf&cid=4868

Steinbeis 2i GmbH

CEO Dr. Jonathan Loeffler Registry Court Stuttgart HRB 758508 – USt.-Ident.-Nr.: DE308838809 Bank Deutsche Bank AG Stuttgart – BIC: DEUTDESSXXX – IBAN: DE34 6007 0070 0138 3926 00

Page 4 / 6 Paper is certified following FSC and EcoLabel

ANNEX I Step 1: Proposal conceptualisation and eligibility check This step comprises the initiation phase of the proposal in which S2i will in particular fulfil the following activities: • Setting up a detailed timetable and milestones to be reached before the deadline • Call analysis, review and adaptation of the project concept and structure including the

technical and socio-economic objectives and the role of each partner to check whether all call specifications are met

• Organisation and implementation of workshops (including all consortium partners) to review and adapt the concept

• Eligibility check according to the European Commission's criteria including the consultation with the relevant National Contact Point in Germany regarding eligibility, concept, budget and any other open questions that may arise

• Identifying, approaching and involving further project partners, if applicable Step 2: Preparation of the proposal S2i will take responsibility for the coordination of the overall project proposal, in particular the following will be fulfilled by S2i: • Acting as the main point of contact between the client and the other consortium partners

throughout the proposal development process • Performing the final quality check • Compilation of final submission • Taking care of the timely submission of the proposal • Linguistic consultation • Professional visualisation of core elements of the proposal. With S2i’s expertise in design and

visualisation, S2i will ensure that the application is not only technically convincing but also stands out on a visual level and thus gains the attention and approval of the evaluators.

Further, S2i will ensure to prepare a proposal that meets the formal and content-related requirements for the respective Horizon Europe call as well as the quality criteria of the European Commission. The specific activities within step 2 by S2i are outlined below, distinguished by the individual sections of the Proposal:

Part A Proposal Submission Forms

• A3. Budget for the proposal: S2i will carry out controls, including optimising the budget balance, verifying the proper allocation of resources and entering the budget in the participant portal. Please note that the coordinator is responsible for the negotiation and distribution of budget.

• A4. Ethics and security: S2i will check all questions in the Ethics and Security section and draft texts to justify relevant issues (e.g. non-EU countries)

Part B Research Proposal

• Drafting of the proposals according to the official EC guidelines and procedures. This includes:

Steinbeis 2i GmbH

CEO Dr. Jonathan Loeffler Registry Court Stuttgart HRB 758508 – USt.-Ident.-Nr.: DE308838809 Bank Deutsche Bank AG Stuttgart – BIC: DEUTDESSXXX – IBAN: DE34 6007 0070 0138 3926 00

Page 5 / 6 Paper is certified following FSC and EcoLabel

For all sections

• design attractive visualisations like tables, figures, Gantt chart, etc. • perform a critical review and proofreading of the proposal • advise on EU Policy relevant to the topic • advise on evaluation criteria

Excellence

• S2i will craft an initial page to offer the evaluator a concise overview of the entire proposal, encompassing the rationale behind it (why), the proposed solution (what), and a brief outline of the methodology (how)

• S2i will collect the data for the objectives (incl. KPIs), ambition section and technical methodology through a template, review, structure and adapt the information provided by the partners

• S2i will draft all non-technical parts of the methodology section (interdisciplinary approach, open science practices, gender dimension, data management plan)

Impact

S2i will draft with the input from partners - from the workshops, bilateral meetings and templates:

2.1: The whole section project’s pathway towards impacts

2.2: Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation Strategy (only in case, S2i is lead partner in the proposal for these activities)

2.2 Key exploitable results, business cases and exploitation strategies for industrialisation, from end-TRL 7 on a strategy to achieve future full-scale deployment in the EU

2.3: Clear layout of the impact summary

Implementation

• Advice regarding the breakdown of work packages, deliverables and milestones. • S2i will collect the information from the work packages using templates, review and

adapt the information • S2i and the coordinator will jointly draft the WP Management • S2i will perform checks on budget-related tables, the tables with the deliverables and

support the definition of risks and milestones and the creation of the chart showing the interactions between work packages

Steinbeis 2i GmbH

CEO Dr. Jonathan Loeffler Registry Court Stuttgart HRB 758508 – USt.-Ident.-Nr.: DE308838809 Bank Deutsche Bank AG Stuttgart – BIC: DEUTDESSXXX – IBAN: DE34 6007 0070 0138 3926 00

Page 6 / 6 Paper is certified following FSC and EcoLabel

Steinbeis 2i GmbH Melanie Gralow/Heike Fischer Leuschnerstr. 43 70176 Stuttgart

Acceptance of offer

Offer of support for the preparation of a proposal for a European research project call

We hereby commission Steinbeis 2i GmbH to carry out the services described in the offer. Offer number: 2025-08-11/EU-Conform/EGT/MG Offer dated: 11.08.2025 Name of signatory: Place, date: Signature and organisation seal: VAT number: Purchase number (where applicable and if desired on invoice): Billing address (if deviating from address in offer):

Geological Survey of Estonia F. R. Kreutzwaldi 5, 44314 Rakvere, Estonia