The European Working Group of Innovation Consultants commits to excellence

We, the members of EWGIC, are determined to inspire and ensure that trust, integrity, responsibility, fairness, and impartiality are all preserved by European Innovation Consultants during the execution of their professional activities.

To do so, we have adopted a comprehensive Code of Conduct, which aims to promote best practices, mutual respect, and basic competition rules among Innovation Consultants. Through this Code of Conduct, we commit to excellence, and seek to guarantee and demonstrate the highest professional standards in the sector of EU consulting.

The following standards of conduct, behaviour and attitude are detailed in our Code:

1. Trust & Integrity

• Act at all times in the legitimate interest of the client;
• Provide all services with integrity and in accordance with the principles of good faith, legality and the rules of good professional practice;
• Not fail their client's trust nor serve interests that are in conflict with those of the client in the development of a project or service;
• Maintain an honest and diligent relationship with the companies in the sector, the clients, the European Commission, any European, national or regional RDI funding agencies, the Administration, and all those entities with which they have professional contact, keeping confidential everything they know about third parties in the exercise of their activities.

 
​2. Responsibility

• Be committed to providing service to the client, and to communicate, respecting the conditions of confidentiality, all the information that they consider could have an impact on the choices and decisions of the client;
• Advise the client on the limits of the services acquired, specifically the chances of success of a given grant proposal, and represent truthfully the client input when developing a grant proposal;
• Ensure that their total support fees charged for advisory services to develop new RDI projects shall never be charged to the project post Grant Agreement and to do best efforts to encourage their clients to adopt the same good behaviour:
• In their capacity as specialists, undertake to constantly maintain the knowledge and skills of their teams at the required level, considering the evolution of applicable regulations;
• Ensure compliance with the rules on intellectual property and data protection.

 
3. Fairness to others

• Neither carelessly nor intentionally do anything to injure the reputation or business of others;
• Neither directly nor indirectly attempt to take the place of another consultancy, already appointed for a specific work;
• Ensure that its employees or independent contractors (including freelancers supporting proposal writing) respect the present Code of Conduct.

 
4. Impartiality

• To avoid conflicts of interest, the EWGIC members shall preserve their independence against all kinds of interference and against their own interests or that may affect impartiality and professional judgement;
• Inform the client of any potential conflict of interest that might arise in the performance of services to the client;
• Ensure, specifically in but not limited to the context of specific RDI funding programmes (such as Fast-Track-To-Innovation / FTI, EIC-Accelerator) and to avoid conflicts of interests, that none of their staff and independent contractors supporting EIC / FTI-project proposal development act as EC evaluator for those funding programmes;
• Document the capabilities of the project, their team and partners in truthful manner;
• Not accept remuneration which prejudices honest judgement.

This Code is in line with the EWGIC’s key missions
 
The first mission is to create synergies between European consulting companies specialized in Research, Development & Innovation (RDI) financing and management to promote the added value their professional services bring to RDI collaborations in Europe and carry out actions of common interests and benefits for its members. ​

We intend to enhance a positive image of European professional innovation consulting companies by ensuring and maintaining high professionalism and ethical values among members.​

We also aim to represent the EWGIC towards European institutions and stakeholders to defend the specific expertise and professionalism of EWGIC members and acknowledge the increased project impact they deliver to the European research community. ​

The working group identifies common issues and goals of its members and pursues them in a coordinated manner on a national level by contributing to national concertation and enhancing direct dialogues with the different representations of the EU Member States. ​

​Our activities facilitate knowledge sharing on best practices and information between members on latest evolutions in the European RDI ecosystem. ​

Finally, our group fosters the participation of the private sector to European RD&I programmes for stronger impact and exploitation of results. ​
 
All EWGIC’s members subscribe to and believe that the principles underlined in the Code of Conduct are fundamental for recognition from the European institutions and key stakeholders of the RDI ecosystem towards European Innovation Consultants.

The Code of Conduct was finalised and adopted in May 2020 and will serve as a roadmap for EWGIC’s daily activities.
 
Download EWGIC’s Code of Conduct here.