The European Working Group of Innovation Consultants (EWGIC) is an association of leading consultancies and research organizations focusing on innovation in Europe. The EWGIC has recently published the Code of Conduct where best practices, mutual respect and basic competition rules are promoted among Innovation Consultants. Navigator Consulting is committed to upholding this Code in addition to our core values, ethics and standards.
Brussels, Belgium: 5 May 2020
1. Trust & Integrity
The EWGIC members shall:
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
The EWGIC members shall:
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 behavior;
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
The EWGIC members shall:
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.
5. Validity of this Code of Conduct
This Code of Conduct is mandatory for all European consulting companies that are part of the EWGIC
Navigator Consulting Group, together with a group of leading consultancies have co-founded EWGIC in 2019.
For further information, please contact:
Philip Ammerman
Managing Director
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Sources:
European Working Group of Innovation Consultants. 5 May 2020