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1. "RTD activity" means one of the research and technological development activities, including demonstration activities, described in Annexes I and III to the Sixth Framework Programme; 2. "direct action" means an RTD activity undertaken by the Joint Research Centre (hereinafter referred to as the JRC) in the execution of the tasks assigned to it under the Sixth Framework Programme; 3. "indirect action" means an RTD activity undertaken by one or more participants by means of an instrument of the Sixth Framework Programme; 4. "instruments" means the mechanisms for indirect Community intervention as laid down in Annex III to the Sixth Framework Programme, with the exception of Community financial participation pursuant to Article 169 of the Treaty; 5. "contract" means a grant agreement between the Community and the participants concerning the performance of an indirect action establishing rights and obligations between the Community and the participants on the one hand, and between the participants in that indirect action on the other;

6. "consortium agreement" means an agreement that participants in an indirect action conclude amongst themselves for its implementation. Such an agreement shall not affect participants' obligations to the Community and to one another arising out of this Regulation or the contract; 7. "participant" means a legal entity contributing to an indirect action and having rights and obligations with regard to the Community under the terms of this Regulation or according to the contract; 8. "legal entity" means any natural person, or any legal person created under the national law of its place of establishment, under Community law, or international law, having legal personality and being entitled to have rights and obligations of any kind in its own name; 9. "consortium" means all the participants in the same indirect action; 10. "coordinator" means the participant appointed by participants in the same indirect action and accepted by the Commission, having specific additional obligations arising out of this Regulation and the contract;

11. "international organisation" means any legal entity arising from an association of States, other than the Community, established on the basis of a treaty or similar act, having common institutions and an international legal personality distinct from that of its Member States; 12. "international European interest organisation" means an international organisation, the majority of whose members are European Community Member States or associated States, and whose principal objective is to promote European scientific and technological cooperation; 13. "associated candidate country" means an associated State acknowledged by the Community as a candidate for accession to the European Union; 14. "associated State" means a State which is party to an international agreement with the Community, under the terms or on the basis of which it makes a financial contribution to all or part of the Sixth Framework Programme; 15. "third country" means a State that is neither a Member State nor an associated State; 16. "European Economic Interest Grouping (EEIG)" means any legal entity established in accordance with Council Regulation (EEC) No 2137/85(5);

17. "small and medium-sized enterprises" (hereinafter referred to as SMEs) means enterprises which meet the criteria set out in Commission Recommendation 96/280/EC(6); 18. "enterprise grouping" means any legal entity made up for the most part of SMEs and representing their interests; 19. "budget" means a financial plan estimating all the resources and expenditure needed to carry out an indirect action; 20. "irregularity" means any infringement of a provision of Community law or any breach of a contractual obligation resulting from an act or omission by a legal entity which has, or would have, the effect of prejudicing the general budget of the European Union or budgets managed by it through unjustified expenditure; 21. "pre-existing know-how" means the information which is held by participants prior to the conclusion of the contract or acquired in parallel with it, as well as copyrights or rights pertaining to such information following applications for, or the issue of, patents, designs, plant varieties, supplementary protection certificates or similar forms of protection;

22. "knowledge" means the results, including information, whether or not they can be protected, which are yielded by direct actions and indirect actions, as well as copyrights or rights pertaining to such results following applications for, or the issue of patents, designs, plant varieties, supplementary protection certificates or similar forms of protection; 23. "dissemination" means the disclosure of knowledge by any appropriate means other than publication resulting from the formalities for protecting knowledge; 24. "use" means the direct or indirect utilisation of knowledge in research activities or for developing, creating and marketing a product or process or for creating and providing a service; 25. "work programme" means a plan drawn up by the Commission for the implementation of a specific programme.

26. "joint programme of activities" means the actions undertaken by participants which are required for implementing a network of excellence; 27. "access rights" means licences and rights to use knowledge or pre-existing know-how;

28. "legitimate interest" means a participant's interest of any kind, particularly a commercial interest, that may be claimed in the cases specified in this Regulation; to this end, the participant must prove that failure, in any given instance, to take account of his interest would result in him suffering disproportionately great harm; 29. "implementation plan" means all actions by participants in an integrated project; 30. "industrial States" means those third countries that are members of G7; 31. "public body" means a public sector body or a legal entity governed by private law with a public service mission providing adequate financial guarantees.