The ICES Secretariat will be responsive to requests from member states' institutions to support specific tasks of joint project proposals. ICES will work with any successful research project from within the ICES community, should the consortium so wish. ICES is not actively seeking to directly or indirectly become a project partner of consortia applying for research tenders.

The ICES secretariat will be transparent about its association with a particular applicant, so that other applicants have an equal opportunity to associate ICES with their applications. The Bureau as well as the Council will be informed of ICES participation in such projects at an early stage.