Aktuelle Ausschreibungen in Horizon 2020
Innerhalb des EU-Rahmenprogramms zu Horizon 2020 wurden drei folgenden Schwerpunkte festgelegt: Wissenschaftsexzellenz; Führende Rolle der Industrie; Gesellschaftliche Herausforderungen.
Zu den vollständigen Teilarbeitsprogrammen mit allen Ausschreibungen von 2018-2020
Ausgewählte aktuelle Ausschreibungen sind unten aufgelistet.
Gesellschaftliche Herausforderungen/ Societal Challenges
1. Gesundheit, demografischer Wandel und Wohlergehen
Proposals should develop tools, platforms or services that will use information provided by most relevant diagnostic means for a particular area, resulting in an accurate, detailed, structured, systemic and prioritised assessment of the health status in a patient. The proposed solutions should integrate various data sources such as medical records, in vitro and/or in vivo diagnostics, medical imaging, -omics data, functional tests (lab-on-a-chip) etc., while taking into account the actual needs of healthcare practitioners, and should be tested and validated in real-life settings in pilot centres, facilitating future Health Technology Assessment. These tools/platforms/services should contribute to improving diagnosis and clinical decision, not only integrate existing data, and should involve intelligent human-computer interface solutions to facilitate its daily use in clinical practice. Any medical data relevant for a particular disease (textual data, numerical measurements, recorded signals, images etc.) may be considered. The aim is to steer the development of solutions towards concrete patient and public sector needs, having the citizen and healthcare providers at the centre. Careful attention should be paid to appropriately addressing ethical and legal concerns, providing adequate information to health professionals and patients to support informed decisions, and ensuring data safety and privacy, in line with existing European and international standards and legislation. Gender and sex differences should be taken into consideration when relevant.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 8 and 15 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting different amounts.
Expected Impact:
- Increase EU's capacity to innovate in the area of medical instruments technologies through the development of new diagnostic tools, platforms or services integrating various diagnostic data and providing quick, detailed, accurate and highly personalised diagnostics for optimal decision in clinical practice.
- Improve the quality and sustainability of healthcare systems through quicker and more encompassing diagnosis of medical conditions, leading to quicker and better clinical decisions and timely delivery of effective personalised treatments, with reduction of errors and delays (and costs associated to them).
- Contribute to the growth of the European diagnostics sector, in particular for SMEs.
- Reinforce EU's role among world leaders in the production of medical diagnostic devices.
Deadline: 07 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time
Proposals should consider integrative approaches that build on advances in all relevant fields of science and technology, including elements such as novel in vitro[ and in silico tools and the understanding of human biology and related toxicity pathways, with the aim of proposing and demonstrating scientifically valid means for comprehensive safety assessment of chemical substances without resorting to animal testing. Priority should be on systemic health effects in humans. Exploitation of qualitative and quantitative information and knowhow from animal, clinical, epidemiological, exposure and biomonitoring studies is encouraged where appropriate to inform research strategies and to establish the scientific credibility of the approaches proposed for relevant decision-making contexts. In addition, attention should be given to establishing and pursuing concrete measures to seek acceptance and uptake by end-users striving to address safety assessment challenges in support of product development and addressing regulatory information requirements.
Proposals could consider the involvement of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) to provide add-value regarding such aspects as supporting validation of emerging approaches, promotion of research results, and the interfacing with the regulatory community. In this respect, the JRC is open to collaborate with any successful proposal after the selection process has been completed.
As a way to facilitate progress and to accelerate the harmonisation, acceptance and promotion of new approaches worldwide, applicants are encouraged to seek cooperation with industry and collaboration with any relevant complementary initiatives as well as with regulatory bodies.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 10 and 20 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
- Scientifically sound, practicably implementable non-animal solutions readily deployable to aid in meaningful safety assessment of chemicals.
- Recognition from regulatory bodies and their engagement to translate results, methods and solutions into safety assessment practice.
- Uptake and commercial exploitation of the developed safety assessment approaches, products and services.
- Contribution to the Three Rs (3Rs) principles (‘Replacement’, ‘Reduction’, ‘Refinement’), with a particular emphasis on the ‘Replacement’ opportunities.
Deadline: 07 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Proposals should focus on implementation research for the prevention and/or early diagnosis of cancer on in LMIC and/or in vulnerable populations in HIC. Proposals should build on interventions with promising or proven effectiveness (including cost-effectiveness) for the respective population groups under defined contextual circumstances. For promising interventions, a limited validation period can be envisaged. However, the core of the research activities should focus on their implementation in real-life settings. The proposed interventions should gender-responsive.
The aim should be to adapt and/or upscale the implementation of these intervention(s) in accessible, affordable and equitable ways in order to improve the prevention and early diagnosis of cancer in real-life settings. Interventions should meet conditions and requirements of the local health and social system context and address any other contextual factors identified as possible barriers.
Each proposal should:
Focus on implementation research addressing prevention, and/or early identification strategies derived from existing knowledge about effective and/or promising interventions.
For screening interventions, the pathway to referral for positive cases should be included.
Include a strategy to test the proposed model of intervention and to address the socioeconomic and contextual factors of relevance to the targeted region and community.
Lead to better understanding of key barriers and facilitators at local, national and international level that affect the prevention and/or early diagnosis of cancer.
Include health economics assessments as an integral part of the proposed research, including considerations of scalability and equity.
Propose a pathway to embed the intervention into local, regional or national health policy and practice, addressing:
A strategy to include policy makers and local authorities (possibly by being part of the consortium), as well as other relevant stakeholders such as community groups, patient groups, formal and informal carers and any other group, where ever relevant from the beginning of the project, which will contribute to the sustainability of the intervention, after the end of project.
Relevance of project outcomes/evidence for scaling up the intervention at local, national and international level and then scaled-up appropriateness with respect to the local social, cultural and economic context.
Research under GACD involves regular exchange of research findings and information across participating projects by means of cross-project working groups and annual joint meetings. Wherever feasible, projects should harmonise and standardise their data collection and exchange data. Applicants must budget for annual costs of having two team members participate in one annual face-to-face meeting of the Annual Scientific Meeting (location to vary annually). Applicants must budget their involvement in GACD working groups and other GACD wide activities, beyond their projects.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 1 to 3 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
The proposals should address one of or combinations of:
- Advance local, regional or national cancer prevention and/or early diagnostic health policies, alleviating the global burden of cancer;
- Establish the contextual effectiveness of cancer intervention(s), including at health systems level;
- Improve tailored and affordable prevention and/or early diagnosis;
- Provide evidence and recommendations to national programmes and policies focusing on prevention, screening, and/or early diagnosis;
- Inform health service providers, policy and decision makers on effective scaling up of cancer interventions at local, regional, and national levels, including affordability aspects for users and health providers;
- Reduce health inequalities and inequities, including due consideration of socio-economic, gender and age issues where relevant, in the prevention and/or early diagnosis of cancer at both local and global levels;
- Provide pathway to cancer care for the patients diagnosed with cancer;
- Maximise the use of existing relevant programmes and platforms (e.g. research, data, and delivery platforms);
- Contribute to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal 3.4.
Deadline: 07 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Proposals should work to increase understanding of the determinants of low vaccine uptake in specific contexts situated in the EU and/or Associated Countries (AC) , and should develop strategies to increase vaccination rates of essential vaccines within these contexts. From this work, proposals should aim to develop a series of recommendations that national and regional public health authorities in the EU and/or Associated Countries could implement in order to increase vaccine coverage. Proposals should build on existing research, findings and available information in this domain, as well as existing guidelines and recommendations from public health authorities, including those from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and WHO/Europe (such as ECDC reports and guidance on vaccine coverage and hesitancy, "WHO/SAGE Working Group on Vaccine Hesitancy", WHO/Europe "Guide to tailoring immunization programmes (TIP)".
The approach taken should include a detailed examination of the causes of reduced vaccine uptake, and the design and testing of one or more interventions to improve vaccine uptake. Factors influencing vaccine uptake such as access, inequality, social/cultural influences and vaccine/vaccination-specific issues in specific population(s) that are identified as having lower than average vaccination coverage should be examined. Interventions to improve vaccine uptake should be based on existing high-quality research findings, with a sound hypothesis for why the chosen intervention(s) could be effective at increasing vaccine coverage in the target population(s). These interventions could be made in a wide variety of ways, for example content and style of online or offline media, educational material, modification of primary healthcare practices, access to vaccination, incentivisation, or any other strategies that are supported by a strong hypothesis. Also, the proposals should include a strategy for measuring the impact/success of the proposed interventions.
Finally, the findings of the project will be gathered into a clear and coherent set of recommendations that can be readily utilised by public health authorities in Europe to improve vaccine coverage. Proposals should include in their work the development of a strategy to ensure the implementation of these guidelines.
Proposals should take into account the specific contexts of the population(s) that they are studying, including factors such as age, sex/gender, religion, politics, geography, and socio-economic situation. Proposals should include partners from social science and public health-related disciplines. Proposals will also be expected to create links with other existing initiatives, both in Europe and internationally. This should include specific budget for networking, travelling to or organising meetings for researchers and other stakeholders that work on vaccine uptake challenges.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 2 and 3 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
- Contribute to increasing vaccine coverage in Europe, in particular in specific populations with low vaccine uptake and in specific contexts.
- Develop practical and readily implementable guidelines to aid national and regional public health authorities in the EU and Associated Countries to increase vaccination rates.
- Work towards meeting the goals on vaccination set out in President Juncker’s State of the Union address in September 2017, the EC Communication on strengthened cooperation against vaccine preventable disease (COM/2018/245) and the Council Recommendation on strengthened cooperation against vaccine preventable diseases).
Deadline: 07 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Proposals should focus on the identification of best practices, and the development and validation of interventions, infection prevention and clinical management plans for dealing with resistant bacterial infections in high prevalence settings. The research needs to take into account the variety and capacities of local health care/nosocomial infrastructures, and the trends of resistance patterns on local, national and international level, as well as sex and/or gender differences, when relevant. Furthermore, research needs to lead to management plans that take into account commonalities as well as differences between different pathogens and resistance determinants.
The costs and benefits of the infection prevention and clinical management plans to be developed should be assessed as well as the feasibility of their implementation. Research into the practicalities and challenges to introduce such novel infection prevention and management plans is essential and their practical implementation, as pilot actions, in 2 or more European regions with high prevalence levels is strongly encouraged, while taking into account that the infection prevention and clinical management plans to be developed should be applicable for large geographical areas. The potential challenges in the uptake of interventions/management plans by national health systems should be researched and addressed and cooperation with the Joint action AMR and healthcare-associated infections (JAMRAI), ECDC and the EU Health Security Committee is recommended.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a EU contribution of EUR 10-15 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
- Availability of tested cost effective models for prevention and treatment of bacterial infections in health care settings with high prevalence levels of resistant infections.
- Reduced spread of resistant hospital acquired infections in these settings.
- Knowledge that can be of use for other countries around the globe, including low and middle income countries, benefitting their local population and diminishing the global spread of resistant bacteria.
Deadline: 07 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Proposals should set up a European-wide multidisciplinary network able to provide a platform for a rapid response in the conduct of clinical studies in relation to any severe infection. The initial clinical studies to be performed should be included in the proposal, whereas criteria and processes for including further clinical studies in the project should be clearly described. This should include provisions for flexibility (including re-allocation of budget and de-prioritisation) in case of new scientific developments and in particular the need to address newly or re-emerging infectious diseases.
The proposed consortium should comprise expertise of stakeholders from academic organizations, SMEs, larger industry, patient organisations, ethics committees, public health bodies and regulators. It is expected to perform clinical studies and further advance clinical research in the field of infectious diseases. It should develop new, or make use of existing, standardised methodological approaches to rapidly perform large-scale clinical trials with the view of delivering optimal diagnosis and preventive or therapeutic interventions to patients affected by infectious diseases, taking into account sex and gender differences when relevant. Applicants should build on the results of successful European collaborative initiatives such as PREPARE and COMBACTE. Proposals should build on established structures for infectious disease clinical research at national or regional scales. To ensure the common benefit of the outcomes, it should also work in cooperation with existing global experts networks and infrastructures such as ECRIN and BBMRI. Proposals should in particular take into account the available result of the H2020-funded project ECRAID Plan (project resulting from SC1-HCO-08-2018). The network should address all aspects of clinical trial conduct, from study preparation and design, trial management and reporting. It should develop and allow for innovative research approaches and enable flexibility in responding to unpredictable events during its implementation. The sustainability of the network should be carefully worked out in the proposal. Furthermore, the network should create synergies with global initiatives, enabling quick and smooth interactions and collaboration across the world.
Special attention should be given to EU Member States and Associated Countries with currently limited capacity to perform clinical trials.
The Commission considers that a proposal requesting an EU contribution between EUR 25 to 30 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amount.
Expected Impact:
- Reduced cost and time through efficiently implemented clinical trials for diagnosis, prevention and treatment of infections.
- Create and strengthen the operational capacity and the infrastructures for providing real-time evidence for optimal medical intervention and practice in infectious diseases.
- Contribute to existing EU policies, including the Council Recommendation on strengthen cooperation for vaccine preventable diseases, and the Communication "A European one health action plan against Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)”.
- To ensure the EU´s worldwide leadership in controlling and responding to infectious diseases.
- Foster links between existing networks in Europe and other countries/regions in the world to optimise a coordinated response to infectious diseases for innovation and delivery of new preventive and therapeutic technologies.
- Foster collaboration between stakeholders from academic organizations, SMEs, larger industry, patient organisations, ethics committee, public health bodies and regulators.
Deadline: 07 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Proposals should use innovative approaches to provide policy relevant scientific data in support of improved human health hazard and risk assessment of micro and/or nano-plastics.
The following research priorities on micro- and/or nano-plastics, inter alia, can be considered:
- Environmental/food/water sources for micro- and/or nano-plastics and transmission to humans;
- Methods for identification and quantification of micro and/or nano-plastics in foods, environmental media and tissues;
- Exposure levels of humans to micro- and/or nano-plastics and methods for human biomonitoring;
- Analytical methods for detection of micro- and/or nano-plastics particles and contaminants;
- Microbial colonisation of micro- and/or nano-plastics as vectors for potential pathogens;
- Micro- and/or nano-plastics as condensation nuclei and/or carriers for airborne particulate matter and chemicals harmful to health;
- Toxicology and uptake of micro- and/or nano-plastics and additives/adsorbed contaminants;
- Fate of micro- and/or nano-plastics in the gastro-intestinal or respiratory tracts and secondary organs;
- Effects and transport of micro- and/or nano-plastics across biological barriers, and bioaccumulation and cell uptake of micro- and/or nano-plastics, including studies at the cellular and molecular levels;
- Consideration of the effect of shape (as well as size) of micro- and/or nano-plastics, and comparison with the behaviour and effects of non-synthetic homologues, e.g. wool fibres;
- Immune responses;
- Preliminary investigations into long-term effects of micro- and/or nano-plastics.
Sex and gender differences should be investigated, where relevant.
This topic is in support of the European Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy. Selected projects under this topic as well as projects selected under other topics in Horizon 2020 supporting the Plastics Strategy are strongly encouraged to participate in joint activities as appropriate. These joint activities could take the form of clustering of projects, participation in workshops etc. The proposals will also be expected to demonstrate support to common coordination and dissemination activities. Applicants should plan the necessary budget to cover those activities without the prerequisite to define concrete common actions at this stage. The details of these coordination activities will be defined during the grant preparation phase with the Commission.
The Commission considers that a proposal requesting an EU contribution between EUR 4 to 6 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Proposals could consider the involvement of the European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC) to provide added value regarding a number of aspects, e.g. interfacing between the scientific and regulatory communities, advancing the regulatory assessment frameworks, coordination of the development of relevant guidance documents, guidelines and international harmonisation. In this respect the JRC is open to collaborate with any successful proposal.
Expected Impact:
- Better understanding of health impacts of exposure to micro- and/or nano-plastics, including preliminary investigations into long-term impacts.
- Innovation in human health hazard and risk assessment methodologies of micro- and/or nano-plastics.
- Contribution to the health-relevant aims of the European Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy and of the Bioeconomy Strategy.
Deadline: 07 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Proposals should focus on methodology research and develop innovative solutions to improve the design, conduct and analysis of clinical trials. Proposals should identify and validate methods that will improve the generalizability of evidence generated through differently designed trials, including personalized medicine approaches and combinatorial interventions[7]. In order to draw meaningful conclusions following state of the art of statistical analyses, applicants need to demonstrate access to adequate clinical trial data sets that will be included into the proposed research.
The proposed methodology should allow sound extrapolation in various subgroups of disease of high public health burden as well as integration of RTC data and post-approval evidence generation. Furthermore, applicants should identify best practices to prevent bottlenecks in execution of clinical trial, including issues related to patient recruitment, adherence and compliance, governance, ethics, sex and gender-based analysis as well as data sharing.
The special attention should be put on non-commercial trials, including quantifiable indicators to measure the qualitative improvement in terms of trial management, data processing, and reporting. Whenever relevant, proposals should cover different aspects of training exercises, including hands-on trainings and closer monitoring of the scientific and technical staff involved in the conduct, management and analysis of the trial.
All literature analyses to define the current state of the art in the clinical trial methodology research must be completed at the time of submission of the proposal. Methodology research related to clinical studies exclusively on medical devices is not in the scope of this topic.
In this topic, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the Commission Expert Group on Clinical Trials will support the selected applicant consortium in the implementation of the action. Successful applicants under this topic are also expected to liaise with the successful applicants of the relevant coordination and support action (CSA) topics, in order to exchange information, avoid potential overlapping activities, create synergies and support the CSA goals. To maintain the interactions with the CSA consortia, specific tasks and a dedicated budget should be foreseen in the proposal. Additionally, consultations with the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control should also be envisaged as additional relevant activities of the successful proposals.
Please note that this topic will take the form of lump sums as defined in Commission Decision C(2017)7151 of 27 October 2017. Details of the lump sum funding pilot scheme are published on the Funding & Tenders Portal together with the specific Model Grant Agreement for Lump Sums applicable.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 4 and 6 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
- Improved relevance, quality and efficiency of clinical trials conducted with public funding.
- Potential to establish a novel clinical trial methodology supported by regulatory authorities.
Deadline: 07 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
The topic will support clinical research integrating Real World Data from clinical practice or from patient’s daily life and linking them with data collected with a research purpose if relevant.).
The research focus will be on the use of real world data, either newly acquired or from existing sources (such as data from clinical professional societies/associations, cohorts, registers, biobanks or collected through genome research initiatives) to improve the clinical management of adults with complex chronic conditions. The use of new technologies for data analytics and interpretation such as artificial intelligence and computer modelling are encouraged.
The proposed intervention should allow better treatment or monitoring of the person and thus changes in disease progression and/or therapy response. Quality of life, patient safety, psychosocial aspects and well-being are important determinants of complex health conditions and should be addressed whenever relevant. The research should also assess the potential and use of RWD for different health authorities like regulators of safety and quality or health technology assessment bodies. Nevertheless, research has to take duly into account sex and gender differences.
The proposed intervention must add clinical value as well as societal benefits and show feasibility and sustainability in real-life settings. In order to ensure acceptability and sustainability of the intervention early involvement of patients and care providers in the design of the research is considered essential. Similarly, proposals should duly take into account the diversity of health systems in different regions of Europe.
Data protection, data privacy and ethical issues have to be carefully considered as personal data from different sources are to be linked in the course of the proposed research. Data sets assembled under the project, including the linkage to ‘real world data’ should be preserved in a sustainable and accessible way so as to enable future research on the targeted CCC, thus contributing to the overall imperative of Open Science.
Research that focuses on self-management only is not in the scope of this topic. Research on rare and/or infectious diseases are supported through other sections of the programme and are excluded from the scope of this topic.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 4 and 6 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
- Demonstrate the potential of the use multi-disciplinary multi-source Real World Data to advance clinical research on complex chronic conditions;
- Demonstrate potential and use of RWD, in particular RWD from disease-specific professional societies/associations, by health authorities to understand safety, quality and effectiveness of therapies;
- Improve the clinical outcomes as well as quality of life of patients living with CCCs;
- Advance the understanding of management of complex diseases including the interdependence of co-morbidities, thus underpinning evidence based therapies and prognostic approaches;
- Further development of new technological tools and platforms for advanced data management;
- Contribution to the cross-border health data exchange and to the goals of the Digital Single Market.
Deadline: 07 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
PCP actions targeting consortia of procurers with similar procurement needs that want to procure together the development of innovative integrated care solutions to modernize public services whilst creating growth opportunities for industry and researchers in Europe in addition to new markets. These can include, but are not limited to formal or informal organisational solutions, personal-health and self-care solutions, professional care solutions and ICT-based solutions. This topic is open to proposals for PCP actions in all areas of public sector interest requiring innovative integrated care solutions. It is open both to proposals requiring improvements mainly based on one specific solution/technology field, as well as to proposals requiring end-to-end solutions that need combinations of different innovative solutions from the healthcare point of view.
Proposals should demonstrate sustainability of the action beyond the life of the project. Activities covered should include cooperation with policy makers to reinforce the national policy frameworks and mobilise substantial additional national budgets for PCP and PPI, collaborating with respective EU funded projects in the area, as well as awareness raising, technical assistance and/or capacity building to other procurers beyond the project to mainstream PCP implementation and to remove obstacles for introducing the innovative solutions to be procured into the market.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of up to EUR 5 to 6 million (corresponding up to 90% of the total budget) would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Specific requirements for PCP actions are described in part D and E of the General Annexes of the Work Programme.
Expected Impact:
- Reduced fragmentation of demand for innovative solutions in the area of integrated care;
- Increased opportunities for wide market uptake and economies of scale for the supply side through the use of joint specifications, wide publication of results and where relevant contribution to standardisation, regulation or certification.
Deadline: 07 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
This topic will contribute to the EU One Health Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance and should specifically consider the following:
- Development of proposals for ‘Public Procurement of Innovative Solutions’ for the implementation of rapid diagnostic tools for infectious diseases in clinical practice. Proposals should be driven by clearly identified procurement needs of the participating organisations. In order to ensure compatibility and interoperability between infectious disease diagnostics and avoid technical/technology standardisation issues, public health procurers should also develop specifications that are applicable for EU-wide deployment of the innovative diagnostics.
- Applications should be driven by public and/or private procurers from each participating country (at national, regional or local level) that have responsibilities and budget control in the relevant area of supply of health and care services. They should demonstrate the applicability of the ‘Most Economically Advantageous Tendering’ approach in cross-border collaboration of public procurers in the EU, defining specific outcome criteria of importance for patients well-being, and for innovation of public procurement in the area of infectious diseases and AMR, taking also into account overall economic and societal benefits, and sex and gender differences when relevant..
- Proposals should include clear communication and outreach strategies aiming to actively promote and support public health procurement organisations and health care providers across regions and borders of the EU in adopting relevant innovation procurement approaches. They should specify measures that will ensure the sustainability of solutions beyond the lifespan of the proposed project.
- Synergies with the Structural Reform Support Program and the European Structural and Investment Fund are encouraged.
Activities covered should include cooperation with policy makers to reinforce the national policy frameworks and mobilise substantial additional national budgets for PCP and PPI, searching support and collaborating with respective coordination and networking projects, e.g. PIPPI and HCO-12. Likewise, awareness raising, technical assistance and/or capacity building beyond the project to mainstream PPI implementation and removing obstacles for introducing the innovative solutions to be procured into the market could be included.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 3 and 5 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Specific requirements for PPI actions are described in part E of the General Annexes of the Work Programme.
Expected Impact:
- Implementation of innovative procurement practices for diagnostics for infectious diseases in the EU, based on the ‘most economically advantageous tendering’ approach and involving newly acquired rapid diagnostic tests in hospital and ambulatory settings.
- Contribute to the EU One Health Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance, in particular in relation to ‘Better Prevention and Control of AMR’ and the goal to address patient safety in hospital environments by supporting good practices in infection prevention and control.
- Create new opportunities for market uptake and economies of scale for the supply side of rapid diagnostics in the area of respiratory tract infections across the EU.
- Reduced fragmentation of demand for innovative solutions.
Deadline: 07 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
The successful project should bring together data-intensive EU health research initiatives to design an implementation roadmap /strategic agenda for a one-stop shop, a HRIC FAIR data portal respecting legal and ethics requirements. It should also define and promote, among research projects, procedures to make data FAIR as well as a standard way of communicating such data, so that any IT-system can easily provide metadata to the portal. This portal would serve as catalogue of all relevant publicly-funded health research databases, registries and infrastructures (e.g., ESFRI) and allow access to high quality health research data. The proposal is expected to build a community (i.e., a wider forum) in order to align strategies and capitalise on the work done by relevant European and international initiatives. The proposal should develop two use cases, where all the aforementioned aspects will be integrated and analysed. These use cases should link health research data, and if relevant, health research data with curated clinical data and health administrative data. The participation of experts in ethics and law as well as patient representatives is strongly recommended.
The proposal should also produce guidelines for researchers to contribute to the proper application of the GDPR regulation, taking into account the specific features of processing personal data in the area of health.
The HRIC should contribute to the European Open Science Cloud.
Project results should be widely disseminated to the relevant stakeholders across the Member States and Associated Countries.
The implementation roadmap of the HRIC FAIR data portal will define how to address the specific requirements of health research data. In this sense, the selected proposal is expected to collaborate with the projects funded under topics 'INFRAEOSC-04-2018' and 'INFRAEOSC-06-2019-2020: Enhancing the EOSC portal and connecting thematic clouds', in particular with those in the health field. Grants awarded under these topics will be complementary. The respective options of Article 2, Article 31.6 and Article 41.4 of the Model Grant Agreement will be applied.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 2 and 3 million would allow this topic to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
- A HRIC FAIR data portal respecting legal and ethics requirements. This portal should serve as catalogue of all relevant publicly-funded health research databases, registries and infrastructures (e.g., ESFRI) and allow access to high quality health research data.
- Through use cases, demonstrate the added value of close collaboration of health researchers with healthcare providers and other actors in health care systems.
- Guidelines on application of the GDPR and the EU Member States and Associated Countries national legislations. The developed guidelines should cover the processing and further processing of health research data.
- Contribute to the setup of a Health Research and Innovation Cloud, the Health thematic cloud of the European Open Science Cloud.
- Contribute to the Digital Single Market through piloting IT health research solutions.
Deadline: 07 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Each action should focus on one of the following fields:
- International aspect: The action should focus on building links with third countries by analysing the potential and advantages of collaboration in personalised medicine (PM) with those countries, studying areas of interest for Europe in PM collaboration and promoting international standards in the field. In particular the uptake of personalised approaches in health systems and healthcare should be addressed, taking into account social, cultural, ethical and legal aspects, health economy issues and equitable healthcare. For the 2018 call, the project should focus on CELAC as a group of countries, and for the 2019 call on China. For the 2020 call, the project should focus on countries in Africa, linking also into the EU-AU (African Union) policy dialogue and taking into account the new Africa-Europa Alliance for Sustainable investment and Jobs. Alignment with activities of the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (GACD) and The European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) activities should be explored. Special attention should be given to prediction and prevention, and to promoting well-being for all at all ages. Furthermore, the project should seek to integrate local knowledge and practice. Data safety and privacy should be addressed in line with existing standards and legislation. The project should have a duration of at least four years and address sustainability beyond that to ensure longer term structuring effect. Due to the specific challenge of this topic, in addition to the minimum number of participants set out in the General Annexes, proposals shall include at least one participant based in the international partner region; CELAC (2018 call), China (2019 call) and Africa (2020 call).
- Regional aspect: The action should establish and support networking between regions and interregional cooperation in different European countries, in particular linking remote or sparsely populated regions with regions harbouring critical mass of medical and PM expertise while taking into account broader socio-economic and cultural aspects. The focus of the action can include aspects of genomic analysis, me-Health (mobile and electronic Health), telemedicine etc. but should aim at structuring PM application at regional level. Linkage to existing inter-regional projects (financed by INTERREG programmes) or interregional partnerships of Thematic Smart Specialisation Platforms will be actively encouraged. (2018 call).
- Healthcare- and pharma-economic models for personalised medicine, interlinking European public health approaches with medical practice and financing. The action should carry out studies in support of research in and development of new health- and pharma economic models for PM, including prevention, to capture value and to develop relevant health financing models. Analysing mid- and long-term impacts of innovative products designated for sub-sets of patient populations on the patients themselves and on public health systems. Assessing the benefits of personalised medicine development for citizens and their broader social environment while ensuring patient safety, access, equity, solidarity, data safety and financial sustainability of public health systems in the EU. The action should involve different relevant stakeholders and take into account work being carried out by other EU funded initiatives, such as EUnetHTA. SME participation is encouraged. Results of the studies and workshops should be actively disseminated to a wider audience, including relevant authorities, professionals and the wider public. (2018 call).
- Standardisation for clinical study design. Establishment of innovative clinical trial design methodology for PM, including guidelines for research and reflection papers. The action should take into account sex/gender differences as well as the work done by relevant stakeholders and authorities such as EMA and the HMA network, as well as the European legal framework. SME participation is encouraged. The results of the studies and workshops should be actively disseminated to a wider audience, including, industry, researchers and other professionals. (2019 call).
- ICPerMed secretariat: The project should continue the work done by the secretariat for ICPerMed, e.g. maintenance of existing services, organising the meetings of the ICPerMed Executive Committee, convening dedicated workshops and preparing and issuing updates of the ICPerMed Action Plan. Furthermore maintaining the network of policy makers and funders gathered in ICPerMed and expanding the membership to new interested and complementary partners as well as maintaining communication with all EC funded activities related to ICPerMed (2020 call).
For grants awarded under this topic for Coordination and Support Actions it is expected that results could contribute to European or international standards. Therefore, the respective option of Article 28.2 of the Model Grant Agreement will be applied.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 1.5 and 2 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
Contributing to the implementation and reach of the ICPerMed initiative; furthermore:
- International aspect: Integrating the country/group of countries into ICPerMed activities. Support wider adoption of standards developed in Europe. Support the EU-AU policy dialogues relevant to research and health (2020 call). Contribute towards the UN Sustainable Development Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.
- Regional aspect: Strengthened links between European regions setting up or planning personalised medicine healthcare approaches. Aligning research funding with ongoing and foreseen investments e.g. from Structural Funds. Recommendations on best practice in implementing PM at regional level.
- Healthcare- and pharma-economic models: Increased understanding of personalised medicine perspectives on how to capture value, develop institutional support and design relevant payment models. Recommendations for faster translation from discovery to patients'/citizens' access. Contributing to understanding of trends and dynamics in the pharmaceutical markets in relation to increased emphasis of research and development efforts on PM. Suggestions on how savings through prevention can be included in payment and reward models and contribute to the sustainability of public health systems in the EU. Improved knowledge and understanding among healthcare professionals and the wider public of potential benefits of PM approaches.
- Standardisation for clinical study design: Contribute to standardisation of PM clinical trial design. Demonstrate feasibility and importance of PM approaches. Underpin accelerated market uptake. Improved knowledge and understanding among healthcare professionals, regulatory authorities and industry how best to adapt clinical trials designs to stratified patient populations.
- ICPerMed secretariat (2020 Call): Ensure continuity of the operations of ICPerMed beyond 2020. Increase the visibility of the consortium and ensure openness of the structure. Provide harmonised vision for the further development of personalised medicine. Contribute to the convergence of members' approaches to personalised medicine and further alignment of research efforts in the field.
Deadline: 07 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Applicants should propose actions that would shift benefiting organisations' R&I performance and would eventually increase their participation in EU funded collaborative projects. Proposed activities should aim to strengthen research development; improve governance, managerial and administration practices; increase the organisations' international profile; develop HR policies to attract and retain talents, taking into account gender aspects; and create a culture that rewards scientific performance and innovation. Applicants may propose any actions that contribute towards these goals.
Beneficiaries of the activities should be active in the field of health research and innovation and should come from low performing Member States/regions that have identified health R&I as a priority in their Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialisation (RIS3). Applicants shall seek synergies with European Structural and Investment Funds, with European and national research and innovation programmes and if applicable with EEA and Norway grants. Applicants are encouraged to leverage funding of this call with other resources.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 1.5 and EUR 2 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
An increased number of organisations from low performing Member States/regions among the top international health R&I institute that are able to attract funding and talents and render these resources into scientific excellence and innovation.
Ultimately, increased participation rate of low performing countries in the EU's Research and Innovation Framework Programme.
Deadline: 07 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Proposals should aim for synergistic collaboration and agreement across various research and innovation programmes on the human microbiome, in Europe and worldwide, dealing with sample collection, processing, standardisation and healthy states references at different sites of the human body (not only one organ), including also interaction with omics, impact of drugs, nutritional and environmental aspects as well as sex and gender differences. In particular, they should support the agreement of concrete references of healthy human metagenomes across various different populations. Proposals should map the progress and the state of play for specific disease and health issues as well as the success and meaningfulness in different countries. They should propose concrete and strategic research actions on the human microbiome addressing gaps, emerging fields and political priorities. They should complement, support and enhance cooperation in similar activities within Europe and beyond. In line with the strategy for EU international cooperation in research and innovation (COM(2012)497), international cooperation is encouraged with relevant partners from outside the EU. Proposals should cover the whole spectrum of human microbiome research from patient data collection all the way to study reporting in publications, social, ethical and legal aspects. Proposals should avoid networking without output and provide appropriate indicators to measure its progress and impact.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU between EUR 1.5 and EUR 2 Million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
- International agreement on concrete methods, standards, procedures and in vivo models. Harmonisation and increased comparability of metagenomics, metabolomics and human microbiome data in Europe and beyond.
- International agreement on definitive references of healthy human metagenomes. These references should apply across various different populations and allow end-users and citizens to see which microbiome is clinically healthy.
- More meaningful results through collaborative synergistic collection of microbiome data from different directions. Improved coherence and reduction of overlap between national, EU and other funding in the area of human microbiome research, thus ensuring an efficient use of the available human and financial resources.
- Knowledge exchange and enhanced engagement of citizens, scientists and political stakeholders for priority health risks. Validated results will be delivered faster to people.
- Integration of metagenomics and human microbiome references into other multilateral co-operation areas or personalised medicine approaches.
Deadline: 07 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
To address these challenges, the proposals should focus on i) methods to generate clinical data both within the context of a clinical investigation and in daily practice (i.e. real-world data) so that robust clinical evidence is available for high-risk medical devices, and ii) aggregation methods that will allow to make optimal use of all available data taking into account its heterogeneity (e.g. meta-analysis methods using different statistical approaches, methods to combine data from different types of sources) and iii) promote exchange of best-practices and support network activities among developers. Proposals should in particular:
- Analyse the particularities of high-risk medical devices and the potential resulting problems with regard to clinical evaluation, carry out a review of the currently used clinical investigation designs for the evaluation of such devices, provide a hierarchy of these approaches, identify gaps to be filled (in particular in view of new developments like e.g. mHealth, artificial intelligence, and combined products) and derive recommendations for the choice of clinical investigation methodology to obtain sufficient evidence.
- Develop methodologies for generating clinical data on high-risk medical devices enabling to collect sound data and to use data from different sources including real-world data. These methodologies should be adapted for the needs of conformity assessment and for continuous clinical evaluation throughout the lifetime of the device. Proposals should take into account the various specificities of high-risk medical devices and therapeutic areas if relevant.
- Contribute to the exchange of best practices among notified bodies with regard to the assessment of clinical data as provided by developers of high-risk medical devices.
- Support networking activities among developers and in particular academic centres with regard to regulatory requirements for assessing high-risk medical devices and foster a pool of scientific expertise on clinical evaluation of high-risk medical devices.
Applicant consortia should bring together partners with relevant expertise from e.g. academia, competent national authorities, centres of expertise for clinical research and care, scientific and medical learned societies. The consortium should also seek input from relevant stakeholders such as technology developers, healthcare providers, health technology assessment agencies and patients, with special regard to endpoints that are relevant for patients. The composition of the consortium should ensure a broad geographical representation of European countries. Sex and gender aspects should be taken into account in carrying out the relevant activities.
Proposals should complement or build on existing work, including results of EU-funded research projects and Joint Actions in the field of medical devices evaluation, and related activities, like e.g. those of the Competent Authorities for Medical Devices (CAMD) and the successor Medical Devices Coordination Group (MDCG).
Proposals could consider the involvement of The European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC) to provide added value regarding aspects like interfacing among the different stakeholders (e.g. developers and regulatory bodies) or contributing to European and international harmonization. In this respect the JRC is open to collaborate with any successful proposal.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 1 and 2 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amount.
Expected Impact:
- Higher quality and reliability of clinical data needed for conformity assessment and continuous market access
- Improved knowledge of relevant legislative frameworks and regulatory requirements among all stakeholders involved in the development of high-risk medical devices
- Improved evidence on safety and efficacy of high-risk medical devices for the benefit of the patient and health systems.
Deadline: 07 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Proposals should offer well-structured and detailed strategies to convey accurate and up-to-date information on cell and gene-based therapies using multiple contemporary modalities, including a website. The consortium should consist of diverse actors and could include experts in science communication, patients’ representatives, industry, SMEs, clinical and academic researchers as well as the major European learned societies in the field. They should provide expertise across the field of human stem cells, regenerative medicine, genome-editing and gene therapy. All communication material/information should be translated to English and proposals should provide a detailed strategy on the linguistic approach of dissemination in order to reach a large EU audience. The website should be user-friendly and should contain tailored sections dedicated to at least researchers, patients, and the public.
For broader audiences proposals should create a reliable, transparent, accessible resource for patients to make informed decisions and for citizens to have access to scientifically viable information on cell and gene-based therapies, including sex and gender aspects when relevant. Proposals should provide state-of-the-art strategies to engage the public and foresee regular evaluation of whether they reach the targeted audiences. In addition, a series of communication events should be organised, also open to the public, where innovative technologies could be presented and discussed.
For the research community, proposals should create an information source on the practical steps needed for cell and gene-based therapy development. Proposals should provide a one-stop shop on where to seek further information and guidance relating to manufacturing guidelines, regulatory requirements, intellectual property rights, market acceptability and ethical matters. Proposals should provide a strategy on how they will liaise with regulatory agencies (e.g. national agencies, the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the Heads of Medicines Agencies (HMA) network, EUnetHTA network). Finally, proposals should include a realistic sustainability plan which explores how the ownership of the information will be structured, and propose a defined organisation to take responsibility, manage and administer the information, and to which authorities/organisations the information will be delivered at the end of the project. Sustainability should be ensured for at least 5 years after the end of the project.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU between EUR 1.5 and 2 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
- Better informed decision making by patients and the public, due to objective, accurate and transparent communications of the latest developments and actual treatments available in the field in order to avoid misconceptions
- Better informed decision making by regulatory and healthcare authorities, due to better access to reliable and updated information, and to stronger synergies and knowledge sharing between decision-makers and other stakeholders including advanced therapies learned societies.
- Improved products development, by providing the research community and patients with a high-quality information source.
Deadline: 07 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
This activity will aim at enhancing research and innovation capacity of the ERNs in view of achieving the goals of the International Rare Diseases Research Consortium (IRDiRC) for bringing new diagnostic tools and therapies more efficiently to the patients and for developing methodologies to assess the impact of diagnoses and therapies on rare disease patients, taking into account sex and gender differences where relevant. . Support will be given to identify research priorities and potential synergies among ERNs and coordinate research and innovation activities to be tackled by ERNs. The project should address fostering collaboration in the field of clinical research among ERNs, ERN-independent clinical research collaborations and other stakeholders, such as research infrastructures, industry and patient organisations, as well as international collaboration with other clinical research networks. Close collaboration with the European Joint Programme on Rare Diseases will be necessary to ensure complementarity, to achieve relevant synergies and avoid overlaps. To ensure broad geographical representation and participation across ERNs the proposals shall involve participants from several countries and aim at engaging all approved ERNs and other relevant research networks in Europe.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 1.5 and 2 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
- Along the IRDiRC vision to enable all people living with a rare disease to receive an accurate diagnosis, care, and available therapy within one year of coming to medical attention by 2027.
- Contribute to the development of a comprehensive European ecosystem for rare diseases and conditions that require highly specialised treatments, which brings efficiently results of research and innovation to the benefit of the patients.
- Enhance synergy with the Connecting Europe Facility Programme and the EU Health Programme which provides support for the functioning of the ERNs and the development of patient registries for ERNs.
Deadline: 07 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Proposals should build on results of projects and the state of the art in ICT for early risk prediction and introduce innovative ICT solutions through data, data analytics, advanced or novel digital technologies, services, products, organisational changes, and citizens data ownership, that lead to more effective health and care systems. These innovative ICT based solutions may address one or multiple conditions and explore ways of inducing adequate personalised preventive measures (e.g. behavioural change, diet, interventions, medication, primary prevention) from advanced predictive models. Sustainable behaviour change refers to efforts to change people's personal habits to prevent disease, stimulate healthy people to monitor their health parameters and thus lowering the risk of developing (chronic) conditions.
Proposals should build on the use of already existing and/or new data generated by individuals, health professionals and other service providers (including but not limited to data collected through IoT enabled devices, wearables, mobile devices, data source networks or data lakes etc. collected outside the controlled environment of clinical trials) by citizens, healthcare professionals, public authorities and industry, with a view to developing personalised early risk prediction, prevention and intervention approaches that meet the needs of individuals while providing them with adequate information to support informed decision making, improve the uptake of preventive approaches and lead to better health outcomes.
Proposals should also include actions aimed at increasing health literacy, including the role of the citizen as owner of his or her own personal data, as well as advancing health and care professionals' proficiency in novel, data-oriented health services through the use of digital solutions to increase knowledge about diseases and help them in the interpretation of symptoms and effects (e.g. with visualisations like dashboards, etc.), notably of early warning signs and medical information. Early warning signs relay to either healthy people monitoring several body parameters e.g. to conduct healthy life styles and increase physical activity levels or to the detection of the deterioration of the condition of already diseased patients. The latter could include advanced prediction models from aggregated patient data of certain health events/complications.
Proposals are expected to be built on realistic scenarios for new health and care pathways, and should integrate multi-disciplinary research involving behavioural, sociological, medical and other relevant disciplines. Stakeholder engagement (esp. considering vulnerable user groups, i.e. persons belonging, or perceived to belong, to groups that are in a disadvantaged position or marginalised, for example, elderly people, persons with special needs or chronic diseases) should be part of the research design for an agile approach to ensuring that relevant user needs (including social, age and gender aspects) are met and solutions find acceptance by users. Full account should be taken of ethical and legal aspects e.g. data protection, privacy and data security. This action should create a clear and coherent set of recommendations or guidelines for public health authorities in Europe together with a strategy to support their implementation.
No large-scale piloting or clinical trials are expected in this Research and Innovation Action. However, proposals should include validation (testing on a prototype and/or proof of concept) and demonstration of feasibility of their respective models, technologies and scenarios.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 4 and 6 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts. Participation of SMEs is encouraged.
Expected Impact:
The proposal should provide appropriate indicators to measure its progress and specific impact in the following areas:
- Evidence of the benefits of delivering adequate information regarding personalised risk prediction, prevention and intervention, based on proof of concept and involvement and specified roles of relevant stakeholders.
- Clear improvements of outcomes for individuals, care systems and wider society from prevention measures and interventions based on personalised early risk prediction in comparison with current practices.
- Usefulness and effectiveness of integration and coordination of interventions in new health and care pathways based on person-centred early risk prediction, prevention and intervention models.
- Realise large-scale collection of user-generated data in compliance with data protection, privacy and security rules and principles.
- Support integration with tools and services under the European Open Science Cloud.
Deadline: 22 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Proposals should develop and validate new solutions leading to smart living environments for ageing people, supporting independent active and healthy lifestyles.
The proposed solutions should provide personalised advice, guidance and follow-up for key age and health related issues in daily life which impact the person's ability to remain active, healthy and independent. These may include amongst others diet, physical activity, risk avoidance, preventive measures, lifestyle and activity management, leisure, social participation and overall wellness and health. Proposals should pay particular focus to measures aimed at fostering social participation and avoiding social exclusion.
Proposal should convincingly describe the planned progress beyond state of the art in the development and integration of trusted smart living environments for ageing people, which should build upon intelligent and interoperable information and communication technology (ICT) environments, access to relevant physiological and behavioural data, emotional computing, open platform and Internet of Things approaches.
Proposals should be based on trans-disciplinary research, involving behavioural, sociological, psychological, medical and other relevant disciplines, including gender and cultural aspects.
Proposed solutions should make use and further develop user interaction, including voice-based, taking into account Artificial Intelligence methods for understanding the users' intentions, knowledge extraction and learning. It is essential that they build on active user engagement in order to ensure the understanding of user needs. They need to safeguard ethics, privacy, security and regulatory aspects and take gender issues into account appropriately. The proposed solutions should be unobtrusive and avoid attention theft.
Proposals should include validation in realistic test sites, such as at home or at care centres, in order to demonstrate the expected benefits and impacts.
The proposed research and innovation actions should address one of the following international collaboration possibilities:
1. Cooperation with Japan
Proposals addressing international collaboration with Japan should ensure the use of generalized infrastructures such as cloud system and open sources.
Without limiting the use of specific applications or hardware systems, platform approaches are required to ensure interoperability and future expandability.
Proposals are recommended to foster the adoption of the existing standards (including de-facto/ consortium standards), contributions to appropriate ongoing standardization work, and suggestions of new standards by an EU-Japan joint consortium in order to accelerate practical introduction of the results into societies.
Proposals should be driven by the needs, interests and lifestyles of older people in order to ensure user acceptance, taking into consideration the relevant cultural aspects.
Proposals are expected to contribute to help ageing people remain active and healthy inside and outside their home, by providing action guidance and decision support derived from personal information such as memories and action histories through progress beyond the state of the art in interaction technology and ICT.
The proposed solutions on an open-platform where data collection by sensors, data analysis by artificial intelligence and user-friendly user interfaces cooperatively work are expected to be naturally integrated into ageing people’s daily life and provide emotional support to ageing people.
Proposed solutions should make use and further develop multimodal interaction including voice-based conversation and gesture in order to help ageing people by the most effective and personalized way.
An amount of EUR 4 million will be reserved for proposals focusing on cooperation with Japan.
2. Collaboration with Canada
In addition to the scope and challenge of this topic as defined above, proposals addressing the international collaboration with Canada need to include the use of ICT-based solutions to support smart living environments that address transitions in care challenges for ageing people. Applications should focus on the development, integration and evaluation of eHealth innovations, in collaboration with stakeholders, including eHealth industry partners, clinicians, patient/family/caregivers and decision makers, in order to improve health outcomes.
In collaboration with stakeholders, applicants should consider ways to improve the quality of outcomes and the cost-effectiveness of smart living environments that support care transitions. This call supports the integration of smart living environment solutions which are ready to progress beyond the prototype stage for use into care delivery programs and undergo pragmatic evaluation. Applicants are required to use strong research designs; and should provide a clear description and justification of the proposed research methodology to be used.
Funding of the Canadian component of the proposal requires that a proposal also includes one or both of the following research areas as relevant to aging people.
Areas:
1) Changing health status or care: Individuals facing changes in their health status or living with chronic or complex health conditions. These individuals experience several handovers among health providers, institutions, hospital units and/or have a change in their care location (e.g., home vs. hospital; community care vs. tertiary care).
2) Key populations to optimize transition in care outcomes: Populations at increased risk of adverse transition in care outcomes include but not limited to: First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples; individuals residing in rural and/or remote communities; individuals who are transgender; individuals with an intersex condition; older adults and new aging populations (i.e., survivors of diseases/conditions that previously led to early death); new immigrants; and those who experience systemic, cultural and/or language barriers.
The consortium should also have the capacity to:
• Establish productive partnerships with eHealth innovation industries to co-design eHealth-enabled smart living environments to improve transitions in care;
• Evaluate the impact, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of eHealth innovations in addressing gaps and inefficiencies using smart living environments in servicing the identified research areas. The evaluation will utilize rigorous research design(s) to generate high-quality (valid and reliable) evidence that will assist in the subsequent spread and scale (sharing) of successful innovations; and
• Integrate successful eHealth innovations into care delivery programs and promote their uptake and use to support effective and efficient smart living environments.
Example of potential topics may include, but are not limited to the following:
• Ageing patients/survivors patients with acute, chronic or complex health conditions that are transitioning from hospital to home and supported by Information and Communication technology (ICT)-based solution (i.e. sensors monitoring their vitals and providing feedback to themselves and providers).
• Ageing patients/survivors of chronic conditions transitioning into a smart living long-term care facility.
• Implementing smart living environments for managing care transitions of ageing people within different culture and social groups, and/or geographic regions.
• Evaluation of smart living environment solutions that address transition in care challenges for ageing patients with the capability to progress beyond prototype stage, into care delivery programs for pragmatic evaluation. In alignment with the CIHR Sex, Gender and Health Research policy, all proposals requesting funding from the CIHR are expected to consider how sex and/or gender might shape eHealth innovations to support transitions in care for ageing populations.
An amount of EUR 4 million will be reserved for proposals focusing on cooperation with Canada.
At least one proposal collaborating with Japan and at least one proposal collaborating with Canada should be funded under this action. The evaluation of proposals will be jointly carried out by the Commission and the relevant Japanese and Canadian funding organisations as applicable.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 2 and 4 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts. Participation of SMEs is encouraged.
Due to the specific challenge of this topic, in addition to the minimum number of participants set out in the General Annexes, proposals shall include at least one organisation as partner in the consortium from Japan or Canada .
Expected Impact:
The proposal should provide appropriate indicators to measure its progress and specific impact in the following areas:
- Independent living, and quality of life of older persons compared to current state of the art;
- Usefulness and effectiveness of personalized recommendations and follow-up in terms of the goals of preserving physical, cognitive, mental and social well-being for as long as possible;
- Evidence of user-centred design and innovation, effective ways of human computer interaction, and user acceptance;
- Fostering social participation and reducing social exclusion’s risks;
- Validation of non-obtrusive technology for physical, cognitive, social and mental well-being;
- Strengthened international cooperation in Research and Innovation on ICT for AHA.
Deadline: 22 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Proposals will develop innovative scientific and technological computer modelling solutions for testing medicines and/or medical devices. The proposed computer modelling solutions will be the result of a multidisciplinary effort (e.g. within the fields of computational modelling, chemo/bio-informatics, systems biology, pharmacology, -omics (genomics, epigenomics, metabolomics), tissue mechanics, biology, pharmaceutics, medicine, physiology, toxicology, social science aspects such as gender) and should also explore and inform of the reasons for failure should the drug or medical device be found not efficient or safe and will suggest improvements. To help adopt such in-silico methods, measures for validation (human trials, animal studies, in vivo and in vitro validation, including the use of biobanks if appropriate) of the in-silico results should be included in the proposed projects. The benefit for human health, environment and animal welfare should be analysed and quantified. Engagement with regulators and consideration of the regulatory framework issues for computer simulations are highly recommended. Participation of SMEs is encouraged.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 6 and 8 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
The proposal should provide appropriate indicators to measure its progress and specific impact in the following areas by contributing to:
- Accelerating the adoption of computer simulations for testing medicines and/or medical devices, their translation into the clinic and the market.
- Increasing the trust of users (healthcare professionals and patients), investors and stakeholders at industry and academia to adopt computer simulations for testing medicines or medical devices as a substitution or complement of current clinical trials when appropriate.
- Contributing to redesigning current drug clinical trials by integrating in-silico methods for testing medicines or medical devices and creating a unique, digitised, personalised testing environment.
- Engagement with regulators and consideration of the regulatory framework for computer modelling solutions.
- Contributing to reducing the size and the duration of the human clinical trials and/or contributing to significantly reducing animal testing in clinical trials.
- Contributing to increased efficacy and patient safety in clinical trials.
- Contributing to reducing development costs and/or shorter time-to-market for new drugs or new medical devices.
- Contributing to setting standards for computer modelling solutions for testing.
- Contributing to the European Cloud Initiative, notably by providing open, reusable data and in silico models for clinical trials.
Deadline: 22 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Support the health and care service provider to procure the development of digital services that can facilitate the transition to integrated care models across health and social services and country-specific cross-institutional set-ups, including decentralised procurement environments and collaboration across institutions. Key challenges that could be addressed are patient empowerment, self-management, patient safety, patient involvement, chronic disease management, diagnosing, hospital logistics, skills and independent living. These challenges could be addressed by ICT-based solutions such as, e-Health, telemedicine, and mHealth, to be defined through the market consultation process. This should result in early adoption and demonstration of the potential for scaling-up the services and positive impact with evidence of appropriate incentives of various actors. Legal, ethical, gender and socio-economic issues should be addressed as appropriate.
Proposals should deliver and:
- be driven by clearly identified user needs guiding the procurers of the buyers group;
- be driven by public and/or private procurers from each country participating (at national, regional or local level) that have responsibilities and budget control in the relevant area of supply of health and care services;
- demonstrate strong commitment of end-users and their communities in the co-creation process;
- as applicable contribute to the use of interoperable solutions based on open platforms and take into account existing best practices and standardisation initiatives;
- validate the benefits (both clinical and financial) of ICT-based services in comparison to traditional healthcare services;
- provide robust safeguards to ensure compliance with ethical standards, patients’ rights and privacy protection;
- include clear time-lines, a well-structured work-plan aligned to the objectives of the different phases and according particular importance to the role played by the preparatory phase; (templates made available by the Commission are strongly recommended to be used in particular as concerns the call for tender) and;
- address training aspects, digital health literacy and new collaborative innovation principles and practises, management, and retention of healthcare staff under this topic.
- build on expertise from and align with other relevant actions such as PIPPI and EURIPHI.
The procurers, hospital clusters, care services providers and other parts of the regional ecosystems should share knowledge, test results and needs to better coordinate the primary and community care, and stimulate local responsibility for care services, monitoring and rehabilitation. This may include aspects such as organisational processes, digital health literacy, workforce training, e-health workforce, financing and business models, hospital and telemedicine services, home care, patient centeredness, development of shared open source IT-based platforms, data integration, standards (supporting interoperability) and regulatory issues, management and retention of healthcare staff.
The service innovation should facilitate the early adoption and transferability (to other local contexts) of successful solutions addressing the innovation gap. Multi-policy/strategy collaboration across institutions (hospitals and institutions under the responsibility of municipalities or regions), industries, academia and user communities capable of establishing dedicated operational programmes are necessary to safeguard both the service and business performance metrics and the growth potential in the innovation chain.
The proposals should include the methodology foreseen to measure progress and validation process applicable in the tendering phase, towards the key performance areas of quality of care, sustainability and economic value within the selected key area of intervention, see e.g. MAFEIP. Sufficient travel allowances for regular information days concerning the procedures and thematic networking events (e.g. related to relevant co-ordination and support actions including SC1-HCC-04-2018) should be foreseen. A plan to implement the services should be included. In that context investigation of complementary procurement approaches (see e.g.) including value based procurement are encouraged.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 4 and 5 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Proposals for this topic should follow the specific requirements for pre-commercial procurement (PCP) supported by Horizon 2020 grants as set out in Annex E of the WP.
Expected Impact:
The proposal should provide appropriate indicators to measure its progress and specific impact in the following areas:
- Established path to innovation, evidence of benefits of disruptive technologies that can support the development of sustainable business models, improved user and market engagement, strengthened procurement community, evidence of healthy innovation ecosystem including researchers, users, eHealth and other solution providers and procurers. Evidence in key performance areas i.e., quality in health and care, sustainability of the delivery system and economic value.
- Increased opportunities for solution uptake across wider international procurement markets by aiming at interoperable solutions that are validated through field testing by participating procurers in multiple countries across Europe and contribution to standardisation where relevant.
Deadline: 22 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Proposals are expected to define mechanisms to facilitate further uptake by actively involving partners from the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy ageing as well as other relevant stakeholder groups (e.g. Joint Programming Initiative on More Years Better Lives, Active and Assisted Living programme, EIT Digital and EIT Health), and research and innovation projects, at European, national and regional levels.
The work will build on previous actions and have a clear focus on the successful support to supply and demand sides in implementing scaling up strategies for innovative solutions (technology, integration of health and social care, systemic change). In particular, complementarity and consistency should be ensured with the outcomes, guidelines and strategies delivered in projects funded from SC1-HCO-17-2017 (“Support for large scale uptake of Digital Innovation for Active and Healthy Ageing”), SC1-HCC-01-2018 ("Supporting investment in smart living environments for ageing well through certification") and SC1-HCC-05-2018 (“Support to a Digital Health and Care Innovation initiative in the context of Digital Single Market strategy”).
A particular focus should be on the development and implementation of a long-term investment strategy, which would leverage and blend funding sources, from European, national and/or regional programmes/promotional banks as well as private investments, and involve new players and partners.
Financial support for upscaling measures and large-scale deployment should be considered in the tasks to be defined for the Coordination and Support Action. These should include twinning programmes and capacity building for local and regional authorities. This action should create a clear and coherent set of recommendations or guidelines for public health authorities in Europe together with a strategy to support their implementation. Proposals are also expected to set up a cooperation mechanism facilitating regular exchanges between the demand (both public and private procurers) and supply (including SMEs and start-ups) sides to identify the difficulties innovators may experience in scaling up solutions across borders in the EU and define measures to improve cross-border deployment of these solutions.
The Action is expected to develop and apply user-centred strategies for implementation of transformative solutions and change management, in particular in the following fields:
- mHealth solutions for active and healthy ageing
- smart age-friendly homes and independent living
- chronic disease management
For grants awarded under this topic, beneficiaries may provide support to third parties as described in General Annex K of the Work Programme either in form of grants or prizes. The respective options of Article 15 of the Model Grant Agreement will be applied.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of up between EUR 1.5 and 2 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
The proposal should provide appropriate indicators to measure its progress and specific impact in the following areas:
- Accelerated progress on scaling-up digital innovation for active and healthy ageing across the EU.
- Contribution of the policy activities to i) The Quality of Life of the EU population, ii) The Sustainability of Health and Care delivery and iii) Economic growth and job-creation in the EU.
- Increased levels of investment by public authorities and private investors in digital innovation for health and active ageing that result from policy activities.
- Wider commitment to investment leading to successful and cost-effective implementation of digitally-enabled, person-centred care solutions.
- Enhanced market conditions that can facilitate economies of scale for the suppliers of technology and services.
Deadline: 22 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
The aim is to support the coordination of a registry of relevant existing e-Health solutions describing their services and potential for low and lower middle income African countries[1] or regions together with a roadmap and strategic implementation plans building on the requirements of end-user communities and policy makers in the target countries. The action should take into account national and regional policies and (best) practices regarding health and care services and health infrastructures and also include lessons learned from existing eHealth policies and programmes at all levels of the health system. It should take into account the new Africa-Europa Alliance for Sustainable investment and Jobs as relevant.
It should identify and build on and identify relevant existing and emerging initiatives and capacities in Europe and Africa which can form the basis for future cooperation and deployment.
The action should make use of and contribute to standardisation as appropriate. Proposals should comply with and contribute to the development of the relevant legislation, in particular on ethics and data protection of health data. Socio-economic and gender issues should be addressed appropriately.
The action should also ensure that relevant stakeholders including end-users are engaged during the process through national, regional and international workshops and a set of communication and dissemination actions, aligned to national policies, to support the deployment of e-Health services in low and lower middle income countries in Africa. The action should provide an added value, to the facilitation of the cooperation between European and low and middle income countries in Africa for a better health for all.
For grants awarded under this topic, beneficiaries may provide support to third parties as described in General Annex K of the Work Programme either in form of grants or prizes. The respective options of Article 15 of the Model Grant Agreement will be applied.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 1.5 and 2 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts. At least one consortium partner must come from low and lower middle income countries in Africa.
Expected Impact:
The proposal should provide appropriate indicators to measure its progress and specific impact in the following areas:
- Higher level of international cooperation and networking in eHealth programmes and policies between European countries or regions and low and middle income African countries, focusing on areas that are beneficial to the target countries / regions and their citizens in eHealth;
- Increased opportunities for e-health innovators, patients, medical staff and health system stakeholders in Europe and Africa;
- Better accessibility of eHealth Services.
Deadline: 22 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Proposals should demonstrate the potential and benefits of AI technologies for advancing research and personalised medicine through the linking of relevant genomics data and repositories, according to adequate organisational, regulatory, security, ethical and technical requirements.
Proposals should develop and test AI solutions for linking genomics repositories across the EU, including banks of "-omics" and health related data, biobanks and other registries (including e.g. rare disease registries), with the view of supporting clinical research and decision making. By combining sequenced genomic data and other medical data, physicians and researchers can understand better diseases at a personal level and can determine the most appropriate treatment for a particular person. The focus should be to reduce the burden of diseases for which a treatment exists and to apply such treatments in a more targeted way, to identify new evidences on the predictive value of the AI solutions and to enhance the diagnostic capacity e.g. for rare or low prevalence and complex diseases.
Proposals should demonstrate a potential to build a large-scale distributed repository of relevant genomic data and other -omics and medical data that will enable to advance validation of the new clinically impactful insights supported trough AI solutions. Proposals should ensure compliance with the relevant privacy, cybersecurity, ethical and legal rules. Sex and gender aspects should be considered appropriately. The European Open Science Cloud Initiative (EOSC) may facilitate the access of researchers to the newest data managing technologies, High Performance Computing facilities to process and analyse data and to a European Open Science Cloud list of ICT services while ensuring the appropriate data safety and protection. Proposals should address technical specifications and standards for the secure access and exchange of cross-border genomic and other health data, and collaborate with actions selected under the topic SC1-HCC-06-2020 as relevant for achieving progress towards the expected impacts.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting from the EU up to EUR 10 Million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
The proposal should provide appropriate indicators to measure its progress and specific impact in the following areas:
- Supporting the development and testing of AI technologies on genomics and other linked –omics and health data repositories for identifying new knowledge, support clinical research and decision making, leading to more reliable and meaningful outcomes for advancing research and personalised medicine.
- Promoting the sharing of data and infrastructure for prevention and personalised medicine research, concretely a European network on genomics, seeking to link it with ongoing '-omics' and human cell mapping initiatives.
- Effectiveness of AI technologies for genomics and personalised medicine.
- Measuring patient-based value healthcare outcomes for impact assessment on how genomics, personalised medicine and patient outcomes can help to implement value-based healthcare in Europe.
- Contributing to developing technical specifications for secure access and cross-border exchange of genomic and other –omics and health datasets in Europe for research purposes.
- Facilitating interoperability of relevant registries (including e.g. rare disease registries) and databases in support of genomics and personalised medicine research.
- Supporting the pooling of health data and resources across the EU, and demonstrate the benefits for advancing research, disease prevention and personalised medicine.
- Contributing to standards for genomic data generation, analysis, privacy and sharing of genomic and associated clinical and other phenotype data, including self-reported data, data from wearables, omics, and imaging.
- Contributing to the European Cloud Initiative, notably by providing open, reusable data for prevention, genomics and personalised medicine research.
- Increasing the trust of users (healthcare professionals and patients) and other stakeholders on AI solutions to process and link genomics data with other –omics and health related data for better decision-making and value-based patient health outcomes.
Deadline: 22 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
2. Ernährungs- und Lebensmittelsicherheit, nachhaltige Land- und Forstwirtschaft, marine, maritime und limnologische Forschung und Bioökonomie
3. Sichere, saubere und effiziente Energie
Support will be given to activities which focus on converting renewable energy sources into an energy vector, or the direct application of renewable energy sources.
This topic calls for bottom-up proposals addressing any renewable technology currently in the early phases of research. Activities also might include energy materials, catalysts, enzymes, microorganisms, models, tools and equipment, as long as those are strictly connected to the energy conversion process.
Developments in sectors other than energy may provide ideas, experiences, technology contributions, knowledge, new approaches, innovative materials and skills that are of relevance to the energy sector. Cross-fertilisation could offer mutually beneficial effects.
Proposals are expected to bring to TRL 3 or TRL 4 (please see part G of the General Annexes) renewable energy technologies that will answer the challenge described. Beside the development of the technology, the proposal will have to clearly address the following related aspects: lower environmental impact, better resource efficiency than current commercial renewable technologies, issues related to social acceptance or resistance to new energy technologies, related socioeconomic and livelihood issues.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 2 to 4 million would allow this challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
The concepts proven or validated within the projects are expected to contribute to accelerating and reducing the cost of the next generation of sustainable renewable energy generation. In addition, the project is expected to advance the knowledge and scientific proofs of the technological feasibility of its concept including the environmental, social and economic benefits. The proposal should show its contribution towards establishing a solid European innovation base and building a sustainable renewable energy system.
Deadline: 21 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Proposals will develop next generation renewable fuels for energy and transport, which improve substantially (beyond the state-of-the-art), the performance regarding energy efficiency as well as cost of the conversion of direct renewable energy (e.g., sunlight) or renewable electricity and /or heat to liquid or gaseous renewable fuels from CO2. Targeted fuels should also provide very low engine-out emissions.
Proposals are expected to bring the technology from TRL 3-4 to 4-5 (please see part G of the General Annexes).
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 3 to 5 million would allow this challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
The supported projects are expected to reduce conversion energy losses and production costs of algal fuels/power to gas/liquid and heat to gas/liquid renewable fuels respectively, as well as improving performance of these fuels as regards the efficiency, the environment and society.
Deadline: 21 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Proposals will bridge the gap between phytoremediation strategies and clean liquid biofuel production. They will optimise energy crops for phytoremediation by targeting different classes of known soil pollutants and integrate in the conversion process to biofuels a strategy to extract these pollutants in concentrated form. The overall process will be optimized in terms of cost and sustainability. Pilot-scale, small trials are expected for both clean biofuel production and phytoremediation processes.
In line with the strategy for EU international cooperation in research and innovation (COM(2012)497), and given the world-wide applicability of this specific challenge, international cooperation is encouraged.
Proposals are expected to bring technologies from TRL 3-4 to TRL 4-5 (please see part G of the General Annexes).
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 2 to 4 million would allow this challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
It is expected that a win-win situation will be created for bringing polluted land back to agricultural production and for low-iLUC risk liquid biofuel production from energy crops. Through cost reduction and improved phytoremediation, contribution to several sustainable development goals (SDGs) beyond the Energy is anticipated.
Deadline: 21 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Actions should take up and advance smart energy services concepts which have evolved in the market, in parallel with the progressive deployment of new technologies, including concepts which have been developed, proved and tested under Horizon 2020. Proposals should demonstrate that they gather and help converge innovative, successfully tested service elements which are well adapted to the needs of the market and of the potential users and which are compatible with on-going technological innovation.
While the scope is based on the areas identified in the topic LC-SC3-EE-13-2018-2019 for the years 2018 and 2019, actions should focus clearly on new revenue streams, the use of innovative monitoring and verification schemes and the consideration of contractual aspects.
More specifically, actions should further develop, adapt and refine concepts for smart energy services that
- integrate energy efficiency services with other energy services like distributed generation, demand response, e-mobility and including storage/hybrid energy systems building on contractual arrangements across different actors (ESCOs, aggregators, DSOs, energy cooperatives, obliged parties under the Energy Efficiency Obligation Schemes implementing art 7 EED and eventually the consumers) and/or
- integrate energy efficiency services with non-energy related services such as comfort, health and safety and/or
- enhance and refine successful energy performance contracting models that engage new sectors and actors and/or include pay-for-performance schemes and/or
- factor in include customer individualized energy services as a result of better understanding of customer behaviour and needs derived of new data analytics tools.
These concepts should
- use and apply more accurate and dynamic measurement and verification of energy savings and flexible consumption, also in order to ex-ante identify and develop business opportunities; in this use 'big data' generated by smart meters, equipment, sensors and tools for standardised processes;
- address potential legal and contractual aspects (e.g. in relation to existing contracts or warranty, safety and data security issues linked to existing and newly deployed equipment).
Given that the service models will have advanced and matured, project results are, even more strongly than under the preceding calls, expected to be considered and endorsed by key market stakeholders. They should take into account any relevant results from concluded or existing projects that are (gradually) available. Projects are expected to consider those elements that promise to yield a particularly high level of business innovation. Energy efficiency should constitute a core aspect of the service models.
Projects are required to follow the H2020 guidance on ethics and data protection, taking into account digital security, privacy and data protection requirements including the compliance with relevant directives/regulations (e.g. NIS, eIDAS, GDPR) and relevant National Legislation.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 1 million and 2 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
Proposals are expected to demonstrate the impacts listed below, using quantified indicators and targets wherever possible:
- Primary Energy savings triggered by the project (in GWh/year);
- Investments in sustainable energy triggered by the project (in million Euro);
- Improved viability of innovative energy services.
In addition, proposals are expected to demonstrate the impacts listed below, using quantified indicators and targets wherever possible:
- A growing offer and up-take of services that combine energy efficiency with other energy services, technologies and non-energy benefits;
- A growing up-take of innovative data gathering and processing methods in the monitoring and verification of energy savings and flexibility;
- The application of methods and concepts to ensure that: (i) innovative energy services are reliable and verifiable, (ii) service providers are trustworthy and accessible.
Additional positive effects can be quantified and reported when relevant and wherever possible:
- Reduction of the greenhouse gases emissions (in tCO2-eq/year) and/or air pollutants (in kg/year) triggered by the project;
- Increase of flexibility in the energy system.
Deadline: 10 September 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
2019 and 2020:
The proposed action should set up and/or support energy communities (consumer cooperatives, consumer collective purchase groups, and/or other consumer driven collective actions) to increase energy efficiency and/or optimise energy management to integrate a higher share of renewable energy (generated locally or provided from the grid) within the community by, for example, combining collective solutions to distributed generation, distributed storage, and/or demand-response aggregation. The focus of the proposed action should be on households, however, this does not preclude the complementary involvement of non-residential buildings.
The proposed action should cover the following points:
- Identify and address regulatory barriers and contractual conditions with utilities, suppliers, grid operators, technology providers etc. for cooperative actions, possibly linking activities with structural solutions involving public authorities;
- Demonstrate that collectively organised energy-related actions are financially viable and attractive to the consumer-members of the energy community.
In addition, the proposed action could cover the following points, as relevant:
- Identify and implement solutions to address split incentives (e.g. allowing tenants to set up/join the consumer driven collective action);
- Demonstrate collective actions of energy consumers based on the solutions and business approaches using digital tools and technologies (such as digital platforms or blockchain transactions). If the proposed action includes smart home/IoT solutions, it should link to the developments under the call DT-ICT-10-2018: Interoperable and smart homes and grids.
Relevant for the three years:
The proposed actions should address the risk of "rebound effects" and propose measures to counteract them, where relevant. All relevant stakeholders necessary for the successful implementation of the action should be involved and relevant consumer organisations, in particular, should be either directly involved or their support demonstrated in the proposal. Proposed actions should also take issues of consumer data ownership and data privacy into account, where relevant. The proposed actions are invited to build on experiences and lessons learned in other relevant projects and programmes.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 1 and 2 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
Proposals are expected to demonstrate, depending on the scope addressed, the impacts listed below using quantified indicators and targets, wherever possible:
- Primary energy savings triggered by the project (in GWh/year);
- Investments in sustainable energy triggered by the project (in million Euro);
- Contribution to reducing regulatory barriers and improving contractual conditions;
- Increase domestic uptake of energy efficient products and services;
- Involvement of at least 5.000 consumers per million Euro of EU funding.
Additional positive effects can be quantified and reported when relevant and wherever possible:
- Reduction of greenhouse gases emissions (in tCO2-eq/year) and/or air pollutants (in kg/year) triggered by the project.
Deadline: 10 September 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Energy citizenship: SSH research offers many insights into the conditions favouring civic engagement, active participation and interaction with institutional or corporate actors. Such “energy citizenship” is not limited to early technology adopters or environmental activists, and it goes beyond (but also encompasses) mere “consumer involvement”. Rather than using SSH research as an instrument to achieve particular outcomes (e.g., social acceptance) it can help to understand in what kind of environments collaborative goal setting and commitment can take place, how relevant decisions are made and any trade-offs between competing goals are addressed. This has important implications for EU energy policymaking. Proposals are expected to examine the factors affecting the emergence and effectiveness of energy citizenship and its potential for achieving the decarbonisation of the energy system. This should include factors such as digitalisation, social media, social group dynamics (e.g. creating trust, finding shared goals), societal factors (e.g. institutional, corporate or legal environment), demographics and social justice. It should result in practical recommendations for policy-makers. Specifically, proposals are expected to focus on one or several of the following questions:
- Is energy citizenship more likely to emerge locally, or at regional, national or supranational levels? For what reasons?
- What is the relative importance of processes internal to relevant social groups (e.g., creating trust and connection, finding shared goals and solutions, building coalitions), as opposed to external environmental variables (e.g., relative openness of institutional or corporate environments, availability of sympathetic interlocutors, access to financial or other sources of support, legal or other obstacles)?
- What impact does the digitisation of the energy system and the proliferation of social media have on the emergence and consolidation of energy citizenship?
- Under what conditions is energy citizenship conducive to reaching broader policy goals, particularly the decarbonisation of the energy system, and under what conditions does it have the opposite effect?
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 1 and 3 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
The proposed research will:
- provide a better understanding of socioeconomic, gender, sociocultural, and socio-political factors and their interrelations with technological, regulatory, and investment-related aspects, in support of the goals of the Energy Union and particularly its research and innovation pillar;
- Energy citizenship (2020): based on a better understanding of socio-economic, gender, socio-cultural, and socio-political factors, their interrelations with technological, regulatory, and investment aspects, yield practical recommendations for harnessing energy citizenship to achieve the energy and decarbonisation goals in the European Union and Associated Countries.
Deadline: 01 September 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Proposals will aim at international cooperation with the USA and/or China on targeted research activities for obtaining advanced biofuels and alternative renewable fuels for energy and transport through photochemical/ photobiological or electrochemical reaction. The ranking of the successful proposals will ensure that a balanced portfolio of activities is covering both cooperation with USA and China (please see call conditions).
The proposals will develop breakthrough artificial photosynthesis technologies in terms of sunlight conversion efficiency for the production of energy carriers (other than electricity) with either de-novo synthetic biological and artificial/biochemical hybrid systems or novel photo-catalysis or photo-electro catalysis coupled with CO2 reduction.
At least one of the following technology-specific challenges has to be addressed:
- Improved light-harvesting and efficient charge separation in photocatalytic systems;
- Photoelectrochemical cells – PECs and catalyst development
- Improved light harvesting coupled with improved CO2 reduction efficiency in synthetic biological systems
Use of external renewable electricity or electricity generated by sunlight with PV or CSP to produce the carriers is excluded from this topic.
Proposals are expected to bring technologies to TRL 3-4 (please see part G of the General Annexes).
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 2 to 4 million would allow this challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
It is expected that the exchange of knowledge through the targeted research activities with USA and/or China will progress the scientific understanding and the technology state-of-the-art and in addition strengthen the European and international partners’ technology base. At the same time, it is expected that the development of renewable fuels that outperform the best fossil fuel alternatives is accelerated.
In line with the strategy for EU international cooperation in research and innovation (COM(2012)497), actions will contribute to implementing Mission Innovation Challenge 4 and 5.
Deadline: 01 September 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Proposals will aim at international cooperation with Japan involving Japanese organisations in the consortia for the development of disruptive catalytic technologies, by developing novel catalysts and linked lab-scale components/systems with significantly improved performance for conversion efficiency and specific marginal cost reduction for obtaining low-cost bioenergy carriers, non-food/feed based advanced biofuels and alternative renewable fuels (excluding hydrogen) and maximizing GHG abatement.
Proposals are expected to bring technologies to TRL 3 (please see part G of the General Annexes).
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 2 to 5 million would allow this challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
It is expected that the exchange of knowledge through the targeted research activities with Japan will progress the technology state-of-the-art and in addition it will strengthen the European and Japanese technology base. At the same time, it is expected that the development of renewable fuels that outperform the best fossil fuel alternatives is accelerated.
Deadline: 01 September 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Proposals will aim at international cooperation with Canada for fostering the deployment of advanced biofuels and bioenergy while substantially decreasing the costs of the feedstock supply or the conversion process.
Proposals should address at least one of the following issues:
- Development of the full supply chain of biomass-to-bioenergy applications including intermediate bioenergy carriers, advanced biofuels, heat and power generation. Sustainable biomass production and collection strategies that facilitate sustainable bioenergy production and decrease feedstock supply costs will be included. All types of non-food/feed biomass including forestry, agricultural and their residues, organic fractions of municipal and industrial wastes can be targeted.
- Thermochemical, biochemical and chemical processing of sustainable biomass to advanced biofuels focusing on the pre-treatment and the conversion process and in particular on reducing the respective marginal cost.
Proposals are expected to bring the technology from TRL 3 to TRL 5 (please see part G of the General Annexes).
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 3 to 5 million would allow this challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
It is expected that the exchange of knowledge through the targeted research activities with Canada will progress the technology state-of-the-art, strengthen the European and Canadian technology base and accelerate the development of sustainable fuels to replace the fossil fuel alternatives. At the same time, it is expected that the development of secure, long‐term supply of sustainable feedstock and/or the technology advances will also significantly contribute to increase the viability of advanced biofuels and bioenergy in the EU and Canada.
Deadline: 01 September 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
The objective is to carry out the identification and geological characterisation of new prospective storage sites for CO2 (including the 3D architecture of the storage complex) in promising regions of future demonstration and deployment (onshore or offshore) through the implementation of new CO2 storage pilots. This will result in new data, knowledge and detailed models of potential storage complexes and their response to dynamic pressurisation. Important aspects include (but are not limited to): detailed geological characterisation, including faults and facture systems; analysis of initial stress field and geomechanical behaviour of the storage formations and seals under varying stress and pore-pressure conditions; estimation of storage capacity; accurate modelling of injectivity; overall storage risk assessment, including induced seismicity and blow-out or blockage during injection, and including proposed mitigation action. Detailed plans should propose site-specific solutions for CO2 injection strategies, pressure management, mitigation of induced seismicity, and MMV (measurement, monitoring and verification).
For geological storage, in particular onshore, public acceptance is paramount. Therefore projects are expected to identify and engage relevant end users and societal stakeholders and analyse their concerns and needs using appropriate techniques and methods from the social sciences and humanities, noting the significant differences in potential regional consequences where the CO2 stored comes from power versus industry.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the range of EUR 7 to 10 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
Detailed geological characterisation and development planning of promising and safe storage sites and successful realisation of storage pilots will facilitate the subsequent application for storage permits and the kick-start of CCS in the concerned Member States and Associated Countries. Such a ‘pipeline of sweet spots’ can provide a baseline for estimation of storage cost, increase public awareness and help prepare the ground for full and active development into operational storage sites in the mid 2020's.
Deadline: 01 September 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
4. Intelligenter, umweltfreundlicher und integrierter Verkehr
This topic is divided in 3 sub-topics.
Innovation Action:
The first part of this topic invites for proposals that combine new technologies and non-technological innovations, more effective forms of governance, and accompanying (policy-based) measures for all modes of transport.
The proposed projects should be carried out by local/regional authority-led consortia, covering three different urban or inter-urban areas that have a connection with the TEN-T network or an equivalent size, major transport corridor, each of them facing different spatial, social and/or economic challenges and/or experiences with the organisation of large/sport events.
Each urban area should establish a living laboratory where under real life-conditions a set of innovative, complementary and reinforcing scalable mobility solutions, centered around a principal solution can be developed, tested and implemented in an integrated, multimodal approach. The participating urban areas, which may have a geographical coverage that goes as far as the full functional urban area, should demonstrate their common interests and outline how they will ensure a meaningful and close cooperation. Proposals should outline how the proposed approach meets the needs of an efficient, flexible and accessible TEN-T urban node or a city located at an equivalent sized transport corridor, which in turn delivers an optimal use of the transport network and the integration of cost-effective solutions for energy supply/storage (with use of renewable energy as much as possible) and recharging networks for transport, and ICT networks for all modes of transport. The work of relevant Horizon 2020-funded projects, such as VITALNODES, could provide a useful starting point.
Proposals should explain how the proposed work will support the public authorities' efforts to implement their Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan, in combination with urban (land) planning and development, and infrastructure planning and operations. Attention should be paid to issues related to vulnerable groups of citizens, gender issues and health impact of mobility. Actions may include research activities, and some preparatory, take up and replication actions, as well as the development of tools to support planning and policy making. Work may also include demonstration of a resilient urban mobility system, capable to address particular challenges in the organisation of large/sport events. Proposals are encouraged to incorporate new approaches to increase the availability and integration of data to support policymaking and business activities in smart, zero and low-emission mobility and to explore innovative ways of increasing the share of active modes of transport.
To capture impacts, the activities should include monitoring, for example, aspects such as modal share, energy intensity, level of emissions, impact on health, transport network performance (demand and supply) and connectivity through interoperability and multimodality. Projects are expected to collaborate with the established impact evaluation framework (using both clear baselines and measurable impact indicators), as well the dissemination and information exchange framework put in place in the field of urban mobility by the Commission.
Additionally, proposals should seek to establish financial and institutional/organisational cooperation models to enable seamless transport across the TEN-T urban node area or equivalent.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 7 to 9 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts. Typically, projects should have duration of 48 months and foresee sufficient time for evaluation, dissemination and exploitation activities.
Coordination and Support Action: fast-track and mainstream the replication of innovative, urban, peri-urban and rural mobility solutions
The second part of this topic is a Coordination and Support Action that aims to fast-track and mainstream the replication of innovative, tested urban, peri-urban and rural mobility solutions (e.g. technological, non-technological, services, goods and infrastructure). Proposals are expected to set up and run a 'Fast-track to innovative sustainable motorised and non-motorised mobility' action (working title – proposers are invited to choose an appealing title), which offers support and services to at least 20 cities and municipalities or their organisational/functional groupings. A 'staged approach' is possible – taking into account mobility, investment or geographical needs as well as delivering the project efficiently. At least one-third of these 20 locations should be located in areas experiencing rapid economic and social change.
The proposal should include all of the following actions:
- Support for the development and towards implementation of innovative mobility solutions in 4 broad areas:
- Investments in and management of the transport network
- Supporting modal shift towards more energy-efficient, safer and active (whenever possible) modes for transport of freight and/or passengers
- New operating and business models in collective public and private transport (in any transport mode).
- Supporting mobility actions within the scope of the European Innovation Partnership in Smart cities and communities (or its successor working on smart cities).
- Development and implementation of a programme of tailored actions to deliver capacity building and institutional networking by:
a. Supporting staff exchanges, expert visits, and short term training.
b. Supporting the identification and access to financial and legal expertise, to define the feasibility to replicate an innovative mobility solution and to develop an innovation deployment programme of scale, notably: meetings with (potential) investors, opportunities for follow-up investments and identification of synergies with European funding and financing.
c. Providing matchmaking services for innovative mobility solutions establishing the link between "suppliers" that may be both public and private organisations, or groupings thereof (such as Horizon2020 funded projects) and "customers" that are mainly public organisations (such as city councils, regional authorities, transport operators or their groupings).
d. The project should deliver a set of recommendations to bridge the gap in the research and innovation performance and the deployment of the innovative mobility solutions across EU Member States.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of EUR 1 to 1.5 million each would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Coordination and Support Action: prepare for the deployment of Urban Air Mobility in urban and peri-urban areas
The integration of vertical urban mobility solutions (drones, and other forms of low-aerial mobility, as well as services) into existing surface multimodal transport (both freight and passenger) systems will add further complexity to the organisation of the urban and peri-urban transport and mobility services. It will require changes in public/shared transport management, logistics operations and infrastructure operations. With rapid technological progress in urban air mobility, especially local and regional public sector authorities are faced with challenges such as in financing, procuring, planning (infrastructure, systems), transport operations, safety, noise, security and public acceptance of these solutions.
The proposal should include all of the following actions:
a) To provide a knowledge base (dynamic updated, with a "brand") and to deliver a set of policy recommendations (in at least 8 languages – for use by local, regional, national and European public authorities, businesses and other organisations) for measures to (seamlessly) integrate the vertical and horizontal dimensions in urban and peri-urban mobility systems. These are notably:
- Minimum required standards for products and processes in for ITS-type applications, urban planning (SUMPs), data-exchange, energy infrastructure, payments, environmental objectives, travel information and possibly other sectors such as building, construction, health care, retail etc.
- Foresight deployment scenarios of up to 10 possible use cases in 5 to 15 years; public acceptance, governance, mobility systems, energy supply systems, infrastructure, investment opportunities, funding and financing needs, and land-use. An approach to set up these scenarios with wide consultation should be included in the proposal to ensure that social acceptance aspects are fully understood.
- Tools for exchange and learning of urban air mobility with and to public authorities (notably local and regional), businesses civil society and research organisations.
b) To provide specific project development support and technical assistance for up to 10 deployment 'use cases' in locations (or groups thereof) with a demonstrated commitment from public and private organisations that are planning to start testing urban air mobility applications in the next 3 years. The type of support should as minimum include feasibility and market studies, programme and urban planning actions (for example procurement strategies).
This proposal should work closely together with the ongoing actions of the European Innovation Partnership in Smart cities (or its successor) and CIVITAS (or its successor) and possibly other networks with a strong participation of local and regional authorities.
The proposal should propose actions for cooperation with EASA, the SESAR Joint Undertaking, EUROCONTROL and the European U-Space Demonstrator network to ensure that project results are fed into developments in the institutional, regulatory and architectural frameworks for a competitive U-space services market.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of EUR 1 to 1.5 million each would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
For the Innovation Action:
Projects should act as European demonstration-type ("lighthouse") examples for integrating new scalable technologies and measures into city transport operations and existing transport infrastructures at real-life scale in order to achieve long-term decarbonisation impacts; reliable solutions for a more sustainable, inclusive, safe and secure mobility system, including for the secure mobility of people and freight during major/sport events; clear improvements of the efficiency and accessibility of the transport networks/systems covering the TEN-T urban nodes or equivalent, and their access to the relevant TEN-T corridor(s) or equivalent transport corridors for transport of freight and/or passengers. Positive long term impacts on social cohesion, economic development and public perception – resulting in behavioural change and policy change - are anticipated.
Projects will contribute to the development of the existing European knowledge base on the effectiveness and impacts resulting from the implementation of innovative mobility solutions.
Clear commitments and contributions to Europe-wide take up during and beyond the project are expected, which could for example be in the form of follow-up actions funded by CEF or similar programmes.
This topic complements CEF-funded activities.
For the Coordination and Support Action: fast-track and mainstream the replication of innovative, urban, peri-urban and rural mobility solutions.
The following three main impacts are foreseen:
Firstly, proposals are expected to demonstrate how their activities will lead to fast-tracking and mainstreaming the replication of innovative, urban, peri-urban and rural mobility solutions. Proposals should as a minimum requirement provide; the expected number of people involved in the activities that will be undertaken in at least 20 cities/municipalities addressed by the project, information as to how their capacity will be improved to develop urban mobility and investment plans for deployment of innovative transport solutions. Secondly, the CSA is expected to lead to new research and innovation collaborations in sustainable urban mobility between organisations (public/ private), especially those located in countries that are more advanced and those located in countries lagging behind in the deployment of urban mobility innovations.
For the Coordination and Support Action: prepare for the deployment of Urban Air Mobility in urban and peri-urban areas
This action is expected to address the Amsterdam Drone Declaration which "called upon urban transport actors, policy makers and associations to pioneer cases demonstrating which systems, solutions and services seamlessly integrate smart multimodal solutions" and which "invited cities and regions to co-create with the citizens the public conditions and the infrastructure for integrated air and ground smart mobility solutions to flourish, where new and clean technologies, big data, real-time information and corresponding business models converge towards the enablement and realisation of “mobility as a service”.
The expected impact of this CSA project is to provide especially cities and regions with better planning tools and knowledge to integrate new applications of urban air mobility in their passenger and freight systems. This topic complements topic 'MG-3-6-2020: Towards sustainable urban air mobility'.
Deadline: 21 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time (CSA Coordination and support action) and 09 January 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time (IA Innovation action).
1. CSA subtopic: Substantial national and EU funds are spent on transport infrastructure development in all modes of transport. The efficiency of these expenditures is closely related to the level of use of modern innovative and sustainable solutions and on coordination among Member States. In order to facilitate continuous cooperation and coordination among public and private actors and to improve the uptake of new sustainable solutions, a structured dialogue between relevant stakeholders should be initiated and sustained with the key objective of successful deployment of research results.
2. RIA subtopic: An area where research and coordination is needed is the use of robotised equipment, drones or other (semi)-automated remote-piloted solutions, offering significant potential to reduce workers exposure to live traffic and construction machines, to increase the availability of the transport network, as well as to automate and reduce the cost of repeatable tasks and safety upgrades. Significant advances in robotising the upgrade or maintenance of network infrastructures based on standardising, modularising and industrial prefabricating of large percentage of the infrastructure will ease the way to automate most construction, repair and retrofitting projects.
Scope:
In order to meet these large challenges this topic will be implemented through two types of actions
1. Coordination and Support Action
Transport infrastructure can result in significant and lasting degradation of ecosystems and habitats. Considering Europe has the highest transport infrastructure density in the world, there is an urgent need to address this rapidly increasing challenge.
Stronger cooperation should be developed between national, regional, European and international supporting programmes and initiatives on research, innovation and deployment, aimed at improving transport infrastructure performance on environmental and social sustainability. For instance, synergies with Horizon 2020 and CEF projects, as well as with the EU biodiversity strategy to 2020 should be established, while building as much as possible from relevant existing proven structures and platforms of infrastructure stakeholders. In order to ultimately ensure sufficient deployment impact, the proposals should include the national transport infrastructure authorities with responsibility for managing their national networks from at least 10 countries (Member States or Associated Countries), ensuring strong engagement in relevant European platforms and wider reach.
Proposals should cover all the following issues:
- Successful roll-out of a Strategic Research and Deployment Agenda (SRDA) endorsed by the national transport infrastructure authorities and the public innovation programme owners, representing the societal and environmental needs and requirements for infrastructure innovation. The agenda will take input from the relevant industry stakeholders, in close cooperation with the research community as well as environmental agencies which will supply innovative solutions. and developing alternative and more-biodiversity-friendly transport modes (e.g. bicycle paths and highways).
- Particular focus should be on innovative solutions in the planning and design stage of the infrastructure life cycle as this stage offers the best opportunities for achieving environmentally sustainable transport infrastructure network for Europe’s citizens reducing the harmful impact on the environmental and social sustainability.
The proposal should include opportunities for adapting transport infrastructure in view of changing demand, social changes, climate, biodiversity, technology and digitalisation. The work will feed into the strategic research and innovation (R&I) agenda of the relevant stakeholders, which should be jointly developed and implemented by the transport authorities, the research community, the infrastructure operators and civil society. Clear priorities should be agreed and widely communicated so they can reflect an aim for building sustainable and environmentally-friendly infrastructure.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU for sub topic 1 (CSA) of between EUR 2.5-3 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts. There shall be only one project selected for the sub topic 1.
2. Research and Innovation Action
This topic should be considered as a follow-up of previous calls on remote sensing, monitoring and decision support to maintenance planning, and should be taken into consideration to develop the phase of intervention, to achieve the maximum automation possible in physical interventions to maintain the integrity, performance and safety levels of the infrastructure.
Proposals should cover all the following issues:
- Application of robotics and remote piloted systems to infrastructure upgrade or maintenance works to push the transport sector in the automated era and increase the overall productivity and efficiency of the transport infrastructure, thus relieving the burden of the costs on the users.
- Development of robotized equipment to perform routine, periodic or emergency maintenance works; adequate connections with the structural and functional monitoring sensors and traffic management system to deploy automatic intervention of robots and remote piloted systems while respecting safety operations and personnel.
- Development of robotized equipment for larger interventions of maintenance or upgrading to be remotely controlled in non-routine circumstances avoiding disruption of other routine operations and increasing coordination between them and other involved agents.
- Proposals should foster the development and use of industrial-prefabricated infrastructures and modularising the planning, designing, and construction phases for retrofit projects using robotised equipment to perform automated construction or maintenance tasks.
- Possibilities for utilising V2I communication for capturing data and processing by AI for predictive maintenance should also be considered. New technologies, such as for instance AR and VR modelling, AI and drone technologies should be taken into account.
- Projects must consider a pilot demonstration in operational environment (minimum at TRL7 level). Testing and deployment on CEF corridors and possible synergies with CEF innovation projects is to be considered.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU for sub topic 2 (RIA) of between EUR 4 and 5 million each would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
1. Coordination and Support Action
- Improved environmental performance of Europe’s transport infrastructure and networks (e.g. reduction of habitats' fragmentation).
- Targeted research and deployment actions and efficient use of resources within a coherent innovation strategy
- Strengthened lasting synergies between relevant national, regional (European) and international innovation programmes and initiatives.
- Widespread awareness of European efforts, as well as increased visibility of R&I outcomes and their contribution to improving environmental performance and biodiversity in a safe transport infrastructure network.
- Increased take-up of innovation outcomes by market, national authorities and relevant national platforms, while strengthening the alignment of innovation deployment of national infrastructure authorities in Europe.
2. Research and Innovation Action
- Reduction of fatal accidents due to maintenance works of road users and deployed personnel by 50%
- Reduction of traffic disruption due to maintenance works by 20%
- Reduction of routine maintenance costs by 20%
- Improvement of network capacity by 20%, based on the levels measured at the beginning for the project.
Deadline: 21 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time (CSA Coordination and support action) and 09 January 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time (RIA Research and Innovation action).
The focus of this topic is to develop, test and demonstrate connected and automated systems for heavy commercial vehicles in real logistics operations.
Proposed actions should include all the following aspects:
- Identify logistics operational needs and analyse new, emerging business and operating models and related technologies for efficient, high capacity and safe connected and automated heavy commercial vehicles (preferably low-emission vehicles) and optimised links with other parts in the logistics chain.
- Develop, design, test and validate enhanced connected and automated vehicle technologies for heavy commercial vehicles for improved perception and localisation, vehicle control, connectivity (vehicle-to-vehicle, vehicle-to-cloud and vehicle-infrastructure), system resilience and dependability, functional safety, cyber security, interoperability and system cost optimization, reduced emissions and fuel consumption at fleet level.
- Test and demonstrate innovative, efficient and safe connected and automated heavy commercial vehicles for real logistics operations on hub-to-hub corridors, on open roads in mixed traffic or in confined areas addressing mixed traffic capabilities to prepare for operation in real road conditions..
- Enhanced interaction between connected and automated heavy commercial vehicles and their users and other (vulnerable) road users. Innovative services for automated freight logistics of individual transport units.
A cost-benefit analysis will demonstrate the added value and economic viability of automated systems in real logistics operations for users and stakeholders.
The active involvement of shippers, freight forwarders and truck manufacturers is strongly encouraged. The cooperation with organisations linked to actions of the TEN-T network is encouraged.
In line with the Union's strategy for international cooperation in research and innovation, international cooperation is encouraged. In particular, proposals should foresee cooperation with projects or partners from the US, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and/or Australia. Proposals should foresee twinning with entities participating in projects funded by US DOT to exchange knowledge and experience and exploit synergies. Twinning with Japan is also encouraged.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU between EUR 15 and 20 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
Actions are expected to contribute to the accelerated deployment of innovative connected and automated freight transport solutions in Europe. Actions will show that they will help to increase the overall safety and efficiency of freight operations of individual trucks or fleets (emissions/freight ratio, fuel consumption, road occupancy, vehicle utilization, capacity of transport network) in confined areas and in mixed traffic (hub to hub) through innovative connected and automated driving systems. Actions will show the uptake of new business models and seek to reach a total cost reduction of operations and logistics and supply chain leading to improved competitiveness of the European transport and logistics industry.
Deadline: 21 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
The proposed actions should include all the following aspects:
- Demonstrate the robustness and reliability (functional safety) and user acceptance of connected and highly automated driving technologies and systems for passenger cars (SAE level 4) for different use cases in particularly challenging and complex environments that are expected to be introduced into the market after 2020.
- Test innovative connectivity technologies for connected and automated driving since communication and cooperation of automated vehicles with other vehicles, infrastructure and other road users has the potential to increase the safety, comfort, productivity and the enabling of innovative business models of automated vehicles and to improve the efficiency of the overall transport system.
- The use of the European Global Navigation Satellite Systems (Galileo and EGNOS) should be encouraged to achieve the full potential of advanced satellite positioning for automated driving functions.
- Optimised use of digital technologies such as the Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence and Big Data for automation should be considered.
- Conduct cross-border demonstrations to ensure that new services and systems are compatible and interoperable at European level, to optimise the use of digital technologies for automation between countries, to coordinate investments towards reliable communication coverage and to exploit the full potential of hybrid communications between short-range and long-range technologies and technologies within the 5.9 GHz spectrum band.
- Develop and test solutions for smooth communication and interaction between automated vehicles and their users and other (vulnerable) road users, taking into account gender differences, when relevant.
- Holistic concept for cybersecurity to protect automated driving systems (and its connectivity points) to avoid any (conscious) manipulations of the information enabling automated driving functions and to assure confidentiality, availability and integrity of data. This concept should also include the protection of the information collected by the automated vehicles and the external data transferred to the vehicles. Provide support to the development of testing and validation procedures of connected and automated driving functions, including their performance related to cyber-security.
- Evaluate effects of connected, cooperative and highly automated driving systems on transport system efficiency, safety, security, environment as well as on user behaviour and user acceptance, taking into account gender differences and other intersectionalities, when relevant.
Lessons learned (data, knowledge and experiences from the project, including disengagements and edge cases) should be provided. Consortia should commit to make the data collected during the pilots available through common data sharing frameworks in order to foster further research.
In line with the Union's strategy for international cooperation in research and innovation, international cooperation is encouraged. In particular, proposals should foresee cooperation with projects or partners from the US, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and/or Australia. Proposals should foresee twinning with entities participating in projects funded by US DOT to exchange knowledge and experience and exploit synergies. Twinning with Japan is also encouraged.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU between EUR 15 and 30 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
Actions are expected to demonstrate at large-scale the technological readiness, reliability and safety of the connected and highly automated driving functions for different use cases in particularly challenging and complex environments. They will show that highly automated driving systems for passenger vehicles can increase road safety and transport efficiency, reduce energy use, pollutant emissions and traffic congestions, and therefore support climate action and sustainable development objectives. Better protection of connected and automated vehicles against any type of cyber threats to guarantee safe operations. Actions will seek to improve user acceptance of innovative connected and highly automated driving systems and the uptake of new business models. They will contribute to a better understanding of viable business and operating models that could lead to private and/or public private investments in communication infrastructure.
Deadline: 21 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Proposals will have to address all of the following technical areas for passenger car applications (developed module concept scalability to delivery vans, heavy duty vehicles or busses would be beneficial, but not obligatory. Same applies to concept transfer between BEV and PHEVs):
- Design of advanced battery packs and systems satisfying lightweighting, crashworthiness, electrical and thermal requirements using advanced lightweight materials improved packaging, integration and modularity while considering aspects of ecodesign for manufacturing and dismantling (including their automation), reuse (second life) and recycling/sustainability, leading to a global LCA improvement.
- Development of specific solutions and processes for the sustainable dismantling and recycling of battery pack/modules and their materials, components and sub-systems taking into account safety and automation.
- Flexible advanced battery management systems capable of being used on different types of packs and mid-sized vehicles with different use patterns, and underlying provision to be used in second life applications.
- Advanced functionalities of battery management systems to enable control of modules and packs and their remote maintenance and troubleshooting, software updating and other functions. Safety and modularity aspects must be taken into account when increasing battery pack energy density. In addition, health and environmental aspects of advanced battery pack materials shall be considered over the lifecycle including cases of failure, and reuse/recycling.
- Development of high voltage systems compatible with high-power ultra-fast charging and related implications, including high and low temperature charging, insulation, advanced models (including for instance data mining and big data on existing databases) for monitoring thermal state and estimation of application-dependant State of Health (i.e. in first and second use).
- Development and qualification of future performance-related test procedures of developed functionalities under real-world conditions, incl. extreme environmental conditions.
- Concept validation of battery performance functionalities at full scale should be demonstrated through pack integration into an existing vehicle (no vehicle development can be included in claimed costs) which should also serve as a benchmark of achieved performance.
- Development and qualification of future safety related test procedures e.g. venting/management of gases, battery failure warning signals, thermal propagation.
The combination of achieved improvements with new components and functionalities on the vehicle and infrastructure sides coming from topics LC-GV-01-2018, LC-GV-02-2018 and LC-GV-03-2019) should allow the development of new concepts for affordable FEVs which enable long duration trips (e.g. 700-1000km day trips across different Member States) with not more than respectively 60-90 minutes additional travel time in comparison with ICE vehicles and without additional degradation impact on the FEV powertrain including the battery when used for max 10% of the charging events.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 8 and 10 million would allow the specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
- Considerably improved performance of the EV through reduced battery system weight by 20% at constant electric vehicle range for mid-size battery electric car.
- Overcome the uncertainty of range by achieving 25% shorter recharging time with a 150kW charger compared to best in class electric car available on the market in 2018. The demonstrator must have the same battery capacity as the reference car and meet the useful battery life mentioned below.
- Improved attractiveness of the EV through achieving extended useful battery life to 300 000 km in real driving referring to a mid-size passenger car using improved battery management, balancing and thermal management during high-power charging/discharging.
- Contribution to Circular Economy goals through a minimum 20% Life Cycle Analysis improvement compared to existing products.
- Considerably improved knowledge on module and pack sensorisation and thermal management.
Deadline: 21 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Proposals can address either the battery cell or the battery system (racks, battery management system, fault detection and any integrated fire suppression) or both the cell and battery system.
All of the following aspects should be addressed:
- With respect to waterborne transport, research and develop a large battery system and/or specific battery cells that are substantially cheaper on a total cost basis with respect to existing system.
- Work should be applicable to battery systems of at least 1 MWh capacity.
- Prove the technology and manufacturing processes through system trials and testing.
- Address production process efficiency.
- Address the requirements for type approval from relevant authorities including a comprehensive risk based safety assessment.
- Development of a marine battery certification methodology with the objective of: validating and verifying safety (with consideration of air, liquid or passive cooling), including the standardisation of test methods and tools for certification cost reduction.
- Considering of different vessel types, address the integration of battery systems into Energy/Power management system of vessel.
- Undertake a cost benefit analysis to convincingly demonstrate the cost savings in comparison to current state of the art waterborne battery technology.
- Assess end of life and disposal strategies.
- Develop a convincing business case and consider potential financing models.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 8 and 12 million would allow the specific challenge to be addressed appropriately.
Expected Impact:
The principal impact should be to substantially reduce the lifetime cost of large waterborne battery systems and to enhance the competitiveness of European industry within the waterborne battery market. Cut greenhouse gas emissions from waterborne transport. Increase the European skills base in large battery technology and manufacturing processes. Support European jobs and growth. Increase confidence in waterborne battery technology investment. Speed up the transition of most short range freight and ferry services towards zero emission.
Deadline: 21 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Proposals will have to address at least one of the two following technical areas:
- Lightweight materials and design (both bullet points hereunder must be addressed):
- Lightweight materials (both metallic and reinforced plastics) for automotive applications which are economically-viable including multi-material concepts that allow cost-effective material separation, recycling and recovery, taking into account environmental impact through Life Cycle Assessment;
- Manufacturing and assembly methods and tools to guarantee structural integrity, reliability and long service life by design for lightweight materials (e.g. through understanding of failure mechanisms, of impact of ageing phenomena and the effects of manufacturing processes on a microstructure level) including their experimental and model-based characterisation;
- Cradle-to-cradle approach both bullet points hereunder must be addressed:
- Methods for the adoption of the circular economy and eco-design approach from the earliest stages of vehicle development, integrating product design and sustainable manufacturing, and including the optimal use of recycled and/or bio-ressourced materials;
- Implementation of advanced methodologies for improved design capabilities via numerical simulation, virtual and physical testing and validation, for the lightweight design of different vehicle types. These methodologies will not cover batteries.
The primary focus of the activities is on light-duty electric vehicles, where weight minimisation and its impact in terms of improving vehicle efficiency and range is top priority; nevertheless proposals can investigate and exploit, where it can be demonstrated to be appropriate, the potential benefits of application to a wide range of road vehicles including heavy-duty.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 3 and 5 million would allow the specific challenge to be addressed appropriately.
Expected Impact:
- Demonstrated affordable and sustainable vehicle weight reductions of at least 10% with respect to the results already achieved by previous projects in the same area, through the optimised deployment of advanced light materials;
- Reduction in vehicle development and hence in the lead times for the market introduction of new, more energy-efficient vehicles, through the use of advanced methodologies and numerical simulation tools;
- Widespread deployment of procedures to ensure structural integrity and safety of components made of advanced light materials while promoting their efficient repair and reuse through in-service health-monitoring and inspection;
- Effective solutions for reuse, recycling and/or energy recovery of all materials, components and sub-systems in line with forthcoming ELV legislative requirements;
Deadline: 21 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Proposals will have to address all the following technical areas:
- Advanced energy generators in hybrid electric applications (excluding therefore simple derivatives of existing engines) to minimise total environmental impacts.
- Evaluation and optimisation of related hybrid driveline technologies and topologies matching the characteristics of the innovative systems if these are significantly different from current implementations, based on real world operation.
- Holistic management and optimisation of thermal functions of vehicles and systems in both battery- and engine-based operation. This includes battery thermal management, passenger comfort and safety functions (like demisting/defrosting) and real-world operation of after-treatment. The latter, for instance, could be achieved by storing and using available heat or electric energy to improve catalysts efficiency by maintaining them close to or above light-off temperature. Heat to power technologies that convert waste heat into electricity or useful work for driveline and ancillary systems can also be researched if a sufficient energy availability and cost-effectiveness can be proven.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 3 and 5 million would allow the specific challenge to be addressed appropriately.
Expected Impact:
- Each developed technology should be implemented in an existing demonstrators vehicle (no vehicle or hybrid powertrain development is foreseen except as mentioned above for innovative technologies for which this is impossible) and independently tested in real driving conditions according to the methodologies developed for PHEVs in RDE regulation, with the following more stringent requirements:
- 15% higher V x apos values in urban, extraurban and motorway real driving segments;
- Use of raw emissions with no weighting;
- A 2000m limit on altitude gain;
- No time limit on 165 km/h maximum test speed.
- Engine peak efficiency shall reach at least 47% to guarantee high efficiency also in areas not covered by battery propulsion (particularly in motorway driving).
- A battery consistent with a WLTP range of at least 80km shall be incorporated or its mass simulated for RDE testing, which will however be performed in charge sustaining mode, with a full passenger load.
- The resulting technology shall demonstrate a reduction of the real world environmental impacts of vehicles consistent with the level of ambition defined for the European Commission Horizon Prize for cleanest engine of the future (with a minimum score of 3 for each main pollutant PM/PN, NOx and hydrocarbons, and 1 for “other pollutants” i.e. ammonia, formaldehyde, nitrous oxides and carbon oxide) thus simulating compliance with possible future regulation and ensuring a low impact also when running on the combustion engine.
Deadline: 21 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Proposals should address only one of the following subtopics (except in the case of modular concepts capable of addressing subtopics 2 and 3 respectively with the same platform
- Urban light personal mobility - The success of vehicles such as monowheels, electric scooters and hoverboards suggests to explore innovative microvehicle designs suitable for urban/sub-urban dweller and commuter’ needs with the option for usage within shared mobility schemes.These vehicles will be aimed at improving specific urban usage needs such as decreased congestion, elimination of parking and recharging need in case weight and volume are low enough to allow the user to carry them at all times. Such microvehicles would also have the capability of interfacing with urban collective transport systems (i.e. easy access to buses, trams and trains for “last mile” transfers to achieve full intermodality). Concepts to improve safety of users and of pedestrians (if these vehicles were used on sidewalks) are an added bonus. The proposals should develop a solution up to TRL 8-9 and must include a detailed exploitation strategy and a draft business plan for the product to be developed. The proposers should demonstrate their capacity to have a market ready product by the end of the project. Regulatory aspects shall also be covered, in particular about the integration of these new concepts in road codes.
- Light and flexible multipassenger vehicles (e.g. collective or individual, owned or shared up to M1 category) with high safety for passengers and vulnerable road users and specific features to facilitate shared use such as autonomous-capable vehicles with automated relocation to charging points or areas with insufficient vehicle density. An added dimension of flexibility and modularity (e.g. including reconfigurable interiors) can also be considered to support the ability to adapt and upgrade in order to move from one application to the next, and cater, if relevant, to the needs of different users and uses as required for shared mobility scenarios). Gender aspects should be considered in the design of the vehicles, when relevant, for instance in the case of crashworthiness.
- Rightsized vehicles for commercial uses (up to N1 category) such as last-/first-mile delivery, construction and maintenance support (masons, plumbers, HVAC technicians etc.), that are suitable specifically for urban scenarios. Affordability will be aimed at achieving an acceptable acquisition cost and significantly lower operational expenditure while specific tailoring to particular urban usage needs will aim at ensuring high transportation and charging efficiency and optimised land use (e.g. “right-power” DC-charging at pre-defined locations - home base, customer/delivery points etc. - might be sufficient).
For all these subtopics, fully integrated safety should be considered as a priority, including crash resistance (in case of three and four wheels urban vehicles) providing equivalent occupant safety and vulnerable road user protection as the M1/N1 vehicle they would replace; in the case of micro vehicles, safety innovation should be targeted at reducing their vulnerability in traffic.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 1 and 2 million for sub-topic 1 and of between EUR 4 and 6 million for sub-topic 2 and 3 would allow the specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
- For completely new microvehicle concepts and configurations (subtopic 1), proposers should demonstrate benefits on a mission/range basis in comparison to current types (monowheels, hoverboard, e-bikes or electric scooters) as appropriate in the foreseen applications.
- Next generation vehicles concepts in sub-topics 2) and 3) shall demonstrate in real testing ambitious targets of up to 10% energy efficiency improvement in comparison with existing electric vehicles of the same class.
- Price will be on a par with current vehicles used for similar missions (minicars, vans of similar payload to be used as benchmarks for subtopic 2 and 3, while current hoverboards and scooters are the benchmark for subtopic1).
- These vehicles will inherently benefit local air quality and promise rapid implementation due to their holistic and design-for-purpose approach.
- The perception of low safety of the smaller categories of vehicles should be dispelled by proving their resistance in crash (on real vehicles, achieving EURONCAP 4 star car crash standards for subtopics 2 and 3). Lower probability of having an accident is a desired but not mandatory outcome for subtopic 1.
- Increased acceptance of single purpose design vehicles is expected due to physical demonstration of the feasibility (both technical and economical) of equivalent or superior performance, upgradeability and operational safety in relevant environment particularly for light and flexible transport.
Deadline: 21 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Proposals should take a comprehensive approach ranging from components up to system integration, and include enabling technologies where relevant. Both passenger mobility and freight transport should be addressed and covering urban mobility as well as inter-urban and long-distance transport. They should address all the following aspects:
Updating of research agendas and roadmaps developed by the European Technology Platform ERTRAC (European Road Transport Research Advisory Council) and supporting the definition of research priorities of future Horizon Europe Partnerships relevant to road transport, covering all transport research fields.
Facilitating cooperation between cities in Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa. Actively support policy and knowledge exchange and establish a peer-to-peer exchange and capacity building programme that takes advantage of the results of a large number of relevant cities. Cooperation between EU and international projects on urban mobility. Develop implementation concepts for sustainable mobility including shared private vehicles (e.g. light-duty vehicles and 2-, and 3-wheelers), logistics (e.g. e-Trucks, cargo bikes), public transport systems (e.g. Bus Rapid Transit Systems, buses, soft modes) and new mobility services.
- Liaise with international financing institutions to foster the take-up and implementation of the concepts developed, support the European Commission in international discussions and specialised sectorial Fora related to Mobility for All, Climate Change and the New Urban Agenda. Track global progress on urban electric mobility and support UN activities, such as the Urban Electric Mobility Initiative (UEMI).
The implementation requires close collaboration with the leading European stakeholders in transport research, including vehicles manufacturers, supply industry, and research and engineering organisations, as well as strong links with other relevant European initiatives and associations. In line with the strategy for EU international cooperation in research and innovation, international cooperation is encouraged with key emerging countries, in particular with Asia, Latin America and Africa.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 0.8 to 1 million each would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
This action will bring together the leading European stakeholders in road transport research to develop roadmaps and support international cooperation. It will contribute to a further harmonisation of research and innovation, and therefore contribute to the European Research Area, in particular also in the view of innovation, as well as to the European strategies for a future transport system.
Proposals are expected to contribute to:
- The objective of the European Union for climate action and sustainable development.
- The objectives set by the Paris Agreement (COP21) and the New Urban Agenda.
- The fulfilment of post 2020 emission targets in road transport (at least 30% by 2030 compared to 2021)
- The EU's long-term goal of moving close to zero fatalities and serious injuries by 2050 ("Vision Zero")
- UN's Sustainable Development Goals 11 "Sustainable cities and communities" (with particular attention to 11.2) and 13 "Climate Action"
- Strengthening the collaboration of the European Union with Asia, Latin America and Africa.
Deadline: 21 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
This topic is divided in 3 sub-topics.
Innovation Action:
The first part of this topic invites for proposals that combine new technologies and non-technological innovations, more effective forms of governance, and accompanying (policy-based) measures for all modes of transport.
The proposed projects should be carried out by local/regional authority-led consortia, covering three different urban or inter-urban areas that have a connection with the TEN-T network or an equivalent size, major transport corridor, each of them facing different spatial, social and/or economic challenges and/or experiences with the organisation of large/sport events.
Each urban area should establish a living laboratory where under real life-conditions a set of innovative, complementary and reinforcing scalable mobility solutions, centered around a principal solution can be developed, tested and implemented in an integrated, multimodal approach. The participating urban areas, which may have a geographical coverage that goes as far as the full functional urban area, should demonstrate their common interests and outline how they will ensure a meaningful and close cooperation. Proposals should outline how the proposed approach meets the needs of an efficient, flexible and accessible TEN-T urban node or a city located at an equivalent sized transport corridor, which in turn delivers an optimal use of the transport network and the integration of cost-effective solutions for energy supply/storage (with use of renewable energy as much as possible) and recharging networks for transport, and ICT networks for all modes of transport. The work of relevant Horizon 2020-funded projects, such as VITALNODES, could provide a useful starting point.
Proposals should explain how the proposed work will support the public authorities' efforts to implement their Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan, in combination with urban (land) planning and development, and infrastructure planning and operations. Attention should be paid to issues related to vulnerable groups of citizens, gender issues and health impact of mobility. Actions may include research activities, and some preparatory, take up and replication actions, as well as the development of tools to support planning and policy making. Work may also include demonstration of a resilient urban mobility system, capable to address particular challenges in the organisation of large/sport events. Proposals are encouraged to incorporate new approaches to increase the availability and integration of data to support policymaking and business activities in smart, zero and low-emission mobility and to explore innovative ways of increasing the share of active modes of transport.
To capture impacts, the activities should include monitoring, for example, aspects such as modal share, energy intensity, level of emissions, impact on health, transport network performance (demand and supply) and connectivity through interoperability and multimodality. Projects are expected to collaborate with the established impact evaluation framework (using both clear baselines and measurable impact indicators), as well the dissemination and information exchange framework put in place in the field of urban mobility by the Commission.
Additionally, proposals should seek to establish financial and institutional/organisational cooperation models to enable seamless transport across the TEN-T urban node area or equivalent.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 7 to 9 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts. Typically, projects should have duration of 48 months and foresee sufficient time for evaluation, dissemination and exploitation activities.
Coordination and Support Action: fast-track and mainstream the replication of innovative, urban, peri-urban and rural mobility solutions
The second part of this topic is a Coordination and Support Action that aims to fast-track and mainstream the replication of innovative, tested urban, peri-urban and rural mobility solutions (e.g. technological, non-technological, services, goods and infrastructure). Proposals are expected to set up and run a 'Fast-track to innovative sustainable motorised and non-motorised mobility' action (working title – proposers are invited to choose an appealing title), which offers support and services to at least 20 cities and municipalities or their organisational/functional groupings. A 'staged approach' is possible – taking into account mobility, investment or geographical needs as well as delivering the project efficiently. At least one-third of these 20 locations should be located in areas experiencing rapid economic and social change.
The proposal should include all of the following actions:
- Support for the development and towards implementation of innovative mobility solutions in 4 broad areas:
- Investments in and management of the transport network
- Supporting modal shift towards more energy-efficient, safer and active (whenever possible) modes for transport of freight and/or passengers
- New operating and business models in collective public and private transport (in any transport mode).
- Supporting mobility actions within the scope of the European Innovation Partnership in Smart cities and communities (or its successor working on smart cities).
- Development and implementation of a programme of tailored actions to deliver capacity building and institutional networking by:
a. Supporting staff exchanges, expert visits, and short term training.
b. Supporting the identification and access to financial and legal expertise, to define the feasibility to replicate an innovative mobility solution and to develop an innovation deployment programme of scale, notably: meetings with (potential) investors, opportunities for follow-up investments and identification of synergies with European funding and financing.
c. Providing matchmaking services for innovative mobility solutions establishing the link between "suppliers" that may be both public and private organisations, or groupings thereof (such as Horizon2020 funded projects) and "customers" that are mainly public organisations (such as city councils, regional authorities, transport operators or their groupings).
d. The project should deliver a set of recommendations to bridge the gap in the research and innovation performance and the deployment of the innovative mobility solutions across EU Member States.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of EUR 1 to 1.5 million each would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Coordination and Support Action: prepare for the deployment of Urban Air Mobility in urban and peri-urban areas
The integration of vertical urban mobility solutions (drones, and other forms of low-aerial mobility, as well as services) into existing surface multimodal transport (both freight and passenger) systems will add further complexity to the organisation of the urban and peri-urban transport and mobility services. It will require changes in public/shared transport management, logistics operations and infrastructure operations. With rapid technological progress in urban air mobility, especially local and regional public sector authorities are faced with challenges such as in financing, procuring, planning (infrastructure, systems), transport operations, safety, noise, security and public acceptance of these solutions.
The proposal should include all of the following actions:
a) To provide a knowledge base (dynamic updated, with a "brand") and to deliver a set of policy recommendations (in at least 8 languages – for use by local, regional, national and European public authorities, businesses and other organisations) for measures to (seamlessly) integrate the vertical and horizontal dimensions in urban and peri-urban mobility systems. These are notably:
- Minimum required standards for products and processes in for ITS-type applications, urban planning (SUMPs), data-exchange, energy infrastructure, payments, environmental objectives, travel information and possibly other sectors such as building, construction, health care, retail etc.
- Foresight deployment scenarios of up to 10 possible use cases in 5 to 15 years; public acceptance, governance, mobility systems, energy supply systems, infrastructure, investment opportunities, funding and financing needs, and land-use. An approach to set up these scenarios with wide consultation should be included in the proposal to ensure that social acceptance aspects are fully understood.
- Tools for exchange and learning of urban air mobility with and to public authorities (notably local and regional), businesses civil society and research organisations.
b) To provide specific project development support and technical assistance for up to 10 deployment 'use cases' in locations (or groups thereof) with a demonstrated commitment from public and private organisations that are planning to start testing urban air mobility applications in the next 3 years. The type of support should as minimum include feasibility and market studies, programme and urban planning actions (for example procurement strategies).
This proposal should work closely together with the ongoing actions of the European Innovation Partnership in Smart cities (or its successor) and CIVITAS (or its successor) and possibly other networks with a strong participation of local and regional authorities.
The proposal should propose actions for cooperation with EASA, the SESAR Joint Undertaking, EUROCONTROL and the European U-Space Demonstrator network to ensure that project results are fed into developments in the institutional, regulatory and architectural frameworks for a competitive U-space services market.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of EUR 1 to 1.5 million each would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
For the Innovation Action:
Projects should act as European demonstration-type ("lighthouse") examples for integrating new scalable technologies and measures into city transport operations and existing transport infrastructures at real-life scale in order to achieve long-term decarbonisation impacts; reliable solutions for a more sustainable, inclusive, safe and secure mobility system, including for the secure mobility of people and freight during major/sport events; clear improvements of the efficiency and accessibility of the transport networks/systems covering the TEN-T urban nodes or equivalent, and their access to the relevant TEN-T corridor(s) or equivalent transport corridors for transport of freight and/or passengers. Positive long term impacts on social cohesion, economic development and public perception – resulting in behavioural change and policy change - are anticipated.
Projects will contribute to the development of the existing European knowledge base on the effectiveness and impacts resulting from the implementation of innovative mobility solutions.
Clear commitments and contributions to Europe-wide take up during and beyond the project are expected, which could for example be in the form of follow-up actions funded by CEF or similar programmes.
This topic complements CEF-funded activities.
For the Coordination and Support Action: fast-track and mainstream the replication of innovative, urban, peri-urban and rural mobility solutions.
The following three main impacts are foreseen:
Firstly, proposals are expected to demonstrate how their activities will lead to fast-tracking and mainstreaming the replication of innovative, urban, peri-urban and rural mobility solutions. Proposals should as a minimum requirement provide; the expected number of people involved in the activities that will be undertaken in at least 20 cities/municipalities addressed by the project, information as to how their capacity will be improved to develop urban mobility and investment plans for deployment of innovative transport solutions. Secondly, the CSA is expected to lead to new research and innovation collaborations in sustainable urban mobility between organisations (public/ private), especially those located in countries that are more advanced and those located in countries lagging behind in the deployment of urban mobility innovations.
For the Coordination and Support Action: prepare for the deployment of Urban Air Mobility in urban and peri-urban areas
This action is expected to address the Amsterdam Drone Declaration which "called upon urban transport actors, policy makers and associations to pioneer cases demonstrating which systems, solutions and services seamlessly integrate smart multimodal solutions" and which "invited cities and regions to co-create with the citizens the public conditions and the infrastructure for integrated air and ground smart mobility solutions to flourish, where new and clean technologies, big data, real-time information and corresponding business models converge towards the enablement and realisation of “mobility as a service”.
The expected impact of this CSA project is to provide especially cities and regions with better planning tools and knowledge to integrate new applications of urban air mobility in their passenger and freight systems. This topic complements topic 'MG-3-6-2020: Towards sustainable urban air mobility'.
Deadline: 21 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time (CSA Coordination and support action) and 09 January 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time (IA Innovation action).
Proposals should timely assess the holistic environmental impact of potential supersonic aviation and provide evidence for public acceptance long with suitable international high environmental standards. Proposals should take into consideration the results achieved within the EU projects FP6 HISAC (Environmentally friendly high-speed aircraft) and Horizon 2020 RUMBLE (Regulation and norm for low sonic boom levels). Proposals should also include the latest technological developments and explore potential solutions beyond the state-of-the-art, contributing to two or more of the following areas:
- Advance further high-fidelity environmental modelling integrated into multi-disciplinary optimization of supersonic aircraft, trajectories and operations.
- Assess and explore physics-based pathways to decrease noise and emissions at airport/local and global level (i.e. CO2, NOx, water vapour as well as their impact to ozone concentration in the stratosphere). Assess their impacts to trajectory optimization and aeropropulsion technologies to further reduce sonic-boom level and emissions.
- Quantify the efficiency of sonic boom shaping in terms of various boom effects, and not only in terms of noise (e.g. sleep disturbance).
- Explore further the characterisation of indoor boom annoyance (relevant metrics, measurements devices and locations), in collaboration with EASA and other national and international agencies.
- Quantify sonic boom variability due to meteorology, turbulence, urban environment and buildings and address the development of certification processes that take into consideration the stochastic nature of sonic boom.
- Develop at European or International level, accepted and validated modelling tools that capture the physics of the generation and propagation of sonic booms, towards further contributing at ICAO level, according to the CAEP work programme and agenda.
The proposals may include the commitment from the European Aviation Safety Agency and European national civil aviation authorities to assist or to participate in the actions. In line with the strategy for EU international cooperation in research and innovation (COM(2012)497), international cooperation is encouraged, in particular with countries such as the Russian Federation, United States of America, Japan, Canada, Brazil, Australia and South Africa. International cooperation can include work towards the development of enabling technologies, joint tests, standards and certification, taking into account bodies such as United Nations' International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).
Where applicable, proposals are encouraged to join international demonstration campaigns for noise and emissions assessments at all phases, including take-off and landing, provided that meaningful outcomes can be delivered according to CAEP work programme and agenda.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU between EUR 3 and 5 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting lower or higher amounts.
Expected Impact:
- Maintain high level of environmental protection, especially in terms of global and local emissions and noise.
- Ensure suitable global regulations, standards, operational procedures and recommended practices for the protection of the citizens and of the environment.
- Contribute to maintain world-class knowledge and skills in Europe in the field of civil supersonic aviation.
- Contribute to stimulate disruptive innovation in civil aviation with spin-offs into other civil aerospace segments and other civil sectors.
- Contribute to inspire and engage new generations of students and engineers.
Deadline: 21 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
In order to meet these large challenges this topic will be implemented through two types of actions
1. Coordination and Support Action
Transport infrastructure can result in significant and lasting degradation of ecosystems and habitats. Considering Europe has the highest transport infrastructure density in the world, there is an urgent need to address this rapidly increasing challenge.
Stronger cooperation should be developed between national, regional, European and international supporting programmes and initiatives on research, innovation and deployment, aimed at improving transport infrastructure performance on environmental and social sustainability. For instance, synergies with Horizon 2020 and CEF projects, as well as with the EU biodiversity strategy to 2020 should be established, while building as much as possible from relevant existing proven structures and platforms of infrastructure stakeholders. In order to ultimately ensure sufficient deployment impact, the proposals should include the national transport infrastructure authorities with responsibility for managing their national networks from at least 10 countries (Member States or Associated Countries), ensuring strong engagement in relevant European platforms and wider reach.
Proposals should cover all the following issues:
- Successful roll-out of a Strategic Research and Deployment Agenda (SRDA) endorsed by the national transport infrastructure authorities and the public innovation programme owners, representing the societal and environmental needs and requirements for infrastructure innovation. The agenda will take input from the relevant industry stakeholders, in close cooperation with the research community as well as environmental agencies which will supply innovative solutions. and developing alternative and more-biodiversity-friendly transport modes (e.g. bicycle paths and highways).
- Particular focus should be on innovative solutions in the planning and design stage of the infrastructure life cycle as this stage offers the best opportunities for achieving environmentally sustainable transport infrastructure network for Europe’s citizens reducing the harmful impact on the environmental and social sustainability.
The proposal should include opportunities for adapting transport infrastructure in view of changing demand, social changes, climate, biodiversity, technology and digitalisation. The work will feed into the strategic research and innovation (R&I) agenda of the relevant stakeholders, which should be jointly developed and implemented by the transport authorities, the research community, the infrastructure operators and civil society. Clear priorities should be agreed and widely communicated so they can reflect an aim for building sustainable and environmentally-friendly infrastructure.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU for sub topic 1 (CSA) of between EUR 2.5-3 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts. There shall be only one project selected for the sub topic 1.
2. Research and Innovation Action
This topic should be considered as a follow-up of previous calls on remote sensing, monitoring and decision support to maintenance planning, and should be taken into consideration to develop the phase of intervention, to achieve the maximum automation possible in physical interventions to maintain the integrity, performance and safety levels of the infrastructure.
Proposals should cover all the following issues:
- Application of robotics and remote piloted systems to infrastructure upgrade or maintenance works to push the transport sector in the automated era and increase the overall productivity and efficiency of the transport infrastructure, thus relieving the burden of the costs on the users.
- Development of robotized equipment to perform routine, periodic or emergency maintenance works; adequate connections with the structural and functional monitoring sensors and traffic management system to deploy automatic intervention of robots and remote piloted systems while respecting safety operations and personnel.
- Development of robotized equipment for larger interventions of maintenance or upgrading to be remotely controlled in non-routine circumstances avoiding disruption of other routine operations and increasing coordination between them and other involved agents.
- Proposals should foster the development and use of industrial-prefabricated infrastructures and modularising the planning, designing, and construction phases for retrofit projects using robotised equipment to perform automated construction or maintenance tasks.
- Possibilities for utilising V2I communication for capturing data and processing by AI for predictive maintenance should also be considered. New technologies, such as for instance AR and VR modelling, AI and drone technologies should be taken into account.
- Projects must consider a pilot demonstration in operational environment (minimum at TRL7 level). Testing and deployment on CEF corridors and possible synergies with CEF innovation projects is to be considered.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU for sub topic 2 (RIA) of between EUR 4 and 5 million each would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
1. Coordination and Support Action
- Improved environmental performance of Europe’s transport infrastructure and networks (e.g. reduction of habitats' fragmentation).
- Targeted research and deployment actions and efficient use of resources within a coherent innovation strategy
- Strengthened lasting synergies between relevant national, regional (European) and international innovation programmes and initiatives.
- Widespread awareness of European efforts, as well as increased visibility of R&I outcomes and their contribution to improving environmental performance and biodiversity in a safe transport infrastructure network.
- Increased take-up of innovation outcomes by market, national authorities and relevant national platforms, while strengthening the alignment of innovation deployment of national infrastructure authorities in Europe.
2. Research and Innovation Action
- Reduction of fatal accidents due to maintenance works of road users and deployed personnel by 50%
- Reduction of traffic disruption due to maintenance works by 20%
- Reduction of routine maintenance costs by 20%
- Improvement of network capacity by 20%, based on the levels measured at the beginning for the project.
Deadline: 21 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time (CSA Coordination and support action) and 09 January 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time (Research and Innovation Action).
Proposals shall address all of the following areas:
- Perform a reasoned and detailed analysis of the products, services, solutions for business applications and other value added results generated by EU-funded projects (at the level of projects and/or cluster of projects), contributing to the achievement of EU policy objectives (e.g. zero city logistics emissions by 2030, zero logistics emissions by 2050, efficient free movement of goods and services) and a truly integrated transport system. This analysis should possibly cover projects funded since the 5th Framework Programme for Research. Building on previous mapping and benchmarking activities such as the SETRIS project and the pilot action on Implementation of Multimodal Innovative Solutions, evaluate e.g. the level of maturity of the products, services, solutions achieved within the projects and further development carried out beyond the projects, investigate which solutions have been implemented and adopted by the freight transport and logistics stakeholders and compare them with the state-of-the-art in the sector. Assess the barriers to the deployment of R&I results and propose solutions and actions to improve the framework conditions and overcome the identified barriers. Assess the impact of EU-funded R&I projects on various areas of freight transport and logistics (including urban logistics) by establishing possible causal links between public R&I funding and technology innovation in an area. Synergetic impact from regional/national programmes should also be considered. Examine in which areas EU funding had the highest impact, identify the framework conditions and actions which supported this outcome. Propose sectoral-specific impact Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and recommendations to increase the research impact.
- Identify and prioritise gaps in the research landscape and market needs to be tackled by future R&I actions for an integrated freight transport and logistics system, also via a reasoned analysis of best practices and activities at relevant international level.
- Support the wider engagement of the freight transport and logistics stakeholders (reaching out to the ones less familiar with European R&I) in order to increase the uptake of research outcomes and innovation by the logistics community at large. Develop an appropriate framework to foster collaboration and exchange of best practices in freight transport and logistics R&I at regional, national, European and global level.
- Engage with relevant sectors beyond freight transport and logistics to support cross-fertilisation and synergies within multidisciplinary projects (e.g. ICT, Circular Economy, Manufacturing and Supply Chain, Security).
The analysis will extend beyond the work carried out within the projects, clearly evaluating the project outcomes’ impact, as well as the framework conditions and activities which support high impact of public R&I funding. It will also establish possible causal links between public R&I funding and technology innovation in a specific logistics area. The analysis will be complemented by clear recommendations on future R&I activities to achieve an efficient and sustainable freight transport and logistics system.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of up to EUR 1 million would allow the specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts. As the focus of this action is on analysing the impact of EU-funded R&I projects, at least 50% of the budget will have to be dedicated to the activities described under the first two bullet points.
Expected Impact:
The action will contribute to achieve the EU policy objectives for freight transport and logistics (e.g. zero city logistics emissions by 2030, zero logistics emissions by 2050, fully integrated multimodal transport system, efficient and sustainable logistic and freight operations) by providing a reasoned and detailed mapping and assessment of the EU-funded R&I project outcomes.
The action will also support technological and organisational innovation uptake and a more efficient use of the available research resources by engaging the wider community of stakeholders, establishing collaboration between industrial stakeholders and the society at large, encouraging exchanges of best practices at regional, national, European and global level, and linking to relevant sectors beyond freight transport and logistics.
Deadline: 21 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Proposals shall address all of the following areas:
- Assess the impacts of automation and connectivity in all modes of transport on the labour market as a whole, focusing on both direct effects on the transport workforce and indirect / induced effects in other sectors.
- Review past/contemporary experiences from other automation-driven transitions to derive best practices in the transfer of lessons learned between different environments and social contexts.
- Review and analyse recommendations/contributions from past/ongoing related studies, activities and H2020 R&I projects. Identify and prioritise relevant targets and elaborate an action-oriented agenda aiming to achieve at least an overall neutral impact of automation at the level of the entire economy.
- Activate the wider engagement of the social partners and EU Member States in order to validate the agenda, as well as increase their participation and involvement in the implementation of identified actions. Develop an appropriate framework to foster collaboration and exchange of best practices at EU, national and regional level.
- Provide a forum for EU and international stakeholders (as appropriate) in this field to exchange experiences and knowledge on the effects of transport automation on the workforce and future skills and discuss future challenges. Organise conferences and workshops in this area.
Proposed actions should build on the knowledge and results of past and/or ongoing EU-funded projects (such as SKILLFUL), addressing the socio-economic impacts of automation in transport and/or undertaking related reviews of transport jobs and future skills requirements.
In line with the Union’s strategy for international cooperation in research and automation, international cooperation is encouraged. In particular, proposal should consider cooperation with projects or partners from Canada, Japan and the US.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 2 and 2.5 million would allow the specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
- Demonstrate the expected impacts of automation and connectivity in all modes of transport on the labour market as a whole
- Inform, mobilise and engage all relevant European stakeholders, including the European, national and regional social partners and EU Member States, in an active dialogue on the socio-economic effects of automation on the present and future transportation workforce
- Minimise any potential negative effects of automation on the transport labour force
- Demonstrate the potential to achieve at least an overall neutral impact of automation for the entire society and economy.
Deadline: 21 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
The main scope of this topic is the development of innovative solutions towards optimising electrical power, data, communication and processing networks in order to achieve weight and cost reduction, harness simplification, versatility and scaling, as well as ensuring high-speed connectivity, without jeopardising safety and security (incl. cybersecurity).
The proposals should address at least two of the following areas:
- Next generation modular and distributed power data and wireless networks, enabling cable weight reduction and harness optimisation
- Advanced technologies for electrical heat dissipation
- Safe, secure, robust and reliable connectivity solutions, including advancements in unified data models, resilience to connection loss and cybersecurity specific barriers.
- Advancements in interface standardisation with emphasis on software independency, modularity and portability, as well as standard hardware platforms.
- Research on artificial intelligence and data-driven technologies and their applications for future aircraft electric network architectures and systems.
Proposals are expected to establish synergies with Clean Sky, SESAR, ECSEL, Galileo, EGNOS, HPC, Big Data and Artificial Intelligence R&I initiatives.
The proposals may include the explicit commitment from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to assist or to participate in the actions.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU between EUR 2 and 4 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting lower or higher amounts.
Expected Impact:
- Maintaining and extending European industrial leadership.
- Advance further innovative electric network architectures and systems.
- Contribute to improved aircraft energy management for incremental as well as revolutionary future configurations.
- Contribute to further weight reductions, simplicity and scalability, data connectivity while ensuring safety and security (incl. cybersecurity).
Deadline: 21 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
The main target will be to further advance the design, production and field operation of multifunctional and intelligent airframe and engine parts, with an emphasis on efficient, cost-effective and ecological manufacturing, maintenance and recycling. The proposals should address three or more of the following areas:
- Innovative manufacturing technologies and processes for flexible wing with morphing capabilities, for control surfaces such as leading and trailing edge as well as winglets, which can adapt their shape in low-speed aircraft configurations.
- Innovative joining technologies and damage diagnostics for composites and dissimilar materials in primary and secondary aircraft structures, with high potential to offer substantial benefits towards reduced weight, while allowing for faster and leaner integration and repair.
- Advanced quality monitoring and on-line process control, applied to flexible automation of the manufacturing/maintenance/repair processes for increased rates.
- Manufacturing processes for the production of composite, multifunctional and intelligent airframe parts, as well as high-temperature and complex-shaped engine parts, covering the whole production chain – cf. process planning, manufacturing and assembly, quality control – with a view to support activities such as supervision and multi-disciplinary optimisation (process-product-performance) of production, smart tooling and on-line quality control.
- Multifunctional and intelligent engine parts covering variable geometries in engine structures for optimized performance over the whole cycle, embedded intelligence as well as integrated thermal and electric functionalities
- Integrated technologies and methodologies towards next generation health management and monitoring, together with sensor development, wireless networks and data-driven fault detection.
- New MRO and recycling technologies for Multifunctional and Intelligent Airframe and engine parts.
Proposals may tackle pre-standardisation, development of best-practice guidelines and processes for the certification of airframe and engine components and assemblies, with particular emphasis on simulation-assisted certification issues. The proposals may include an explicit commitment from the European Aviation Safety Agency to assist or to participate in the actions.
The implementation of the proposed areas of this topic may cover TRLs between 2-4.
This topic complements (and should not overlap) retained projects from the 2018 and 2019 topics on “multidisciplinary and collaborative aircraft design tools and processes” and “advancements in aerodynamics and innovative propulsion systems” respectively.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU between EUR 3 and 5 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting lower or higher amounts.
Expected Impact:
- Manufacturing next generation multifunctional and intelligent airframe and engine parts
- New manufacturing paradigm shift with enhanced ecological maintenance and recycling characteristics
- New/updated technologies that will offer a competitive advantage of European MROs.
- Maintaining and extending European industrial leadership.
Deadline: 21 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Proposals should address novel concepts, technologies and solutions beyond the state-of-the-art. Proposals should address all the following three research areas:
A. Safety and security: particularly when operating over populated areas – including several aspects such as adverse weather and airflow conditions at low altitudes, human factors and automation, collision and avoidance; electro-magnetic compatibility; detection and surveillance of physical and cyber threats, prevention, preparedness, response and recovery from threats, including intentional interference and misuse of urban air mobility; and/or other relevant hazards and threats in a operation centric and risk-based approach.
B. Sustainability with regard to the overall environmental footprint (e.g. energy demand; local emissions and global greenhouse gas emissions); and sustainability with regard to noise and visual pollution, including those aspects dealing with perception, monitoring and mitigation in urban environments..
C. Public acceptance, socio-economic modelling and relevant regulatory and organisational aspects of urban air mobility systems, such as those evolving from noise, visual pollution, privacy, shared-use, land-use, liability, safety (including airworthiness) and security of operations (including enforcement), or dedicated certification schemes. Co-creation and involvement of citizens is key for this area e.g. to anticipate the behaviour, the blocking points, the needs and public tolerance/embracement for such a new mobility. Policy recommendations should also include procurement and deployment strategies
In addition, the proposals will also have to address one or more of the following research areas:
D. Services: new door-to-door or emergency services concepts allowing UAM traffic to be embedded in multi-modal urban transportation environment; new approaches for regulatory due processes associated to the sign-off of urban air services.
E. Operations: new concepts of operations allowing UAM traffic to be interwoven with the multi-modal urban transportation or emergency systems (e.g. ground/air ambulances), with due account of the safe and secure utilisation of the air space.
F. Power-plant/propulsion system development for safe, economic and environmentally friendly UAM. Characteristics shall include high power/weight ratio, fast battery recharge/fuel-cell refill, high level of reliability and fail-safety and low level of noise, emissions and maintenance requirements.
G. Infrastructure adaptation, evolution and integration into transport, energy and ICT networks for efficient and seamless door-to-door mobility.
Particular emphasis should be addressed to potentially early urban air mobility services (e.g. for air medical emergencies, for safety & security services, for logistics, etc).
TRL can reach up to level 6 depending on the level of resources leveraged for the activities.
Proposals should ensure complementarities with the European U-space Demonstrator Network and with SESAR JU U-space activities. In addition to research and industrial involvement, proposals should ensure a strong commitment for collaboration and communication with local authorities and communities as well as with players from other relevant leading-edge industrial and service sectors that can substantially contribute to meet the challenges at stake. Proposals can leverage synergies with other EU activities such as:
- The European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities (EIP-SCC), in particular the initiative on urban air mobility, and the CIVITAS initiative.
- The European Institute of Technology – Knowledge and Innovation Center (EIT-KIC) on Urban Mobility.
- EU satellite-based systems for navigation (EGNOS/Galileo), observation (Copernicus) and EU communication/connectivity initiatives (e.g. 5G, C-ITS).
The proposals may include the explicit commitment from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to assist or to participate in the actions. This is particularly important in view of the new EU drone regulation.
International cooperation is encouraged in cases of mutual benefit, such as sharing of practices with early adopters of urban air mobility in non-European megacities (e.g. Singapore, Dubai, Sao Paulo, Mexico DF, etc.)
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU between EUR 4 and 6 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting lower amounts.
Expected Impact:
The following impacts have to be addressed by all proposals:
- Contribute to smarter and more sustainable cities and air transport.
- Contribute to maintain aviation safety levels.
- Contribute to the development of European / international standards and legislation for urban air mobility.
- Contribute to increase the capability of public authorities – such as air regulators and urban planners – to handle the regulatory due processes for UAM services.
- Contribute to decrease the overall environmental footprint.
In addition, when relevant, the following impacts can also be addressed:
- Contribute to decrease the time in door-to-door travel or in case of emergency interventions.
- Contribute to reduce the lead time-to-market and de-risk the set-up of UAM services.
- Contribute to new urban planning tools to integrate UAM services in existing plans, in particular Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) and transport/logistics plans of individual institutions.
- Contribute to increase the competitiveness and economic growth, as congestion in cities is detrimental to business reactivity.
- Contribute to inspire and engage new generations of students, engineers and urban planners and mobility managers.
Deadline: 21 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
All following aspects should be addressed:
- The development of innovative technologies and systems to enhance the competitiveness of production and maintenance processes within European shipbuilders and ship yards. Where appropriate, technologies transfer from outside of the marine industry shipbuilding, ship maintenance and ship modification sectors, particularly those with potential to reduce CO2 and/or other polluting emissions.
- Identification of the necessary related skills development needs and strategies to address these in order to maximise the value from innovative production technologies and practices.
- Testing and physical demonstration of the developed technologies to at least TRL 5, including the benchmarking of existing practices, consideration of the environmental impacts and quantification of the additional value from the technology and/or system developed.
- Development of business plans and roll out strategies.
- IPR and or other measures to reduce leakage of the developed innovations outside of Europe.
Whilst not excluding very large shipyards, an emphasis on the competitive needs of smaller and medium size shipyards across Europe would be welcome in cases where the incremental benefits from Research and Innovation maybe higher.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of up to between EUR 4 and 6 million would allow the specific challenge to be addressed appropriately
Expected Impact:
With an emphasis on smaller and mediums sized European shipyards and ship builders, to increase competiveness and growth of the European sector, particularly within international markets. Reinforce and grow European employment and the necessary skills development for the successful uptake of innovative production processes and technologies. Improve environmental performance of shipyards and ship builders. Support a multiplication effect within Europe beyond the immediate participants. Maximise EU added value by appropriate means of minimising knowledge and technology leakage.
Deadline: 21 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
The aim is to develop an EU matchmaking system(both for tools and services) to de-risk large purchasing of first-of-a-kind solutions at European level and accelerate EU-wide market access and scale up of sustainable transport products and services and fostering their de-risking.
Proposals shall address all the following points:
- The concept of purchase aggregation of innovative zero emission transport solutions (Technology Readiness Level 7 and above) shall be developed, allowing to spread the related risk over a multiple number of regrouped buyers and de-risk purchases of innovative solutions. Proposals shall mobilize main actors such as public and private transport and mobility operators and other main stakeholders, multipliers and platforms (e.g. large public/private fleet users associations, fleet owners and transport and mobility operators, leasing companies, OEMs, tier 1 and tier 2 operators and innovative SMEs). In view of ensuring economic viability and continuation of the planned activities, users of the facility (conceived as a long lasting activity, going beyond the duration of the contract) shall also be involved in the proposal.
- The facility shall develop activities and offer services aiming at matching supply and demand via off-line and/or on-line tools and instruments, as well as alerts on availability of incoming new solutions. The supply-side of this facility shall regroup and provide visibility and outreach of first-of-a-kind products, technologies and services at European level. It shall offer a wide and regularly updated portfolio of solutions, grouped and listed according to different criteria, such as category, activity, application, area, etc. The demand-side of the facility shall regroup potential buyers and liaise with other existing actors such as large buyers groups, networks and platforms to support critical mass. Potential buyers will also have the opportunity to receive information on innovative solutions, including on an individual case-by-case basis. As an additional challenge, the platform shall regroup and list foreseen replacement plans and schedules of major buyers of transport and mobility products, technologies and services, to allow awareness of opportunities, peer review of such plans and possible purchase aggregations. Finally, the facility should interrelate asset management with risk management to further support the stakeholders.
- The facility shall also stimulate dissemination of information, exchange of knowledge and good practices on the deployment of innovative solutions, on European and national procurement processes as well as on regulatory issues. Specific services supporting access to innovation finance, on both demand and supply side should be included by building strong connections and synergies with ongoing and future instruments, such as the European Innovation Council (EIC), Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) and the European Investment Bank (EIB), as well as the wider European financial market.
- Future sustainability of the system beyond the duration of the CSA is expected to be demonstrated.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 1 and 1.5 million would allow the specific challenge to be addressed appropriately
Expected Impact:
- Accelerate EU-wide market access and scale up of innovative zero (and near to zero) emission transport and mobility technologies, products and services for both potential buyers and users.
- Achievement of critical mass for innovative solutions (with specific focus on first-of-a-kind solutions) through market aggregation of multiple buyers, matchmaking activities and other support services on both supply and demand side.
- Market scaling up of innovative zero emission solutions should support EU competitiveness as well as the reduction of CO2 emissions and pollutants.
- Amount of the financial resources to be mobilised to scale up innovative solutions for very low and zero emissions in the shortest time possible.
Deadline: 21 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
To address this challenge, three sub topics are proposed and proposals should address only one of the following sub-topics:
1) Innovation awards for students and senior researchers in the context of the Transport Research Arena conference - TRA 2022
The action should focus on organising two competitions for transport research and innovation awards to be assigned at the TRA conference in 2022:
- A competition for students and young researchers with the goal of stimulating the interest among young researchers/students in the field of transport.
- A competition for senior researchers in the field of innovative transport concepts based on results from EU-funded projects only.
Both competitions should cover all transport modes and cross-cutting issues (technological, socio-economic and behavioural aspects) in line with the EU policy objectives for smart, green and integrated transport. The organisation of these awards should ensure high-quality competition and very good media coverage before, during and after the TRA conference. The action should give particular attention to gender issues.
The awards shall be widely promoted, including within press articles and via important trade publications. Particularly for the student award, wide pan European participation is expected and should be facilitated through engagement with relevant professional associations, their publications and other related student organisations.
2) Broadening Engagement and increasing impact from Waterborne transport research
The waterborne sector is highly fragmented, with diverse actors and administrative structures, covering ports, maritime and inland shipping. The resulting barriers inhibit innovation and the necessary R&I dialogue to maximise impact. To address this, the following activities should be foreseen:
- Together with Commission services and the broader waterborne sector, identify the information gaps concerning, innovation needs, awareness of outcomes and opportunities for participation and on this basis devise a communication strategy to be implemented over the course of the project.
- Develop KPIs and benchmark these at the outset and use to monitor progress throughout the project.
- Broaden lasting awareness and increase the impact from EU waterborne research through prominent participation within large strategic maritime and inland waterway events such as SMM Hamburg in 2022 and 2024 and for example promote waterborne innovation in overall strategic transport events, stakeholder exercises and the creation of durable engagement with potential public and private users.
- Produce high quality digital and printed dissemination materials concerning the scope and success stories arising from EU waterborne research. This should include a short video presenting the challenges, innovation needs and successes.
3) Towards an implementation of the future inland navigation action programme
The action should focus on consolidating the Inland Waterways Transport (IWT) knowledge network and partnership, which was previously established with the support of FP7. In this respect, it should ensure a solid knowledge basis for the implementation of any future NAIADES programme. The coordination and support action will build on the results of previous work and will reflect the multi-disciplinary requirements and complexity of the subject, coordinating with the wider waterborne, land transport and logistics communities. The coordination action will be organised around the five NAIADES 2 action areas, but will also take into account the results of the NAIADES 2 progress report (adopted 18.09.2018) and other related activities. The coordination action will, in close cooperation with the European Commission, set up a roadmap for the implementation of actions not yet started or to be finalised and ensure the support to permanent-type of actions. It will identify the appropriate measures and define the necessary means and tools. In coordination with the Waterborne technology platform, the action will further develop a R&D roadmap by integrating all stakeholders and will also develop the implementation plan. Also in coordination with the Waterborne technology platform, the project will also monitor the inland navigation R&D projects and their impacts from relevant European programmes. The project will also identify barriers for the deployment of research results, market uptake and improvement of framework conditions to increase innovation in inland waterway transport. A particular focus will be to address the need to decarbonise and improve the environmental performance of inland waterway transport, particularly when operating close to urban areas, as well as on future-proof infrastructure, compatible with digital and automation developments under a changing climate.
This coordination and support action will ensure an active participation of key industrial stakeholders, the Waterborne Technology Platform, Member States administrations, industry associations and river commissions.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of up to EUR 0.7 million for sub-topic 1); of up to EUR 1.3 million for sub topic 2) and of up to EUR 2 million for sub topic 3) would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
- Contribute to a wide dissemination of the results of European transport research, broaden stakeholder engagement and raise the visibility and weight of the EU policy in the field.
- Increase the attractiveness of transport related studies and reinforce the pursuit of excellence and impact in European transport research and innovation, by giving recognition and visibility to the best achievements.
- Creating links and exchanges between research and innovation stakeholders and policy makers, thus improving the development and deployment of innovative solutions for transport in Europe.
- Increase the impacts and take up of the outcomes from EU research and innovation and broaden engagement beyond those already familiar with EU research programmes.
- Promotion and development of the inland waterway sector: increasing awareness so as to increase usage of Inland waterway transport. Identify best practices and increase their take up and faster modernisation of the inland fleet. Provide a knowledge exchange, discussion and promotion platform; strengthen the coordination between national, EU and industrial research across waterborne transport and the wider logistics chain. Working together with the waterborne platform, assist in assessing current/future EU R&I programmes, implementation actions, technology assessments, forecasts and transfer of R&I solutions. Improve the environmental performance of inland waterways and contribute to future-proof infrastructure, compatible with digital and automation developments under a changing climate.
Deadline: 21 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
The proposals should cover all following aspects:
- Provide a comparative analysis of the transportation data regulation across all transport modes in the EU;
- Identify transport flows for which digitalised processes and transport data exchange will make most impact;
- Identify functional requirements and possible frameworks for data sharing across the transport system and with the public sector where appropriate – in particular through a federation of various cloud solutions (a Transport Cloud), taking into account the FAIR data principles as well as the private data sharing principles, including B2G and B2B data sharing;
- Building on existing standards / specifications that have been adopted by the EU or nationally e.g. DCAT-AP, propose standards for transport data sharing (including formatting, metadata descriptions, etc.) that would strike an appropriate balance between sharing data and proprietary rights. Proposals should clearly define the field of data, for which a standard shall be considered;
- Analyse the relationships between private and public stakeholders (on local, regional, national, EU and global level) and their differing approaches to data sharing principles;
- Examine the role of data sharing culture in the future development of any data sharing cloud based solutions, analyse methods that foster trust in transport data networks;
Consider commercial and competitive risks of data sharing on an international scale as well as the potential for the EU to set global standards for data sharing;
- Identify main privacy and security issues associated to data sharing, including preventing data misuse;
- Identify appropriate governance structures and/or processes for the establishment of a possible Transport Cloud building as much as possible on the existing frameworks and initiatives.
Proposals should identify and build on the most relevant previously funded EU and national projects and reports such as Transforming Transport, BigDataEurope, NOESIS, LeMO, OPTIMUM, SELIS, AEOLIX, oneTRANSPORT, EfficienSea 2 etc. A structured method of building up on the achievements of the selected projects should be proposed. Proposals should include an effective mix of private and public actors both from the transport and transport research domains.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 2 and 3 million would allow the specific challenge to be addressed appropriately.
Expected Impact:
The research will consolidate knowledge from the most important projects and initiatives implemented to date in the domain of transport data sharing. It will further build on that knowledge base by identifying new variables, requirements and standards necessary for a successful setting up data usage and sharing mechanisms in the transport sector (both passenger and freight).
Improved data sharing will help extract maximum value from the available transport big data, contribute to wider data sharing amongst the transport stakeholders, and lead to improved products and services. It will secure better understanding and opportunities for transport flow prediction and optimisation, which in turn will improve transport system effectiveness.
The outcomes of research will also lead to strengthening of the digital transport ecosystem by fostering the culture of trust and collaboration among the various stakeholders.
Deadline: 21 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Proposals should address all of the following aspects:
- Identify major conceptual, methodological and technical needs for analysis, monitoring and assessment of new and emerging mobility trends and solutions.
- Examine how conventional concepts and variables such as, for example, efficiency, reliability, safety, comfort and security evolve with the new mobility concepts and the new societal and industrial structures to which the future transport network will provide services.
- Identify major new concepts and variables that play an increasingly important role in transport/mobility analysis, and devise methods to estimate/quantify them.
- Elaborate advanced methods and tools for monitoring, assessment and analysis of mobility solutions.
- Review and assess a range of options for collecting and using new data, through new data collection and management approaches, as well as new methods and tools to exploit data (such as, for example, ‘Big Data’), taking into account different type of variables such as gender, age, ethnicity, etc. when relevant.
Proposals can choose to focus either on passenger or logistics/freight sectors. Proposals should build on the latest state of the art in the research domain.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 1 and 2 million would allow the specific challenge to be addressed appropriately.
Expected Impact:
Research will result in designing an up to date set of concepts, methods and tools that respond to the emerging disruptive technologies and solutions and that can be used in support of transport/mobility researchers, planners and policy makers. They will contribute to generating new knowledge and capabilities and serve for the purposes of effective implementation of innovative transport polices.
Deadline: 21 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Critically examine the criteria/objectives on which the actual mobility culture has been based. In a world engaged to reducing CO2emission, are criteria such as speed and efficiency still relevant? What can be the role of non-motorised transport modes, especially on short distance? Etc.
- Consider a future being shaped by changes in lifestyles, environmental and climate concerns (COP 21 and the SDGs), and the emergence of new values in order to better understand the mobility of the future, taking into account different type of variables such as gender, age, ethnicity, etc. when relevant. Propose (an) alternative mobility narrative(s) – well beyond the implicit assumption of useful mobility – with respect for the environmental boundaries of the planet and the wellbeing of the people.
- Develop a strategy for the transport policy of the future (passenger and freight), based on an alternative mobility narrative. Therefore launch a forward looking exercise and build scenarios with a roadmap for implementing this strategy. Develop a holistic and cross-sector policy approach, as required by COP 21 and the SDGs, to ensure that economic, social and environmental challenges are addressed together.
- Stimulate the creation of networks and structures with the main transport research and innovation stakeholders (public administrations, companies, universities, citizens, etc.) around which visions and strategies can emerge and converge.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 0.5 and 1 million would allow the specific challenge to be addressed appropriately.
Please note that this topic will take the form of lump sums as defined in Commission Decision C(2017)7151 of 27 October 2017. Details of the lump sum funding pilot scheme are published on the Funding & Tenders Portal together with the specific Model Grant Agreement for Lump Sums applicable.
Expected Impact:
- (A) new mobility culture(s) would have an important role in opening up new ideas and opportunities and in building strategies for the sustainable transport policy of the future.
- A forward looking perspective on the European mobility culture of tomorrow would enable Horizon Europe to play a more strategic role in shaping and enabling a transformative transport (research) policy, working hand in hand with citizens and local communities.
- The new mobility paradigm would contribute to building innovative ecosystems, which provide the supportive environments for the transformation process to flourish and be disseminated widely.
Deadline: 21 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
All following aspects should be addressed:
- Develop standardised methods to measure and assess the impacts from underwater noise generated by shipping and boats. Consideration should be given to the acute and cumulative effects on different water species in rivers and at sea including marine mammals.
- Establish a stakeholder group of researchers within the domain of underwater noise assessment and mitigation together with other relevant actors including for example NGO’s, marine and waterway authorities, industry, ship owners, naval industry etc. Use this group to support methodology and standards development as well as its wide spread take up.
- Identify, quantify and validate any negative impacts from different types and amplitudes of underwater noise from shipping and boats.
- Propose the most effective feasible solutions to mitigate the effects of underwater noise and to establish appropriate limits.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of up to EUR 8 million would allow the specific challenge to be addressed appropriately.
Expected Impact:
To enable appropriate mitigation measures, increase understanding of the short and long term environmental impacts of underwater noise from shipping and boats. Identification of the most harmful underwater noise characteristics and the acute and longer term impacts on different organisms including marine mammals. Establishment of standards which can be widely adopted for underwater noise measurement to increase the comparability of data between research programs. Develop cost effective solutions to measure underwater radiated noise from shipping. Identification and assessment of solutions to reduce harm from underwater noise. Develop innovative solutions to reduce the most harmful radiated shipping noise. Provide a foundation for policy. Support implementation of the marine strategy framework directive.
Deadline: 21 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
5. Klimaschutz, Umwelt, Ressourceneffizienz und Rohstoffe
6. Europa in einer sich verändernden Welt: integrative, innovative und reflektierende Gesellschaften
7. Sichere Gesellschaften - Schutz der Freiheit und Sicherheit Europas und seiner Bürger
Proposals under this topic should provide an EU AI roadmap for LEAs, meeting their specific operational and cooperation needs, by identifying, in a longer-term perspective: the key areas in which AI would be beneficial for LEAs, the key areas in which it could pose a threat to security, cybersecurity requirements for AI based technologies in use or to be used by LEAs as well as means of prevention and mitigation of malicious use of AI for criminal activities. As such this project would not only need to continuously interact (in a cluster mode) with projects funded under SU-AI02-2020 and SU-AI03-2020 but also provide recommendations for further work to be done under Horizon Europe, Digital Europe, or the Internal Security Fund as well as for policy and market uptake. The objective is to develop a research roadmap that provides answers to, e.g., following questions: What are and will be the AI needs of LEAs in their daily work? What are the major research gaps in the area of AI in support of LEAs? What are the challenges that need to be addressed, both from the fighting crime, including cybercrime and terrorism, and from improving cybersecurity (re)actions? Which approaches might be desirable? What needs to be set up for test and evaluation? How to prevent and mitigate malicious use of AI for criminal activities and terrorism?
Starting from these considerations, proposals must demonstrate commitment to produce recommendations that are updated continuously, and at least every 6 months, about the following lines of actions: which AI based technologies, systems and solutions could support/enhance the work of LEAs and how, what the corresponding restraints (including ethical and legal) are, as well as related risks, security challenges and protection measures. The proposal shall provide specific real-life LEAs scenarios, examples and evidence supporting their recommendations. The proposing consortium is expected to incorporate relevant security practitioners, researchers, civil society organisations and LEAs.
As indicated in the Introduction of this call, proposals should foresee resources for clustering activities with other projects funded under this call to identify synergies and best practices.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of around EUR 1.5 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
Short term:
- Effective contribution to the overall actions of this call;
Medium and longer term:
- In the longer term perspective, identification of key areas in which AI would be beneficial for LEAs, meeting their operational and collaborative needs, and of key areas in which it could pose a threat to security;
- A carefully planned roadmap in order for Law Enforcement to benefit as much as possible from the AI based technologies, systems, solutions, including their protection;
- Increased awareness regarding the state of the art and trends in AI-based criminal activities (short-, mid- and long-term).
Deadline: 27 August 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Proposals are invited against one of the following sub-topics:
(a): Protecting citizens' security, privacy and personal data
Proposals should bring innovative solutions to personal data protection, develop new applications and technologies in order to help citizens to better monitor and audit their security, privacy and personal data protection, enabling them to become more engaged and active in the fight against cyber, privacy and personal data protection risks.
These solutions should include innovative approaches, techniques and user-friendly tools for: (1) improving resilience against privacy and personal data protection risks (e.g. personal data breaches) and cyber threats (e.g. profiling, eavesdropping, data misuse); (2) identifying, removing and reporting potential harmful content (e.g. apology of criminal acts, unhealthy or self-harming habits) and abusive interactions (e.g. harassment, unsolicited communications); (3) exercising citizens' right to erasure ("right-to-be-forgotten") and data portability; (4) providing citizens with transparent information about their privacy and personal data protection[4] level and empowering them to modulate it at any moment of their digital activities (e.g. by activating encryption); (5) protecting or providing rights for any access/audit/interference with citizens' "smart terminals" or their Internet-based communications in a data protection compliant way; (6) developing on-line help-desks services or "one-stop-shop" informing, helping citizens in dealing with any security and/or privacy incident and data (including personal data) protection breach, and enabling them in reporting any cyber or privacy related incident and data (including personal data) protection breach. Such approaches need to build bridges/synergies with data protection authorities and CERTs/CSIRTs. To better respond to the needs and expectations of the end-users, proposals should engage the end-users by involving them in the design and implementation, in order to ensure the usability and acceptability of the proposed solutions. In addition, assurance and transparency about the digital security, privacy and personal data protection levels embedded in products and services should be easily accessed, identified and monitored by all citizens, independently of their physical condition or ICT skills, by developing appropriate innovative solutions.
The outcome of the proposal is expected to lead to development up to Technology Readiness level (TRL) 7; please see Annex G of the General Annexes.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 4 and 5 million would allow this specific challenge under sub-topic (a) to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
(b): Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and Micro Enterprises (SMEs&MEs): defenders of security, privacy and personal data protection
Proposals should deliver innovative solutions to increase the knowledge sharing in digital security across SMEs&MEs and between SMEs&MEs and larger providers. The user SMEs&MEs should be supported by democratizing access to tools and solutions of varied sophistication level, to allow SMEs&MEs benefitting from innovative targeted solutions addressing their specific needs and available resources (currently reserved to larger organisations, due to their cost and availability of internal expertise).
The proposals should develop targeted, user-friendly and cost-effective solutions enabling SMEs&MEs to: (1) dynamically monitor, forecast and assess their security, privacy and personal data protection risks; (2) become more aware of vulnerabilities, attacks and risks that influence their business; (3) manage and forecast their security, privacy and personal data protection risks in an easy and affordable way; (4) build on-line collaboration between SMEs&MEs associations and with CERTs/CSIRTs, enabling thus individual SMEs&MEs to report any incident.
In addition, tools and processes should be proposed to facilitate the participation of user SMEs&MEs in cyber ranges for cybersecurity.
The outcome of the proposal is expected to lead to development up to Technology Readiness level (TRL) 7; please see Annex G of the General Annexes.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 3 and 4 million would allow this specific challenge under sub-topic (b) to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Projects should also foresee activities and envisage resources for clustering with other projects funded under this topic and with other relevant projects in the field funded by H2020.
Expected Impact:
- Citizens and SMEs&MEs are better protected and become active players in the Digital Single Market, including implementation of the NIS directive and the application of the General Data Protection Regulation.
- Security, privacy and personal data protection are strengthened as shared responsibility along all layers in the digital economy, including citizens and SMEs&MEs.
- Reduced economic damage caused by harmful cyber-attacks and privacy incidents and data (including personal data) protection breaches.
- Pave the way for a trustworthy EU digital environment benefitting all economic and social actors.
Deadline: 27 August 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
The proposals should demonstrate how the actual EPES can be made resilient to growing and more sophisticated cyber and privacy attacks and data breaches (including personal data breaches) taking into account the developments of the grid towards a decentralised architecture and involving all stakeholders. The proposals should demonstrate the resilience of the EPES through the design and implementation of adequate measures able to make assets and systems less vulnerable, reducing its expositions to cyberattacks. Different scenarios of attacks with the expected potential disruptive effects on the EPES should be envisaged and the relative counteracting measures should be designed, described, tested (sandboxing, simulations) on a representative energy demonstrator to verify effectiveness. Depending on the specific application, the proposal should apply measures to new assets or to existing equipment where data flows were not designed to be cyber protected (e.g. SCADA, ICS). The proposals shall implement the following series of activities to make the electric system cyber secure: (i) assessing vulnerabilities and threats of the system in a collaborative manner (involving all stakeholders in the energy components provision supply chain); (ii) on that basis, designing adequate security measures to ensure a cyber-secure system and describing the advantages of the solutions adopted compared to others and which aim to guarantee the level of cybersecurity and resilience vital for EPES in an evolving system; (iii) implementing both organisational and technical measures in representative demonstrator to test the cyber resilience of the system with different types of attacks/severity; and (iv) demonstrating the effectiveness of the measures with a cost-benefit analysis. The activities may include the testing of micro-grid and/or islanding as a means to reduce the vulnerability to cyber-attacks.
The proposals shall also (i) develop security information and event management system collecting logs and other security-related documentation for analysis that can also be used for information sharing across operators of essential infrastructures and CERTs; (ii) define cybersecurity design principles with a set of common requirements to inherently secure EPES; (iii) formulate recommendations for standardisation and certification in cybersecurity at component, system and process level; and (iv) propose policy recommendations on EU exchange of information.
The dimension of pilots/demonstrators should be at large scale level (e.g. neighbourhood, city, regional level), involving generators, one primary substation, secondary substations and end users. The proposals are encouraged to include the following types of entities: TSO, DSO, electricity generators, utilities, equipment manufacturers, aggregators, energy retailers, and technology providers.
The proposals may refer to Industry 4.0 and other proposals and/or projects dealing with cybersecurity in energy.
Projects should also foresee activities and envisage resources for clustering with other projects funded under this topic and with other relevant projects in the field funded by H2020, in particular under the BRIDGE initiative.
The outcome of the proposal is expected to lead to development up to Technology Readiness level (TRL) 7; please see Annex G of the General Annexes.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 6 and 8 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
- Built/increased resilience against different levels of cyber and privacy attacks and data breaches (including personal data breaches) in the energy sector.
- Ensured continuity of the critical business energy operations and resilience against cyberattacks, including large scale, demonstrating effective solutions to a) the real-time constraints of an electric system, b) barriers to the cascading effect and c) the adaptation of legacy equipment or their coexistence with state of the art technology.
- The energy sector is better enabled to easily implement the NIS directive.
- A set of standards and rules for certification of cybersecurity components, systems and processes in the energy sector will be made available.
- Cyber protection policy design and uptake at all levels from management to operational personnel, in the energy sector.
- Manufacturers providing more accountability and transparency, enabling third parties monitoring and auditing the privacy, data protection and security of their energy devices and systems.
Deadline: 27 August 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
The Lisbon Treaty enables the EU to act to develop itself as an area of freedom, security and justice. The EU Security Union is now in the building, and requires an EU-wide approach to security that integrates prevention, investigation and mitigation capabilities in the area of the fight against crime.
The globalisation of communications and finance infrastructure allows crime to develop and take new forms. Trafficking in human beings for all forms of exploitation purposes is a serious and organised crime often with cross-border dimension, violating fundamental rights of the individuals and creating a security challenge. Prevention of child sexual abuse and exploitation is another area where research is acutely needed. The use of the internet as a platform for child sex offenders to communicate, store and share child sexual exploitation material and to hunt for new victims continues to be one of the internet’s most abhorrent aspects. Cybercriminality, as a whole, is not satisfactorily understood nor properly addressed; the constantly expanding attack surface combined with the ever increasing number of attack vectors requires a more structured approach. Radicalisation is yet another challenge of our society that requires a multi-disciplinary approach, with policy recommendations and practical solutions to be implemented by a variety of policy-makers and practitioners.
Proposed approaches need to rely on existing knowledge and to exclude approaches that have previously failed. The societal dimension of fight against crime and terrorism should be at the core of the proposed activities. Proposals should be submitted by consortia involving relevant security practitioners and civil society organisations, each under only one of the following sub-topics:
Sub-topic: [2018, 2020] New methods to prevent, investigate and mitigate trafficking of human beings and child sexual exploitation – and on the protection of victims
Globalisation and technological developments facilitate trafficking in human beings and child sexual exploitation. A variety of preventive measures, as well as measures to ensure adequate victim protection and assistance are needed, that build upon advances in social sciences and humanities.
Proposals in this subtopic should address both phenomena in a balanced way. They should ensure that the research focuses on prevention, investigation and/or assistance related to all victims of trafficking and not only addressing child trafficking. In the same way, the proposals should cover any area concerning prevention, investigation and/or assistance to victims of child sexual exploitation, not only the assistance to victims of child sexual exploitation resulting from trafficking.
With respect to the trafficking of human beings, research should bear on:
- preventing the phenomenon and to reduce the demand for all forms of exploitation in the trafficking chain and its legal and illegal sectors. The analysis of possible involvement of organized crime groups implicated in trafficking of human beings in other crimes as well (e.g., financial crimes) is recommended;
- new approaches to investigate cases involving the trafficking of human beings;
- new approaches to mitigate the impact on victims in the short and long term.
Regarding child sexual exploitation:
- how to address new threats, such as live-streaming of child abuse and coercion and extortion of victims that have escalated in the last years;
- how to provide law enforcement with effective means to detect, investigate and bring down the many peer-to-peer networks and the growing number of forums on the darknet that facilitate the exchange of child sexual exploitation material and support offenders;
- how to help victims of abuse during criminal investigations and court procedures;
- how to help the victims in the long term, to help them deal with the effects;
- how to reduce risks of (re-)offending by better understanding the behaviour of abusers and potential abusers.
Sub-topic: [2020] Developing evidence-based approaches to evaluate and to further develop initiatives to prevent and counter violent radicalisation
The following issues are of particular interest: factors and pathways into radicalisation; factors influencing resilience to radicalisation, with a focus on groups requiring particular attention (such as children); the nexus between violent extremism and other forms of crime; violent extremism online (e.g., social media) and terrorist propaganda; evaluation and impact of counter-narratives and alternative narratives; how to address returnees, with a focus on children and women; dealing with extremists after their release from prison (and involving penitentiary services and legal authorities);gender and socio-economic aspects of radicalisation; challenges related to the lone actor phenomenon and evaluation of national and local prevent strategies. The objective of this sub-topic is not to support projects which cover all those issues. Proposals should therefore address one or more of the issues mentioned above. They should take into account the importance of a multi-disciplinary, multi-agency and multi-stakeholder approach.
Proposals should refer to evidence-based research that compares and distils various approaches to the issue or issues that they are addressing, providing outcomes which are of direct use for policy makers and practitioners. Proposals should furthermore provide quantitative and/or qualitative indicators to allow for the evaluation of prevent, counter and de- radicalisation initiatives. The proposals could also analyse and evaluate different research methodologies in this field. Proposals should build on the expertise of different disciplines and stakeholders, including practitioners, in order to reflect the horizontal challenge of radicalisation.
The aim is not necessarily to develop new responses, but to focus on comparative analyses and evaluations of existing responses in order to identify transferrable and effective approaches based on what has been done so far, and/or to elaborate performance indicators and/or evaluation methods.
In line with the EU's strategy for international cooperation in research and innovation (COM(2012)492), international cooperation is encouraged.
If appropriate, the proposals should demonstrate how they will effectively build on relevant previous and on-going EU funded (including but not limited to the Internal Security Fund - Police) radicalisation projects.
Expected Impact:
Medium term:
- improved and consolidated knowledge among EU Law Enforcement Agencies officers on the issues addressed in this topic;
- exchange of experiences among EU Law Enforcement Agencies about human, social and societal aspects of security problems and their remedies;
- policy-making toolkits for security policy-makers, to support the establishment of a European Security Model;
- toolkits for EU Law Enforcement Agencies and/or civil society organisations, validated against practitioners' needs and requirements to facilitate their daily operations.
Long term:
- European common approaches for assessing risks/threats, and identifying and deploying relevant security measures, which take into account legal and ethical rules of operation, cost-benefit considerations, as well as fundamental rights such as the rights to privacy, to protection of personal data and the free movement of persons;
- support towards the implementation of the European Security Union by strengthening the perception by citizens of the EU as an area of freedom, justice and security;
- advances through the cross-fertilisation of concepts resulting from the collision of different ways of thinking and of different approaches developed by various partners in the proposals.
Deadline: 27 August 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Proposals under this topic should aim at exploring use of AI in the security dimension at and beyond the state-of-the-art, and exploiting its potential to support LEAs in their effective operational cooperation and in the investigation of traditional forms of crime where digital content plays a key role, as well as of cyber-dependent and cyber-enabled crimes. On the one hand, as indicated in “Artificial Intelligence – A European Perspective”, AI systems are being and will increasingly be used by cyber criminals, so research into their capabilities and weaknesses will play a crucial part in defending against such malicious usage. On the other hand, Law Enforcement will increasingly engage in active usage of AI systems to reinforce investigative capabilities, to strengthen digital evidence-making in court and to cooperate effectively with relevant LEAs. Consequently, proposals should:
- develop AI tools and solutions in support of LEAs daily work. This should include combined hardware and software solutions such as robotics or Natural Language Processing, in support of LEAs to better prevent, detect and investigate criminal activities and terrorism and monitor borders, i.e., opportunities and benefits of AI tools and solutions in support of the work of Law Enforcement and to strengthen their operational cooperation.
Building on existing best practices such as those obtained through the ASGARD project, proposals should establish a platform of easy-to-integrate and interoperable AI tools and an associated process with short research and testing cycles, which will serve in the short term perspective as a basis for identifying specific gaps that would require further reflection and development. This platform should, in the end, result in a sustainable AI community for LEAs, researchers and industry as well as a specific environment where relevant AI tools would be tailored to specific needs of the security sector, including the requirements of LEAs. Those AI tools would be developed in a timely manner using an iterative approach to define, develop and assess the most pertinent digital tools with a constant participation of end-users throughout the project. By the end of the project, the platform should also enable a direct access for Law Enforcement to an initial set of tools. Specific consideration should be given to the issue of setting an appropriate mechanism to enable a proper access to the relevant data necessary to develop and train AI based systems for security.
Proposals should also:
- develop cybersecurity tools and solutions for the protection of AI based technologies in use or to be used by LEAs, including those developed under this project against manipulation, cyber threats and attacks, and;
- exploit AI technologies for cybersecurity operation purposes of Law Enforcement infrastructures, including the prevention, detection and response of cybersecurity incidents through advanced threat intelligence and predictive analytics technologies and tools targeting Cybercrime units of LEAs, Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRTs) of LEAs, Police and Customs Cooperation Centers (PCCCs), Joint Investigation Teams.
Finally, in order to have the full picture of all AI-related issues in the domain of work of Law Enforcement and citizen protection, proposals should:
- tackle the fundamental dual nature of AI tools, techniques and systems, i.e.: resilience against adversarial AI, and prevention and protection against malicious use of AI (including malicious use of the LEA AI tools developed under this project) for criminal activities or terrorism.
The improvement of research results, application and uptake should be taken into consideration.
The functionality of existing EU LEAs' tools and systems needs to be analysed since they need to support the prevention, reaction and detection of cyber threats and security incidents.
Furthermore, the accuracy of AI tools depends on the quantity and on the quality of the training and testing data, including the quality of their structure and labelling, and how well these data represent the problem to be tackled. In the security domain, this issue is further emphasized due to the sensitivity of the data, which complicates the access to real multilingual datasets and the creation of representative datasets. A huge amount of up-to-date high-quality data needed to develop reliable AI tools in support of Law Enforcement, in the areas of cybersecurity and of the fight against crime, including cybercrime and terrorism, asks for the development of training/testing datasets at a European level. This requires a close cooperation of different national Law Enforcement and judiciary systems. Namely, training and testing data sets considered legal and used in one country have to be shared and accepted in another one, while simultaneously observing fundamental rights and substantial or procedural safeguards. The lack of legislation at the national and international level makes this particularly difficult. The availability of such datasets to the scientific community would ensure future advances in the field.
Thus, in order to address the problem of securing European up-to-date high-quality training and testing data sets in the domain of AI in support of Law Enforcement, proposals under this topic should, from a multidisciplinary point of view, identify, assess and articulate the whole set of actions that should be carried out in a coherent framework:
- A comparative analysis of existing legal provisions throughout Europe that apply in these cases and their impact, including obstacles for research community to access datasets used by LEAs and means of overcoming these obstacles;
- The identification and definition of legislative changes that could be promoted both at the European and Member State level;
- Ethical and operational implications for LEAs;
- The identification of the technical developments that should be carried out to sustain all these aspects;
- Determination of legal and ethical means at the European level that allow for a creation of European up-to-date, representative and large enough high-quality training and testing data sets for AI, in support of Law Enforcement and available to the scientific community working with LEAs.
Proposals should have a clear dissemination plan, ensuring the uptake of project results by LEAs in their daily work.
Taking into account the European dimension of the topic, the role of EU agencies supporting Law Enforcement should be exploited regarding:
- effective channels established between industry and LEAs, closing the gap between public investment and uptake of project results by relevant end-users in their daily work;
- increased exchange of experiences, best practices and lessons learnt throughout europe leading to EU common approaches for opportunity/risk assessment of AI;
- better understanding and readiness of policy makers on future trends in AI;
- enhanced cooperative operations and synergies between EU LEAs.
Proposals should take into account the existing EU and national projects in this field, as well as build on existing research and articulate a legal, ethical and practical framework to take the best out of the AI based technologies, systems and solutions in the security dimension. Whenever appropriate, the work should complement, build on available resources and contribute to common efforts such as (but not limited to) ASGARD, SIRIUS, EPE, networks of practitioners, AI4EU, or activities carried out in the LEIT programme, namely in Robotics, Big Data, and IoT. As proposals will leverage existing technologies (open source or not), they should show sufficient triage of these technologies to ensure no internalisation of Intellectual Property Rights or security risks as well as demonstrate that such technologies come with adequate license and freedom to operate.
As far as the societal dimension is concerned, proposed solutions of AI applications should respond to the needs of an individual and society as a whole by building and retaining trust. Proposals should analyse the societal implications of AI and its impacts on democracy. Therefore, the values guiding AI and responsible design practices that encode these values into AI systems should also be critically assessed. It should be also shown that the testing of the tools represents well the reality. In addition, AI tools should be unbiased (gender, racial, etc.) and designed in such a way that the transparency and explainability of the corresponding decision processes are ensured, which would, amongst other, reinforce the admissibility of any resulting evidence in court.
Proposals’ consortia should comprehend, besides industrial and research participants, relevant security practitioners, civil society organisations, experts on criminal procedure from a variety of European Member States and Associated Countries as well as LEAs. Proposals should ensure a multidisciplinary approach and have the appropriate balance of IT specialists as well as Social Sciences and Humanities experts.
As indicated in the Introduction of this call, proposals should foresee resources for clustering activities with other projects funded under this call to identify synergies and best practices.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of around EUR 17 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
Proposals should lead to:
Short term:
- Effective contribution to the overall actions of this call;
- Development of a European representative and large enough high-quality multilingual and multimodal training and testing dataset available to the scientific community that is developing AI tools in support of Law Enforcement;
- EU common approach to AI in support of LEAs, centralized efforts as well as solutions on, e.g., the issue of huge amount of data needed for AI.
Medium term:
- Improved capabilities for LEAs to conduct investigations and analysis using AI, such as a specific environment/platform where relevant AI tools would be tailored to specific needs of the security sector including the requirements of LEAs;
- Ameliorated protection and robustness of AI based technologies against cyber threats and attacks;
- Raised awareness and understanding of all relevant issues at the European as well as national level, related to the cooperation of the scientific community and Law Enforcement in the domain of cybersecurity and the fight against crime, including cybercrime and terrorism regarding the availability of the representative data needed to develop accurate AI tools;
- Raised awareness of the EU political stakeholders in order to help them to shape a proper legal environment for such activities at EU level and to demonstrate the added value of common practices and standards;
- Increased resilience to adversarial AI.
Longer term:
- Improved capabilities for trans-border LEA data exchange and collaboration;
- Modernisation of work of LEAs in Europe and improvement of their cooperation with other modern LEAs worldwide;
- A European, common tactical and human-centric approach to AI tools, techniques and systems for fighting crime and improving cybersecurity in support of Law Enforcement, in full compliance with applicable legislation and ethical considerations;
- Fostering of the possible future establishment of a European AI hub in support of Law Enforcement, taking into account the activities of the AI-on-demand platform;
- Making a significant contribution to the establishment of a strong supply industry in this sector in Europe and thus enhancing the EU’s strategic autonomy in the field of AI applications for Law Enforcement;
- Creation of a unified European legal and ethical environment for the sustainability of the up-to-date, representative and high-quality training and testing datasets needed for AI in support of Law Enforcement; as well as for the availability of these datasets to the scientific community working on these tools;
- Development of EU standards in this domain.
Deadline: 27 August 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Proposals under this topic should provide an exhaustive analysis of human, social and organisational aspects related to the use of AI tools, including gender related aspects, in support of Law Enforcement, both for cybersecurity and in the fight against crime, including cybercrime, and terrorism. Points of view and concerns of citizens as well as of Law Enforcement should be tackled. Based on this analysis, proposals should suggest approaches that are needed to overcome these concerns and that stimulate the acceptance of AI tools by civil society and by Law Enforcement. Proposals should lead to solutions developed in compliance with European societal values, fundamental rights and applicable legislation, including in the area of privacy, protection of personal data and free movement of persons. The societal dimension should be at the core of the proposed activities. Proposals should be submitted by consortia involving relevant security practitioners, civil society organisations as well as Social Sciences and Humanities experts.
As indicated in the Introduction of this call, proposals should foresee resources for clustering activities with other projects funded under this call to identify synergies and best practices.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of around EUR 1.5 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
Proposals should lead to:
Short term:
- Effective contribution to the overall actions of this call.
Medium term:
- Improved and consolidated knowledge among EU Law Enforcement Agency (LEA) officers on the issues addressed in this topic;
- Exchange of experiences among EU LEAs about human, social and organisational aspects of the use of AI in their work;
- Raised awareness of civil society about benefits of AI technologies in the security domain and opportunities it brings.
Longer term:
- European common approach for assessing risks/threats involved by using AI in the security domain, and identifying and deploying relevant security measures that take into account legal and ethical rules of operation, fundamental rights such as the rights to privacy, to protection of personal data and free movement of persons;
- Advances towards the implementation of the AI tools and technologies in support of Law Enforcement, in the areas of cybersecurity and fight against crime, including cybercrime, and terrorism, by strengthening the civil society perception of the EU as an area of freedom, justice and security.
Deadline: 27 August 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Proposals (which should take into account already existing tools) are invited to address related research and innovation issues, each under only one of the following sub-topic:
Sub-topic 3: [2020] Developing indicators of threats at the EU external borders on the basis of sound risk and vulnerability assessment methodologies
EU border guards have to deal with diverse serious challenges at external borders, e.g. management of flows of people, smuggling and the use of counterfeit documents. Arrivals of thousands of people through one border area will quickly trigger a reaction, whereas the detections of a few cases of document fraud on a daily basis will be considered as part of the routine work and is unlikely to trigger a strong reaction. Research that assesses the impacts on the EU’s internal security of different threats and that proposes a model to compare those threats would assist in improving the situational awareness of decision-makers across the EU. This research on external threats would also further enrich the vulnerability assessment tasks as defined in the European Border and Coast Guard Regulation.
Proposals should aim at improving the effectiveness of border control, including air, land and maritime borders, by developing dynamic composite indicators of threats, so that various threats occurring simultaneously at the border can be compared and priority for mitigation can be proposed. This should be based not only on the absolute number of detections at the border, but also on their synergies and inter-relationships, as well as on the impact that such detections may have on the internal security of the EU.
The fitness for purpose of the concepts proposed should be duly demonstrated in the relevant environment.
Proposals addressing other issues relevant to this challenge, based on a sound rationale, and supported by a large number of relevant practitioners are invited to apply under this sub-topic (see eligibility and admissibility conditions.)
Proposals should lead to solutions developed, tested and validated in compliance with European societal values, fundamental rights (including gender equality) and applicable legislation including in the area of free movement of persons, privacy and protection of personal data. Societal aspects (e.g. perception of security, possible side effects of technological solutions, societal resilience) have to be analysed in a comprehensive and thorough manner with a view to facilitating future acceptance of such solutions.
Proposals should pursue truly innovative approaches. They should be submitted by consortia also involving civil society organisations. Synergies are encouraged with the work for the knowledge centre on migration and demography set up by the Commission.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of about EUR 5 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
- Knowledge and evidence-based support to policy developments, with fitness for purpose validated by policy-makers and by practitioners and in cooperation with civil-society organisations in the Member States, the Associated Countries, and abroad where appropriate.
- Methods to better manage the complexity (from reducing the incentives for irregular migration, to the analysis and sharing of best practices, and towards an effective application of common rules…) of the issues, with fitness for purpose validated by practitioners and civil-society organisations.
- Advances through the cross-fertilisation of concepts resulting from the collision of different ways of thinking and of different approaches developed by various partners in the proposals.
- [2020] Contribution to the development of EU joint capabilities for border management and support to the implementation of policy priorities
Deadline: 27 August 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Proposals are invited to address related research and innovation issues, in particular:
Sub-topic: [2020] Disruptive technologies for non-intrusive identification of hidden goods
Detecting and identifying illegal goods hidden in containers, train cars and truck structures at EU external borders (e.g. ports, wharfs, rail yards, …) is a need shared by border guard, customs and law enforcement authorities. Illegal goods, including drugs, weapons, explosives, radiological and nuclear material, are trafficked into Europe by criminal organisations using a range of methods and tools, which are very diverse (e.g. to minimize the risk of detection during transportation, some drugs may be transformed into a liquid and turned back into a solid at destination) and adaptable to specific border conditions. These may also include taking advantage of new technology to facilitate access to containers.
Research should focus on the use of improved sensing technologies. The availability of a system of sensors producing a highly detailed, user friendly, 3-dimensional insight into the internal structure of a container (or truck), and the type of cargo carried, in a limited amount of time, would in particular be a valuable disruptive innovation for the customs and border inspection community. The system of sensors should be suitable for deployment and operation in a flexible and relocatable way, including mechanisms to improve field usability. The system should also allow for a swift gathering and exchange of information with other systems in order to facilitate a faster and more accurate localisation and identification of illicit cargo, without the need to open containers (this being a clear improvement when compared to current capabilities).
In line with the above, the newly developed solutions should allow for interoperability with state of the art and with foreseeable future border and customs information systems in order to optimise the overall container screening process using a risk-based approach.
Proposals should conduct testing and validation in the relevant environment.
Sub-topic: [2018-2019-2020] Open
Proposals addressing other issues relevant to this challenge, based on a sound rationale and supported by a large number of relevant practitioners are invited to apply under this sub-topic (see eligibility and admissibility conditions.)
Proposals should lead to solutions developed, tested, and validated in compliance with European societal values, fundamental rights and applicable legislation, including in the area of free movement of persons, privacy and protection of personal data. Societal aspects (e.g. perception of security, possible side effects of technological solutions, societal resilience) have to be addressed in a comprehensive and thorough manner.
The centre of gravity for technology development with actions funded under this topic is expected to be up to TRL 5 to 6 – see General Annex G of the Horizon 2020 Work Programme.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of about EUR 7 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
Short term:
- Clear, realistic benchmarks against which to assess progress, so as to possibly stop the project if at mid-term review progress is not deemed sufficient.
- Plan to provide confidence in the take up of project results after the completion of the project.
Medium term:
- Evidence based knowledge, and developments performing beyond the current state of the art and leading quickly to innovation.
- Technical and operational guidelines, recommendations and best practices set in the EUROSUR handbook and in the future handbook for coast guards (as per Article 53 of the European Border and Coast Guard regulation.)
Long term:
- Implementation of solutions resulting from the legislative initiative in the "Smart Borders" package;
- Implementation of actions of civilian nature identified in the EU Maritime Security Strategy action plan;
- Implementation of the actions identified by the EU Strategy and Action Plan for customs risk management.
Deadline: 27 August 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Proposals should be submitted under only one of the following sub-topics:
Sub-topic: [2020] Improved systems for the vessel tracking, behaviour analysis and automatic anomaly detection
Current maritime reporting systems (including ship reporting systems and container reporting systems) produce huge quantities of data which cannot be directly exploited by the human operators in the various maritime control centres. This is expected to be even more so in the near future, as the amount of data available shall increase with the introduction of VHF Data Exchange System (VDES). At the same time, non-homogenous sources of vessel information are accessible, these offer access to either open or proprietary data that could be used to perform risk analysis on each individual vessel navigating in, or on its way to, European waters.
Traditional reporting systems are not enough by themselves to allow for a reliable detection of anomalies. Therefore, research under this topic should focus on innovative solutions bringing together these three elements: reporting and surveillance systems data (e.g. containing information on a vessel journey), relevant information databases (containing vessels’ and/or containers’ historical information) and real or near real time data resulting from other reporting or surveillance sources. The aim is to provide more precise, more robust and earlier anomaly detection. The combination of these sources of information should produce a risk scoring figure to be assigned to specific vessels which could, in turn, facilitate the discovery of possible illegal activities carried out by those vessels.
The solutions should be based on implementation agnostic, innovative algorithms for artificial intelligence and machine learning, applied to existing ship reporting systems and maritime databases and information sources. These algorithms should exploit, when appropriate and without precluding other methods, the capacity of Artificial Intelligence-enabled solutions. The solutions should automatically allocate risk level to vessels according to risk measured on the basis of anomalies detected on the reporting systems and on a vessel’s previous history. Solutions should also take into account special requirements found when working with very large amounts of data, coming from a wide range of heterogeneous sources.
The fitness for purpose of the proposed solutions should be systematically tested and validated (i.e. planned, implemented, reported and assessed) in a real operational environment at the EU external borders under the control of potential end-users, delivering quantifiable, verifiable and comparable measures of effectiveness and performance. Proposals should recommend concrete approaches for their market uptake, taking into consideration the characteristics of the EU security market, business cases favourable for joint cross-border procurement and possible synergies with EU funding instruments.
Where appropriate, the use of CISE data and services model is encouraged. The research undertaken in previous projects (I2C, TRITON, MARISA..) should not be duplicated.
Sub-topic: [2018-2019-2020] Open
Proposals addressing other issues relevant to this challenge, based on a sound rationale and with the active involvement of a large number of relevant practitioners are invited to apply under this sub-topic (see eligibility and admissibility conditions.)
Proposals submitted under this topic should be coordinated by a competent authority under civilian authority and command, nationally identified as specialised border or coast guard, or border police force.
They should clearly demonstrate how they complement and do not overlap with actions undertaken in the Preparatory Action on Defence Research under topic PADR-US-01-2017: Technological demonstrator for enhanced situational awareness in a naval environment.
Certain operational costs are excluded from eligible costs (see eligibility and admissibility conditions.)
Proposals should lead to solutions developed in compliance with European societal values, fundamental rights and applicable legislation, including in the area of free movement of persons, privacy and protection of personal data.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of about EUR 5 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
Medium term:
- Innovative solutions validated and qualified in the real, operational environment of civilian missions, defined in detail according to specifications set by the practitioners (authorities in charge of border surveillance and coast guard functions) and tailored to effectively meet their requirements within civilian missions.
- Plans for the quick take up of qualified systems at EU level.
- Plans for transnational procurement strategies.
Long term:
- Improved cost-effectiveness and efficiency of systems for the prevention of cross border crime and for border surveillance for civilian purposes.
- European standards for interoperable systems.
- Substantial and tangible improvement of (maritime) situational awareness and reaction capability, as appropriate in surveillance for civilian purposes, fight against crime, and search and rescue missions by the National and European Border and Coast Guards.
- Contribution to the concept of Common Application of Surveillance Tools, as for the European Border Surveillance System (EUROSUR) and to its interoperability with other systems.
- [2020] Implementation of actions of civilian nature identified in the EU Maritime Security Strategy Action Plan.
Deadline: 27 August 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Proposals are invited to address related research and innovation issues, in particular:
Recent disasters related either to natural causes (including climate-related hazards) or to terrorist attacks have shown gaps in the level of preparedness of European society for disasters, and therefore highlighted the importance of increasing risk awareness, and hence resilience among people and decision-makers in Europe. There is much that can be learned from certain countries with a high level of risk of natural disasters (e.g. Japan with high-levels of risks of earthquakes, volcanic events, and tsunamis) and where risk awareness is high. Research is required with a view to how cultural changes among individuals, business managers, government officials, and communities can create a resilient society in Europe, in line with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.
Over the past few years several ways to exploit social media and other crowd-sourced data in emergency situations have been studied, and some put in place, but their impacts are not well known. Research is needed to assess such practices for different disaster scenarios (natural hazards, industrial disasters, terrorist threats) involving different actors, including first responders, city authorities and citizens. Research should analyse both the positive and negative roles of social media and crowd-sourced data in crisis situations. For instance in the wake of a terror attack or natural disaster they offer a quick and easy way to relieve friends and family from worry (where networks are not down), and they generate valuable information about the affected area in the first moments after a disaster; they have been used to spread early warnings and important safety information. However, social media may also be used to spread false statements and to overstate threats, so the validation processes of information should also be addressed. Social media itself is reliant upon the functioning of critical infrastructure such as phone networks and may not always be available. Research should also address solutions for communication between first responders and the victims and citizens in the affected area.
Research on risk awareness should encompass the whole of the disaster management cycle, from prevention (e.g. through education) and preparedness (knowing how to react), emergency management (collaboration and communication before and during an event), response (empowering citizens to act efficiently by themselves according to more effective practices and following established guidelines), and recovery (knowledge to build back better). Researchers should take into account tangible and intangible cultural heritage, traditional know-how, land use, construction technologies, and other local knowledge which is a valuable source of information for the local communities and can help prevent the creation of new risks, to reduce existing risks, to prepare for and to respond to disasters and to build back better.
Sub-issues to be addressed are diversity in risk perception (as a result of e.g. geography (within Europe), attitudes, institutional and social trust, gender and socio-economic contexts), in vulnerabilities and in understanding responses to crises in order to propose new approaches and strategies for community awareness, for leadership, and for crisis readiness and management with a particular emphasis on the use of new technologies.
For achieving disaster-resilient societies that cope with disasters and build back better, the research community needs to transfer research outputs in an appropriate manner to meet citizen expectations given the current levels of risk acceptance, risk awareness, and involvement of civil society organisations in a mediating role.
Civil society organisations, first responders, (national, regional, local, and city) authorities are invited to propose strategies, processes, and methods to enable citizens better to access research results related to disaster resilience, and to prepare the ground for exercises involving citizens. These strategies, processes, and methods should be tested with citizens and communities representative of European diversity and for different types of disaster, in particular with regards to citizens' individual capacities and their involvement in checking and validating proposed tools, technologies and processes for disaster management. Studies will assess the value of raising awareness about relevant research among citizens and communities.
Proposals should be submitted by consortia involving relevant security practitioners and civil society organisations. Research should contribute to the understanding of society's awareness to risks in Europe in order to provide recommendations for the development of a culture of improved preparedness, adaptability, and resilience to risks, including the use of social media and crowd-sourced data, and the involvement of the citizens in the investigations and possible validation of tools and methods.
In line with the objectives of the Union's strategy for international cooperation in research and innovation (COM(2012)497), international cooperation according to the current rules of participation is encouraged (but not mandatory).
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of about EUR 5 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately through multidisciplinary projects confronting different schools of thoughts. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
As a result of this action, Member States and Regional authorities as well as City and Metropolitan authorities should benefit from recommendations and tools aimed at improving the adaptability and preparedness of societies to different disaster risks, including:
- Comparative analysis of the European diversity in terms of risk-perception amongst citizens, and of vulnerabilities;
- Comparative analysis of different approaches to adapt to, and be prepared for risks in different countries (both within and outside the European Union), and among communities in precarious socio-economic conditions;
- Advances through the cross-fertilisation of concepts resulting from the collision of different ways of thinking and of different approaches developed by various partners in the proposals;
- Identification of existing tools and guidelines for an improved prevention (including risk understanding and communication), preparedness (including training involving citizens), alert systems and their recognition by citizens, responses using citizen's competencies and local knowledge, and recovery;
- Improved information exchanges among different actors involved, including first responders, local authorities, schools, and citizen representatives;
- Field-validation of different approaches related to different disaster risks involving the above actors, in representative urban and non-urban environments, including in areas where precarious socio-economic conditions prevail;
- Intensive sharing, among communities, of good practices and of learnings resulting from citizen-scientist interaction;
- A consolidated, common European understanding of disaster resilience.
Deadline: 27 August 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Proposals are invited to propose novel solutions improving the protection of first responders against multiple and unexpected dangers, or enhancing their capacities by addressing related research and innovation issues, in particular:
Sub-topic: [2020] Methods and guidelines for pre-hospital life support and triage
Development of innovative tools, methodologies and European pre-hospital guidelines for first responders of medical services, fire services and police and hospital trauma teams in order to ensure faster and more effective evaluation and control of numerous seriously injured casualties in disaster and/or emergency situations. This should take account of lessons learned from military mass-casualty techniques such as damage-control surgery. The aim is to ensure more effective pre-hospital triage of victims with appropriate digital traceability of actions and data transfer from the event to the hospital(s), including across administrative and political boundaries.
If appropriate, proposals should demonstrate how they will build on relevant previous and on-going FP7 and/or H2020 projects.
Sub-topic: [2018-2019-2020] Open
Other technologies for use by first responders may be subject of proposals provided that they involve a large number of first responders' organisations (see eligibility and admissibility conditions.) For instance, but not exclusively: communicating and smart wearables for first responders and K9 units including light-weight energy sources; situational awareness and risk mitigation systems for first responders using UAV and robots, connected and swarms of drones; systems based on the Internet of Things; solutions based on augmented or virtual reality; systems communication solutions between first responders and victims; risk anticipation and early warning technologies; mitigation, physical response or counteracting technologies; etc.
Any novel technology or methodology under this topic should be tested and validated, not just in laboratories but also in training installations and through in-situ experimental deployment. They therefore need to be quick to deploy, bases on resilient and robust communication infrastructure. First responders, including through interdisciplinary teams (e.g. involving medical emergency services, public health authorities, law enforcement team, civil protection professionals, etc.) need to be involved in these activities. Proposals should address the participation of first responders in a systematic manner, and propose new methods on how to involve them and to organise their interaction with researchers when developing, testing, and validating technologies and methods.
Solutions are to be developed in compliance with European societal values, fundamental rights and applicable legislation, including in the area of privacy, personal data protection and free movement of persons. Societal aspects (e.g. perception of security, possible effects of technological solutions on societal resilience, gender diversity) have to be taken into account in a comprehensive and thorough manner.
In line with the objectives of the Union's strategy for international cooperation in research and innovation (COM(2012)497), international cooperation according to the current rules of participation is encouraged (but not mandatory), in particular with Japanese or Korean research centres. Co-funding opportunities from the Japan Science and Technology Agency exist for Japanese partners. Co-funding opportunities from the Korean MSIP/NRF exist for Korean partners.
The centre of gravity for technology development with actions funded under sub-topics 1,2 and open is expected to be up to TRL 4 to 6, whereas under sub-topic 3 it is expected to be up to TRL 6 to 7 – see General Annex G of the Horizon 2020 Work Programme.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of about EUR 7 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
As a result of this action, first responders should benefit from:
- Novel tools, technologies, guidelines and methods aimed at facilitating their operations
- New knowledge about field-validation of different tools, technologies and approaches involving first responders in (real-life) scenarios
Deadline: 27 August 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Proposals are invited to address issues related to pre-standardisation, in particular:
Sub-topic 3: [2020] First aids vehicles deployment, training, maintenance, logistic and remote centralized coordination means
Improved standards and common communication data exchange mechanisms are required for an effective deployment of resources during the run-up to a major crisis related to any kind of disaster either natural (including resulting from climate-related extremes) or man-made, and immediately after the event, for example in case of a mass evacuation from an urban area. Proposals should target in particular events where there are strong cross-sector, cross-border, cross-hierarchy coordination activities ongoing, and therefore the issue of interoperability. The aim is to pave the way to improved standards, including voluntary Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and/or ISO or EN standards.
The centre of gravity for technology development with actions funded under this topic is expected to be up to TRL 6 to 7 – see General Annex G of the Horizon 2020 Work Programme.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of about EUR 6 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
Medium term:
- [2020] standards for an effective deployment of resources to respond to major crisis.
Deadline: 27 August 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
In 2019 and 2020 the Commission will select several RIAs aiming at research and development of novel CBRN technologies and innovations identified in the catalogue that is updated by the ENCIRCLE project on a regular basis. Each of these actions will be led by an SME. Each consortium implementing such a RIA must not only establish a consortium agreement among its members, but also an agreement with the participants in the ENCIRCLE project which must settle how the results from the RIA will be exploited and integrated into platforms managed by ENCIRCLE.
Where applicable, the complementarity of the proposed activities with activities supported by the European Defence Agency (EDA) should be described comprehensively.
The centre of gravity for technology development with actions funded under this topic is expected to be up to TRL 4 to 6 – see General Annex G of the Horizon 2020 Work Programme.
Indicative budget: The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of about EUR 3.5 million per action for this topic to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
The following options of the Model Grant Agreement will be implemented:
- Option 1 of Article 41.3 of the Model Grant Agreement will be applied.
- Grants awarded under this topic will be complementary to the grant agreement under SEC-05-DRS-05-2016-2017 part a). The respective options of Article 2, Article 31.6 and Article 41.4 of the Model Grant Agreement will be applied.
Expected Impact:
- Shorter time to market for novel CBRN technologies and innovations
- More business deals leading to industrial products of interest to more practitioners in Europe (and world-wide).
Deadline: 27 August 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Proposals are invited to address one of the sub-topics below. In addition, it would be an asset for proposals to include solutions for hands-on and state-of-the-art training, such as cybersecurity exercises.
Four pilot projects are launched under Horizon 2020 LEIT ICT, as a result of the call H2020-SU-ICT-2018, topic SU-ICT-03-2018 “Establishing and operating a pilot for a Cybersecurity Competence Network to develop and implement a common Cybersecurity Research & Innovation Roadmap”. Proposals should therefore foresee actions to collaborate with these four projects and also with similar ongoing projects funded under H2020, and take account of the results and work done in other relevant H2020 projects on cybersecurity/privacy.
SME participation is strongly encouraged.
(a): Dynamic governance, risk management and compliance
Proposals should develop and integrate beyond state-of-the-art approaches to security and privacy management which are: automated, dynamic and adaptive, allowing to identify the vulnerabilities, threats, such as advanced persistent threats, and attacks (including zero-day attacks).
Proposals should include pilots with significant scale involving complex ICT systems and addressing several of the following: forecasting, risk-based situation awareness, evidence-based system and software assessment, visualisation techniques, real-time monitoring and alerts with high level of accuracy, support to fair automated decision-making, run-time adaptation and autonomous recovery from faulty states.
Proposals should address the technical, operational, financial and ethical dimensions of cybersecurity. Concrete application cases should be foreseen. Adapted tools, techniques and formats for collaborative security/privacy event management and reporting should be proposed. Solutions involving advanced, highly representative simulation environments (cyber-ranges) might be proposed.
The outcome of the proposal is expected to lead to development up to Technology Readiness level (TRL) 7; please see Annex G of the General Annexes.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 2 and 5 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Type of Action: Innovation Action
(b): Cyber-threat information sharing and analytics
Proposals should develop and test threat detection frameworks, which should to the extent possible include: (i) collaborative, open, and dynamic repositories of information on threats and vulnerabilities; (ii) build on and update existing ontologies, taxonomies and models; (iii) dynamic tools for automated detection with advanced analytic capabilities, and where possible response and recovery; (iv) accountability and audit techniques; and (v) synchronised real time self- encryption/decryption schemes with recovery capabilities.
Novel technologies enabling collaboration in cyber threat intelligence and alerting should be proposed, taking into consideration not only technical aspects, but also human aspects such as behavioural patterns, gender differences, privacy, ethics, sovereignty, psychology, linguistic and cultural boundaries.
The tools and services that will be developed should be in a position to support the operations of CERTs/CSIRTs and networks of CERTs/CSIRTs. Proposals should develop incident response tools and test respective processes for coordinated response to large-scale cross-border cybersecurity incidents and crises in line with Commission Recommendation (EU) 2017/1584 of 13 September 2017 on coordinated response to large-scale cybersecurity incidents and crises.
The outcome of the proposal is expected to lead to development up to Technology Readiness level (TRL) 7; please see Annex G of the General Annexes.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 2 and 5 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Type of Action: Innovation Action
(c): Advanced security and privacy solutions for end users or software developers
Proposals should develop automated tools for checking the security and privacy of data, systems, online services and applications, in view to support end users or software developers (possibly including developers of AI solutions) in their efforts to select, use and create trustworthy digital services. Proposals should address real application cases and at least one of the following services: automatic code generation, code and data auditing, trustworthy data boxes, forensics, certification and assurance, cyber insurance, cyber and AI ethics, and penetration testing.
The outcome of the proposal is expected to lead to development up to Technology Readiness level (TRL) 6; please see Annex G of the General Annexes.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 2 and 5 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Type of Action: Research and Innovation Action
(d): Distributed trust management and digital identity solutions
With particular consideration to IoT contexts, applicants should propose and test/pilot innovative approaches addressing both of the following points: (i) distributed, dynamic and automated trust management and recovery solutions; and (ii) developing novel approaches to managing the identity of persons and/or objects, including self-encryption/decryption schemes with recovery ability. Proposals should address real application cases.
The outcome of the proposal is expected to lead to development up to Technology Readiness level (TRL) 5-6; please see Annex G of the General Annexes.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 3 and 6 million would allow this area to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Type of Action: Research and Innovation Action
Expected Impact:
In the short term, project outcomes should make relevant contributions to the following:
- reduced number and impact of cybersecurity incidents;
- efficient and low-cost implementation of the NIS Directive and General Data Protection Regulation;
- effective and timely co-operation and information sharing between and within organisations as well as self-recovery;
- availability of comprehensive, resource-efficient, and flexible security analytics and threat intelligence, keeping pace with new vulnerabilities and threats;
- availability of advanced tools and services to the CERTs/CSIRTs and networks of CERTs/CSIRTs;
- an EU industry better prepared for the threats to IoT, ICS (Industrial Control Systems), AI and other systems;
- self–recovering, interoperable, scalable, dynamic privacy-respecting identity management schemes.
In the medium to long term, project outcomes should make relevant contributions to the following:
- availability of better standardisation and automated assessment frameworks for secure networks and systems, allowing better-informed investment decisions related to security and privacy;
- availability and widespread adoption of distributed, enhanced trust management schemes including people and smart objects;
- availability of user-friendly and trustworthy on-line products, services and business;
- better preparedness against attacks on AI-based products and systems;
- a stronger, more innovative and more competitive EU cybersecurity industry, thus reducing dependence on technology imports;
- a more competitive offering of secure products and services by European providers in the Digital Single Market.
Deadline: 27 August 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
There is a growing need to focus on technology opportunities provided by new and emerging technologies. To this end, it is necessary to identify new knowledge and targeted technologies for fighting old, new and evolving forms of criminal and terrorist behaviour supported by advanced technologies. Challenges are numerous. In conventional investigations, rapid and near real-time forensics is often crucial for preventing subsequent attacks or crimes. A consequence of the increasing digitisation of society and ever increasing adoption levels is that virtually any type of crime has a digital forensics component, which is a challenge in itself. Money-flow tracking represents yet another challenge. The issues of location and jurisdiction need to be addressed, taking into account highly probable cross-border nature of such crimes.
Proposals should be submitted under only one of the following sub-topics:
Sub-topic: [2020] Money flows tracking
Organized crime increasingly adopts technology (for example, pseudo-legal sales, shadow economy, internet/Darknet as well as cryptocurrencies) as a facilitator for preparation, organisation and execution of various physical/traditional criminal activities (e.g., child sexual abuse, trafficking of organs or human embryos, trafficking of human beings, trafficking of firearms, drug trafficking, money laundering and terrorism) and/or as a tool for online criminal activities (e.g., ransomware, domain-name piracy, phishing). Furthermore, there is a need for governing and detecting cross-border money flows with the potential to support terrorism, for reinforcing effective and legitimate public-private cooperation for the sharing of financial data, and for strengthening the effectiveness of current methods of countering terrorism financing and of modelling abnormal transactions in the fight against terrorism.
Research should address the following issues: approaches to identify new developments (new markets and networks; new modi operandi); tools for tracing money flows as well as those engaged in criminal activities online whilst ensuring privacy and protection of personal data; Darknet marketplace analysis and mobility; tools for locating and mapping hidden service directories; tools for forensic analysis of digital media in order to identify digital currency datasets; data provenance models (providing evidence that is admissible in court), including the relationship between algorithmic proof artefacts and legal evidence.
Sub-topic: [2020] Development and deployment of technologies, tools and relevant infrastructure to identify speedily terrorist content online, and prevent its re-upload
To address the threat of terrorist content online, the Commission has adopted a proposal for a Regulation on 12 September 2018.[2] Under the proposal a number of measures would be required to be taken by Member States (in particular law enforcement authorities)/Europol and hosting service providers. Hosting service providers from around the world (covering social media, cloud services, file sharing, etc.) offering their services to EU citizens would be required to put in place a certain number of measures, ranging from speedy reactive ones e.g. one hour deadline to remove or disable terrorist contents following a removal order from a Member State authority (considering that terrorist content is most harmful in the first hours of its appearance online) to proactive measures, including automated detection, in order effectively and swiftly to remove or to disable terrorist content and to stop it from reappearing and being disseminated once it has been removed.
Under the proposal, these measures would need to be implemented not only by large companies, but also by micro enterprises and SMEs, irrespective of size or turnover, albeit remaining proportionate. Putting in place such proactive/automated means is likely to create a burden on resources, hence mitigating measures for the benefit of smaller companies should be envisaged. Research should therefore be leveraged to support the development and deployment of technologies, tools and relevant infrastructure to identify speedily terrorist content online, and to prevent its re-upload. The media content analysis could play a relevant role in the development of tools for the active detection of harmful online behaviour (e.g. with natural language processing or image/video content analysis). The beneficiaries of such projects should include SMEs so as to ensure that the technology developed would be of direct relevance to their platforms. A further global take-up and dissemination of these technologies, tools and infrastructure where relevant should also be encouraged.
Sub-topic: [2018-2019-2020] Open
Proposals addressing other issues relevant to this challenge (for instance: technologies to improve LEAs capabilities (including augmented reality); autonomous systems to improve the fight against crime and terrorism; technologies to support better protection of public figures; tracking and monitoring technologies, including automated prevention of uploading terrorism-related content; capabilities to detect the widest possible range of threats and concealments (including complex concealed weapons)) and supported by a large number of practitioners are invited to apply under this sub-topic (see eligibility and admissibility conditions).
In all sub-topics and in order to facilitate the EU-wide take-up of new technologies, proposers are encouraged to include the design of innovative curricula for LEAs training and (joint) exercises, and of information packages for the wider public and civil society organisations.
Proposals should lead to solutions developed in compliance with European societal values, fundamental rights and applicable legislation including in the area of privacy and protection of personal data. Societal aspects (e.g. perception of security, possible side effects of technological solutions, societal resilience) have to be addressed in a comprehensive and thorough manner.
The centre of gravity for technology development with actions funded under this topic is expected to be up to TRL 4 to 6 – see General Annex G of the Horizon 2020 Work Programme.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of about EUR 7 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
Medium term:
- novel, user-friendly technologies, tools and/or systems, addressing traditional or emerging forms of crime and terrorism at acceptable costs;
- improved investigation capabilities, especially regarding quality and speed;
- increased efficiency and effectiveness of the information sharing among EU LEAs.
Long term:
- prevention/reduction of criminal and terrorist threats;
- harmonisation of information formats at international level, improved cross-border acceptance and exchange of court-proof evidence, standardised evidence collection and harmonised procedures in the investigation of trans-border crimes in full compliance with applicable legislation on protection of personal data.
Deadline: 27 August 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
The amount of data generated and gathered in the frame of (cyber)crime investigations increases exponentially, thereby creating a considerable challenge for law enforcement. The effectiveness of law enforcement action depends on capabilities to improve the quality of data, and to convert voluminous and heterogeneous data sets (images, videos, geospatial intelligence, communication data, traffic data, financial transactions related date, etc.) into actionable intelligence. These capabilities could be significantly enhanced by the use of domain-specific tools, i.e. Big Data analysis applications designed for the needs of crime investigators (pre-processing, processing and analysis, visualisation, etc.). Furthermore, predictive analytics would greatly benefit from open source intelligence gathering, social network and darknet data analysis, and allow for resource-efficient, effective and proactive law enforcement.
Examples of trends in cybercrime are numerous. The Internet of Things can potentially connect practically everything, thus also potentially making everything more vulnerable. Wearable devices make us traceable, 3D printers can produce weapons, autonomous cars provide opportunities for kidnappers, teleworking opens doors for cyber-espionage etc. Cybercriminals follow the technological development and benefit from it, while measures for countering cybercrime are often one step behind. Law Enforcement Agencies would benefit from new means of preventing and countering new kinds of crime, building on the comprehensive trend analysis of emerging cybercrime activities based on past of (cyber)criminal activities, on technological developments, and on trends in the society.
Criminal and terrorist acts are usually subsequent to patterns of abnormal behaviour. Behavioural/anomaly detection systems (using a large variety of sensors) and methodologies require the analysis and processing of enormous quantities of data, together with improved imaging techniques to allow for the identification of suspicious events or of criminals. Such systems should operate in near real-time and at similar distances as a surveillance camera. They should also comply with privacy requirements and the respect of fundamental rights such as the right to privacy and the right to protection of personal data.
Proposals are invited from consortia involving relevant security practitioners, civil society organisations, and the appropriate balance of IT specialists, psychologists, sociologists, linguists, etc. exploiting Big Data and predictive analytics that both (a) characterise trends in cybercrime and in cybercriminal organizations (based on a profound analysis of current and emerging cybercriminal organizational types and structures), and (b) enhance citizens' security against terrorist attacks in places considered as soft targets, including crowded areas (stations, shopping malls, entertainment venues, etc.).
In 2020, proposals should address exclusively point b), with a focus on private operators. Although public authorities are primarily responsible for security, public-private cooperation is key in protecting public spaces. As an example, the first persons on the scene of a terrorist attack are often not police officers, but private security staff from local shops or transport operators. Moreover, public spaces are often owned and operated by private entities.
Proposals should lead to solutions developed in compliance with European societal values, fundamental rights and applicable legislation including in the area of privacy and protection of personal data. Societal aspects (e.g. perception of security, possible side effects of technological solutions, societal resilience) have to be addressed in a comprehensive and thorough manner.
The centre of gravity for technology development with actions funded under this topic is expected to be up to TRL 5 to 7 – see General Annex G of the Horizon 2020 Work Programme.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of about EUR 8 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
Medium term:
- improved support for the work of Law Enforcement Agencies in managing Big Data, i.e. in extracting, combining, analysing and visualising large amounts of structured and unstructured data in the context of criminal investigations;
- increased awareness regarding the state of the art and trends in cybercriminal activities (short-, mid- and long-term);
- in-depth knowledge of means of preventing and countering emerging and future cybercriminal activities;
- improved capabilities to combine and analyse in near-real-time large volumes of heterogeneous data to anticipate criminal events;
- shorter delays between the emergence of new cybercrime activities and the deployment of countermeasures.
Long term:
- a European, common strategic approach for preventing and countering an emerging cybercrime activity in its early stage of development;
- a European, common strategic approach for processing and combining huge amounts of data in the context of crowd protection in full compliance with applicable legislation on protection of personal data.
Deadline: 27 August 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Research needs to anticipate and match this challenge by increasing the knowledge about these threats; developing technologies to counter and respond to incidents with them, improving knowledge on these dangerous chemicals and increasing deterrence messaging whilst also recognising the need to minimise the inconvenience that security measures place on operators and users of public spaces.
Proposals have to demonstrate how they will effectively build on relevant previous H2020 projects and build synergies with on-going H2020 projects.
Proposals should address only one of the following aspects:
- Proposals should focus on the continuation of the work already done on some explosive precursors in previous FP7 and H2020 projects, including; tackling new precursors not yet studied.
- Proposals should tackle the chemicals and potentially their precursors in the usage other than explosives and explosive precursors covered under the first point, and propose means to decrease the vulnerability of the public to their malevolent or terrorist use, along the full timeline of a potential criminal/terrorist plot (from early intelligence to the actual attack).
The centre of gravity for technology development with actions funded under this topic is expected to be up to TRL 6 to 7 – see General Annex G of the Horizon 2020 Work Programme.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of about EUR 5 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
Short term:
- Improved knowledge of dangerous chemicals and of their combinations;
- Improved effectiveness of the supporting methods and techniques as well as of combinations of technologies used to prevent their use and to detect them before they are used;
- Improved mitigation methods, including designing strategies and forensic tools.
Medium/Long term:
- Contribution to improving public security;
- Factual scientific contribution to policy-makers in order to allow them to make an informed decision;
- Stronger involvement of practitioners in the field of counter-terrorist activities in making, assessing and selecting new tools and technologies through reliable management plans.
- Improving the training of law enforcement officers in this field and the cooperation at local, national and international level.
Deadline: 27 August 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Practitioners are invited to associate in 3 different categories of networks in the field security:
a) [2019-2020] Practitioners (end-users) in the same discipline and from across Europe are invited to get together: 1) to monitor research and innovation projects with a view to recommending the uptake or the industrialisation of results, 2) to express common requirements as regards innovations that could fill capability and other gaps and improve their future performance, and 3) to indicate priorities as regards areas requiring more standardisation. Opinions expressed and reported by the networks of practitioners should be checked against what can be reasonably expected, and according to which timetable, from providers of innovative solutions. In 2019, proposals are invited to address the specific area of handling of hybrid threats in line with the existing EU policy framework..
In 2020 proposals are invited to cover one of the two following options:
Option 1: security and intelligence services
The persistent terrorist threat is becoming increasingly diverse and complex. Emerging technologies add to the threat, but also provide opportunities. Security and intelligence services of EU Member States and Schengen partners are playing an important role to keep European citizens safe. European technological autonomy is particularly important in the field of intelligence. Intelligence and security services may have research needs that are different from law enforcement. Using tools based on cutting edge technology will be key to the performance of the services in the 21st century. Therefore, a network of practitioners from security and intelligence services of EU Member States, Associated Countries and, possibly, Schengen partners would be important to add this specific perspective to the identification of future research needs.
Such a network could focus on interacting with relevant existing H2020 projects to provide input and feedback, on undertaking horizon scanning to identify emerging technologies and potential new threats and on identifying requirements for future research, which could include emerging technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence. In cooperation with the Commission, working methods would be identified to protect the specific requirements of the security and intelligence services participating in the consortium. The objective would be to support the needs of the security and intelligence services of the Member States, Associated Countries for future security research programming.
Option 2: fighting cybercrime
Several initiatives have been launched to identify existing gaps, and law enforcement authorities’ needs in the area of cybercrime, to assess new threats and to develop roadmaps. This work has led to targeted research and development projects. However, in the area of cybercrime, technology and the threats scenarios evolve at such a pace that this work needs continuous updating. An accurate mapping of specific capacities in Member State authorities is still missing. Moreover, as cybercrime and crimes committed online happen without regard to borders it is necessary to identify as far as possible common challenges and solutions, so as to maximise the impact of available resources. As cybercrime investigations and digital forensics require specific expertise and tools (which are also needed for investigating crimes committed online in general), a dedicated network of practitioners, led by law enforcement experts, with a specific focus on cybercrime and more generally on the handling of digital evidence could therefore have a clear added value for assessing needs and gaps that can be tackled by capacity building including through research. In this context, the network could contribute to better prioritising and planning future EU funded research by: 1. Liaising with the relevant stakeholders in order to anticipate future capability needs and gaps in the field of fighting cybercrime; 2. Cataloguing, aggregating, processing and exploiting knowledge about current and future state of the art of technologies which can contribute to filling the capability gaps; 3. Communicating relevant findings to the relevant communities thus providing the required feedback to the research cycle, as well as to other technological capacity building initiatives launched at EU or national level.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of about EUR 3.5 million per action for a duration of 5 years (recommended duration) for Part a) would allow for this topic to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
Medium term:
- Common understanding of innovation potential, more widely accepted understanding, expression of common innovation and standardization needs among practitioners in the same discipline.
- Greater involvement from public procurement bodies upstream in the innovation cycle.
- More efficient use of investments made across Europe in demonstration, testing, and training facilities.
Long term:
- Synergies with already established European, national and sub-national networks of practitioners, even if these networks are for the time being only dedicated to aspects of practitioners' work unrelated to research and innovation (in general, to the coordination of their operations).
Deadline: 27 August 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Sub-topic: [2020] Procurement of prototype systems among those specified as a result of Sub-topic 2019 (PCP)
The Commission invites practitioners involved in projects funded under Sub-topic 1 to submit proposals for this PCP stage based on requirements resulting from those projects.
Phase 1: To finalise the tendering documents package for a call for tenders to build security-relevant prototypes based on the technical input resulting from Sub-topic 1 of this Topic. To define clear verification and validation procedures, methods and tools for the evaluation of the prototypes to be developed throughout the PCP stages;
Phase 2: To implement the call for tenders for research and development services. The call for tenders should envisage a competitive development composed of different stages that would lead to at least 2 prototypes from 2 different providers to be validated in real operational environment at the end of the PCP cycle;
Phase 3: To conduct the competitive development of the prototypes following the PCP principles including, at least, a design stage, an integration and technical verification stage and a validation in real environment stage. This process should be assessed following the procedures for verification and validation defined in the Phase 1;
Phase 4: To consolidate the results of the evaluation of the developed prototypes, extract conclusions and recommendations from the validation process, and to define a clear strategy for the further uptake of solutions. This strategy should consider joint-cross border procurement schemes and exploit synergies with other EU funds.
Proposals must build on the outcomes of the projects funded under Sub-topic 1. In order to guarantee a successful implementation of the PCP, proposals must provide clear evidence that such projects have delivered concrete outcomes on the following aspects:
- That the challenge is pertinent and that indeed a PCP action is required to complete the maturation cycle of certain technologies and to compare different alternatives;
- That there is a consolidated group of potential buyers with common needs and requirements which are committed to carry out a PCP action in order to be able to take an informed decision on a future joint-procurement of innovative solutions;
- That there is a quantifiable and identifiable community of potential buyers (including and beyond those proposed as beneficiaries in the proposal) who would share to a wide extent the common needs and requirements defined and who would be interested in exploring further joint-uptake of solutions similar to those developed under the PCP, should these prove to be technologically mature and operationally relevant by the end of the project;
- That the state of the art and the market (including research) has been explored and mapped, and that there are different technical alternatives to address the proposed challenge;
- That the future PCP tendering process is clear, that a draft planning has been proposed and that the supporting documentation and administrative procedures will be ready on due time in order to launch the call for the acquisition of R&D services according to the PCP rules.
To ensure that the outcome of this action becomes available for further procurement purposes to EU Member State national authorities as well as EU agencies not participating, the proposal must provide evidence of the following:
(1). Agreement from participating procurement authorities to negotiate, in good faith and on a case-by-case basis, with non-participating procurement authorities that wish to procure a capability or a product fully or partly derived from this action, the use of the information required to run such a procurement process, and solely for that purpose;
(2). Commitment from participating procurement authorities to consult with any legal entity generating information to be released for the purpose set out in paragraph (1), unless contrary to applicable legislation;
(3). Commitment from participating procurement authorities to negotiate the use granted under paragraph (1) on Fair Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) terms.
The centre of gravity for technology development with actions funded under this subtopic is expected to be up to TRL 8 – see General Annex G of the Horizon 2020 Work Programme.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 2 to 12 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Proposals should ensure that solutions will be developed in compliance with European societal values, fundamental rights and applicable legislation, including in the area of free movement of persons, privacy and protection of personal data. Societal aspects (e.g. perception of security, possible side effects of technological solutions, societal resilience) have to be taken into account in a comprehensive and thorough manner. All participating procurement authorities should also commit to comply with EU data protection legislation in the development of innovative, advanced systems to support security and in particular with the principles of data protection by design and by default.
Expected Impact:
Short term:
- Common requirements for innovative prototypes agreed among the practitioner organisations involved in the action;
- Technical tender documents ready for use by subsequent pre-commercial procurement actions, as well as by non-participating procurement authorities;
- Common solutions to address urgent security challenges jointly developed, integrated and valuated;
- Potential demand for security solutions, inspired by those developed, is aggrevated.
Medium term:
- To develop common technical specifications and reference performance levels for joint EU security solutions;
- To pave the road to market for technically mature and operationally relevant solutions and to accelerate their wide deployment in the EU.
Long Term:
- To contribute to narrowing down the gap between research and the market for the next generation of security solutions;
- To contribute to a single EU security market, by reducing market fragmentation and allowing exploitation of economies of scale;
- To facilitate access of new innovative players to the public procurement market;
- To contribute to reinforcing the competitiveness of the EU technology and industrial base.
Deadline: 27 August 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Proposals should cover: forecast, assessment of physical and cyber risks, prevention, detection, response, and in case of failure, mitigation of consequences (including novel installation designs), and fast recovery after incidents, over the life span of the infrastructure, with a view to achieving the security and resilience of all functions performed by the installations, and of neighbouring populations and the environment.
They should:
(a) assess in detail all aspects of interdependent physical (e.g. bombing, sabotage and attacks with a variety of weapons against installations, buildings and ships; plane or drone overflights and crashes; spreading of fires, floods, landslides, disastrous consequences of global warming, seismic activity, space weather, combined threats, etc.) and cyber threats and incidents (e.g. malfunction of SCADA system, non-authorised access of server, electronic interference, distributed attacks), and the cascading risks resulting from such complex threats,
(b) demonstrate the accuracy of their risk assessment approach using specific examples and scenarios of real life and by comparing the results with other risk assessment methodologies,
(c) develop improved real-time, evidence-based security management of physical and cyber threats, taking account of the ageing of existing infrastructure, and
(d) provide scenarios and recommendations for policy planning, engagement of the civil society, and investment measures encompassing all aspects of prevention-detection-response-mitigation
Innovative methods should be proposed for sharing information with the public in the vicinity of the installations - including through social media and with the involvement of civil society organisations -, for the protection of first responders such as rescue teams, security teams and monitoring teams, and for ensuring service continuity.
In 2018 and 2019, they should focus on any type of installation belonging to one of the following critical infrastructures: water systems, energy infrastructure (power plants and distribution, oil rigs, offshore platforms), transport infrastructure (airports, ports, railways, urban multimodal nodes), communication infrastructures and ground segments of space systems, health services, e-commerce and the postal infrastructure, sensitive industrial sites and plants, and financial services.
In 2020, while keeping the coverage of the assessment of risks, prevention, detection, response and mitigation of consequences, proposals should also address the interrelations between different types of critical infrastructure with the objective of developing tools and methods to minimise cascading effects and allow rapid recovery of service performance levels after incidents.
When selecting for funding the proposals submitted in 2018 or 2019 or 2020, the Commission will take due account of similar projects financed in the previous years since 2016, with a view to cover the largest possible spectrum of installations. Each year, a list of infrastructures excluded from the Call will be published on the Funding and Tenders Portal.
Consortia should involve the largest variety of relevant beneficiaries, including infrastructure owners and operators, first responders, industry, technologists and social scientists, etc. The participation of SMEs is strongly encouraged.
In line with the EU's strategy for international cooperation in research and innovation international cooperation is encouraged, and in particular with international research partners in the context of the International Forum to Advance First Responder Innovation in which the Commission has decided to participate.
The centre of gravity for technology development with actions funded under this topic is expected to be up to TRL 7 – see General Annex G of the Horizon 2020 Work Programme.
Indicative budget: The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of about EUR 7 to 8 million would allow this topic to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless this does not preclude the submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts
Expected Impact:
Short term:
- State-of-the-art analysis of physical/cyber detection technologies and risk scenarios, in the context of a specific critical infrastructure.
- Analysis of both physical and cyber vulnerabilities of a specific critical infrastructure, including the combination of both real situation awareness and cyber situation awareness within the environment of the infrastructure.
- In situ demonstrations of efficient and cost-effective solutions to the largest audience, beyond the project participants.
Medium term
- Innovative (novel or improved), integrated, and incremental solutions to prevent, detect, respond and mitigate physical and cyber threats to a specific Critical Infrastructure.
- Innovative approaches to monitoring the environment, to protecting and communicating with the inhabitants in the vicinity of the critical infrastructure.
- Security risk management plans integrating systemic and both physical and cyber aspects.
- Tools, concepts, and technologies for combatting both physical and cyber threats to a specific critical infrastructure.
- Where relevant, test beds for industrial automation and control system for critical infrastructure in Europe, to measure the performance of critical infrastructure systems, when equipped with cyber and physical security protective measures, against prevailing standards and guidelines.
- Test results and validation of models for the protection of a specific critical infrastructure against physical and cyber threats.
- Establishment and dissemination throughout the relevant user communities of specific models for information sharing on incidents, threats and vulnerabilities with respect to both physical and cyber threats.
Long term
- Convergence of safety and security standards, and the pre-establishment of certification mechanisms.
- Secure, interoperable interfaces among different critical infrastructures to prevent from cascading effects.
- Contributions to relevant sectorial frameworks or regulatory initiatives.
Deadline: 27 August 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Führende Rolle bei grundlegenden und industriellen Technologien (LEIT)
1. Biotechnologie
Proposals should cover the following activities:
- Research and innovation for efficient and low cost remediation strategies using microorganisms by means of emerging biotechnologies that require minimum or zero external energy or chemicals and that reduce the remediation time compared to physicochemical processes;
- Work to ensure remediation in soil, sediments, mines, surface water, groundwater or industrial water;
- Develop a system to remove different contaminants, including complex mixtures, covering hydrocarbons and their derivatives, recalcitrant compounds, metals, nanomaterials, paints and coatings, nutrients, pharmaceuticals or micropollutants and toxic contaminants;
- Include field trials to prove an acceptable performance for field applications will be a plus.
This topic is part of the EU-China flagship initiative on Biotechnology for Environment and Human Health, which will promote substantial coordinated and balanced research and innovation cooperation between the EU and China. China-based legal entities have to apply for funding under the Chinese co-funding mechanism with the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC).
Proposals submitted under this topic should include a business case and exploitation strategy, as outlined in the Introduction to the LEIT part of this Work Programme.
Activities should start at TRL 3 and achieve TRL 6 at the end of the project.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU between EUR 4 and 5 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
- Remediation of at least two toxic contaminants of different nature;
- Proof of the feasibility to scale up the technology for field testing, including an assessment of the related environmental benefits and risks;
- A quantified demonstration of the benefits compared to standard physicochemical remediation approaches, in particular regarding time and energy efficiency.
Relevant indicators and metrics, with baseline values, including demonstration activities should be clearly stated in the proposal.
Deadline: 15 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
2. Nanotechnologie
3. Advanced materials
4. Space
5. ITC
The focus is on the following theme
Open access to Photonics Innovation Hubs: One-stop-shop access, supported through a network of competence centres, to services and capabilities such as expertise, training, prototyping, design, engineering, business support, financing advice and pilot manufacturing for first users and early adopters enabling the wider up-take and deployment of photonic technologies in innovative products. Actions must build on relevant previous European initiatives and existing infrastructure at European and regional level, demonstrate a record of accomplishment in supporting industry, in particular SMEs. Actions should also address skills development as well as support to the development of new innovation hubs.
The Commission considers that either proposals covering a range of photonics technologies and requesting a contribution from the EU of up to EUR 9.5 million, or a single proposal requesting a contribution of the EU of up to EUR 19 million covering the greatest possible range of photonics technologies, would allow addressing the challenges appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts. For this topic, proposals have to comply with the four requirements described in the introductory section 'Support to Hubs'. Proposals may envisage to use EU funding for financial support to third parties with a maximum amount of EUR 150.000 per third party.
Expected Impact:
Proposals should describe how the proposed work would contribute to the listed corresponding expected impacts and metrics, the baseline and the targets to measure impact.
- Significantly improved uptake of photonics technology by end-user industry, in particular SMEs, enabling a demonstrably more competitive European industry.
- Creation of a sustainable network of Digital Innovation Hubs, providing European Added Value to investments done at national and regional level in Digital Innovation Hubs and reaching a high leveraging effect on other sources of funding, in particular Regional and National funding.
Deadline: 22 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Proposals are expected to develop and demonstrate cost-efficient and flexible cross-domain applications through large-scale pilots. These should build on an open, API-based, interoperable and federated IoT architecture and include a reference implementation supporting flexible integration of heterogeneous services. Pilots should bridge the interoperability gap of the smart object platforms and create markets for service - and application providers as well as platform operators, supported by a vibrant ecosystem of developers, service providers and user communities.
In developing the pilots, proposals are expected to address all of the following aspects:
- The integration of data and information across different platforms for sustainable and efficient service provision, where appropriate based on Artificial Intelligence. The approach should showcase platform interoperability in line with relevant standards.
- To develop an open marketplace with an open application interface for cross-cutting services to cater for new business opportunities
- Reference implementations including proof-of-concept, large-scale demonstrations and validation leveraging on platforms developed elsewhere
- To create innovation ecosystems based on ‘Platforms for Connected Smart Objects and Services’, to support citizens and businesses for a multiplicity of novel applications.
- The development of pilots demonstrating benefits, cost-efficiency, flexibility and realistic business models required in rural areas around existing infrastructure, and to utilise links to other European, national or private funding sources to leverage infrastructure delivery.
- Potential application areas could include one or more of the following: public services, energy, autonomous robotics transport, logistics, education, tourism, health and care. The applications should support the implementation of the smart villages concept oriented towards relatively underdeveloped and remotely located rural areas and communities. Innovative and technical inspiration could be sought in previous work in the following domains: smart cities, smart living and ageing well, smart - and/or social farming, forest management, distributed energy, smart logistics and mobility and e-governance.
Pilots should follow an evolutionary agile, well-delineated, and lean approach. The developed platforms should be concurrently validated in at least three large-scale regional pilots in rural settings involving partners with strong relation to public authorities. The Pilots should propose scalable technical solutions capable of meeting social and economic targets relevant to boost new rural services and business.
Key performance indicators should be defined to measure progress on citizen's benefits in rural areas, quality of life, economic growth, job creation, new business development etc.
Proposals may involve financial support to third parties, particularly for SMEs. Conditions for third parties support are set out in Part K of the General Annexes. Consortia need to define the selection process of organisations, for which financial support will be granted. Maximum 20% of the EU funding can be allocated to this purpose. The financial support to third parties can only be provided in the form of grants. The respective options of Article 15.1 and Article 15.3 of the Model Grant Agreement will be applied.
The development of the pilots should follow a participatory approach using where appropriate well-functioning existing societal groups (including for example Local Actions Groups, Rural networks, public administrations responsible for Rural Development Policies) and liaise with territorial digital dynamic development. Proposal should develop strategic approaches that will help policy makers, rural actors, citizens and project promoters on the ground to deliver results, considering the comparative strengths and needs of their respective territory, to improve the implementation of EU policies in rural areas. When necessary, internet providers should be involved in the project to ensure connectivity, which is a prerequisite for rural ICT exploitation.
For this topic, the four activities described in the introductory section 'Platforms and Pilots' must be applied. Pilot projects are expected to contribute to the consolidation and coherence work that will be implemented by the CSA supporting the activities defined under the topic "DT-ICT-13-2019: Digital Platforms/Pilots Horizontal Activities".
The Commission considers that proposal requesting a contribution from the EU of up to EUR 15 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude the submission and selection of proposal requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
For this topic, the impact criteria described in the introductory section 'Platforms and Pilots' have to be applied in addition to as many as possible contributions to the following impact criteria:
- Validate the brokerage platforms illustrated by an increase of cross-cutting applications and services
- Demonstrate and show-case cross-sectorial platforms interoperability.
- Demonstrate the benefits of data sharing across platforms from different sectors.
- Exploration and validation of new industry and business processes and innovative business models validated in the context of the pilots.
- Overcome the digital divide between rural and urban areas, and to develop the potential offered by connectivity and digitisation of rural areas.
- Improve quality of life in rural areas, higher standard of living and services for citizens.
- Creation of opportunities for entrepreneurs, notably SMEs, by promoting new market openings, providing access to valuable datasets and direct interactions with users, creating new businesses in rural areas.
Deadline: 22 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Devise in-facility pilot demonstrators that deliver innovative AI-based solutions in a health and care setting such as a hospital, primary care facility or care home. Pilots should enable or support clinical, diagnosis and treatment, etc. carried out with clinical outcomes comparable to human delivered procedures and with comparable results.
Proposals may address any aspect of health facility operations across their range of functions, such as diagnostics, treatments, logistical aspects, etc. Proposals must indicate how their proposed solution will perform when measured against particular health and care metrics suitable for the aspect of operations chosen. Proposal should be developed with health and care facility partners and consider wider dimensions such as how they will work within the broader aspects of impact on resources, staff training and alignment with existing practice. The deployed solutions should build AI-based systems that combine digital and physical services that support individualised and integrated care solutions in care facilities, such as hospitals, clinics, primary care centres, rehabilitation centres, care homes, etc..
Proposals must clearly demonstrate, in context, the integration of autonomous smart components unpinning AI that physically affect the working environment together with those that gather and process data and must clearly show how, in a health and care context, direct and positive impact on effectiveness and efficiency are expected to be achieved.
Proposals must integrate health and care partners in the design of the pilot, the development of performance indicators, as well as to allow access to the relevant operational environment.
Proposals must demonstrate likely “at scale” benefits in efficiency or cost reduction and demonstrate the effectiveness of any novel service models in providing economic justification for scale-up investment. Proposals should also identify opportunities for the development of European standards that enable wide spread adoption and new market creation.
Privacy and cybersecurity issues, including security by design and data integrity should also be addressed, where appropriate.
Proposals must seek to align with the European Digital Innovation Hub networks and platforms funded under DT-ICT-02-2018: Robotics - Digital Innovation Hubs (DIH).
When assessing proposals, the Commission will take into account the value of having a spread of projects addressing different health and care functions (for instance, surgery, rehabilitation, logistics in hospital, etc.).
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU between EUR 7 and 10 million would allow this area to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
- Emergence of European-led AI based pilots for the smart hospital of the future, enabled by open system platforms
- Demonstration of effectiveness, in use, of AI based technologies, such as smart robots, in a range of healthcare tasks
- Engagement of healthcare policy makers, investors, stakeholders and through the pilot.
- Effective basis for developing deployable applications
- Reaching a high leveraging effect on other sources of funding, in particular regional and national funding
- Contributing to trust and acceptance building in the AI technology among all stakeholders (including patients, their formal and informal caregivers, decision makers, etc.).
Deadline: 22 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
The focus is on the following themes (sub-topics):
- 3D light field and holographic displays: Actions should develop innovative photonics components and systems which enable 3D light field or holographic displays for use in mixed-reality applications such as automotive, healthcare, telecommunication, entertainment and gaming. In addition, the display components actions may also develop sensors and actuators for necessary support functionality such as sensing, connectivity, user interaction, and scene recognition etc. Actions must include validation in application settings.
- Packaging and module integration for photonic integrated circuits (PIC): Development of novel packaging, assembly, module integration technologies or novel testing approaches offering breakthrough advances for the automated, flexible, low-cost, high volume, scalable production of PIC-based photonic components or modules. Actions should demonstrate the technical and industrial feasibility of the proposed technologies or approaches through a functional demonstrator.
- Light to Fuel: Development of photonics devices at TRL level 5-6 for the direct and efficient (>5%) conversion of solar energy into chemical fuel. Actions may also include R&D into catalyst development and disruptive material and device concepts where appropriate. Actions should demonstrate technical and economic feasibility.
- Next generation biophotonics methods and devices as research tools to understand the cellular origin of diseases: Actions will focus on photonics-based in-vivo/in-vitro imaging systems and techniques which deliver greatly increased penetration, resolution, sensitivity, specificity and depth of focus. Real time data handling and processing may also be addressed as appropriate. Actions should include medical/clinical doctors or research laboratories with relevant experience.
At least one proposal will be selected to cover each of these themes.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU between EUR 3 and 6 million would allow these to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
Proposals should describe how the proposed work would contribute to the listed corresponding expected impacts and metrics, including the baseline and the targets to measure impact.
- Actions should enable European system manufacturers to bring to market highly competitive products by integrating 3D light field and holographic visualization solutions for systems and user-centric services in different areas, and to build a Europe-centred value chain from the domestic manufacturing of components and software up to the system integrators and end users.
- Approaches must deliver a reduction in production costs by an order of magnitude, enabling the introduction of PIC technology in new markets.
- The projects should demonstrate the efficient conversion of solar energy into chemical fuels, with a device efficiency of >5% and payback period of <10 years. This should enable Europe taking the lead in creating a multi-billion industry, and give independence from imported energy.
- Significant gain in understanding of inter- and/or intra-cellular processes; strengthen Europe’s industrial position in the biophotonics-related market for microscopes and research and development tools.
Deadline: 22 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
The focus is on the following themes (sub-topics):
a) Research and Innovation Actions (RIA)
i. Flexible Farm-to-Fork Sensing: Development of an innovative smart photonic sensor solution, utilizing an appropriate bandwidth between the ultraviolet (UV) and the far infrared spectral range for monitoring food quality with respect to microbiological and chemical contamination along the farm-to-fork food production chain. The targeted solution should combine photonic sensing technology with advanced data analysis techniques and be portable, easy-to-use, flexible, and broadly adaptable for usage on farms, in food processing, wholesale and retail. Actions should focus on the following areas: (1) food production by small/medium-sized farms; (2) novel types of food production, such as aquaponics; (3) on-site food processing and vending (e.g. on farms or local food markets). The developed solution must be demonstrated in real settings involving relevant stakeholders along the food supply chain, from food producers to end consumers.
ii. Novel Photonics Integrated Circuit (PIC) Technology building blocks: Major advances in photonic integrated circuit technology through the development of building blocks with significantly enhanced or novel functions. These should form part of comprehensive integration platforms for established or new important application fields, enabling the platform to meet the demands of application roadmaps concerning relevant features like sensitivity, energy efficiency, speed and chip density. Developments should be based on a generic platform approach, i.e. support the single-chip integration of complex functions through a design flow based on generic building blocks separated from production. Actions should include a validation of results with fabricated PIC prototypes.
b) Innovation Actions (IA)
iii. Smart Photonic Sensing for Environmental Pollution Detection: Prototyping, demonstration and validation in real settings of an innovative, cost-effective, portable, smart hyperspectral sensing system operating in the visible to mid-infrared spectral range, for pollution detection in environmental sensing applications. The system should be based on a miniaturised optical setup and feature broad sensorial response curves with high measurement precision in the diagnostic wavelength range, in combination with massive Cloud-based data analysis capability using advanced Deep Learning algorithms and Big Data sensor signal repositories for comprehensive chemometric analysis.
c) Coordination and Support Actions
iv. An industrial strategy for photonics in Europe: the objective is to support the development and implementation of a comprehensive industrial strategy for photonics in Europe which strengthens the links to the end user industries. The action should include the development of strategic technology road-maps, strong stakeholder engagement (in particular Photonics21 stakeholders, National Technology Platforms, regional Clusters, end-user industries), coordination of regional, national and European strategies and priorities, and development and dissemination of financing models to facilitate access by companies to different sources of finance.
To ensure domain coverage, at least one proposal will be selected to cover each of these themes. As it is necessary to coordinate strategy efforts singly, no more than one action will be funded for theme iv).
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU between EUR 3 and 5 million for themes i and ii; EUR 4 and 7 million for theme iii, and up to EUR 4 million for theme iv would allow these to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
Proposals should describe how the proposed work will contribute to the relevant expected impacts and metrics, including a baseline and the targets to measure impact. Respectively:
- Increased food yield, quality and safety, and significant reduction of food waste along the farm-to-fork food production chain with cost-effective and easy-to-use analysis and quality-control tools;
- Strengthening small/medium-scale farming and local or novel ways of food production and processing by ensuring high food quality standards at lower resource usage and competitive costs.
- Reduction of the research and development costs of advanced PICs in a wide range of application areas.
- Large-scale adoption of affordable, Cloud-connected, smart photonic sensing systems for pervasive, Community-based environmental pollution monitoring and real-time citizen alert on local pollution levels and related health risks
- Reinforced value chains and deployment of photonics technologies by stronger cooperation of photonics stakeholders, clusters and end-users;
- Increased competitiveness of the European photonics sector and improved access to risk finance for the photonics sector in Europe.
Deadline: 22 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
a) Research and Innovation Actions (RIA)
Proposals will address at least one of the following areas:
- Advanced cloud technologies and testbeds combining aspects of network, computing and data/information resources (i.e., next generation networks, novel datacenter architectures, fog/edge computing and sensor networks, large-scale analytics and simulation, public, hybrid, multi-cloud computing, etc.) to provide complete solutions encompassing network, computing and data services. The key aspect of these advanced cloud technologies is to seamlessly combine computation resources all along the data path and support the complete service lifecycle (i.e. from the end-user request/context to creation of workflows, monitoring of execution platforms, application deployment and adaptation while optimising the execution).
- Advanced Cloud Data Privacy and Security techniques taking into account issues such as integrating data protection principles, unifying security policies across cloud services and applications, defining personal data semantics, managing data locality, migration and latency.
- Novel programming models and semantically interoperable services to support dynamic environments that respond intelligently to changes in application behaviour or data variability; automatic deployment and continuous dynamic composition of semantically annotated services; adaptability of services to different resources & usage contexts; automatic reasoning, scheduling and deployment of workflows on top of the resulting infrastructure.
The proposals should demonstrate the applicability and viability of the proposed solution across multiple application domains.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 3 and 5 million would allow this area to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
b) Coordination and Support Actions (CSA)
Proposals in this action will address the following:
- Coordinate stakeholders in Cloud Computing and act as support to R&D programmes/activities by disseminating project results and organising scientific and policy events, developing research and innovation roadmaps, and addressing pre-standardisation initiatives.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU between EUR 400.000 to 600.000 would allow this area to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
a) Research and Innovation Actions (RIA)
- Contribute to the development of an ecosystem and testbeds that will respond to the future digitisation needs of industry and the public sector;
- Assist the development of new cloud-based services and infrastructures in Europe and foster an industrial capability in the cloud computing sector;
- Create new opportunities to encourage European-based providers, in particular SMEs, to develop and offer cloud-based services based on the most advanced technologies;
- Leverage research and innovation projects to support the development and deployment of innovative cloud-based services and next generation applications, for the public and private sectors (including standardisation and applications for AI, Big-Data and other sector-specific applications).
b) Coordination and Support Actions (CSA)
- Creation of a sustainable European forum of stakeholders representing the Cloud Computing research, industry and users.
Deadline: 22 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Experimentation facilities able to provide enhanced experimentation infrastructures on top of which third party experimenters e.g. SMEs or any service provider and target vertical users will have the opportunity to test their applications in an integrated, open, cooperative and fully featured network platform running across multiple domains where needed, and tailored to specific vertical use case.
The objective is to focus on innovation for operations and secure/trusted service provisioning taking advantage of experimental facilities featuring virtualised and software implemented functions and representative of a redesigned virtualised access/core network. The facilities should provide opportunities for SMEs and developers to experiment their applications in the context of specific vertical use cases on open experimental network platforms, and to create 5G open source repositories for wide use and towards standards development. Typical vertical use cases include connected and automated mobility, smart factories and industry 4.0 use cases. Furthermore, healthcare, PPDR, energy, media though other verticals may be considered.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 4 and 6 million would allow this area to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
- Testing and validation of NetApp solutions on top of a 5G virtualised experimental environment with different implemented functions and vertical-specific configurations.
- NetApps secure interoperability beyond vendor-specific implementation across multiple domains and availability of related standards or reference implementations.
- Open-source repository of network applications that can be further leveraged by other developers.
- Creation of third party markets for start-ups and SMEs. 50% of SMEs are targeted for this action.
- Relevant 5G PPP KPI: Service creation time in minutes.
- Generation of results that may be appropriate for transfer towards an incubator or a start up, either within the project or outside of the projects in follow up actions.
Deadline: 22 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
a)Research and Innovation Actions (RIA) - Robotics Core Technology
Autonomy in robotic systems is built on a combination of four Core Technologies:
AI and Cognition: AI provides tools to make systems cognitive. Cognition equips robots with the ability to safely interact with people, their environments or other robots, to learn and to categorise, to make decisions and to derive knowledge.
Cognitive Mechatronics: Mechatronic systems where sensing and actuation are closely coupled with cognitive systems are expected to deliver improved control, motion, interaction (including all modalities), adaptation and learning, and safer systems.
Socially cooperative human-robot interaction: Cooperative human-robot interaction is critical in many work environments from collaborative support, e.g. passing tools to a worker, navigation in complex work environments, human-friendly and human assistive interactions, to the design of exo-skeletons able to provide motion that is sympathetic to the user.
Model-based design and configuration tools: Deploying robotics at scale in application areas where tasks need to be defined by the user requires easy-to-use configuration tools. Embedding and sharing of knowledge between tools is essential, as is standardisation across the interfaces to connect systems and modules (taking into account cybersecurity issues, including security by design and data integrity).
Proposals should address one of the four core technologies and target the development of core technology modules (modular, open and non-proprietary) and tool kits for use in deployable system platforms that meet the requirements of applications in the following four prioritised application areas: Healthcare, Infrastructure Inspection and Maintenance, Agri-Food and Agile Production. Proposals will be required to dedicate resource for connecting with the DIH actions arising from DT-ICT-02-2018.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 6 and 7 million would allow this area to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Proposals are requested to specify the Core Technology in which their centre of gravity lies. At least one action in each Core Technology will be funded.
b)Innovation Actions (IA) - Robotics for agri-food, and agile production
Establish large-scale pilots capable of demonstrating the use of robotics at scale in actual or highly realistic operating environments; showcase advanced prototype applications built around platforms operating in real or near-real environments and demonstrate high levels of socio-economic impact.
Through large-scale pilots, proposals are expected to make a significant step forward in platform development in one of the two application areas:
- In the Agri-Food sector from farming to processing and distribution
- Agile Production.
Starting from suitable reference architectures, platform interfaces are defined, tested via piloting, and supported via ecosystem building preparing their roll-out, and are being evolved over time into standards.
Each proposal is expected to establish large scale pilots. They are expected to: consider utilising existing infrastructure and links to other European, national or private funding sources; identify the long-term sustainability of the pilot; develop scalable technical solutions capable of meeting performance targets; develop metrics and performance measures for the pilot; engage relevant industry stakeholders, including SMEs, in the provision and operation of the pilot, paving the way towards establishing strong collaborations for innovative robotic applications in industry. Proposals will be expected to dedicate resources to disseminate best practice and coordinate access to platforms and demonstrators, in particular in connecting with the Robotics DIHs and Core Technologies actions and other relevant activities, in H2020 and beyond.
Pilots are expected to address both technical and non-technical issues, such as socio-economic impact, novel business models, legal and regulatory, ethical and cyber-security issues and connections to AI, Big Data and IoT. Where appropriate, applications should leverage synergies among EU satellite-based systems for navigation (EGNOS/Galileo), and/or observation (Copernicus) and communication.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 6 and 7 million would allow this area to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts. The objective is to fund at least 3 proposals per application area.
c)Coordination and Support Action (CSA) - Robotics
Proposals should address issues concerning the whole European robotics community and provide support actions that develop awareness and knowledge transfer. Proposals should consider the development of a high-level stakeholder forum and an associated communication strategy; the development of mechanisms that create a continuing discussion around legal and societal issues concerning AI-based robotics technology that leads to strategic development and the dissemination of best practice to robotics stakeholders and particularly to developers and policy makers.
Proposals should address the issues of socio-economic analysis, cyber-security, data protection, ethical and privacy issues that arise from the increased deployment of robotics to ensure that there is relevant and effective strategic development and best practice advice available to robotics stakeholders.
Proposals should address the public understanding of robotics through the development of news articles, public and media engagement and awareness activities.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of up to EUR 3 million would allow this area to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
Research and Innovation Actions:
- Improved technical capability in each of the core technologies over the current state of the art.
- A greater range of applications in the prioritised application areas that can be demonstrated at TRL 3 and above.
- The lowering of technical barriers within the prioritised applications areas.
Innovation Actions:
- Demonstration of the potential for robotics to impact at scale in the chosen application areas prioritised in this call.
- Reduction of technical and commercial risk in the deployment of services based on robotic actors within the selected application area.
- Greater understanding from the application stakeholders of the potential for deploying robotics.
- Demonstration of platforms operating over extended time periods in near realistic environments and promotion of their use.
- Develop the eco-system around the prioritised application areas to stimulate deployment.
- Contribution to the development of open, industry-led or de facto standards
Coordination and Support Action:
- Effective dissemination of knowledge surrounding non-technical aspects of robot deployment.
- Greater awareness of robotics among key stakeholders and policy makers.
- Improved understanding of legal, socio-economic and ethical issues and their impact on robotics deployment.
Deadline: 22 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Innovative approaches to hard research problems in relation to applications of robotics in promising new areas are particularly encouraged. Proposals are expected to enable substantially improved solutions to challenging technical issues, with a view of take-up in applications with high socio-economic impact and low environmental footprint, where appropriate. Driven by application needs, the work can start from research at low TRL, but proposals are expected to validate their results in sufficiently realistic scenarios in order to demonstrate the potential for take-up in the selected application(s).
The call is open to the following research areas:
- Development of autonomous robots at the micro- or millimetre scale capable of energy autonomy on the scale of hours or longer. Developing miniature robots is challenging and the potential of robotics at this scale has not been fully explored.
- Integration and use of novel materials for service robotics, for instance active materials (e.g.: soft grippers). Current materials often limit the capability of robots, an exploration of how novel materials can reshape robots is an important innovation. In addition, material enabling the design of easy to maintain, upgrade and recycle robots, would also be an important innovation.
- Beyond human speed, general purpose, dexterous manipulation of objects. Raising productivity in many processes will require robots to operate faster than humans in the same task.
- Application and integration of non-visual sensing novel for service robotics (including off-board, ambient and multi-scale sensing) to achieve new functionality. Many applications in service robotics need sense data beyond the visual; for example chemical, biological, and physical properties; integrating these non-visual data into interpretation and decision making can enhance tasks by taking them beyond human sensing limitations.
- Development of intrinsically safe physical powerful robotic systems with proximity sensing capability for human-scale collaborative tasks. Developing intrinsically safe systems is critical to the uptake of collaborative robotics where robots need to be capable of applying working forces that can potentially cause injury to humans.
- Development of variable autonomy systems that significantly extend and enhance the operator’s awareness of the working environment. Sharing autonomy between a human operator and a robot can speed up operations and raise productivity.
Proposals are expected to be inspired by, and demonstrate the capability to address, real end user needs, respecting ethical, legal and social aspects, as appropriate. Proposals will be expected to plan efforts to connect and cooperate with the DIHs, Platforms and other relevant activities of this work programme, as appropriate. Proposals will be expected to deliver integrated TRL 4 demonstrations that show step change performance improvement over the current state of the art in the chosen area.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU between EUR 2 and 3 million would allow this area to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
- Strengthening European excellence in Robotics S&T
- Boosting the use of robotics in promising application areas
- Opening up new markets for robotics
- Lowering barriers in the deployment of robotics-based solutions.
Deadline: 22 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
This topic builds on the AI-on-demand-platform funded in ICT26-2018-20, a reference access point gathering and providing access to AI-related knowledge, algorithms and tools and access to related infrastructures, equipment, and data resources, offering also experts support to potential users of AI in order to facilitate the integration of AI into applications, making it a compelling solution for users, especially from non-tech sectors.
This activity aims at consolidating the eco-system by bringing in a larger user community, especially from the non-tech sector, and by reinforcing the service layer of the platform. At this stage, it will be particularly important to refine mechanisms to ensure the platform's long-term sustainability. The platform should provide a good European coverage, both in terms origin of the resources made available on the platform, but also in terms of users of the platform, making sure its resource is available everywhere in Europe.
The objectives:
- Reinforce the service layer of the AI-on-demand-platform funded in ICT26-2018-20 to facilitate the use and uptake of the platform resources.
- Reaching out to new user domains and boosting the use of the platform through use cases and small-scale experiments. The task will involve financial support to third parties, in line with the conditions set out in part K of the General Annexes. Minimum EUR 2 million funding should be dedicated to it, with EUR 50.000 to 200.000 per third party (amount higher than EUR 60.000 should be justified, based on need of expensive hardware or infrastructure for instance). The selection process should prioritise projects maximising the impact of the platform and demonstrating the benefit of AI in products, processes or services. Particular attention will be paid to SMEs and low-tech sector, which can best benefit from the support offered by the platform. The selected projects should also cover a wide spread of application sectors, to demonstrate the versatility and scalability of the platform offer.
Proposals will ensure continuity with the project selected under ICT26-2018-20, having access to all the knowledge and offer needed to fully exploit it and be able to build on it. The improvements resulting from the selected projects should be made available and open to the community via the platform, to allow full exploitation, and also further developments by entities outside the consortia, building on these results.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of up to EUR 5 million would allow this area to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
- Enriching and optimising the AI on-demand platform service offer and reinforcing its sustainability
- Boosting the deployment of AI-based solutions and services, enabling a larger user community to reap the economic benefits of AI, especially SMEs and non-technology sectors
Deadline: 22 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
The work covers the long term transformation of networks into a distributed smart connectivity platform with high integration with (edge) computing and storage resources. Work should lead to solutions where processes and applications are dynamically supported depending on the information flows and application requirements. It should enable novel interaction between human and digital systems based on new terminal types embedded in the daily environment, e.g. in cars, doors, mirrors, appliances, and new interfaces recognising gestures, facial expressions, sound and haptics. Work should lead to smart connectivity infrastructure with adaptive topologies that supports a virtually infinite capacity and perceived zero latency, highly diverse device densities and highest reliability and availability[1]. It should lead to professional grade of security and privacy whilst bringing down OPEX, CAPEX, and energy consumption. Focus is notably on:
- Provision of seemingly infinite network capacity including innovative spectrum use and management, usability of new bands and radio technologies towards cell free networks including scalable cell-free Massive MIMO, usage integration and optimised management of optical resources, as well as architectures enabling hyper dense ambient networks.
- Support for imperceptible latencies through flexible connect-compute technologies and architectures enabling optimised distribution of the latency budgets as a function of the application requirements.
- Provision for smart connectivity of massive amounts of things and systems in a scalable, interoperable and cost-efficient way. Energy efficiency and paradigms where consumption moves from connectivity to computing (e.g. Mobile Edge Computing) will be considered.
- Support for novel architectures and protocols for adaptive networks, including peer-to-peer, meshed and relay-based, for new mobility paradigms, taking advantage when relevant of cognitive operations making use of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning mechanisms, taking a full end-to-end value chain approach, including terminal and application management. Resilience against attacks on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning mechanisms are in scope.
- Provide personalised, multi-tenant and perpetual protection based on security, privacy and trust mechanisms required in highly virtualised and software environments, taking into account an end-to-end perspective including hardware security capabilities as well as software processes. Blockchain technologies may be explored in that context.
Proposals may focus on one or several of the above indicative sub-topics, and will bridge towards preparing evolution paths for R&I on smart networks and services in future programmes.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 5 and 12million would allow this area to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts. In particular, initiatives with strong structuring effects across a large set of key industry stakeholders and programmatic impact for future European actions in the domain of Smart Network and Services may target the higher budget range.
Expected Impact:
- Smart connectivity technologies for platforms integrating ubiquitous connectivity, storage, and computing resources opening for new service and business models.
- Smart connectivity platforms integrating technologies and architectures towards perceived zero latency.
- Network scalability towards a high number of resource-constrained (IoT) devices, multiplicity of service requirements, and new user-controlled connectivity paradigms.
- Characterisation and availability of secure and trusted environments for software based virtualised networks, including underlying hardware limitations and enabling trusted multi-tenancy.
- Innovative radio spectrum use, novel strategies for coverage/service extension, support of novel wireless technologies and use cases through platforms, usability of today unexplored spectrum.
- Heterogeneous networks with dynamic topologies for advanced mobility solutions.
- Dynamic scalability of network capabilities through availability of managed and enhanced optical resources.
- Characterisation of AI and blockchain technologies in the connectivity domain, notably for network/service management and security.
- Significant reduction of total cost of ownership through improved operational and capital expenditure efficiency, and energy consumption.
Deadline: 22 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
Develop novel mobile applications translating between speech and sign languages to assist people with hearing impairments. The projects should leverage on current state-of-the-art in translation between all official spoken and sign languages of the EU Member States and associated countries for efficient and effective use on mobile devices. Projects should explore how end-users can best interact and cooperate with the application and how the system adapts to users in real-life conditions and prevents unintended gender bias in translation. The resulting applications should be open source, robust, cost-effective and validated across a wide spectrum of users. Priority will be given to projects addressing a wide range of languages, in particular under-resourced languages.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU between EUR 2 and 4 million would allow this area to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
- Improve multilingual speech processing and sign language detection on mobile devices, and deploy solutions allowing wide take up by people with hearing impairments.
Deadline: 22 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.
a) Innovation Action (IA)
Cooperation on developing and strengthening of digital innovation hubs in Africa actions will address:
- reinforcing the development and establishment of Pan-African networks of Digital Innovations/Tech Hubs through strengthening local digital innovation and startup ecosystems by:
- providing technical capacity building and technology transfer to local SMEs, local governments and projects focused on digitalisation and the uptake of digital innovations such as the use of open data, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, blockchain technologies;
- fostering the development of an enabling environment for digital start-ups through establishing networks between fast growing companies, startup founders, local governments, academic institutions, early stage investors and corporates;
- providing capacity-building programmes, focused on digital and entrepreneurship skills specifically targeted to marginalised youth, women and vulnerable groups;
- developing a mutually beneficial cooperation between African and European Digital Innovation Hubs to strengthen the long-term sustainability of DIHs by:
- supporting local youth employment by developing collaborative projects, that match the demand for qualified digital skills in Europe with the existing ICT professionals in Africa;
- facilitating a network between African and European innovative entrepreneurs and start-ups with the goal to support start-up incubation, mentoring programs and facilitate increased investments in African start-ups and EU-African joint ventures;
- carrying out capacity-building activities, such as Summer Academies bringing together successful entrepreneurs with African and European start-ups and ICT professionals;
- facilitating linkages and partnerships with African diaspora communities in Europe with the goal to better support the creation and development of digital startups and SMEs in Africa
The activities will complement other European initiatives under the DCI and the ENI, such as the EU/DE/FR initiative on a Digital Innovation Bridge that will support the scale up of African startups.
Proposals should be submitted by a partnership complementing each other with a particular focus on the participation of relevant Member States or associated countries digital Innovation/tech Hubs, as well as African digital Innovation/tech Hubs. Due to the specific challenge of this topic, in addition to the minimum number of participants set out in the General Annexes, proposals shall include at least one participant from a low or middle income country in Africa.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU between EUR 1 and 2 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
b) Coordination and Support Action (CSA)
The aim is to foster coordination between actions taken in Africa and the EU to implement the recommendations of the EU-AU task force on digital economy, in particular in the area of research and innovation, through support to, engagement with, and monitoring of ICT-related activities and organisation of events in a critical mass of African countries.
Activities will include:
- supporting initiatives in Africa on the digitalisation of economy and society, including common Research, Development and Innovation priorities;
- supporting research and innovation capacity and societal challenges in participating African countries and future cooperation opportunities;
- promoting awareness of cooperation opportunities, including under the Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe programmes;
- disseminating results from EU support activities (including AfricaConnect and Digital4Development).
The activities of the CSA should be carried out over the remainder of the current EU financial framework (incl. Horizon 2020) and the initial phase of the new financial framework of the EU. Actions should take account of the networks and achievements of similar past or ongoing support actions for Africa while focussing on the scaling up of digital technology and services in the EU financial cooperation with Africa under the new financial framework. The partnership should include relevant stakeholders Member States or associated countries from the public and private sectors, including Research and Innovation systems. The partnership should as well include relevant African stakeholders from the public and private sectors, including Research and Innovation systems. Due to the specific challenge of this topic, in addition to the minimum number of participants set out in the General Annexes, proposals shall include at least one participant from a low or middle income country in Africa.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of around EUR 1 million for a duration of three years would allow this area to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact:
a) Innovation Action (IA)
- Further development of digital innovation hubs to the support of digitalisation of SMEs and traditional sectors in Africa contributing to a vibrant digital economy and new job opportunities;
- Strengthening of innovation ecosystems for digital startups at the local level;
- Support of youth employment programs by facilitating collaboration between European and African DIHs and startups;
- Enhancement of entrepreneurial and innovation skills of ICT professionals and start-ups in selected African countries;
- Sustainable uptake of results within the targeted countries, beyond the project completion date;
- Reinforced international dimension of the ICT and Innovation aspects of Horizon 2020 and contribution to the implementation of the EC digital for development strategy ;
- Reinforcement of strategic partnerships between EU and African Digital Innovation Hubs in areas of mutual interest.
b) Coordination and Support Action (CSA)
- Strengthening cooperative research and innovation linkages;
- Reinforced international dimension of the ICT and Innovation aspects of Horizon 2020 and contribution to the implementation of the EC digital for development strategy;
- Reinforcement of strategic partnerships between EU and African in ICT areas of mutual interest.
Deadline: 22 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time.