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Call key data
Facilitate the engagement in global ICT standardisation development
Funding Program
Horizon Europe - Cluster 4 - Destination 6: A Human-centred and Ethical Development of Digital and Industrial Technologies
Call number
HORIZON-CL4-2024-HUMAN-03-04
deadlines
Opening
23.04.2024
Deadline
18.09.2024 17:00
Funding rate
100%
Call budget
€ 6,000,000.00
Estimated EU contribution per project
€ 6,000,000.00
Link to the call
Link to the submission
Call content
short description
Proposals will share information about global sectorial ICT standardisation ecosystems and engagement of European stakeholders in global standardisation settings.
Call objectives
This action will contribute to the objectives spelled out in the EU Standardisation Strategy and meeting the objectives of the European Green Deal and Europe’s Digital Decade, in particular to supporting the EU’s leading position in global standards-setting as a forerunner in key technologies and promoting EU core values, by supporting and empowering the participation of European stakeholders in the development of open technical specifications and standards with the aim to strengthen European competitiveness and sovereignty, promoting EU values and ethics, and strengthen the take-up, scalability and cross-sector interoperability of their technological solutions. This action will among the others support the Commission’s effort to address the critical issues related to internet, trusted and secured chips, or data standards as described in the EU Standardisation Strategy.
The aim is to reinforce the presence of EU and associated states experts in the global ICT standardisation scene, by setting up an ICT standardisation observatory and a facility supporting the participation of key European specialists (especially from SMEs, societal stakeholders and Academia) in key international and global Standard Developing Organisations In particular, the project should foresee actions related to topics in the Rolling Plan for ICT standardisation as well as related to internet standardisation.
The action will also contribute to the objective of promoting EU cutting-edge innovation that fosters timely standards, by coordinating with other EU funded projects and action that may contribute with their results to ICT standardisation, as well as with EU supported PPPs and Joint Undertakings, seeking for synergies.
To achieve these objectives, proposals under this topic should provide for:
- Landscape and gap analysis of international ICT standardisation, including identification of sectors and areas, in particular within the field of internet standardisation, quantum network, IoT, 6G mobile communication, data, edge computing, artificial intelligence, eGovernment, block chain / DLT, cyber security, smart cities & communities, data centres, trusted chips, robotics, circular economy certification etc.
- Setting up of a management facility to support contributions and leadership (e.g. chairing of technical committees, convenor positions) of European specialists (incl. from SMEs and academia) in activities in relation to international standardisation including in global ICT SDOs, fora and consortia.
- When relevant, support financially the hosting standardisation meetings and workshops in Europe to ease the participation of European experts;
- Facilitation of a foresight committee, which liaises with relevant on-going developments in EU and national Member States funded R&I projects, in particular with projects having identified standardisation outputs or with potential relevant results to contribute to standardisation, including as well other coordination and support actions, and relevant European Partnerships;
- Promotion of the relevance and benefits of ICT standardisation, especially for European industry competitiveness, driving sustainability, sovereignty, supporting objectives of the European green deal and EU values and ethics. The proposal will also include actions, including development of tools and materials, to promote education on ICT standardisation;
The proposal should take into account the previous activities carried out the observatory and facilities for funding experts within the topics ICT-40-2017 implemented by the StandICT.eu project and ICT-45-2020 implemented under StandICT.eu2023 project (see http://www.standict.eu).
In order to achieve the expected outcomes, international cooperation is strongly encouraged.
In this topic the integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content is not a mandatory requirement.
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Expected results
Projects are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:
- Set-up of a facility to support participation of European specialists in international ICT Standard Developing Organisations (SDOs) and global fora and consortia, which should increase the influence of Europe into ICT standardisation, including representation in leadership and key positions, to promote incorporation of European requirements, values and interests in ICT standardisation;
- Develop and update sectorial ICT standardisation landscape and gap analysis of ICT standardisation needs in support of EU policies as outlined in the Rolling Plan for ICT standardisation;
- Cooperate, synchronise and achieve capacity building with other similar initiatives or European players including from EU (and national) funded R&I projects; provide a forum for foresight analysis in different sectors;
- Increase awareness on ICT standardisation development;
- Financially support standardisation meetings in Europe of international SDOs and global fora and consortia, so that European players have easier conditions for participation.
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Eligibility Criteria
Regions / countries for funding
Moldova (Moldova), Albania (Shqipëria), Armenia (Հայաստան), Azerbaijan (Azərbaycan), Belarus (Беларусь), Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosna i Hercegovina / Босна и Херцеговина), Faeroes (Føroyar / Færøerne), Georgia (საქართველო), Iceland (Ísland), Israel (ישראל / إِسْرَائِيل), Kosovo (Kosova/Kosovë / Косово), Montenegro (Црна Гора), Morocco (المغرب), New Zealand (Aotearoa), North Macedonia (Северна Македонија), Norway (Norge), Serbia (Srbija/Сpбија), Tunisia (تونس /Tūnis), Türkiye, Ukraine (Україна), United Kingdom
eligible entities
Education and training institution, International organization, Non-Profit Organisation (NPO) / Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Other, Private institution, incl. private company (private for profit), Public Body (national, regional and local; incl. EGTCs), Research Institution incl. University, Small and medium-sized enterprise (SME)
Mandatory partnership
Yes
Project Partnership
To be eligible for funding, applicants must be established in one of the following countries:
- the Member States of the European Union, including their outermost regions
- the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) linked to the Member States
- third countries associated to Horizon Europe - see list of particpating countries
Only legal entities forming a consortium are eligible to participate in actions provided that the consortium includes, as beneficiaries, three legal entities independent from each other and each established in a different country as follows:
- at least one independent legal entity established in a Member State; and
- at least two other independent legal entities, each established in different Member States or Associated Countries.
Any legal entity, regardless of its place of establishment, including legal entities from non-associated third countries or international organisations (including international European research organisations) is eligible to participate (whether it is eligible for funding or not), provided that the conditions laid down in the Horizon Europe Regulation have been met, along with any other conditions laid down in the specific call topic.
A ‘legal entity’ means any natural or legal person created and recognised as such under national law, EU law or international law, which has legal personality and which may, acting in its own name, exercise rights and be subject to obligations, or an entity without legal personality.
Specific cases:
- Affiliated entities — Affiliated entities (i.e. entities with a legal or capital link to a beneficiary which participate in the action with similar rights and obligations to the beneficiaries, but which do not sign the grant agreement and therefore do not become beneficiaries themselves) are allowed, if they are eligible for participation and funding.
- Associated partners — Associated partners (i.e. entities which participate in the action without signing the grant agreement, and without the right to charge costs or claim contributions) are allowed, subject to any conditions regarding associated partners set out in the specific call conditions.
- Entities without legal personality — Entities which do not have legal personality under their national law may exceptionally participate, provided that their representatives have the capacity to undertake legal obligations on their behalf, and offer guarantees to protect the EU’s financial interests equivalent to those offered by legal persons.
- EU bodies — Legal entities created under EU law including decentralised agencies may be part of the consortium, unless provided for otherwise in their basic act.
- Joint Research Centre (‘JRC’)— Where provided for in the specific call conditions, applicants may include in their proposals the possible contribution of the JRC but the JRC will not participate in the preparation and submission of the proposal. Applicants will indicate the contribution that the JRC could bring to the project based on the scope of the topic text. After the evaluation process, the JRC and the consortium selected for funding may come to an agreement on the specific terms of the participation of the JRC. If an agreement is found, the JRC may accede to the grant agreement as beneficiary requesting zero funding or participate as an associated partner, and would accede to the consortium as a member.
- Associations and interest groupings — Entities composed of members (e.g. European research infrastructure consortia (ERICs)) may participate as ‘sole beneficiaries’ or ‘beneficiaries without legal personality’. However, if the action is in practice implemented by the individual members, those members should also participate (either as beneficiaries or as affiliated entities, otherwise their costs will NOT be eligible.
other eligibility criteria
If projects use satellite-based earth observation, positioning, navigation and/or related timing data and services, beneficiaries must make use of Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS (other data and services may additionally be used).
Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum.
Beneficiaries may provide financial support to third parties. The support to third parties can only be provided in the form of grants. The maximum amount to be granted to each third party is EUR 50 000, allowing a third-party fully to explore an application. As the primary purpose of the action is to support EU and Associated Countries experts in the global ICT standardisation scene, a minimum of 70% of the total requested EU contribution shall be allocated to financial support to third parties, selected through open calls. Financial support for these specialists should be typically in the order of EUR 1.000 – 10.000 by use financial support to third parties (FSTP). Beneficiaries will define the process of selection of specialists through open calls. They will also define the process that will lead to a selection of a pool of evaluators that will evaluate the applications received in the open calls through the use of FSTP.
Additional information
Topics
Relevance for EU Macro-Region
EUSAIR - EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region, EUSALP - EU Strategy for the Alpine Space, EUSBSR - EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, EUSDR - EU Strategy for the Danube Region
UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs)
Additional Information
All proposals must be submitted electronically via the Funders & Tenders Portal electronic submission system (accessible via the topic page in the Search Funding & Tenders section). Paper submissions are NOT possible.
Proposals must be complete and contain all parts and mandatory annexes and supporting documents, e.g. plan for the exploitation and dissemination of the results including communication activities, etc.
The application form will have two parts:
- Part A (to be filled in directly online) contains administrative information about the applicant organisations (future coordinator and beneficiaries and affiliated entities), the summarised budget for the proposal and call-specific questions;
- Part B (to be downloaded from the Portal submission system, completed and then assembled and re-uploaded as a PDF in the system) contains the technical description of the project.
Annexes and supporting documents will be directly available in the submission system and must be uploaded as PDF files (or other formats allowed by the system).
The limit for a full application (Part B) is 33 pages.
Call documents
Horizon Cluster 4 Work Programme 2024-2025Horizon Cluster 4 Work Programme 2024-2025(3756kB)
Contact
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