Filter Search for grants
Call Navigation
Call key data
Industrial leadership in AI, Data and Robotics – advanced human robot interaction (AI Data and Robotics Partnership)
Funding Program
Horizon Europe - Cluster 4 - Destination 4: Digital and Emerging Technologies for Competitivness and Fit for the Green Deal
Call number
HORIZON-CL4-2023-DIGITAL-EMERGING-01-02
deadlines
Opening
08.12.2022
Deadline
29.03.2023 17:00
Funding rate
70 % (NPO: 100%)
Call budget
€ 30,000,000.00
Estimated EU contribution per project
around € 10,000,000.00
Link to the call
Link to the submission
Call content
short description
Proposals should demonstrate the added value of integrating AI, Data and Robotics technologies through large-scale validation scenarios reaching critical mass and mobilising the user industry.
Call objectives
Focus should be given to attracting new user industries, to boost the uptake of AI, Data and Robotics in major sectors and stimulate the involvement of end-users where appropriate. Besides major industries, these Actions should also involve SMEs and/or start-ups with high potential to foster innovation that advances the nature and level of interaction between people and robots, especially dealing with paradigmatic shifts in working practice that create improvements for industry and society. Proposals should target sectors and application domains with wide-scale deployment potential and maximum contribution to the European economy.
Multidisciplinary innovation activities should address one of the following:
- Development of innovative solutions to address major application-driven challenges, involving a large set of SMEs/ midcaps developing innovative solutions in order to boost the innovator community in Europe. This action also aims to expand the deployment of software engineering dedicated to human robot interaction. Especially to extend and adopt the practices of the Digital Industrial Platform for Robotics, and to stimulate the development of robust middleware that can be deployed in service and industrial applications and to expand the number and variety of high quality sharable industrially deployable modules related to human robot interaction at all levels, fostering the widespread deployment of such technologies in the targeted application sector and beyond.
Projects should use FSTP to stimulate the engagement of SMEs in the delivery of high quality, robust, sharable modules for use in human robot interaction in service and industrial tasks. Minimum 50% of the EU funding requested by the proposal should be allocated to the purpose of financial support to third parties.
- Large scale pilots bringing major industries from key application sectors in Europe – facilitating collaboration between these major companies and innovative SMEs/Start-ups/academia/tech-transfer organisations with the goal is to exploit re-usable tools, systems, sub-systems and solutions in various use-cases/sectors where human robot interaction is a critical necessity. Pilots should show scalability/versatility, and enable economies of scale.
Projects may involve FSTP in order to stimulate the engagement of SMEs in testing and validating innovative solutions in the pilots. A maximum of 50% of the EU funding requested by the proposal may be allocated to the purpose of financial support to third parties.
Proposals should involve appropriate expertise in all the relevant disciplines, such as engineering, computer sciences, mathematics, Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH), neuroscience, psychology, cognitive sciences, philosophy, biology, etc. and in particular should involve the relevant expertise to address the human factors aspects of robot human collaboration at all levels of interaction.
Proposals should clearly delineate the expected contributions from the main beneficiaries as well as from the third parties, to ensure their coherence and impact.
Security, privacy and safety should be taken into account to minimise risks to users both in terms of physical harm and in terms of digital privacy and security.
Proposals should include a clear business case and exploitation strategy.
Proposals should contribute to making human robot interactions using AI and robotics solutions meet the requirements of Trustworthy AI, based on the respect of the ethical principles, the fundamental rights including critical aspects such as robustness, safety, reliability, in line with the European Approach to AI. With these principles being adopted from the early stages of development and design through to deployment by using appropriate models of human robot interaction.
Proposals are expected to embed mechanisms to assess and demonstrate progress (with qualitative and quantitative KPIs, benchmarking and progress monitoring, as well as illustrative application use-cases demonstrating well defined added value to end users), and share communicable results with the European R&D community, through the robotics elements of the AI-on-demand platform and/or the Digital Industrial Platform for Robotics, public community resources, to maximise re-use of results, either by developers, or for uptake, and optimise efficiency of funding; enhancing the European AI, Data and Robotics ecosystem through the sharing of results and best practice.
This topic implements the co-programmed European Partnership on AI, data and robotics.
read more
Expected results
- To reach the point where human robot interaction, extended in time and scope beyond the current state of the art, adds value and improves the quality of outcome for complex tasks; for example service tasks, or complex industry processing tasks or tasks in a healthcare setting. Where the focus is on tasks where robotics can add capabilities that extend human ability but which require human interaction to be achieved. These tasks will require varying levels of interaction and communication, dependent on the current state of the task, but will essentially require close interaction over extended periods of time.
- Validate AI, Data and Robotics at scale by demonstrating the potential of integrating these technologies to address challenges in key industries and develop solutions that address human robot interaction at all levels from physical interaction to social interaction in a variety of working environments.
- Make and exploit major advances in technology, to maintain Europe’s excellence and ensure sovereignty of these key technologies expected to affect society by contributing to addressing major societal challenges by enhancing interactions between robots and people. Boost the innovation potential for wide uptake of AI, Data and Robotics by significantly improving the ability of robots to work in collaboration with humans as equals.
read more
Eligibility Criteria
Regions / countries for funding
Moldova (Moldova), Albania (Shqipëria), Armenia (Հայաստան), 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), North Macedonia (Северна Македонија), Norway (Norge), Serbia (Srbija/Сpбија), Tunisia (تونس /Tūnis), Türkiye, Ukraine (Україна)
eligible entities
EU Body, Education and training institution, International organization, Natural Person, 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
Activities are expected to start at TRL 3-5 and achieve TRL 6-7 by the end of the project.
For the Technology Readiness Level (TRL), the following definitions apply:
- TRL 1 — Basic principles observed
- TRL 2 — Technology concept formulated
- TRL 3 — Experimental proof of concept
- TRL 4 — Technology validated in a lab
- TRL 5 — Technology validated in a relevant environment (industrially relevant environment in the case of key enabling technologies)
- TRL 6 — Technology demonstrated in a relevant environment (industrially relevant environment in the case of key enabling technologies)
- TRL 7 — System prototype demonstration in an operational environment
- TRL 8 — System complete and qualified
- TRL 9 — Actual system proven in an operational environment (competitive manufacturing in the case of key enabling technologies, or in space)
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 50 pages.
Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum.
To ensure a balanced portfolio coverage, grants will be awarded to applications not only in order of ranking but at least also to the highest ranked proposal for each of the two expected scopes (1. Development of innovative solutions to address major application-driven challenges, 2. Large scale pilots bringing major industries from key application sectors in Europe). Proposals should clearly identify the scope it will focus on.
Call documents
HE-Work Programme 2023-2024, Cluster 4, Destination 4HE-Work Programme 2023-2024, Cluster 4, Destination 4(580kB)
Contact
To see more information about this call, you can register for free here
or log in with an existing account.
Log in
Register now