ITEA call for projects NOV 2023

Participation

Participation is open to companies of all sizes, universities and research organisations.

By participating in a Cluster project, you benefit from:

• access to national R&D funding,
• an international network of companies including key industry players,
• guidance, coaching and monitoring of your project by ITEA offices,
• low administrative requirements and
• receiving a quality label.

ITEA

ITEA is the Eureka R&D and innovation Cluster on software innovation and digital transition, enabling a large international community of large industry, SMEs, start-ups, academia and customer organisations, to collaborate in funded projects that turn innovative ideas into new businesses, jobs, economic growth and benefits for society. It is industry-driven and covers a wide range of business opportunities facilitated by digitisation like smart mobility, healthcare, smart cities and energy, manufacturing, engineering and safety & security. ITEA pushes important technology fields like artificial intelligence, big data, simulation and high-performance computing into concrete business applications.

For more details, visit the ITEA website or contact the Cluster offices and your national funding body.  

Scope

In a rapidly changing society where societal challenges are omnipresent, digitisation is no longer just an option but should be regarded as an opportunity to create innovative solutions. Software innovation is a core component for mastering this Digital Transition and this is the main focus of ITEA.

It is ITEA’s mission to enable businesses to create innovative solutions that master the Digital Transition and tackle the major societal challenges. ITEA encourages its global Community to create impact and value through RD&I projects in the area of Software Innovation with the knowledge of industry and the capability of national financing.

Your project should:

• address at least one of the fields mentioned in the call description and
• demonstrate the potential to research or develop a product, process or service for commercialisation.

Relevant industry sectors include (but are not limited to):

• mobility, healthcare, energy, manufacturing, engineering, safety & security and smart cities & communities

Software innovation technologies to be researched and developed include (but are not limited to):

• artificial intelligence, digital twin, process automation, big data, simulation, high-performance computing, IoT, natural language, etc.

Timeframe

12 September 2023: Call opens

12-13 September 2023: Project Outline Preparation Days

13 November 2023 – 17:00 CET: Project outline submission deadline (date of receipt CE(S)T)

19 February 2024 – 17:00 CET: Full project submission deadline (date of receipt CE(S)T)

25 March 2024: Label announcement

Q4 2023 - Q2 2024: National funding applications

From Q3 2024: Projects can start

Eligibility

Eureka has limited eligibility criteria for organisations participating in a Clusters consortium:

• Your project idea must represent international cooperation in the form of a specific project.
• The project must be directed at researching or developing an innovative product, process or service with the goal of commercialisation.
• The project must have a civilian purpose.
• Your consortium must include at least two independent legal entities from a minimum of two Eureka countries.
• No single organisation or country can be responsible for more than 70% of the project budget.

Please ask your national funding body if they have additional criteria for their organisations to be eligible to receive funding: https://itea4.org/funding.html.

If there is no allocated budget for your organisation type in your country and you want to participate in a project consortium, contact your national funding body using the form below to see whether there are other funding opportunities available or talk to them about self-funding.

Evaluation

Your project will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

Rationale of the project:

• Are the general problem, solutions and challenges to be addressed clearly described?
• Do the proposed solution and challenges to be addressed fit in the scope of the ITEA programme?

Market view:

• Is the current State-of-the-Art in the market (i.e. similar available solutions in the market, competitors, new legislation, alternative/disruptive technologies introduced recently) clearly described for the proposed solution?
• Does the proposed solution have a clear business impact?
• Is the market value chain clearly described and complete?
• Do the current partners have sufficient competences and access to the market to bring the solution successful to the market?
• Are the market opportunities, future potential products or services clearly documented for each partner?

Technology view:

• Is the technological State-of-the-Art properly described? Is the described technological innovation of the project innovative enough in relation to the State-of-the-Art?
• Does the proposal document how the project relates to and/or builds on the results of, and differentiates from, other (completed or running) cooperative projects?
• Is there a description of a solution concept (high-level architecture) and is it indicated for each partner to which parts of this concept they will contribute?
• Is the added value of the cooperation of the different partners clearly explained?
• Is the technological value chain properly explained?
• Are the targeted achievements described in terms of expected outputs (what will be delivered) and quantified objectives (how well will the results perform)?

Consortium (key players & cooperation added value):

• Is there enough R&D competence and business power in the consortium? Is the mix of partner types (i.e. large industrial players, SMEs and universities or research institutes) appropriate?
• Is the mix of countries in accordance with the EUREKA rules (see § 3.2)?
• Is the added value of each partner's contribution described and convincing?
• Does this consortium help the partners to achieve their goals (business and technological)?

Rationale for funding:

• Is there a convincing rationale for each country why the partners need to be funded?
• Have the partners investigated the national policies and taken them into account?

Work descriptions (only for FPP):

• Is the project structure (work packages and their interdependencies) clearly described?
• Is there an adequate project management plan?
• Are the milestones relevant?
• Is the total effort in line with the work and the objectives to be achieved?
• Is the effort of each partner in line with the work to be done?

Writing quality

• Is the text of the proposal clear and easy to understand?

Your national funding body may carry out a further evaluation according to national rules before allocating funds to successful applicants.

Applying

1. Contact your national funding body and ITEA office to discuss your project idea and eligibility.
2. Log in or create an account an ITEA account at the ITEA website: https://itea4.org/
3. Submit your project outline (an overview of the project, its main objective, partnerships and expected impact) and receive feedback via the ITEA Community website https://itea4.org/community
4. Submit your final project proposal.

Please note that your national funding body may have additional steps for applying for R&D funding.

Events and partner search

The ITEA Project idea tool (https://itea4.org/podays2023/idea/list/tool-40.html) allows you to share your idea with other ITEA Community members in a protected environment and gather interest from possible project partners. The ITEA partner search can also help you to find partners to build a project consortium.

ITEA organises the following events, which offer opportunities for meeting potential project partners:

• ITEA Project Outline Preparations Days: this (net)working event has proved to be the perfect stepping stone to kick-off your new R&D and innovation project in the software innovation domain; generally over 70% of the submitted Project Outlines in ITEA were presented first at this lively brokerage event: https://itea4.org/podays2023
• Online Project idea pitch sessions in order to prepare for the ITEA Project Outlines Days and/or for those who are not able to join the (net)working event: https://itea4.org/podays2023/project-idea-pitch-session.html
• Country information sessions: an early dialogue between project teams and Public Authorities supports alignment with national priorities and the best possible opportunities for funding that lead to high success rates: https://itea4.org/podays2023/national-priorities-eligibility-criteria-and-funding-outlook-2023.html

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