EU FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT TIPS

ID: INNOSUP-08-2020

Scope:

The objective is to reinforce the competitiveness of manufacturing SMEs by providing easy and pan-European access to advanced manufacturing advice and expertise as well as training programmes. The services to be provided to the SME should be driven by its business needs and the implementation must be flexible and fast to better cope with the speed of innovation in advanced manufacturing and the SME requirements.

The action will consist of the two elements (which can be combined) listed below which will continue and expand the activities of the Advanced Manufacturing Support Centre :

• The roll-out of a pan-European advanced manufacturing assistance programme helping SMEs with the ambition to turn into a factory of the future: Reaching out to companies and assisting a critical mass of manufacturing SMEs with a view to transform their business towards a factory of the future with modern and sustainable production.

Expected Impact:

• Provide a clear and measurable contribution of the advanced manufacturing assistance and training programme to the innovation performance and environmental and social sustainability of the supported SMEs, as revealed by indicators such as: numbers of new or significantly improved production processes, products or services or new organisational methods; its impact on resource efficiency; its impact on productivity, production lead times, investments and/or turnover; number of SMEs that prepared a concrete plan to upgrade their manufacturing processes during the action; its impact on technical and non­technical competences acquired and workers involvement; a wider impact on job creation is also expected to be measured in the longer term.

• Frameworks for training programmes related to advanced manufacturing, ready for implementation within the duration of the action. These should propose a pathway on how to facilitate a further scaling-up under the European Social Fund.

The training services should include practical, "on-site" training delivered at facilities where technologies can be tested and demonstrated such as pilot lines (e.g. "learning by doing",
"learning factories", fab labs). Proposals should include solutions to overcome the challenge of both geographical distance and the gender segregation.

The objective of Pilot Projects under this Call is to foster the development of tools supporting independent and inclusive access to online content and services, including consumer transactions, for persons with cognitive disabilities, to fulfil the commitments under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the EU Web Accessibility Directive4
and the European Accessibility Act5 . Such tools will benefit all users, including vulnerable citizens affected e.g. by information overload, excessive credulity, psychosocial disabilities or old age.
In particular, proposals must address common accessibility challenges that persons with cognitive disabilities encounter on websites or mobile applications, such as:
- signing in or completing authentication processes;
- entering data or filling out forms, avoiding and correcting errors;
- accomplishing multi-stage tasks;
- using complex interfaces and intricate navigation patterns;
- processing information on cluttered pages, avoiding cognitive overload;
- getting focussed on the task at hand, limiting interruptions, reminders, and changes in content;
- stopping animations and auto-play videos or audios;
- understanding text and graphics;
- identifying key points from lengthy or heavy text based pages;
- interpreting and processing numerical information, including managing dates;
- finding information;
- following instructions;
- looking for help or support

Objectives pursued
The uptake of Research and Innovation (R&I) results created under the Framework Programme is important for the programme’s success and is instrumental in contributing towards transformative impacts on the economy, society and policy making. Impacts are seen as an effect on, change or benefit to
the economy, society, culture, public policy or services, health, the environment or quality of life.
The Commission will award on an annual basis a recognition prize to reward beneficiaries that have successfully used their research results to create value for society. The beneficiaries must be able to show proof of effective exploitation and uptake of their research results. This action aims to illustrate the wider socio-economic benefits of the EU investment in R&I and to encourage project beneficiaries to best manage and use their research results.
In particular, five winners will be selected by the evaluation jury for their achievements. The prizes are monetary and each of the five winners will receive EUR 10.000. The prizes will be awarded during the Award Ceremony with a selected audience of high-level representatives and promoters of innovation in industry and public sector. The Commission will further promote the winners by inviting them to provide testimony in other major events.

The page-limit for your prize application (Part B) is: 6 pages.

Please also be aware that participants that have already received an EU or Euratom prize cannot receive a second prize for the same activities.

Call name:BUILDING A LOW-CARBON, CLIMATE RESILIENT FUTURE: SECURE, CLEAN AND EFFICIENT ENERGY  | Call ID:H2020-LC-SC3-2018-2019-2020

Scope:

Integrated innovative solutions for Positive Energy Blocks/Districts will be developed and tested and performance-monitored in the Lighthouse Cities. Projects will consider the interaction and integration between the buildings, the users and the larger energy system as well as implications of increased deployment of electro-mobility, its impact on the energy system and its integration in planning.

Lighthouse Cities will closely collaborate with Fellow Cities[3] and should act as exemplars helping to plan and initiate the replication of the deployed solutions in the Fellow cities, adapted to different local conditions.

As a sustainable energy transition will see increased electro-mobility, its impact on the energy system needs to be understood and well integrated in planning.

Definition: Positive Energy Blocks/Districts consist of several buildings (new, retro-fitted or a combination of both) that actively manage their energy consumption and the energy flow between them and the wider energy system. Positive Energy Blocks/Districts have an annual positive energy balance[4]. They make optimal use of elements such as advanced materials (e.g. bio-based materials), local RES, local storage, smart energy grids, demand-response, cutting edge energy management (electricity, heating and cooling), user interaction/involvement and ICT.

Positive Energy Blocks/Districts are designed to be integral part of the district/city energy system and have a positive impact on it (also from the circular economy point of view). Their design is intrinsically scalable and they are well embedded in the spatial, economic, technical, environmental and social context of the project site.

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Call name: BUILDING A LOW-CARBON, CLIMATE RESILIENT FUTURE: SECURE, CLEAN AND EFFICIENT ENERGY  | Call ID:H2020-LC-SC3-2018-2019-2020

Scope: Proposals will develop and demonstrate technical solutions, processes and models, which increase a PV system's operational stability and reliability, allowing for higher PV penetration levels. Proposals are expected to address specific objectives such as the reliability of system components, advanced and automated functions for data analysis, diagnosis and
fault detection, forecasting and model-predictive control frameworks, ancillary services for the stability of the network; maintenance planning and/or reporting; interoperability of plants
and components; business models; etc.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 6 to 10 million would allow this challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless,
this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact: Projects are expected to increase utility-friendly integration of PV generation at high-penetration levels and the performance and profitability of PV systems.
Type of Action: Innovation action

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Deadline:   12 November 2019 17:00:00 Brussels time

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Objective:

The Innovative Training Networks (ITN) aim to train a new generation of creative, entrepreneurial and innovative early-stage researchers, able to face current and future challenges and to convert knowledge and ideas into products and services for economic and social benefit.

Scope:

ITN supports competitively selected joint research training and/or doctoral programmes, implemented by partnerships of universities, research institutions, research infrastructures, businesses, SMEs, and other socio-economic actors from different countries across Europe and beyond.

Deadline: 15.01.2019

Challenge

The development of innovative products which reuse CO2 in order to significantly improve net CO2 emissions, while overcoming technical, commercial and/or financial barriers.

How do students apply?

Students apply through their university, according to the timing and procedures established by the university for Erasmus+ traineeships. Recent graduates can do traineeships within 12 months after graduation and provided that they have applied before the graduation.The interns will receive an allowance of around 500 EUR per month, for an average of five months.

Scope:

This aims to enhance cooperation among innovation agencies of the European innovation ecosystem by establishing a mutual learning process at national and regional level, as well as by developing joint tools and resources to assist start-ups and SMEs to innovate.

The pilot action will create an enhancing, supporting and cooperative environment across EU that will allow national and regional agencies to:

• cooperate, learn from each other and exchange knowledge by using join tools in order to provide high-level services and support high-quality start-ups and SMEs for their innovation projects;
• create and operate national and/or regional support schemes regarding feasibility studies and external expertise, thus ensuring that the most promising high-potential innovation proposals of start-ups / SMEs are supported at their critical stage of development.

In particular, the cooperation that will notably involve the participation of national or regional innovation agencies or similar organisations should focus on:

• Exchange of information and best practices, with focus on:
• Best ways to better identify the specific needs of the start-ups and SMEs in order to allow the customization of the provided services
• The design of programmes at national/regional levels with the view of filling possible gaps in relation to the services provided by the European Innovation Council (EIC), as well as the design of the project proposals and the weight of the criteria
• Internationalisation of evaluation panels. The cooperation shall also enable accesses to respective pools of evaluators in order to set international evaluation panels and facilitate the establishment of minimum set of common evaluation criteria.
• Coaching services and selection of coaches, including access to existing databases of coaches/experts (EU, national, regional) and possible creation of pools of experts. Optionally, design and development of other common tools and resources.
• Identifying ways to continue the exchanges, provided services, tools and resources after the end of the action.
• The established national and/or regional support schemes could include the following:
• Common tools and resources to support, with the respective budgets of the national innovation agencies, highly innovative start-ups and SMEs with a clear commercial ambition and a potential for high growth and internationalisation for their close-to-market activities. The national resources deployed by national innovation agencies, if relevant, will need to comply with State Aid competition rules
• Feasibility study as an outcome of the project (not necessarily the only one)
• International pool of evaluators of the projects
• Short market-oriented project proposal template/form
• Introduction of other supportive services, including coaching services to the beneficiaries
• Follow up of the beneficiaries and advice services concerning other possible instruments on national/regional/EU levels, as well as other ways of private funding for the continuation of a project, in case the feasibility studies demonstrate that it is worth proceeding to the next phase of development.

Related to the COVID-19 outbreak, is it possible in Horizon 2020 grants to postpone the starting date of the action?

Will the deadlines for Horizon 2020 calls be extended related to the COVID-19 outbreak?

Related to the COVID-19 outbreak, what happens in Horizon 2020 grants if beneficiaries cannot submit all/complete elements for their reports related to interim and final payments?

Can the clause on “force majeure” in the Horizon 2020 grant agreement be invoked in relation to the COVID-19 outbreak?

More Faq on the Participant Portal 

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.

RISE should exploit complementary competences of the participating organisations, as well as other synergies, and enable networking activities, organisation of workshops and conferences to facilitate sharing of knowledge, new skills acquisition and career development for research and innovation staff members.

RISE proposals can focus either on one dimension of mobility (intersectoral / international), or include a combination of both.

Exchanges can be for both early-stage and experienced researchers and can also include administrative, managerial and technical staff directly involved in the research and innovation activities of the proposal.

Call name:BUILDING A LOW-CARBON, CLIMATE RESILIENT FUTURE: SECURE, CLEAN AND EFFICIENT ENERGY  | Call ID:H2020-LC-SC3-2018-2019-2020

Scope:

The proposals will develop and test novel solutions and tools for demand response and energy services, using real consumption data and feedback from the testing of services with the objective to improve predictability of consumption and consumer behaviour (aiming to create a digital twin of the consumer). The main focus will be on households, but other types of consumers (residential, industrial, commercial and tertiary, including prosumers who are self-consuming part of the energy they produce) may be included. Proposals will demonstrate services that bring a fair share of benefits to consumers and to the energy system, in particular the electricity grid.

Activities supported in this call should deliver:

• on the supply side, cheaper and more performant generation technologies (e.g. renewable energy technologies) which are better integrated in various levels of the energy system;
• a smarter, more flexible and resilient energy system (including affordable and integrated energy storage solutions), taking into account current and future climate change adverse impacts;
• on the demand side, increased overall energy efficiency (e.g. in the EU's building stock) and provision of means to enable consumers to play a more active role in the energy transition;
• a better understanding of the specific socio-economic contexts in which the energy transition takes place which will allow to address obstacles in a more effective way;
• increased market-uptake of innovations, including the implementation of energy policy, the preparation for rolling-out investments, and the support for capacity-building.

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The challenge is to develop scalable, efficient and high-impact decentralised solutions to social innovation challenges leveraging Distributed Ledger Technology (DLTs), such as the one used in blockchains.

Expected results

• pioneering decentralised solutions to global and/or local sustainability challenges
• generating positive social change by making available novel solutions for decentralising and disintermediating processes
• demonstrating the viability of solutions enabling a more even distribution and sharing of information and resources which respects privacy while providing levels of transparency
• stimulating the emerging community of developers and practitioners of "blockchains for social good" applications

Deadline:03.09.2019

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Scope:

Scale up proven technologies to convert lignin into compounds for added-value products at suitable quantities and quality for testing and validating their desired performance in specific market sectors.

This topic includes any lignin-rich feedstock, provided it can be sourced and converted in a way that is sustainable both from an environmental and an economic perspective. Proposals should apply the principle of the cascading use of biomass to ensure high efficiency of resource use.
Proposals should demonstrate that the developed technologies will achieve a conversion rate of at least 60%. The conversion rate is defined as the share of carbon contained in the input lignin that is converted into valuable products, thus excluding the potential share of biomass diverted to energy use (even though such energetic usage aims at increasing the overall sustainability of the process).

TYPE OF ACTION: Innovation action – demonstration action.

Cross-cutting Priorities:

Cross-cutting Key-Enabling Technologies (KETs)

Scope:

Proposals should take stock of the long-term effects of migration at EU aggregate and cross-national level on economic growth and productivity, employment levels and wages, entrepreneurship, and fiscal and welfare impacts. They should analyse policies related to the integration of migrants, including refugees. Particular attention should be paid to gender and vulnerable groups such as unaccompanied children and stateless persons. Attention should be also paid to economic, human capital and cultural factors in relation to the integration outcomes of different groups of migrants and the social impact of segregation. Furthermore, proposals should analyse the local and interactional dimension of integration processes and their effects on the provision of local services, workplace conditions, productivity and innovation. They should comparatively examine integration policies (labour market, education, health, civil rights, social welfare, housing, family policies, etc.), and the role of transnational institutions and networks in shaping integration at a local scale. In addition, they should estimate the efficiency, effectiveness and social impact of such policies and highlight best practices and relevant benchmarks, building on the extensive knowledge that already exists in the EU[1]. Finally, an understanding of past and historical experiences of integrating migrant communities, and what these can tell us about current challenges, should also be assessed. Interdisciplinary research with combined insights from disciplines such as sociology, economics, history, anthropology, cultural studies and psychology among others is needed.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the order of EUR 3 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Deadline: 14.03.2019

Scope: An efficient management of migrant integration requires clear understanding of migrants' personal and family situation, including their legal status, origin, cultural background, skills, language skills, medical records, etc. Once such information is available to public authorities, it can improve societal outcomes to the benefit of both host countries and migrants:
1. the management of migrant integration can be facilitated, e.g. by matching their skills with those needed in the Member States and Associated Countries, by designing tailored training programmes or by creating specific decision support tools;
2. better and customised services can be delivered to match the needs of migrants;
3. more efficient integration strategies can be defined and implemented at local level for a sustainable inclusion of migrants and a fact-based public perception of migration.
Proposals should address at least one of the 3 points above, which should be piloted against a set of clearly defined goals.

Deadline: 14.03.2019