ExpectedOutcome:
Proposal results are expected to contribute to at least one of the following expected outcomes:
- Advancing AI, data and robotics, and automation for the optimisation of production and services value-chains, optimisation of products, services, processes, to increase competitiveness, improve working conditions, and environmental sustainability, and supporting the European Economy using AI, data and robotics technologies.
- AI or learning systems (including, but not limited to self-learning, continuous and transfer learning, self-configuring systems) adapting production or services workflows to changing environments, dynamic and unpredictable resource constraints and to the capabilities and restrictions of humans and transferring results from one domain to another.
Scope:
Proposals are expected to integrate and optimise AI, data and robotics solutions in order to demonstrate, by addressing use-cases scenarios in actual or highly realistic operating environments, how they optimise production and service use cases.
Industry-empowering AI, data and robotics: enable and boost wide spread deployment of European technologies, in demonstrating clear benefits in particular applications coming from major industrial sectors, in improving processes, products or services, contributing to their competitiveness, quality of services, and strategy for environmental sustainability. Providing industry with more autonomous and more intuitive and easier to operate technologies they can trust and that are tailored for their needs, with the adapted and guaranteed levels of performance, reliability, safety, dependability, security and transparency. Providing trustworthy AI solutions combining various sources of data, sensors, interaction and information to address industrial challenges; combining the power of latest progress in AI, FAIR[1] data, autonomous or interactive robotics, smart devices and next generation networks and computing to increase automation and optimise processes, resources, and services, and addressing new technological challenges removing barriers for industrial deployment, and improving trust through more transparent and explainable AI. Where relevant latest development from low power consuming sensors, actuators and mechanisms, as well as new energy sources and batteries will be exploited to ensure energy autonomy for robotics. Promoting versatile, flexible, scalable, resilient physical and digital architecture that facilitate the future AI, data and robotics based services adoption.
Proposals should demonstrate how major European industries (covering all the sectors, from production[2] to services) can substantially benefit from optimising AI, data and/or robotics to maximise such benefits. Proposals are expecting to focus on specific use-cases to demonstrate such benefits, cross-sector use-cases are encouraged. Added value to the selected use-cases should be demonstrated by qualitative and quantitative industry and service relevant KPIs, demonstrators, benchmarking and progress monitoring.
While the proposals should be application driven, involving problem owners to define needs and validate the proposed solution, the focus is on optimising the enabling of AI, data and robotics technologies to maximise the benefit they bring.
Proposals should focus on demonstrating the added value of AI and/or Data and/or Robotics technologies to optimise value-chains, products, services or associated processes, including knowledge automation (including capturing and elicitation), to increase competitiveness, environmental sustainability, and where relevant, working conditions, for example, through added flexibility, configurability, adaptability, etc.
Digital twin approaches could be considered, where necessary and of added value.
Proposals should also address non-technical issues hampering the adoption of AI, data and robotics in the selected application domain, e.g. ethical aspects for the possible replacement of human operators, trust, human-robots collaboration and cooperation, security and safety.
Proposals will address the production or service industries, where substantial added value of AI, data and/or robotics can be demonstrated. This should be demonstrated with actual or highly realistic operating demonstrators at TRL6-7. Proposals must clearly identify which of the industries (i.e. production or services) they will exclusively focus on.
Two types of proposals are expected:
- Type 1 Projects: Focused projects (EU contribution around EUR 3.00 million), involving the user industry and technology provider(s). This type of proposals are not expected to involve the use of financial support to third parties.
- Type 2 Projects: Projects (EU contribution around EUR 5.00 million) involving the use of financial support to third parties, where a number of companies in a given application sector will identify in the proposal common challenges and use-cases, and organise competitive calls for AI, data and robotics solution providers to address such challenges. Competitive calls will be open to all types of companies, but only SMEs and Start-ups[3] will receive financial support to third parties, with a maximum of EUR 200 000 per third party[4] and 70% funding (100% for start-ups). At least 40% of the requested amount should be dedicated to financial support to third parties. The consortium will provide technical support with expertise in engineering integration, testing and validation to support the selected SMEs and start-ups acting as technology providers to demonstrate the added value of their solutions to address the challenges of the use-cases. Maximum one type of third party project will be funded per focused area (either production or services).
In all proposals user industries are expected to play a major role in the requirement and validation phases.
Besides financial support, these SMEs and start-ups successfully demonstrating the potential of their solutions, must receive support from business experts, provided by the action, to further develop their business and develop their market reach, and maximise their business opportunities.
When possible, proposals should build on and reuse public results from relevant previous funded actions, including public results developed in Member States and Associated Countries. Proposals should make use of connections to the Digital Innovation Hub networks, particularly those in Robotics, Data and AI. Full use should be made of the common resources available in the AI-on-Demand platform[5], Digital Industrial Platform for Robotics[6], data platforms[7] and, if necessary other relevant digital resource platforms. Communicable results from projects should be delivered to the most relevant of these platforms so as to enhance the European AI, Data and Robotics ecosystem through the sharing of results and best practice.
Where appropriate, issues such as data access, data sovereignty and data protection should be addressed along the whole value chains, respecting all stakeholder interests, particularly SMEs.
The re-use and sharing of data collected and processed for AI and Data innovation should be encouraged to contribute to UN SDGs and the Green Deal (e.g.: sharing private data for the public good, B2G in addition to B2B; G2B data sharing may be identified, in view of helping businesses to increase sustainability and competitiveness).
Proposals should include dissemination activities to increase awareness about the potential value for society and people as well as the business of AI, data and robotics driven innovation.
This topic implements the co-programmed European Partnership on AI, Data and Robotics.
All proposals are expected to allocate tasks to cohesion activities with the co-programmed partnership on AI, Data and Robotics and funded actions related to this partnership, including the CSA HORIZON-CL4-2021-HUMAN-01-02. Where relevant, synergies with other European partnerships are encouraged.
Specific Topic Conditions:
Activities are expected to start at TRL 3-5 and achieve TRL 6-7 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.
Cross-cutting Priorities:
Artificial IntelligenceCo-programmed European PartnershipsDigital AgendaEOSC and FAIR data
[1]FAIR data are data which meet principles of findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability
[2]Note that in the case of manufacturing, duplication with destination 1 topics are excluded. Therefore, proposals in this topic should demonstrate that they address topics different from those addressed in destination 1 topics.
[3]In this context a start-up is a tech-oriented company. It should employ less than 10 people (but more than 2 full time equivalent staff) that has operated for less than three years and has attracted more than EUR €50 000 early stage private sector investment or has demonstrable sales growth over 50% pa – they will receive 100% financial support to third parties while other SMEs would receive 70% financial support. Startups would be expected to highlight the impact that the project will have on their overall Company strategy and growth prospects in the Impact section of their proposals (as well as the impact on society and European competitiveness.
[4]Maximum amount per third party, received from a given action, over its entire duration
[5]Initiated under the AI4EU project https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/825619 and further developed in projects resulting from H2020-ICT-49-2020 call
[6]https://robmosys.eu/newsrobmosys-rosin-towards-an-eu-digital-industrial…
[7]E.g.: https://www.big-data-europe.eu/
