Programme Category
Programme Name
Programme Description
Horizon Europe is the European Union (EU) funding programme for the period 2021 – 2027, which targets the sectors of research and innovation. The programme’s budget is around € 95.5 billion, of which € 5.4 billion is from NextGenerationEU to stimulate recovery and strengthen the EU’s resilience in the future, and € 4.5 billion is additional aid.
Identifier Code
Call
Summary
Informed decision-making involves an increasing number of data sources, including high quality data from research infrastructures, and simulations.
While the concept of Digital Twins in Earth Systems promises an increased interactivity for users to run various future impact scenarios, the complexity of such setups is challenging.
Initiatives like Destination Earth (DestinE) have shown to generate massive data amounts that cannot be easily moved and therefore need to be processed on the RIs where they reside.
AI solutions can help with complex data management activities but also benefit from the available data and compute resources, and combine them efficiently with required simulation services.
Detailed Call Description
The proposals should cover all of the following aspects:
- Demonstrate the innovative use of AI, in line with the GenAI4EU initiative and other key EU initiatives, like the Apply AI strategy, to setup and manage impact assessments assisted by simulation activities across RIs. They should ensure efficient selection of data and modelling resources and transparency for the consequent decision-making.
- Exploit the rapid advances in modelling, observations, digital technologies and ML/AI, ensuring that European leadership in this field is maintained;
- Link to existing DestinE Digital Twins and services to cover unexplored areas/domains and explore joining the overall DestinE ecosystem and service offering, addressing Union priorities and evolving end-user needs and create multi-disciplinary, horizontal, transversal infrastructure solutions to handle diverse end-to-end workflows spanning various areas.
- Allow for more informed decision-making by non-technical experts and policy makers through assistance of generative AI models enabling user requirements analysis and narrowing down vast amounts of data and information into actionable and understandable scenarios.
- Demonstrate trustworthiness/reliability in the use of AI and practice clear and open communication of AI use and impact to users.
Additionally, the proposals should also include work on some of the following points:
- Evolve further through science & technology innovation using AI, provide novel digital solutions and capabilities at operational level and accelerate science-technology synergies to achieve breakthroughs in the area of AI-powered Earth system science;
- Invest on the design of a robust development framework and respective pre-operational infrastructure for advanced AI/ML tools and applications, ensuring the quality, reliability, transparency and verifiability (repeatability) of the methods applied and outcomes that are created;
- Expand to new thematic areas and fields based on identified user needs and structured feedback provided by relevant stakeholders and communities.
Proposals are expected to cover various application areas and cover at least three distinct user groups and their impact assessments. The solutions need to demonstrate a sustainable setup answering day-to-day challenges but also be suitable for continuous long-term research. They should demonstrate how the compute capabilities and data on RIs can be made directly usable to users through interactivity with twins, adapting to changing data and on-demand visualisation capabilities.
Call Total Budget
Financing percentage by EU or other bodies / Level of Subsidy or Loan
100%
Expected EU contribution per project: between €7.00 and €10.00 million.
Thematic Categories
- Environment and Climate Change
- Information and Communication Technologies
- Information Technology
- Research, Technological Development and Innovation
- Space
- Telecommunications
Eligibility for Participation
- Educational Institutions
- Large Enterprises
- Legal Entities
- Natual person / Citizen / Individual
- Non Profit Organisations
- Other Beneficiaries
- Private Bodies
- Researchers/Research Centers/Institutions
- Services Providers
- Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
- Training Centres
Eligibility For Participation Notes
Subject to restrictions for the protection of European communication networks.
The following additional eligibility criteria apply:
If projects make use of weather and/or climate predictions or related data and services, beneficiaries should make use of the European Commission’s Destination Earth initiative[[See https://destination-earth.eu/. Access to the DestinE system can be requested through https://platform.destine.eu/services/]] and engage with the relevant community.
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).
A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects.
Call Opening Date
Call Closing Date
National Contact Point(s)
Research and Innovation Foundation
Address: 29a Andrea Michalakopoulou, 1075 Nicosia, P.B. 23422, 1683 Nicosia
Telephone: +357 22205000
Fax: +357 22205001
Email: support@research.org.cy
Website: https://www.research.org.cy/en/