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.

The EIT Manufacturing Regional Innovation Scheme (RIS) aims at widening participation in the KIC’s activities, as well as increasing the impact of EIT Manufacturing in EIT RIS countries. The EIT RIS has been designed as a two-way interaction scheme. By sharing its good practice related to Knowledge Triangle Integration and increasing its activities in EIT RIS eligible countries, EIT Manufacturing welcomes activities for:

• further developing business skills, talent, cooperation opportunities in education, currently untapped entrepreneurial potential
• accessing markets and business, customers for innovative ventures, innovation, knowledge, know-how and technology transfer possibilities
• additional testbeds for applications of innovative solutions
• supporting access to co-funding options provided by EU, regional and national support schemes

• The EIT funding per proposal is €450.000.
• The EIT funding per proposal is €200.000.

This call is open to proposals with duration of 12 months (applies to both Topic 1 and Topic 2).

For Topic 1 (RIS Innovation), consortium must propose an innovation with a TRL of at least 7 at the start of the project. The “demonstration in an operational environment” has to be proved in the “Business Plan” attachment. Solutions are expected to achieve TRL 8 or higher by the end of the activity. The business owner’s involvement and effort in the definition and execution of the commercialisation plan, which is expected to start from activity kick-off, should be described in the workplan.The business owner’s involvement and effort in the definition and execution of the commercialisation plan, and the instruction designer and effort in the development of the learning content, which are expected to start from activity kick-off, should be described in the workplan.

The exact number of activities to be funded will depend on the quality of the proposals received and total funding available. Activity proposals submitted to this call are expected to have a minimum co-funding rate as follow:

• Topic 1. A: 30 % minimum co-funding rate
• Topic 1. B: 30 % minimum co-funding rate
• Topic 1. C: 15 % minimum co-funding rate
• Topic 2: 15 % minimum co-funding rate

The minimum co-funding rate refers to the total project budget. Partners in a consortium may have different co-funding rates as long as the overall project co-fund meets the required minimum.

• New Entrepreneurship
• Research, Technological Development and Innovation

• Businesses
• Educational Institutions
• International Organisations
• Legal Entities
• NGOs
• Researchers/Research Centers/Institutions
• Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)

Any legal entity, regardless of its place of establishment, including legal entities from non-associated third countries or international organisations is eligible to participate (whether it is eligible for funding or not), provided that the conditions laid down in the Horizon Europe Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2021/695 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 April 2021 establishing Horizon Europe (OJ L 170 , 12.5.2021, p. 1), along with any other conditions laid down in the specific call topic.

A ‘legal entity’ means any 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 name, exercise rights and be subject to obligations.

To be eligible for funding, applicants must be established in one of the following countries at the time of proposal submission:

• the Member States of the European Union, including their outermost regions: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden.
• the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) linked to the Member States.
• the countries associated with Horizon Europe and the low- and middle-income countries.

While all EIT Manufacturing partners are eligible to apply for funding, applicants do not need to be EIT Manufacturing partners at the submission stage.

Consortium composition

The consortium must include at least 3 legal entitiesindependent from each other as follows:

• at least 2 different RIS countries should be covered by the consortium (legal establishment of the organisations).
• consortium shall include entities geographically based in countries covered by at least 2 different EIT Manufacturing ICs.
• assign the “Business Owner” and “End-User” (Topic 1)/ “Manufacturing Company” (Topic 2) roles to a legal entity established in an EIT RIS country

Please note: Since EIT Manufacturing has ICs in Greece, Italy and Spain, indicating possible good presence, it is strongly recommended in this case to have a strong participation and/or focus on a good number of other EIT RIS-eligible countries and avoid having activities dedicated solely on Greece, Italy and Spain.

Additionally the following roles shall be clearly covered within the consortium:

• Lead Partner. The organisation in charge of coordinating the consortium through the Activity Leader. The role of Activity Leader is open to any entity participating to the call for proposals.
• 1 Business Owner. The organisation in charge of the commercialisation of the result(s). The role of Business Owner is limited only to organization with a legal entity established in a Member State or Country associated to Horizon Europe AND EIT RIS eligible country at the time of submission of the application.

In addition, specific and needed only for Topic 1:

• End-Users. At least 1 different organisations that will deploy the key marketable innovation(s) in their production facilities to fulfil a specific need or achieve a business objective in a real-world industrial environment. The end-users must be consumers of the key marketable innovation(s) and each of them must provide at least 1 use case, testing and implementing the innovation(s) in their real industrial environment. The end user(s) should come from a EIT RIS eligible country for the RIS Call for Proposals.

In addition, specific and needed only for Topic 2:

• Manufacturing Company. At least 1 manufacturing company that will not only consume the learning programmes but support in definition and identification of the skills’ development needs. The involvement of SMEs is highly encouraged. The Manufacturing Company(ies) should come from EIT RIS eligible country for the RIS Call for Proposals.

All EIT Manufacturing partners are eligible to apply for funding, nevertheless, an entity does not need to be an EIT Manufacturing partner to apply for funding.

EIT Manufacturing RIS aims towards engaging local stakeholders – individuals (notably students, researchers, entrepreneurs) and entities (e.g. start-ups, scale-ups, universities, research labs, NGOs, regions and cities) in EIT Manufacturing activities.

Additional consortia specific conditions apply and are explained in section 3.3, page 25 of the call guidelines (the call Guidelines can be downloaded from the call announcement page).

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/

Contact Persons:

George Christou
Scientific Officer
Email: gchristou@research.org.cy

Nedi Kaffa
Scientific Officer
Email: nkaffa@research.org.cy

All applicants may contact EIT Manufacturing to ask questions and clarify any points on general/technical aspects and call content by contacting support@eitmanufacturing.eu and innovation@eitmanufacturing.eu.

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