agROBOfood 1st Open Call for Innovation Experiments

Deadline: May 31, 2020  
CALL EXPIRED

About agROBOfood

This document provides most important information regarding the agROBOfood Open Call 1 for Innovation Experiments. The aim of this document is to give applicants brief information about the Open Call 1. The detailed information about application, evaluation process and conditions of the call can be found in Open Call 1 Guide for Applicants.

agROBOfood (https://agrobofood.eu/) aims at boosting the adoption of robotic technologies in the European agrifood sector. There are many excellent organisations working in agri-food robotics across Europe, and many of them are gathered into this agROBOfood consortium. Some have roots in agriculture or food and are moving into robotics, others are experts in robots and want to apply these robots in agri-food. The agROBOfood project will establish a network of robotics Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) in the agri-food domain, each bringing their own ecosystem of Competence Centres (CCs). By connecting these actors with their different

strengths, each will contribute to an overall service offer providing a more joined-up set of options for producers and wider markets for technology providers in robotic applications.

The project takes on the challenge of bridging the gap between the need to increase food production to satisfy global needs and the availability of farmland and human labour by using robotic technologies

agROBOfood Open Calls

The aim for all agROBOfood Open Calls is to stimulate, inspire and finally support Innovation Experiments and Industrial Challenges that meet user needs and have clear market potential with important benefits for EU economy and society.

The agROBOfood consortium builds upon an existing network and ecosystem and aims to use the mechanism of Open Calls providing financial support to third parties as a mechanism that will accelerate network expansion, driven by the robotics community and the European agrifood sector. Under this framework the Open Calls aim to:

• support industry, in particular SMEs and start-ups of the agrifood sector, in their robotic transformation, through demonstrators and platform development, technology transfer experiments and other services;

• allow the European automation industry (agricultural machinery, material handling, etc) to benefit from the opportunities of guiding, supporting and teaming up with start-ups and SMEs from the robotics sector; and

• mobilize private matching funds (e.g. acquisitions by big industrial players, corporate Venture Capitalist (VC) investments, that will support the scale-up of robotic technologies and accelerate the digital transformation of the agrifood sector.

To achieve these objectives, two types of Open Calls are foreseen – two Open Calls for Innovation Experiments and

one Open Call for Industrial Challenges. In total 8 M Euro budget is allocated on financial support to third parties.

Open Calls funding

Each of the Open Calls has a predefined budget described in the table below:

Total Amount

2.65 M EUR

Project Size

300k-500k

Innovation Experiments – Open Call 1

The aim of Innovation Experiments is to directly support the digital transformation of agrifood companies that have not taken full advantage of robotics technologies yet, they will not involve any research and development activities, but will rather focus on innovations that demonstrate the technologies usefulness for and from the end-user’s perspective by showcasing and demonstrating activities (e.g. use-cases), while will also utilize technology, ecosystem and business services and custom trainings.

General Information

Open Call 1 aims at selecting approximately six (6) Innovation Experiments that tackle a commercial need within agri- food and offer a solution based on robotic technologies. Selected consortia will receive up to 500 thousand euros. Chosen experiments will go through an 18-month process that consists of three phases. After positive evaluation, each phase is followed by financial support (see section 4).

Launch of Open Call 1

March 1st, 2020

Deadline for submitting proposals
May 31st, 2020
 

Evaluation and selection

Evaluation results and contracting

Phase 1 - Design

Phase 2 - Develop

Phase 3 - Market

Important notice 1: The opening and closing dates of each phase can be subject to change in case of any modifications in the project’s schedule.

Topics for Innovation Experiments

We are looking for robotic solutions that address challenges for the agrifood sector. Examples bellow illustrate some of the current areas of interest, but other robotic technologies with direct positive impact in the broader agrifood sector will be considered. More extensive list can be found in Guide for Applicants.

• Agricultural Robotics for Crop Production: Robotic solutions and application areas

• Food Supply Chain Robotics

• Livestock Robotics

Eligibility Criteria

agROBOfood Open Calls are aimed at European SMEs working in the field of agrifood and robotics. Detailed eligibility criteria are described in Guide for Applicants. Overall eligibility criteria for the agROBOfood Open Calls are:

• Applicants need to be SMEs

• SME is a legal entity established and based in one of the EU Member States or an H2020 Associated country

  as defined in H2020 rules for participation

• The coordinating SME needs to have a valid VAT number.

• Applicants need to apply as consortia

• Existing consortium members of agROBOfood project are not eligible for the Open Calls of agROBOfood.

Implementation

Application and Selection

• The proposal is delivered before the defined deadline, applying the requested submission procedure.

• Proposals shall only ask for funding for that part of the work that is not yet accomplished and will be carried out after having been selected for funding. Of course, this does not exclude the usage of e.g. results, IP,

infrastructures or approaches already hold by the proposers.

Submission Procedure

The entry point for the submission of all proposals to agROBOfood Open Calls will be the Innovation Portal https://agrobofood.eu/open-calls.Submissions received by any other channel will not be accepted.

In case multiple versions of an application are submitted, only the last version will be evaluated.

Origin of the Funds

The funds provided through the Open Calls come directly from the funds of the European Project agROBOfood funded itself by the European Commission under Grant Agreement Number 825395.

In order to receive funding, any selected proposer will sign a dedicated Sub-Grant Agreement with the agROBOfood consortium.

More details on obligations of beneficiaries can be found in Chapter 5.