F-INTEROP Open call to extend its platform

Deadline: Jan 25, 2017  
CALL EXPIRED

Community Engagement:

The F-Interop Open Call is designed to attract projects that develop innovative testing tools and test designs around the F-Interop platform. These applications may be for the purpose of validating the platform or extending the existing capabilities of the platform with new features and capabilities, new interfaces or new tools.

In addition to the tool and test development projects described above, the open call will also select three SMEs to conduct plugtest events that will engage even more members of the interoperability and standards development communities.

What will be funded:

The financial support to third parties in the F-Interop open call will support R&D for 4 categories of projects:

• New testing tools: F-Interop will select up to three (3) projects to develop new testing tools that extend the F-Interop capabilities, with funding of €100K to the third party and an additional €10K to an existing consortium partner to support integration with the F-Interop platform. Funding will cover SW development and HW-SW integration and enablement of access to F-Interop testbeds. The outcome of this kind of experiment is an integrated testing tool on the F-Interop platform.

• New test design: F-Interop will select three(3) projects to develop new interoperability tests designs and specifications based on F-Interop , with funding of €60k to the third party and an additional €10K to an existing consortium partner to support integration with the F-Interop platform. This category will target standardization communities including ETSI, IETF, ITU, IEEE and W3C communities. This kind of project will require enablement for access to broad range of competencies. Funding will cover test design and development and HW-SW Integration into F-Interop platform as necessary. The outcome of this kind of experiment is a new test design.

• SME F-Interop assessment reports: F- Interop will allocate 10 small grants to SMEs for them to test the F-Interop platform and provide a written report on potential improvements, with funding of €10k each. Funding will cover testing on the F-Interop platform and preparation of a report. The outcome of this kind of experiment is a report detailing potential improvements to the F- Interop platform. The Consortium will fine tune the detailed requirements and expected contributions from the beneficiaries of the open call during the first year in line with the project's development.

• Plugtest Events: F- Interop will select one or more third parties to conduct three remote, online plugtest events. The objective of these events will be to involve interop communities to adopt and provide feedback on F-Interop tools for technical and/or syntactical Interoperability tests. €10,000 will be awarded to the third party selected to run an event and another €10,000 will be allocated to the consortium partner that supports this plugtest event. Funding will cover the planning, promotion and delivery of each event, the follow-up with a survey and preparation of a report detailing the results of all the interop tests conducted during the plugtest.

Total budget:

Total budget allocated for the call is 700K (23% of project budget), of which 610K will support 19 projects, while 90K will be used to assist consortium partners to deliver technical support for plugtests and new tools integration.

Key criteria:

In order to qualify for financial support through the F-Interop Open Call Programme, proposals must meet the following evaluation criteria:

• Alignment: Projects must align with one or more of the supported activity categories defined above.
• Excellence: Projects must demonstrate a clear set of objectives aligned with the definition of the F-Interop open call and with the general objectives of the ICT-30 Call
• Impact: Proposals must define a clear set of deliverables aligned with the objectives of the open call and the specific category to which the proposal relates. Proposals must also include a clear budget, detailing the overall project cost, the amount of funding requested and how it will be spent. This budget must represent good value for money in the opinion of the evaluation panel selected to evaluate the open call applications.
• Implementation: Applicants must provide credible evidence that the project delivery team have the necessary skills and management experience to be able to deliver the project in the timescales and budget specified

Information about the call:

Call publication on the project website - preliminary information: 6th May 2016

Final Call text published on F-Interop website: 31st July 2016 

Deadline for submission of proposals: 25th January 2017, 17:00 (CET)

Notification of selected applicants: 26th April 2017

Projects start: 30th August 2017

Language in which proposal should be submitted: English

Call identifier: F-Interop01 call

Email address (for information): maria.prokopi@digicatapult.org.uk