1st call Application Experiment

Open call for Application Experiment (AE): DigiFed offers grants of up to € 55k as well as technical and business support for the development of smart applications in Europe.

If you are:

• Developing novel and innovative smart solutions worthy of market leaders.
• Bridging the physical and virtual worlds with advanced technologies and industrialized solutions.
• Interested in using premium resources and competencies to speed up development.
• Wishing to access a unique European ecosystem composed of: leading industrial companies, world-class research organizations, innovation accelerators and private investors.

DigiFed offers you:

• Access to industrial platforms in the domain of cyber-physical and embedded systems (CPS).
• Product support aimed at bringing your innovations to target markets.
• Up to € 55k in funding – representing 70% of your project’s declared budget.
• Added value to your product through the usage of high-level technical expertise pooled from research centres across Europe.
• Innovation management support focusing on sustainable business development – to help your innovation get to the market via DigiFed and the Smart Anything Everywhere ecosystem.
• Digital Innovation Hub (DIH) services to identify technical partners, commercial opportunities in Europe and receive tailored help, webinars and boot camps through the DigiFed project. 

DigiFed is open to proposals including, but not limited to, following fields:

• CPS / Embedded systems
• Smart applications
• Artificial Intelligence
• Connectivity/IoT
• Additive manufacturing
• Application-specific semiconductor technologies
• Heterogeneous integration and smart miniaturized systems
• Micro and nano bio-systems
• The energy efficiency of systems

Proposals shall be pan-European (EU member states or H2020 associated countries), encouraging cross-border collaboration:

• With partners/technologies facilitated by the DigiFed team
• With a techno supplier or a customer (SME/RTO/Midcap/LE in Europe) of your choice.

If you have a promising innovative idea, we will help you to bring it to the market – do not miss this opportunity and apply to the open call to realize your innovative solution! Register at our portal and contact one of our networking/DIH partners who will promptly assist you in proposal development. We will also match you with an appropriate advanced or industrial platform that best suits your needs! 

---

---

Important DigiFed process guidance, rules, offered technologies and platforms can be found at www.digifed.org and in our Guide for Applicants.

Through open calls, DigiFed provides:

• a unique marketplace organized as a one-stop-shop with access to leading-edge industrial platforms and several advanced technologies
• support through expertise, know-how, coaching, design support and tech transfer from our partners or DIH services.

DigiFed welcomes proposals addressing any smart application domain targeting:

• CPS Software-intensive project:  Building a system solution using existing programmable CPS software core platforms. The expected outcome of this kind of experiment is a SW prototype demonstrator running on a pre-identified platform (e.g. from DigiFed partner or external stakeholders). 
• System integration project: Building a system solution using existing SW and HW components. This kind of AE requires access to a broad range of competencies (product technical experts, design kits, API, etc.). The expected outcome of this kind of experiment is an integrated system prototype demonstrator. 

DigiFed offers several different leading-edge platforms and DIHs services:

Technology:

• AVL List GmbH (Austria): Integrated and Open Development Platform. 
• BME – Budapest University of Technology and Economics (Hungary): LEDSBESMART platform and Versatile Realiability Tester 
• CEA (France): Platform for Cybersecurity of hardware systems. SigMa Fusion^TM platform for environment perception.  
• Digital Catapult (UK): Access to 5G and IoT network testbeds, IoT benchmarking, Access to Compute, Machine Learning and AI Ethics capability 
• Ikerlan (Spain): Ikerlan Konnekt solutions (industrial cybersecurity, dependable embedded systems, I&C technologies, HW & communication systems) 
• Ljubljana University (Slovenia): Cloud DevOps; Electrical blockchain switch; Big Data analytics tools; IoT prototyping & sensing automation system; 5G experimentation, intervention, quality monitoring system 
• STMicroelectronics (France): STM32 PU & STM32 CMU enabling innovation applications for Smart industry, smart city, smart home and smart things 
• STMicroelectronics (Italy): Physical digital transformation support with hardware & software tools for fast prototyping.

Innovation Management:

• Blumorpho (France): Support in go to market strategy & innovation management; access to further funding and relevant training to attract private investors. 
• Digital Catapult (UK): Innovation support (technical, business, open innovation) and training events. 
• Ljubljana University (Slovenia): Designing effective digital solutions with stakeholders (SEROI+ methodology) 
• Minalogic (France): Five level of services on (I) Strategy positioning, (II) R&D innovation process, (III) Business development, (IV) Finance access and (V) Skills and training capacity building. 
• Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum (Germany): Development of Innovation strategies, especially in SMEs; Aid for the internationalisation as well as support for EU funding and projects  

Application Experiments can run from 9 to 12 months but must be completed by 12.31.2022. The expected outcome of our Application Experiments is a demonstrator prototype with a high technology readiness level (TRL). The prototype may also be used as a first-generation product.

DigiFed targets ‘small’ companies (start-ups, small/medium enterprises and midcaps), including organisations with both, low and high digital maturity.

Interested start-ups, SMEs and mid-Caps from EU member states and H2020 associated countries are encouraged to review the offered platforms, technologies and testbeds at www.digifed.org and contact our project members to gather further details. Additionally, several boot camps are offered by the DIHs in order to support the applicants.

UK companies are eligible to participate to DigiFed open calls and to receive DigiFed grant.

DigiFed contributes to the European Commission Initiative to help digitize European Industry, the Smart Anything Everywhere Initiative: https://smartanythingeverywhere.eu/.