Pan-European Open Innovation Competition for Startups and Scaleups

BoostUp! Europe 2023 Call is a call for mature European startups to solve 5 industrial business challenges, disclosed by this year’s partners – Volkswagen AG, Dana Inc., Talgo, voestalpine Böhler Aerospace, and Berg Propulsion. BoostUp! Europe 2023 is an instrument for EIT Manufacturing to promote relationships between innovative startups and industrial Corporates and SMEs. The total budget for this call is €150,000 and the top-5 startups will receive a 30,000 Euro lump sum grant to implement a proof of concept (PoC) of their innovative solution to solve a Corporate/SME challenge.

“BoostUp! Europe 2023” intends to implement proofs of concepts (PoCs) of innovative technological solutions to address business challenges identified by Corporates and SMEs of the EIT Manufacturing ecosystem.

The Call has the dual goal of opening new market opportunities for startups and providing innovative solutions for the Corporates/SMEs.

Areas

• Address at least one of the following four EIT Manufacturing flagships areas:
  • Flexible Production Systems for Competitive Manufacturing Emerging technologies enable almost limitless flexibility in product design and production, allowing full customization.
  • Low Environmental Footprint Systems & Circular Economy for Green Manufacturing Using new technology to minimize the use of resources, energy, and material in production systems enables new circular business models.
  • Digital & Collaborative Solutions for Innovative Manufacturing Ecosystems Collaboration and business on digital platforms and value networks enable companies to create new and highly efficient value chains.
  • Human-machine co-working for socially sustainable manufacturing Smart use of automation and robots enables great workplaces, flexible production, and sustainable human work.

Challenges

• Fit one of the 5 business challenges proposed by 5 European Corporates/SMEs based in the following EIT Manufacturing CLCs:
  • CLC North Challenge coming from Berg Propulsion: Berg Propulsion is an industry leader in manufacturing of and solutions for energy efficient azimuth thrusters and controllable pitch propellers for marine vessels. The company is securing a leading role in energy efficiency, monitoring and controlling power consumption through the entire value chain of ship propulsion systems.
  • CLC South Challenge coming from Dana Italia: Dana Italia is looking to implement an in-line automatic line automatic vision system to replace the current visual inspection on the axles, performed 100% visually by the operators. The main challenge that Dana faces is that it risks to ship the axles with wrongly assembled components, as a result of manual visual inspection.
  • CLC East Challenge coming from voestalpine Böhler Aerospace: In the aerospace industry, there is a high demand for producing numerous intricate forging geometries, but in relatively small quantities. The implementation of robot-based process automation is hindered by the significant effort required for robot programming.
  • CLC West Challenge coming from Talgo: Talgo aims to create a virtual projection to indicate the drilling points’ location within the train with the required level of accuracy. The main challenge that Talgo faces is that once the coach structure is assembled, it is necessary to manually drill or mechanize certain areas of the structure complying with high precision standards.
  • CLC Central Challenge coming from Volkswagen AG: Volkswagen AG is looking for a solution provider for the energy optimization of factory buildings, especially with a focus on the optimization of fleets of mobile battery-powered vehicles and robots.

Funding Information

• The total maximum EIT funding allocated to this call is 150,000 EUR. The amounts will be allocated to the 5 top-startups selected in the 2nd phase (30,000 EUR each).
• Duration: The duration of the activities is up to 12 months during the period from October 2023 to November 2024.

Expected Results

• BoostUp! Europe takes the challenges of Corporates and SMEs and scouts through an open call for the best solutions and technologies from startups and then supports a period of PoC adaptation and development which results in implementation in the Corporates/SMEs. Corporates and SMEs work collaboratively with the startups to further develop or adapt the provided solutions and test them through a Proof of Concept implementation.
• The BoostUp! Europe selected applicants must conduct an in-situ demonstration of the Proof of Concept for up to 12 months by November 29th, 2024.

Eligibility Criteria

• The “BoostUp! Europe 2023” is open to mature startups with solutions at Technology Readiness Level 7 or higher.
• The startups applying to the “BoostUp! Europe 2023” call must meet the following eligibility criteria:
  • Have registered headquarters in one of the European Union Member States or countries associated to Horizon Europe at the time of their application to the call.
  • Have a dedicated team of at least two (2) full-time equivalent employees.
  • have revenue traction (i.e., recurring revenues from existing reference customers);
  • the application shall provide a complete application form, project concept, logo, and company registration certificate.

For more information, visit BoostUp! Europe.