PULL Open call for Farming, Forestry and Rural Challenges

ICAERUS PULL Open Calls for Farming, Forestry and Rural Challenges (FFRC) aim to attract endusers (agri-food producers, environmental monitoring entities and rural communities) to utilize drones and services built around them for individual commercial needs (e.g., crop production, early warning systems) and/or community-related issues (e.g., disaster risk reduction, forest/wildlife conservation, etc.).

The 2 PULL Open Calls for Farming, Forestry and Rural Challenges (FFRC) will be initiated on M16 and M25 respectively and after proposal submission and evaluation, the selected stakeholders will apply the ICAERUS outputs to address their challenges between M22-M33 and M32-M43 respectively. The PULL Open Calls will result 12 FFRCs winners. A total sum of 600,000 € is dedicated to iterations of this type of open call, 300,000 € per iteration. Each winner may ask for up to 50,000 €.

Topics for Farming, Forestry and Rural Challenges (FFRC) Within ICAERUS PULL Open Call for Farming, Forestry and Rural Challenges (FFRC), the following types of applications/solutions (but not limited to) are expected to be funded:

• Applying innovative solutions that leverage drone technology to address specific challenges faced by farmers, foresters, and rural communities.
• Sustainable agriculture, e.g. using drones to support regenerative farming methods, reduce the use of pesticides and fertilisers, and improve soil health.
• Logistics and supply chain management, e.g. for transporting goods and deliveries to remote areas, managing inventory and distribution, and monitoring supply chain operations using drones.
• Infrastructure monitoring and maintenance, e.g. using drones to inspect and maintain roads, bridges and other critical infrastructure in rural areas.
• Energy management, e.g. using drones to monitor and optimise renewable energy systems such as wind turbines and solar panels (agrivoltaics).
• Water management, such as the use of drones to monitor and manage water resources, including dams, reservoirs and irrigation systems.
• Public safety, such as the use of drones for crime prevention and law enforcement, disaster relief and response, and emergency medical services.

Language: English is the official language for ICAERUS Open Calls. Applications submitted in any other language will not be evaluated. English is also the only official language throughout the whole execution of the ICAERUS project. This means all requested contributions must be submitted in English to be eligible.

Eligibility Criteria

• ICAERUS PULL 1 Open Call is aimed at (but not limited to) European agri-food producers, environmental monitoring entities and rural communities/cooperatives. Detailed eligibility criteria are described in this section. Overall eligibility criteria for the ICAERUS PULL Open Calls are:
  • Applicants need to be either an SME or rural community/cooperative.
  • The applicant must have a valid VAT number. However, in case having VAT number is not mandatory according to the national legislation of the applicant’s country, a registration number from the respective national authority (National business registry, Commercial court or similar) must be provided.
  • Existing consortium members of ICAERUS project are not eligible for the Open Calls of ICAERUS.
  • 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 held by the applicants.
  • Only one proposal per applicant can be selected for funding. SMEs that receive funding within one Open Call are not eligible to apply for additional funding in other ICAERUS Open Calls. In case an applicant submits more than one proposal and both (all) of them are shortlisted for funding, only the one with the highest score could be selected.

For more information, visit ICAERUS.