euROBIN 1st Open Call for the Collaborative Projects

European ROBotics and AI Network (euROBIN) is the Network of Excellence that brings together European expertise on Robotics and Artificial Intelligence (AI). It will establish a unified pan-European platform for research and development. For the first time, a large number of distinguished research labs across Europe are jointly researching AI-Based Robotics. Goals include both significant scientific advances on core questions of AI-based robotics as well as strengthening the scientific robotics community in Europe by providing an integrative community platform. The network is open to the entire robotics community and provides mechanisms of cascade funding to double its number of members over the next years.

As part of the 1st Open Call for Collaborative Projects, DLR will distribute the financial support to the beneficiaries via the FundingBox Accelerator sp. z o.o. These decisions are made by a Selection Committee consisting of scientists from selected project partners.

Participants are to contribute to the testing, refinement, and evaluation of these technologies, ensuring they meet significant research challenges and can be integrated into various application domains.

Funding Information

• The exact amount of financial support to be granted to each selected third-party project under the 1st Open Call of the Collaborative Projects is up to € 60 000. During the 1st Open Call up to 12 beneficiaries will be selected.
• The total duration of support provided will be between 3 – 12 months per project and will be divided into 2 stages.
  • Plan Phase (up to € 8 000)
  • Implementation Phase (up to € 52 000)

What types of activities can be funded? 

• The activity that qualifies for financial support under the 1st Open Call for the Collaborative Projects Programme is to validate and demonstrate technologies from the EuroCore repository, with the goal of driving their real-world applicability (Technology Validation). Participants are to contribute to the testing, refinement, and evaluation of these technologies, ensuring they meet significant research challenges and can be integrated into various application domains. Among others, participants are to contribute to the design, development, and validation of:
  • Perception methods for the realization of complex manipulation tasks, or for the navigation in either domestic environments or in outdoor urban scenarios.
  • Software modules that extend the range of functionalities of robots to conduct daily life tasks and facilitate interaction with human users.
  • Novel mechanisms that improve the dexterity and reliability of robots, or novel robot platforms whose features and capabilities may be of particular interest in some application domains.
  • Simulation tools combined with advanced Artificial Intelligence techniques that have the potential to speed up the development of general robot skill
• They are looking for new entities with scientific and technical expertise relevant to the topics of the call, or with a clear need to address specific challenges described in the Open Challenges  defined by the Consortium.
• The proposed solutions are to encourage researchers and companies to drive beta tests and demonstrations of technologies from the EuroCore repository (Technology Validation). These projects must focus on validating and/or enhancing existing solutions, advancing the real-world applicability of robotic skills and capabilities across various domains (industrial, personal, and outdoors), in line with the main goals of the euROBIN project.

Ideal Project 

• Project proposals for the Collaborative projects should primarily focus on improving the performance of beneficiaries’ robotic systems or leverage robotics solutions in applications that are not yet fully automated, using technologies from the EuroCore repository. Projects aimed at enhancing and validating the systems or approaches of euROBIN partners are also encouraged. These proposals should demonstrate how euROBIN software, hardware, or methods can address real-world challenges and contribute to strengthening the broader European economic ecosystem.
• Proposals should include appropriate measures to demonstrate performance improvements on relevant problems identified by the consortium. Where applicable, developments may be shared in EuroCore to promote broader accessibility and adoption by other robotics practitioners across Europe.
• Ideally, you have demonstrated expertise through benchmarks or previous publications, or a well-defined problem where their technologies can offer impactful solutions.

Eligibility Criteria

• They are looking for a single (individual) legal entity (not a consortium) who is:
  • a Company of any size registered before the 20th of November 2024;
  • a Research Organisation
  • an Academia Research Institution registered before the 20th of November 2024.
• The entities have to be registered in:
  • The Member States of the European Union and its Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT) ;
    • or
  • Associated Countries (AC) to Horizon Europe.
• The applicants who are subject to EU restrictive measures under Article 29 of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU) and Article 215 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU) are not eligible to participate in this Open Call.
• The euROBIN partners are not eligible to act as applicants and CANNOT be involved in the grantees’ projects, neither their affiliates nor employees or permanent collaborators.

For more information, visit European Commission.