RFAs: Mapping and Service Finder for Technology Infrastructures

Innovative companies across Europe, especially startups and scaleups, often face significant challenges in identifying and accessing specialised technology infrastructure services beyond their local ecosystems, limiting their ability to develop, test, scale and deploy new technologies. This Coordination and Support Action addresses these barriers by creating a comprehensive inventory of existing and ongoing mappings of technology infrastructures and their services across Europe, consolidating this information into a single interactive service finder portal.

The proposed interactive portal will integrate a service finder aligned with existing tools and initiatives such as EIB TechEU and EIB Advisory Services, ensuring interoperability and complementarity. Designed from a demand-driven perspective, the platform will facilitate cooperation between infrastructure operators, industry stakeholders, and public and private actors, while expanding opportunities for technology development, testing, up-scaling and deployment, particularly for SMEs, startups and scaleups.

Built entirely on open-source technologies, the platform will support long-term sustainability, interoperability with parallel initiatives, and data exchange through a suitable open-source application programming interface. The action may also support platform maintenance for a minimum of five years, ensuring continuity and reliability of services for users across the EU.

The action also seeks to strengthen transnational and multisite collaboration among technology infrastructures and their users by fostering ecosystem-building, sharing of best practices, service co-development, feedback mechanisms, staff exchange and networking. By leveraging lessons learned from related initiatives, the project will contribute to a more connected, efficient and innovation-driven European technology infrastructure landscape aligned with key EU industrial, green and digital transition policies. The indicative funding available for this action is 2,000,000 euros per project.

Any legal entity, including those from non-associated third countries or international organisations, can participate in Horizon Europe, whether or not they are eligible for funding, as long as they meet the Regulation’s conditions and any specific call requirements. A ‘legal entity’ is any natural or legal person recognised under national, EU, or international law, able to act in its own name, exercise rights, and assume obligations, including some entities without legal personality.

The expected outcomes focus on improved visibility and access to technology infrastructures via an interactive, open-source and freely accessible portal, an improved understanding of the European technology infrastructures landscape including facilities and services supporting strategic technologies for industrial users, and boosted innovation and market potential by enabling industrial users, particularly SMEs, startups and scaleups, to search and identify relevant services for innovation and product development.

For more information, visit European Commission.