AR/VR-empowered digital twins for modelling complex phenomena in new RI application areas
HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions
Basic Information
- Identifier
- HORIZON-INFRA-2024-TECH-01-04
- Programme
- Next generation of scientific instrumentation, tools, methods, and advanced digital solutions for RIs (2024)
- Programme Period
- 2021 - 2027
- Status
- Closed (31094503)
- Opening Date
- December 5, 2023
- Deadline
- March 11, 2024
- Deadline Model
- single-stage
- Budget
- €24,000,000
- Min Grant Amount
- €12,000,000
- Max Grant Amount
- €12,000,000
- Expected Number of Grants
- 2
- Keywords
- HORIZON-INFRA-2024-TECH-01-04HORIZON-INFRA-2024-TECH-01
Description
Project results are expected to contribute to all the following expected outcomes:
- Availability of advanced modelling and prediction capabilities aimed at industrial, scientific or policy end users on fundamental, complex and socio-economically relevant real-life phenomena, including consideration of the possibility to replace, where appropriate, the need for physical experiments and interventions by using digital twins.
- Enhanced competitiveness and improved effectiveness of European RIs;
- Better integration of RIs into local, regional and global innovation and decision support systems.
The aim of this topic is to deliver digital twin solutions which advance the state-of-art of European RIs and show transformative potential in RI operations. The solutions should pave way for new ways to conduct experiments by the RIs through AR/VR (augmented reality/virtual reality) empowered digital twins. Mixed reality (XR) technologies can also be considered. The focus is on newer application areas, such as healthcare, safety and security, to understand complex real-world systems, particularly in application areas constrained by specific physical limitations (like radiation, pressure or temperature). The related developments, which underpin the provision of improved and advanced services, should lead RIs to support new areas of research and/or a wider community of users, including clearly identified and involved industrial, scientific or policy end users and enhance the potential of the RIs in addressing EU policy objectives and socio-economic challenges.
Proposals should address all of the following aspects:
- development of digital twin solutions for RIs that take advantage of AR/VR technologies for interactive visualisation and bring together the available relevant data resources in the specific topical area;
- include technology validation and prototyping activities to cope with a large and representative application area to test the relevance of the solutions with the needs of relevant industrial, scientific or policy end users;
- prepare for take-up of the developed solutions by clearly identified and involved industrial, scientific or policy end users, and include relevant training for the operation and use of these new solutions.
Consortia should include world-class RIs, like ESFRI infrastructures, European Research Infrastructures Consortia (ERICs) and/or other world-class RIs of European interest. Relevant technological partners from the industry and SMEs should be involved to the activities and to promote innovation and knowledge sharing through co-development of new technical solutions for RIs.
Clearly identified industrial, scientific and/or policy end users should be involved through an iterative development process. Clearly defined use cases should demonstrate the potential of these new solutions within the involved communities and beyond. If appropriate, links to the Destination Earth (DestinE) initiative[1] could be established, either by contributing directly to future application areas of DestinE or by making use of DestinE model/data resources. In this topic the integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content is not a mandatory requirement.
[1] https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/destination-earth
Destination & Scope
Scientific communities cannot adequately respond to current research challenges without having access to state-of-the-art scientific instruments and tools. Their constant adaptation, upgrading and innovation, as the underlying technologies develop at a very rapid pace, is critical for providing the optimal conditions for scientific advancements and discoveries in Europe.
The aim of this destination is the development of ground-breaking RI technologies, including scientific instruments, tools, methods, and advanced digital solutions, to enable new discoveries and keep RIs in the EU and Associated Countries at the highest level of excellence in science, while also paving the way to innovative solutions to societal challenges and new industrial applications, products and services. New instruments and tools (such as advanced sensors, imaging devices, light source detectors, high-tech developments for accelerators, robots/automated solutions) and advanced digital solutions (e.g. digital twins, data analytics and AI tools, etc.) for RI upgrade, will enable innovative solutions to be found even for the most demanding scientific and societal challenges.
Proposals for topics under this destination should set out a credible pathway to contributing to one or several of the following impacts:
- Enhanced global competitiveness and technological excellence of the EU and Associated Countries in an extremely fast-moving environment through investments into the development, of forward-looking technical instruments and tools for European RIs.
- Enhanced competitiveness of EU and Associated Countries industry through co-development with industrial actors of advanced RI technologies and technology transfer;
- Opening up of new areas of research and development of new industrial applications/products;
- Development of skills of RI staff aligned with the advancements of the RI technologies;
- Transdisciplinarity, cross-fertilisation and a wider sharing of knowledge and technologies between academia and industry;
- Wider use of AI in research and enhanced data-driven research across the EU and Associated Countries.
Eligibility & Conditions
General conditions
2. Eligible countries: described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes
A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide.
3. Other eligibility conditions: described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes
4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion: described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes
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Award criteria, scoring and thresholds are described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes
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Submission and evaluation processes are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual
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Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement: described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes
Beneficiaries will be subject to the following additional access rights: Each beneficiary must grant royalty-free access to its results (intellectual property rights), which are needed for further developing, implementing and monitoring the European Commission’s Destination Earth initiative, to the entities that are signatories of the Contribution Agreements for implementing the initiative (European Space Agency (ESA), European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT)). Such access rights are limited to non-commercial and non-competitive use.
Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum as defined in the Decision of 7 July 2021 authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2021-2027) – and in actions under the Research and Training Programme of the European Atomic Energy Community (2021-2025). [[This decision is available on the Funding and Tenders Portal, in the reference documents section for Horizon Europe, under ‘Simplified costs decisions’ or through this link: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/horizon/guidance/ls-decision_he_en.pdf]].
6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants: described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes
Specific conditions
7. Specific conditions: described in the [specific topic of the Work Programme]
Documents
Call documents:
Standard application form — call-specific application form is available in the Submission System
Standard application form (HE RIA, IA)
Standard evaluation form — will be used with the necessary adaptations
Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA)
RAO decision authorising the use of lump sum funding
Explanatory slides for applicants on the specificities of lump sum funding
Detailed Budget Table (HE LS) for estimation of Lump Sum Funding
Additional documents:
HE Main Work Programme 2023–2024 – 1. General Introduction
HE Main Work Programme 2023–2024 – 3. Research Infrastructures
HE Main Work Programme 2023–2024 – 13. General Annexes
HE Framework Programme and Rules for Participation Regulation 2021/695
HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764
Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment
EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement
Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual
Funding & Tenders Portal Terms and Conditions
Funding & Tenders Portal Privacy Statement
Support & Resources
Online Manual is your guide on the procedures from proposal submission to managing your grant.
Horizon Europe Programme Guide contains the detailed guidance to the structure, budget and political priorities of Horizon Europe.
Funding & Tenders Portal FAQ – find the answers to most frequently asked questions on submission of proposals, evaluation and grant management.
Research Enquiry Service – ask questions about any aspect of European research in general and the EU Research Framework Programmes in particular.
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Latest Updates
CALL UPDATE
CALL: HORIZON-INFRA-2024-TECH-01
EVALUATION results
Published: 06.12.2023
Deadline: 12.03.2024
Available budget: EUR 137.5 million
HORIZON-INFRA-2024-TECH-01-01
The results of the evaluation are as follows:
Number of proposals submitted (including proposals transferred from or to other calls): 51
Number of inadmissible proposals: 0
Number of ineligible proposals: 3
Number of above-threshold proposals: 46
Total budget requested for above-threshold proposals: 445.40 million
Number of proposals retained for funding: 7
Number of proposals in the reserve list: 3
Score of the first proposal in the reserve list: 14
Ranking distribution of above-threshold proposals:
Number of proposals with scores between 15 and 14 (incl): 15
Number of proposals with scores between 14 and 13 (incl): 7
Number of proposals with scores between 13 and 10 (incl): 24
HORIZON-INFRA-2024-TECH-01-02
The results of the evaluation are as follows:
Number of proposals submitted (including proposals transferred from or to other calls): 1
Number of inadmissible proposals: 0
Number of ineligible proposals: 0
Number of above-threshold proposals: 1
Total budget requested for above-threshold proposals: 5.00 million
Number of proposals retained for funding: 1
Number of proposals in the reserve list: 0
Ranking distribution of above-threshold proposals:
Number of proposals with scores between 15 and 14 (incl): 0
Number of proposals with scores between 14 and 13 (incl): 0
Number of proposals with scores between 13 and 10 (incl): 1
HORIZON-INFRA-2024-TECH-01-03
The results of the evaluation are as follows:
Number of proposals submitted (including proposals transferred from or to other calls): 9
Number of inadmissible proposals: 0
Number of ineligible proposals: 0
Number of above-threshold proposals: 8
Total budget requested for above-threshold proposals: 111.95 million
Number of proposals retained for funding: 3
Number of proposals in the reserve list: 0
Ranking distribution of above-threshold proposals:
Number of proposals with scores between 15 and 14 (incl): 1
Number of proposals with scores between 14 and 13 (incl): 0
Number of proposals with scores between 13 and 10 (incl): 7
HORIZON-INFRA-2024-TECH-01-04
The results of the evaluation are as follows:
Number of proposals submitted (including proposals transferred from or to other calls): 8
Number of inadmissible proposals: 0
Number of ineligible proposals: 0
Number of above-threshold proposals: 6
Total budget requested for above-threshold proposals: 67.16 million
Number of proposals retained for funding: 2
Number of proposals in the reserve list: 0
Ranking distribution of above-threshold proposals:
Number of proposals with scores between 15 and 14 (incl): 0
Number of proposals with scores between 14 and 13 (incl): 2
Number of proposals with scores between 13 and 10 (incl): 4
Summary of observer report:
The Independent Observer confirms that the evaluation process is a complex exercise and required a great commitment from all the actors.
The panels preparation, the organization of the remote individual evaluations, the consensus meetings and final panel reviews required an accurate timetable, very good coordination and an efficient execution.
The entire process was conducted in a very professional manner by all the participants. The proposals received adequate and fair scores, with great respect for the applicants.
The result was that the best proposals have received the funding by the EU.
Call HORIZON-INFRA-2024-TECH-01 has closed on 12 of March 2024.
69 proposals have been submitted.
The breakdown per topic is:
- HORIZON-INFRA-2024-TECH-01-01: 51 proposals
- HORIZON-INFRA-2024-TECH-01-02: 1 proposal
- HORIZON-INFRA-2024-TECH-01-03: 9 proposals
- HORIZON-INFRA-2024-TECH-01-04: 8 proposals
Evaluation results are expected to be communicated in July 2024.