Horizon Europe is the European Union (EU) funding programme for the period 2021 – 2027, which targets the sectors of research and innovation. The programme’s budget is around € 95.5 billion, of which € 5.4 billion is from NextGenerationEU to stimulate recovery and strengthen the EU’s resilience in the future, and € 4.5 billion is additional aid.

EIT Manufacturing has announced the launch of the call “2nd EIT Manufacturing Call 2024 for Innovation proposals for the EIT Manufacturing Business Plan 2023-2025”, for the submission of applications.

Topic 1: Optimising production processes and increasing resource efficiency through digital solutions.

Topic 2: Socially sustainable and human-centric manufacturing. 

Topic 3: Environmentally sustainable manufacturing through circular business models and new technologies.

The maximum total EIT funding per proposal is €600 000 for 12 months proposals and €900 000 for 18 months proposals.

This call is open to proposals with different durations and TRL starting levels:

• 12 months. The consortium must propose an innovation with a TRL of at least 7 at the start of the project. The “demonstration in an operational environment” has to be proved by the Business Owner in the “Business Owner deck” attachment. EIT Manufacturing is expecting to allocate 70% of the total call budget to fund 12- month activities.
• 18 months. The consortium must propose an innovation with a TRL of at least 6 at the start of the project. The “demonstration in relevant environment” has to be proved by the Business Owner in the “Business Owner deck” attachment. EIT Manufacturing is expecting to allocate 30% of the total call budget to fund -month activities.

In both cases, solutions are expected to achieve TRL 8 or higher by the end of the activity. The business owner’s involvement and effort in the definition and execution of the commercialisation plan, which is expected to start from activity kick-off, should be described in the workplan. Different levels of co-funding apply (see Section 3.7)

The exact number of activities to be funded will depend on the quality of the proposals received and total funding available. Activity proposals submitted to this call are expected to have a minimum co-funding rate (financial contribution other than EIT Manufacturing funding allocation) as follow: 

• 12 months: 30% minimum co-funding rate
• 18 months: 40% minimum co-funding rate

• Industry
• Research, Technological Development and Innovation
• Small-Medium Enterprises and Competitiveness

• Legal Entities
• NGOs
• Non Profit Organisations
• Other Beneficiaries
• Private Bodies
• Researchers/Research Centers/Institutions
• State-owned Enterprises

Any legal entity, regardless of its place of establishment, including legal entities from non-associated third countries or international organisations is eligible to participate (whether it is eligible for funding or not), provided that the conditions laid down in the Horizon Europe Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2021/695 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 April 2021 establishing Horizon Europe (OJ L 170 , 12.5.2021, p. 1), along with any other conditions laid down in the specific call topic.

A ‘legal entity’ means any legal person created and recognised as such under national law, EU law, or international law, which has legal personality, and which may, acting in its name, exercise rights and be subject to obligations.

 To be eligible for funding, applicants must be established in one of the following countries at the time of proposal submission:

• the Member States of the European Union, including their outermost regions: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden.
• the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) linked to the Member States.
• the countries associated with Horizon Europe and the low- and middle-income countries

Consortium composition – The consortium shall be composed by at least 3 legal entities independent from each other and each established in a different country as follows:

• at least 1 independent legal entity established in a Member State; and
• at least 2 other independent legal entities, each established in different Member States or Associated Countries.

Additional call specific conditions apply:

1. consortia must include entities geographically based in at least, two different EIT Manufacturing CLCs and
2. the following roles shall be clearly covered within the consortium:

• 1 Lead Partner. The organisation in charge of coordinating the consortium through the Activity Leader. The role of Activity Leader is open to any entity participating to the call for proposals.
•  2 different End-Users. The end-users must be consumers of the solution(s) and each of them must provide at least 1 use case, testing and implementing the result(s) in their real industrial environment. The role of End-user is open to any entity participating to the call for proposals.
• 1 Business Owner. The organisation in charge of the commercialisation of the result(s). The role of Business Owner is limited only to organization with a legal entity established in a Member State or Country associated to Horizon Europe at the time of submission of the application

All EIT Manufacturing partners are eligible to apply for funding, nevertheless, an entity does not need to be an EIT Manufacturing partner to apply for funding. Additional consortia specific conditions apply and are explained in section 3.3, page 36  of the call document.

Research and Innovation Foundation
29a Andrea Michalakopoulou, 1075 Nicosia,
P.B. 23422, 1683 Nicosia
Telephone: +357 22205000
Fax: +357 22205001
Email: support@research.org.cy
Website: https://www.research.org.cy/en/

Contact Persons:

George Christou
Scientific Officer
Email: gchristou@research.org.cy

Nedi Kaffa
Scientific Officer
Email: nkaffa@research.org.cy

All applicants may contact EIT Manufacturing to ask questions and clarify any points on general/technical aspects and call content by contacting support@eitmanufacturing.eu and innovation@eitmanufacturing.eu.

An Open question-and-answer session (Q&A Session) about the present call will take place on: 19th of October 2023.

• Funding & Tenders
• Call announcement page