Industry-empowering AI, data and robotics: enable and boost wide spread deployment of European technologies, in demonstrating clear benefits in particular applications coming from major industrial sectors, in improving processes, products or services, contributing to their competitiveness, quality of services, and strategy for environmental sustainability.

Proposals should focus on demonstrating the added value of AI and/or Data and/or Robotics technologies to optimise value-chains, products, services or associated processes, including knowledge automation (including capturing and elicitation), to increase competitiveness, environmental sustainability, and where relevant, working conditions, for example, through added flexibility, configurability, adaptability, etc. Proposals should also address non-technical issues hampering the adoption of AI, data and robotics in the selected application domain, e.g. ethical aspects for the possible replacement of human operators, trust, human-robots collaboration and cooperation, security and safety.

Two types of proposals are expected:

1. Focused projects (EU contribution around€ 3,00 million), involving the user industry and technology provider(s).
2. Larger projects (EU contribution around €5,00 million), where a number of companies in a given  application sector will identify in the proposal common challenges and use-cases, and organise competitive calls for AI, data and robotics solution providers to address such challenges. Competitive calls will be open to all types of companies, but only SMEs and Start-ups will receive financial support to third parties, with a maximum of  €200,000 per third party and 70% funding (100% for start-ups). At least 40% of the requested amount should be dedicated to financial support to third parties. The consortium will provide technical support with expertise in engineering integration, testing and validation to support the selected SMEs and start-ups acting as technology providers to demonstrate the added value of their solutions to address the challenges of the use-cases.