Programme Category
Programme Name
Identifier Code
Call
Summary
SPADE is a Horizon Europe project, initiated in 2022, with a duration of 4 years, under the coordination of the Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH) in Greece. The strategic objective of SPADE project is to develop an intelligent ecosystem to address the multiple purposes concept in the light of deploying unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs alias drones) to promote sustainable digital services for the benefit of a large scope of end users in sectors of crop production, forestry, and livestock. This includes individual UAV usability, UAV type applicability (e.g., swarm, collaborative, autonomous, tethered), UAV governance models availability and UAV-generated data trustworthiness. Multi-purposes will be further determined in the sensing dataspace reusability based on trained Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML) models.
Detailed Call Description
To foster a dynamic and thriving ecosystem in the agriculture drone technology sector, SPADE announced this Open Call for innovative solutions to identify and finance six of the most promising and ambitious Case Studies that will augment the capabilities of agriculture drone technology. To be eligible for funding through the SPADE Open Call, applicants must align their solutions with one of three distinct SPADE Case Study groups:
- Open-Field Case Study Integration (Spain): The open-field case study in Spain primarily focuses on distinct use cases in potato crops and terraced crops.
- Forestry Case Study integration (Norway): In Southern Norway SPADE will implement three forestry based use cases: (1) a drone swarm for forest inventory, (2) a tethered drone for operational support of a wheeled forest harvester, and (3) a heavy-lift drone for implementing forest operations.
- Live-stock Case Study integration (Greece): The primary objective is to enhance and promote sheep breeding through grazing and health monitoring on the Greek island of Lesvos. It will utilize multi-purpose UAVs in various configurations, synchronized with SPADE platform digital twin services.
SPADE’s Open Call 1 is designed to invite applicants who can provide innovative solutions to address the specific challenges presented by each 3 distinct Case Studies. Furthermore, in addition to the pilot-specific challenges, there are 2 overarching challenges that apply universally across all of SPADE’s pilot initiatives. These overarching challenges have the potential to shape the landscape of agriculture drone technology.
The challenges of this Open Call #1 are:
Universal consideration across case studies (UCU)
- UCU-Challenge 1: Swarm communication and navigation.
- UCU-Challenge 2: Open-Source Data Transfer solution/hardware and software solution for efficient, real-time data transfer.
Case Study 1: Open-field case study integration
- CStudy1-Challenge 1: Aerial mapping
- CStudy1-Challenge 2: Infrastructure for enabling cloud processing of ML tools within SPADE platform.
Case Study 2: Forestry Case Study
- CStudy2-Challenge 1. Drones for Below-Canopy Mapping and Inventory
Case Study 3: Livestock Case Study Integration
- CStudy3-Challenge 1: Integrating livestock sensors, edge computing data, and SPADE Livestock Cloud
Upcoming Info Day and Technical Webinars:
- 1st Info Day: 22.02.2024
- Technical Webinar 1: 29.02.2024. CStudy2: Forestry Case Study.
- Technical Webinar 2: 05.03.2024. Universal consideration across case studies (UCU)
- Technical Webinar 3: 07.03.2024. CStudy 1: Open-field case study integration.
- Technical Webinar 4: 12.03.2024. CStudy 3: Livestock Case Study Integration
The webinars will be recorded and made available on the SPADE website.
Call Total Budget
Financing percentage by EU or other bodies / Level of Subsidy or Loan
The maximum Support to Third Parties (the maximum budget that each project can receive) is €60.000.
Thematic Categories
- Education and training
- Information Technology
- New Entrepreneurship
- Research, Technological Development and Innovation
- Small-Medium Enterprises and Competitiveness
Eligibility for Participation
- Associations
- Educational Institutions
- NGOs
- Non Profit Organisations
- Researchers/Research Centers/Institutions
- Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
Eligibility For Participation Notes
Only applicants legally established/resident in EU Member States and in Horizon Europe Associated Countries are eligible for funding.
The European eligible entities by SPADE open call should be legally identified under the following categories of organisations:
- Universities and research centers: academic and research institutions. It’s important to note that within a department, multiple research groups exist, and while different groups from the same department can apply, it’s crucial that individuals are not concurrently members of multiple research groups to ensure equitable allocation of resources and dedication to their respective research pursuits.
- NGOs and foundations: non-profit organizations and foundations with experience in drone applications development.
- SMEs and startups: small and medium-sized enterprises and startups that focus on developing innovative solutions related to SPADE case studies. Natural persons, mid-caps or large industries or corporations are not eligible for the purpose of the call.
The submission will be done through the official online submission SPLORO platform, which is directly linked to the SPADE website. Only applications received directly through the online submission platform will be considered eligible.
Call Opening Date
Call Closing Date
EU Contact Point
For any question about the process there is a general email address available at spade@sploro.eu