17 Jul DIH² launches first open call
The European Commission project, part of the Horizon 2020 program, will be distributing up to €248,000 to consortia made up of technology providers and SMEs as well as slightly bigger companies that will act as end-users.
July 17th, 2019: DIH², the pan‐European network of 26 robotics Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) for Agile production launched its first open call on the 1st of July 2019. The European project will be investing close to €3 million in the course of the next eight months.
The open call will distribute up to €248,000 to 13 selected consortia composed of up to 3 members including a technology provider that can be a startup, an SMEs, a research organization, competence centres or any type of technology providers – and a Manufacturing SME or Slightly bigger company.
Many large manufacturers in Europe have developed in-house technology to optimize their production and be able to quickly react and adapt to customer needs and market changes. However, manufacturing SMEs have been struggling to implement technologies that would allow them to tend towards a more Agile production, mostly for economic reasons.
This DIH² first open call aims at removing this financial barrier and making them collaborate with tech providers in order to integrate robotics solutions that would make their production process more Agile.
The types of applicants
Technology Providers are any type of organization specialized in technology transfer or system integration to end-users. They can consist of system integrators, research, and technology organizations, digital innovation hubs, centers, startups, SMEs.
On the other hand, end-users are expected to be manufacturing SMEs or companies/organizations with a staff headcount below 500 employees and a turnover below €100 million.
The first phase of the open call
During the first phase of the open call, manufacturing SMEs, slightly bigger companies as well as technology providers can apply individually between 1 July 2019 and 31 October 2019 through a simple application form.
10 entities of each category (technology providers and end-users) will then be selected to participate in any of the 26 local brokerage events that will take place in 26 countries all over Europe. In total, 520 companies will, therefore, be invited to participate in a brokerage event that will take place at the national level in each of the 26 DIHs.
The participants will receive €1,000 to organize their presence at these matchmaking events and thus form a consortium with a company with a complementary activity. Such consortia will receive support from the 26 DIHs that make up the DIH2 network to prepare their application for the second stage of the open call. Entities that did not participate in the first stage can apply during the second stage but they are not entitled to any kind of support to prepare their application.
The second phase of the open call
The applications during the second phase of the open call should be submitted by consortia of 2 to 3 members between December 3rd, 2019 and February 27th, 2020. Out of those, 26 will be selected to receive a mini-grant amounting to €1,000 and participate in the Jury Day during which the relevance and the feasibility of their partnership will be evaluated.
During the Jury Day, 13 consortia will be selected as the final beneficiaries of the DIH² program and will obtain up to €246,000 extra funding and premium technology transfer services.
About DIH²:
DIH² is the pan-European network of Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) in agile production. It started with 26 DIHs and the goal is to increase the network to 170 DIHs by the end of 2022.
DIH² will select 26 consortia composed of up to 3 members including manufacturing SMEs or slightly bigger company and Technology Providers in two competitive open calls with 13 consortia in each one.
DIH² has received funding from the European Commission Horizon 2020 program under Grant Agreement 824964.
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For further information:
sabine.giron@imr.ie