Info

Two online webinars will be organized on 15th June and 29th June 2021, where the "Innovation Express 2021" call for proposals will be introduced.

Register to join the webinars and participate at the matchmaking!

The topics addressed during the two-hours webinars:

1. Introduction to the call
2. Eligibility criteria
3. Funding process
4. Q&A

Participants have the possibility to arrange 1:1 meetings until 16th July 2021.  

"INNOVATION EXPRESS 2021" call for proposals

Innovation Express is designed as a quick response to the economic recovery after Covid-19 offering SMEs the possibility to widen their markets and develop new products and services with partners in Europe.

This first call, Innovation Express 2021 represents a common approach for supporting SMEs at international matchmaking and joint R&D projects in the fields of “Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare Applications” and “Digital solutions in sustainable industry”.

The funding instrument aims at facilitating internationalisation, development of innovative solutions in two given scopes for projects by developing transnational linkages among SME, research institutions and other business organizations.

Innovation Express 2021 is a joint call for proposals implemented within the framework of the four macro-regions of the European Union initiated by the EUSBSR Policy Area “Education, Science and Social affairs” and the EUSDR Priority Area “SME competitiveness”.

The call is funded by existing national/regional funding progammes and managed by participating funding agencies to initiate, develop or enhance transnational exchange activities among applicants and their project proposals to be funded.

Applications will be evaluated based on their potential to create benefits for participating applicants and in accordance with the criteria from the respective regional/national funding programmes.

II. Scope and thematic fields of the call

Innovation Express 2021 funding partners will support proposals submitted by pre-defined group of stakeholders (SMEs, research organizations, cluster or other business organizations) located in their geographical area and addressing an exchange activity across border.

A broad variety of innovation activities are supported, as well as many different stages of international cooperation (from initial contact and networking through to the final set up of a long-term innovation project). Within the framework of the Innovation Express 2021 call, there is a particular focus on supporting linkages among applicants with complementary fields of expertise (cross-sectoral) in order to tackle shared challenges or pursue international market opportunities through collaborative efforts.

The Innovation Express 2021 supports following thematic fields:

• Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare Applications

Big data and digitalized information are having an impact on most aspects of modern life, including healthcare. All this data can be used for very detailed personal profiling, which may be of great value for behavioural understanding and targeting but also has potential for predicting healthcare trends. Artificial intelligence (AI) has been proven of being able to provide substantial improvements in all areas of healthcare from diagnostics to treatment. There is already a large amount of evidence that AI algorithms are performing on par or better than humans in various tasks, for instance, in analysing medical images or correlating symptoms from electronic medical records with the characterization and prognosis of the disease.

Projects funded within this scope shall provide dedicated solutions how AI-based solutions can be embedded in Healthcare applications.

• Digital solutions in sustainable industry

Digital solutions, nowadays, can be applied for smart metering, data science, predictive analytics, forecasting, and other advanced analytics that help increase efficiency and effectiveness of industrial operations. Analytics and forecasting solutions help to identify both opportunities, such as increased process flexibility, efficiency and security, and risks, such as potential system faults or unexpected changes in energy demand. On the other hand, those digital solutions also add great value in terms of optimizing processes, transport and logistics systems and improving general efficiency performance. Lower costs, less time necessary to complete a process, limiting manual work – those are a few examples of adopting IoT, automation, and self-improving mechanisms, such as machine or deep learning algorithms capable of transforming huge data amounts into optimized processes and performance.

Projects funded within this scope shall provide dedicated solutions how digital solutions can be embedded in industrial processes to make them more sustainable.

III. Activities to be supported within the frame of Innovation Express 2021

A. Research, development and innovation activities that lead to new products, processes or services

B. Market research activities

C. Technology/knowledge transfer

D. Recruitment/training/education

E. Workshops and study trips, networking activities

F. Feasibility studies and piloting prior to RDI projects

Applicants should get in contact with their regional funding partners listed in the table below.

IV. Eligible Applicants

To be eligible for funding, the applicants must be located within the below listed participating regions.

• AT: Salzburg (Funding partner: Regional Government Office of Land Salzburg, Department Economy, Tourism and Municipalities; Funding programme: Unternehmenskooperationen und Netzwerke, WISS2025)
• DE: Brandenburg (Funding partner: Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labour and Energy in cooperation with: WFBB Land Brandenburg GmbH and the ILB Investitionsbank des Landes Brandenburg; Funding programme: ProFIT Brandenburg)
• DE: Baden-Württemberg (Funding partner: Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labour and Tourism; Funding programme: Kapi.Tra.BW)
• CH: Canton Fribourg (Funding partner: Fribourg Development Agency (FDA); Funding programme: Collaborative Projects within the Implementation Programme of the New Regional Policy (NRP) 2020-23)
  

Type of eligible applicants

Innovation Express 2021 targets SMEs, research organizations, technology providers, large companies, universities, research centres, etc.

Eligible applicants are located within a geographical area where an Innovation Express 2021 funding partner is present (see funding partners in Section III.).

Proposals must be submitted by the legal representative of the applicant or by the lead of the consortium in accordance with the rules by the respective funding partners.

Further eligibility criteria:

• The applicant is a legal entity. Such can be companies in the commercial sector, that have their registered office, a branch or an operating facility in the funding partner’s geographical area as well as non-profit non-university research institutions as well as universities and higher education institutions based in the funding partner’s geographical area.

• The partner(s) of the applicant and he himself have to be located with a registered office, a branch or an operating facility in a geographical area where an Innovation Express 2021 funding partner is present.

• Proposed activities must include the participation of at least 2 partners from 2 different partner regions. (The participation of even more partners is strongly recommended.) 

• Due to the funding scheme of the participating regions, it is strongly recommended to include at least one SME in the proposal.

• Other eligibility criteria may be defined according to your regional funding scheme (check related funding conditions).

V. Application process

The call will be open from 17 May – 16 July 2021.

• Proposals must be in line with the supported innovation activities and other guidelines outlined by the responsible funding agency in the applicant’s geographical area (to be found on the funding agency’s own website-see table under Section III.). It is required that applicants contact their local Innovation Express 2021 contact person (see above) in order to inform themselves about funding conditions.

• Each applicant must send its application separately according to requirements outlined according to the funding scheme applicable in the geographical area of the applicant.

• Each consortium must complete the Innovation Express 2021 summary application form in English and send it together will all individual participating members’ application forms of the consortium partners in electronic version to  application@innovationexpress2021.net latest by 16 July 2021.

VI. Funding process

In addition to the requirements of the funding scheme of the applicants’ geography, all proposals are expected to provide:

• Clarity and relevance of the content of the transnational cooperation activities (action plan; see Innovation Express 2021 summary application form, to be downloaded in the section Download Resources)

• Added value and benefits for the partners involved

• Identification of clear outputs/deliverables or expected results

• Description of the partnership and motivation for continued/more ambitious activities – including how they will build on previous results

All submitted proposals will be registered in a common database and distributed to the relevant funding agency.

The funding decision (i.e. the level of funding and the costs covered) will be made dependent on the scope of the proposal (kind activities, partners involved, etc.) and on the guidelines of the participating funding schemes. All usual funding schemes of the participating national / regional funding rules apply.

Funding decisions will be made by regional/national funding agencies.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

The call text together with the Proposal Application Form is available for download in section "Resources" above. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The event is supported by: