EIT Manufacturing opens “Call for Proposals 2023” to accelerate European manufacturing innovation

EIT Manufacturing (Darmstadt, Germany), Europe’s leading manufacturing community within the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union (EU), has opened its “Call for Proposals 2023” as of Feb. 9, 2022. If chosen, organizations participating in activity proposals addressing the Call may receive a financial support of up to €1.5 million per year and connections to the EIT Manufacturing network, which includes investors as well as partners with the knowledge to assist in technology development.

“The Call for Proposals is the main tool that EIT Manufacturing employs to boost innovative projects in manufacturing industry,” Klaus Beetz, EIT Manufacturing CEO points out. “This edition incorporates relevant new approaches that will encourage participation and will accelerate turning scientific advances into marketable innovations in manufacturing to help prepare the industry for a green, digital and competitive future that is socially and environmentally sustainable.” 

Innovators, research organizations, universities, major corporations, startups and businesses of every size are invited to submit ideas for using the latest technology to address these four themes:

• Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital twins for manufacturing system
• Smart technologies for circular and green manufacturing
• Collaborative robots (cobots) and solutions for flexible manufacturing
• Automation for human-centered factories

Moreover, besides its length, proposals should fall into the following EIT Manufacturing activity areas:

• Innovation: Supporting European manufacturing companies and tech organizations in launching and industrializing demonstrated breakthrough solutions with high business growth potential.
• Education: Increasing the innovation capacity in Europe by educating, upskilling and reskilling future and current manufacturers and supporting companies on the ongoing twin transition (digital and green).
• RIS (Regional Innovation Scheme): Enabling the transfer of good practices and know-how using the EIT Manufacturing’s unique approach of boosting innovation across the entire continent, including areas with moderate or medium levels of innovation.

Activities proposed for this call should be planned to begin in 2023 and last for either one or two years; notably, project groups can now submit proposals for two-year activities, without the need to resubmit a proposal for the second year of the activity in 2023. 

The EIT Manufacturing Call for Proposals 2023 has two stages. Per the Call guidelines, first-stage proposals can be submitted until March 11, 2022. Second-stage submissions are open until April 29, 2022. Proposals are then evaluated, and participants will be informed by no later than July 11, 2022 whether their submission has been successful. View “Guidelines – Call for Proposals 2023” to learn more about how to participate.

Proposals for this call will involve EIT Manufacturing consortia members from industry, research and academia in Europe, but external organizations are also eligible to join these consortia. If you are interested, you can find out how to participate on the EIT Manufacturing website.

“This multi-year approach is possible thanks to the first multi-annual Business Plan that we will put together for years 2023-25,” says Dimitris Mavrikios, COO of EIT Manufacturing. “It will allow the launch of longer term projects with more ambitious scope.”

With the goal of promoting innovation in manufacturing, EIT Manufacturing dedicates most of its operational budget, roughly €400 million until 2026, to funding projects that turn research into industry-ready solutions. For the last “Call for Proposals,” 290 proposals were submitted and 81 Europe-based projects were accepted.