Second call for business experiments addressing the uptake of HPC by SMEs
ClosedDescription
This announcement is the second call for proposals to address the uptake of HPC by SMEs in order to solve specific business challenges of SMEs that have had no prior use of, or experience with, HPC services. The resulting sub-projects will perform “business experiments” (also referred to below just as experiments) that should demonstrate to the broader European SME ecosystem that HPC uptake solves business challenges and leads to positive business impact (including but not limited to increased innovation potential and competitiveness) through the use and deployment of HPC-based computational methods (modelling and simulation, data analytics, AI, etc.). Thus, their key outputs are success stories that promote, communicate, and disseminate the business impact of HPC uptake to the SME ecosystem. The development of the innovation potential of the participating SMEs is also directly targeted and an important objective for the proposed business experiments. The call targets highest quality experiments involving innovative, agile SMEs with work plans built around innovation targets arising from the use of advanced HPC services. Proposals are sought that address business challenges from European SMEs from varied application domains, whereby SMEs whose adoption of advanced HPC services will create the highest business impact will be prioritized. SMEs with an academic focus, for example with business models around R&D services based on HPC software, or activities with a potential impact only in the long term, such as fundamental research, are not within the scope of the call. FFplus seeks to promote a widening of the HPC user base amongst European SMEs and thus targets a broad geographical distribution of participants. SMEs based in countries with a previously low level of HPC adoption are encouraged to submit a proposal and may expect to be assisted by their national HPC Competence Centre (info at https://www.eurocc-access.eu). This FFplus call is complementary to the open call for proposals for the Development of Generative AI Models (Identifier FFplus_Call-2-Type-2). It should be noted that SMEs (with the role of main participant) may only participate in one of the two types of sub-projects; i.e. participation is mutually exclusive. Since this call for business experiments targets SMEs with no prior experience with HPC services, a participation as main participant SME in a business experiment funded under the first call for proposals makes that SME ineligible for participation as main participant SME in a business experiment funded under this call; a participation as supporting participant would be dependent on total funding constraints The proposed business experiments are expected to: Be fully aligned with the FFplus call objectives defined above. Define the business challenge that needs to be addressed, justifying why this is a challenge and why HPC is needed to address it. Present a vision of success, i.e. how addressing the business challenge using HPC will lead to positive business impact. If applicable, define the value propositions and the process of value creation. Define specific objectives that must be achieved in order to successfully address the business challenge and the accompanying action plan. Furthermore, if necessary, involve the necessary parties required for the effective and efficient execution of the experiment and the demonstration of the impact on SME business challenges through the use of HPC systems or advanced HPC services. Appropriate technical management within an experiment is a required component. Key indicators include revenue generated over recent years, and the existence of a customer base beyond the academic realm. Define the resources needed to meet objectives and the associated costs. This potentially includes computing costs; please see the section “HPC Computing Resources” below. Declare any data protection issues that might impact its proposed work plan, define data/information protection mechanisms addressing these in the framework of European law, and ensure that the operation of the experiment adheres to these. Support the FFplus project in the generation of publishable success stories – including in multi-media form – which discuss how the SME’s real-world problems were addressed and clearly identify the business benefits realised or obtained. Be complementary to past Fortissimo experiments, i.e. avoid duplication of specific activities carried out in the prior Fortissimo, Fortissimo 2, and FF4EuroHPC projects or in the FFplus sub-projects from the first open call. In the context of the Fortissimo Plus calls, complementarity of experiments is understood to mean activities that address new applications, services, business cases, industrial sectors and market segments and the enhancement of the project’s ability to demonstrate the impact of the Fortissimo approach for a broad set of industrial users. Proposals that just extend past experiments are thus not considered to be complementary.
Beneficiary & submission
All submissions must be made by 17:00 Brussels local time on August 26th 2025.
Proposal submission is exclusively in electronic form using the proposal submission tool accessible via the Fortissimo web-site:
https://www.ffplus-project.eu/en/open-call/business-experiments/
The central component of proposal submission is the uploading of a spread-sheet containing administrative information and a PDF-document (whose size must not exceed 5.0 MB) compliant with the instructions on proposal structure given below.
Proposals must be submitted in English. Each proposal must comprise 2 parts: Part A (containing administrative information), Part B (containing the body of the proposal, the structure of which is explained below).
Part A of the proposal will be submitted as a spread-sheet containing a set of tables to provide administrative data, including a tabular list of proposal participants. The participant list should include for each participant the Participant Identification Code (PIC) issued by the European Commission and valid address, telephone number and email contact data.
(To obtain a PIC, register at https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/how-to-participate/participant-register . Please note that having a PIC is not a requirement of the call.)
Only requested information should be included in Part A, conform with the template spreadsheet provided. Additional extraneous information will be deleted before evaluation.
The main section of the proposal – Part B – must not exceed 10 pages in length (including any appendices, but excluding the Part B cover page). The Part B text should be no smaller than 11-point Arial font; which applies also to images inserted into the proposal that provide textual information. Proposals submitted with a Part B whose length (excluding the cover page) exceeds the 10-page limit will be rejected without further evaluation.
The criteria for evaluation will comprise:
- Impact: industrial relevance (including potentially societal relevance), exploitation plans and alignment with the objectives of the call.
- Excellence: Soundness of concept, business innovation, and quality of the work plan.
- Quality of the consortium4: as a whole and of the individual proposers including their ability to carry out the proposed work.
- Resources: Effective and justified deployment of resources.
Criteria 1 to 4 will carry a score ranging from 0 to 5. Criterion 1 will have a weight of 2×, Criteria 2 to 4 a weight of 1× (leading to a maximum score of 25 points). A threshold score of 3 will apply to the first three criteria. In case of a tie in the overall score ranking, proposals are ranked based on the individual criteria scoring applying the following priority: Impact, Excellence, Quality of the Consortium, Resources, and finally total requested funding.
The evaluation of proposals will be done by independent, external experts using a consensus review process; which process will be supported by the FFplus beneficiaries coordinating the open call. Each proposal will be assigned two external expects with demonstrated competency in the field of the experiment proposal, that will, independently of one another, produce individual assessment reports. In a consensus session, a moderator works with the two individual evaluators to create a consensus assessment report, representing the consensus position of both experts. The consensus report is turned into an evaluation summary report that will be shared with the proposing consortium.
The individual assessment reports, consensus reports and evaluation summary reports are structured conform with the evaluation criteria listed above.
Adherence to the proposal format and structure described previously – and notably to the prescribed page limit – will allow the independent external evaluators to evaluate the proposal against all of the above-mentioned evaluation criteria. As explained earlier in this document, failure to adhere to the funding and eligibility restrictions and to the proposal format instructions will lead to immediate rejection of the proposal. The proposers will be provided with the results of the evaluation in the form of an evaluation summary report comprising the consolidated findings of the independent expert evaluators and a decision from the project on the result of the selection procedure. That decision is final and the project will not enter into discussions concerning the evaluation results, and no appeals process will be provided.
The successful proposal consortia selected for funding will be included as sub-projects on conclusion of a funding agreement between the University of Stuttgart (the FFplus project Coordinator) and the Partner(s) involved in the proposal. That funding agreement is provided on the project website and is non-negotiable and no changes or modifications are permitted. With the submission of a proposal, the proposer(s) acknowledge this.
Further information
FFplus is funded by the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) action DIGITAL-EUROHPC-JU-2023-SME-01 "Supporting the competitiveness and innovation potential of SMEs". The central objective of the action is to empower SMEs with advanced computational capabilities based on HPC, enabling them to drive innovation, enhance competitiveness, and overcome challenges in the digitisation of R&D and business processes.
Consequently, the work carried out under FFplus will lead to innovative business experiments (addressed in this call) and innovation studies that will showcase the benefits of adopting HPC for SMEs and Start-ups throughput Europe.
Business experiments will highlight the value of HPC adoption for SMEs across Europe. Whilst High-Performance Computing (HPC) and a range of associated fields of study and technologies, from numerical simulation to Artificial Intelligence (AI), are increasingly becoming versatile, widely deployed tools for both academia and large industrial organizations, there is still action needed to ensure the uptake of these novel technologies by Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) that lack the required expertise. Innovation studies, in contrast, will support European SMEs and Start-ups already active in the field of generative AI technology, which lack the necessary computational resources to scale up.
In particular, the FFplus project will use open-calls for proposals to select business experiments and innovation studies (also referred to as sub-projects) that will be funded through the mechanism of Financial Support for Third Parties (FSTP). Over the duration of the project, FFplus will provide over € 24 million to such sub-projects selected through a total of six open calls: three of which will target SMEs using HPC to improve their business (business experiments), and three of which will target SMEs/Start-ups in the field of generative artificial intelligence (innovation studies).
FFplus will make use of the FSTP (Financial Support of Third Parties) funding method for the experiment consortia selected through the open call. For all sub-projects funded under FSTP, an agreement will be concluded between the experiment consortium and the FFplus Coordinator; provisions for avoidance of conflicts of interest between sub-projects will be anchored in that agreement. Before conclusion of the funding agreements, the SME will be required to document their status as SME in line with European Commission definitions.
Third Parties will receive 100% funding of incurred, eligible direct costs necessary for the completion of experiment activities; no indirect costs or overheads will be funded. The FFplus project receives funding based on a Grant Agreement following the regulations of the Digital Europe Programme and the eligibility rules of that Grant Agreement will apply for the direct costs arising in the sub-projects.
Consortia selected for funding via the proposal evaluation process will be invited to conclude a funding agreement with the FFplus project coordinator, the University of Stuttgart. That funding agreement will define the payment schedule, whereby payment will be made in multiple tranches, partly linked to the delivery of reports and outputs defined in the experiment workplan and in the funding agreement itself. The principle followed will be that the experiment participants will receive an advance payment at the start of the experiment followed by subsequent instalments.
The following funding conditions and eligibility criteria for participation apply:
- The experiments should address the business challenges of an SME new to the use of HPC and that SME may participate in only one experiment as main participant.
- A main participant is an SME or a startup and supporting participants are organisations supporting the main participant in the technical work needed to achieve the objectives defined for the experiment.
- Applications are to be submitted by one or more main participants sharing a business case/challenge and optionally one or more supporting participants. Each consortium partner needs to have a clearly defined role.
- The total number of consortium partners (main participants and supporting participants) is limited to five (5).
- Only organisations established in a) an EU Member State or b) (non-EU countries:) listed EEA countries and countries associated to the Digital Europe Programme where the association agreement entered into force before the submission deadline of this call are eligible to receive funding. Natural persons (individuals) are not eligible to receive funding.
- SME participation in the FFplus innovation studies for generative AI development and in the business experiments covered by this open call are mutually exclusive. That is, for the SMEs whose business challenge defines the business experiment or innovation study, funding may only be provided for one type of action (Type 1 or Type 2 sub-project). This will be considered during the evaluation and selection process.
- FFplus beneficiaries are ineligible to participate as either main or supporting participants.
- The maximum duration of the experiments is 15 months, with a maximum funding budget of 200 K€. The maximum funding per organisation is 150 K€. For supporting participants, the maximum funding applies to all business experiments, for all FFplus calls, in which they participate.
- In principle, at least 50% of the funding applied for should be allocated to the main participants. Any deviations from this principle must be duly justified.
- For supporting participants, only engineering/technical activities are eligible for funding. Activities such as business consultancy, marketing initiatives, administrative tasks, and other non-engineering/non-technical activities are not eligible for funding.
The FFplus project is not in a position to provide HPC computing resources itself, nor does it have any special allocation or preferred-priority access to the HPC systems of the EuroHPC JU. As explained below, there is an expectation that FFplus sub-projects make use of the HPC resources provided under the EuroHPC JU access schemes, which services are provided free of charge. The use of nationally provisioned HPC resources is considered equivalent.
In general, the EuroHPC JU access schemes are organised as a number of different calls for proposals with differing submission dates and available resource volumes and lengths of access and including specific opportunities for industrial users. Proposers are referred to the EuroHPC JU website for regularly updated information about the various access calls, which are organised in the two areas “supercomputers access” and “AI Factories access”:
https://eurohpc-ju.europa.eu/supercomputers/supercomputers-access-policy-and-faq_en
https://eurohpc-ju.europa.eu/ai-factories/ai-factories-access-calls_en
Depending on the type of methodologies foreseen to be used in the proposed business experiment, both access areas are relevant for FFplus sub-projects. The HPC National Competence Centres may be able to aid proposers with the selection of appropriate resources and access schemes and the related application process.
When suitably justified, the use of 3rd party commercial HPC resources is permissible, but the corresponding costs need to be taken into account within the proposal budget. Similarly, the use of resources provided by an organisation, such as an HPC centre, included within the sub-project consortium as supporting participant (explained in the following section) is permissible when suitably justified. It should be noted that the provision and cost of charged HPC resources by a supporting partner must be based on actual costs and not commercial rates. These costs have to be included in the experiment’s budget as “other direct cost” of the partner providing the HPC resources to the experiment consortium.
The budget modules available for experiments are listed below, noting that costs for sub-contracting are not included (and thus ineligible for funding):
Personnel
Personnel costs need to be commensurate with the work to be performed
Equipment
Depreciation costs only. Only specialized equipment necessary for conducting the experiment is permitted. Costs for common-use equipment such as laptops, monitors, etc., are not eligible.
Travel
Travel must be justified in terms of the necessity for performance of the proposed experiment work plan.
HPC compute capacity
Compute Resources need to be justified. Ideally, EuroHPC systems will be used for the work. A decision not to apply for access to the EuroHPC systems should be duly justified.
Material
- Costs for acquiring specialized SW licenses for conducting the experiment (licenses for general office software, for example, are not eligible).
- Costs for acquiring or using data sets or collections needed to conduct the experiment.
The experiments will receive support from the project with a range of actions relating to interactions with the project and also relating to potential collaborations with other sub-projects. Furthermore, direct support for each individual experiment will be provided relating to gaining access to EuroHPC JU-provided computing resources and technical consultation relating to the effective execution of the experiment work plan.
The structure of the proposal Part B (and indicative length per section) should be as follows (the maximum number of pages is the critical aspect as described above):
- Summary (0.5 pages)
- Industrial relevance, potential impact (including societal impact) and exploitation plans (3.5 pages)
- Description of the work plan and concept, including the expected HPC computing needs (3 pages)
- Quality of the consortium as a whole and of the individual proposers (2 pages)
- Justification of costs and resources (1 page)
A management structure will be established for the successful proposals. That is, the proposal will not need to contain a description of how the management of the experiment in the framework of the overall FFplus project will be achieved, but should include tasks for the technical management of the experiment activities.