SPIRIT - Open Call 1

Beneficiary & submission

The Open Call 1 of the SPIRIT project invites FSTP (Financial Support for projects carried out by Third Parties) proposals that concentrate on one or more of the subsequent activities, each contributing to the growing impact on SPIRIT: Validating and testing third-party applications on the SPIRIT platform: Conducting experiments utilising the current state of the SPIRIT platform and tools to test established FSTP solutions in specific use cases and scenarios. The evaluation focuses on factors such as scale, responsiveness, reliability, and realism, ultimately resulting in improved FSTP algorithms, components, or products. Additionally, this process provides a deeper understanding of the performance and limitations of the existing SPIRIT platform. Providing new requirements for the SPIRIT platform: Conducting experiments that incorporate, to some extent, established FSTP solutions previously validated in laboratory settings, either within the existing SPIRIT platform or utilising SPIRIT tools. This aims to facilitate experimentation in a more authentic environment, leading to new requirements and features for prioritizing the future development of the SPIRIT platform. Advancing the SPIRIT platform: Initiating developments and experiments aimed at enriching the existing SPIRIT platform. This involves integrating and testing additional functionalities offered by the FSTP, resulting in an enhanced feature set for the SPIRIT platform or expanded support for immersive application domains. Open Call 1 has a total budget of 2.000.000€. The targeted number of projects to be selected via this Open Call will be 10 TPPs (Third-Party Project). The number of projects that will be funded varies depending on the funding requested as well as the outcome of the evaluation by external reviewers. The requested funding cannot exceed 200.000€ per project. SUBMISSION: We are looking for proposals that have undergone validation in the laboratory and can move to the prototype stage in a relevant environment during the 9-month project period. To submit a proposal, applicants are required to use the SPIRIT Open Call Submission Tool available on the SPIRIT website (https://www.spirit-project.eu/apply-for-funding/). Proposals submitted through alternative channels will be automatically rejected. To complete the submission, applicants must fill out the online form and attach the necessary documents listed below: • Proposal template (ANNEX 1) • Declaration of Honour (ANNEX 3) • SMEs checklist (ANNEX 4). Required in case there are 1 or more SMEs involved in the proposal Ensure that all mandatory fields are completed to validate the application submission. An email acknowledging receipt will be sent to all submitted proposals. Note: To make a final submission, select 'Final Submission' under the 'Stage' tab. Proposals submitted under the 'Feasibility Advisory' option (cfr. section 4.1.1.1 of the supporting document) will not be considered final and will not undergo evaluation. Multiple submissions of the same proposal are allowed, but only the latest submission will be considered during the evaluation phase. FEASIBILITY To enable the development and implementation of the proposed projects, it will be essential to consider their feasibility, i.e. to assess whether the proposed experiments are technologically feasible within the current state of the SPIRIT platform and tools. To assist applicants, the SPIRIT consortium offers an optional advisory service to evaluate project feasibility. This step is highly recommended and involves submitting a condensed version of the proposal template for feasibility verification. Open call applicants are encouraged to initiate communication with the SPIRIT consortium through the submission page. To receive feedback on feasibility, applicants must select the 'Feasibility Advisory' option under the 'Stage' tab and submit a description of the planned experiment, covering sections A, B, C, and H of the proposal template. The feasibility advisory service will be active up to two weeks before the OPEN CALL closes. The exact date will be announced on the website. The feasibility advisory will focus solely on assessing the feasibility of the proposed experiment based on the completed sections A, B, C, and H. The SPIRIT consortium will not review draft proposals or suggest any changes. Applicants should be aware that undergoing a feasibility advisory does not guarantee the selection of the proposal and does not imply any commitment to move forward with the proposal. It is also important to note that submitting a partial proposal for the 'Feasibility Advisory' is an optional preliminary step which is not considered as a final submission. ELIGIBILITY CHECK All submitted final applications will be reviewed for eligibility by Digital for Planet with support of other partners when necessary. This check will verify the eligibility of the submitted proposals by the applicants according to the eligibility criteria described in supporting document: A proposal will be considered eligible for the SPIRIT Open Call if it complies with ALL the following rules: The organisation/ consortium is eligible for participation in the Horizon Europe programme. As the SPIRIT project was funded within the HORIZON-CL4-2021-HUMAN-01 call, the list of eligible countries is the one applied to this call.8. Eligible entities for application encompass both individual entities and consortia, the latter limited to a maximum composition of 3 entities. In the case of a consortium application, a designated coordinator will be appointed. The coordinator assumes the responsibility of signing the agreement and is the designated recipient of the grant, responsible for its subsequent distribution among the consortium members. The organisation/ consortium is composed of SMEs (definition in the European Commission recommendation 2003/361/EC5 and the SME user guide), Industry, Research/scientific organisation and/or Academia. The applicant IS NOT AFFILIATED TO ANY OF THE CONSORTIUM PARTNERS OF THE SPIRIT PROJECT. The proposal complies with the type of activity qualified for financial support as indicated in section 1.4. For implementation reasons, only proposals that are deemed to be executable with the current state of the SPIRIT platform and tools will be accepted. The proposal is submitted in English. The proposal is submitted through the official Open Call Submission Tool9 on the SPIRIT website providing all the required documents. The proposal follows all the required steps as specified in Section 4 Guide for Submission. The proposal has been submitted within the deadline set in this document. Late proposals will not be admitted. The proposal complies with the Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (General Data Protection Regulation) regarding all personal data that might be included in the proposal. The technical partners will assess whether the proposed experiment is technologically feasible within the current state of the SPIRIT platform and tools, based on sections A,B,C and H of the proposal. Proposals deemed ineligible for administrative reasons or technically not feasible within the SPIRIT platform will be discarded, and applicants will be notified by email. EXTERNAL EVALUATION The proposals deemed eligible will be reviewed by external experts. Evaluation and ranking will be carried out by an external jury of experts, which cannot be part of the consortium and cannot evaluate proposals where a conflict of interest can be identified. Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) and Declarations of Absence of Conflict of Interest will be signed by each expert to ensure confidentiality and impartiality. For each received proposal, at least two assigned experts will independently conduct reviews. Subsequently, consensus meetings involving all reviewing experts will be held to agree on a common opinion and rating for each proposal. An applicant or consortium can only be selected for funding for one proposal, even if the applicant submitted multiple proposals ranked high enough to be selected for funding. In such case, the applicant will be given the option to select which proposal should be retained for funding. 5.2.1 Evaluation Criteria Proposals will be evaluated by external experts according to the following criteria: 1. Clarity and methodology: Soundness of the approach and credibility of the proposed methodology. 2. Ambition: Advancement regarding the state-of-the-art and expected output. 3. Impact: Technology and domain fit to SPIRIT scope and objectives. 4. Replicability of the proposed solution. 5. Team capacity to perform: knowledge, technological and business expertise; research domain & track-record. 6. Contribution to standardisation of the proposed solution. 7. Value for money: justification and effectiveness of the requested resources. 8. SME participation is encouraged. 9. Gender dimension awareness requested to the applicants. 10. Maturity of the proposing organisation and trajectory of the proposed development

Further information

External experts will evaluate the proposals considering the above-mentioned criteria. Each criterion will have a score from 0 to 5. Decimal scores may be given. For each criterion under examination, score values will indicate the following assessments: 0 Fail. The proposal fails to address the criterion under examination or cannot be judged due to missing or incomplete information. 1 Very poor. The criterion is addressed in an unsatisfactory manner. 2 Poor. There are serious inherent weaknesses. 3 Fair. While the proposal broadly addresses the criterion, there are significant weaknesses that would need correcting. 4 Good. The proposal addresses the criterion well, although certain improvements are possible. 5 Excellent. The proposal successfully addresses all relevant aspects of the criterion in question. Any shortcomings are minor. A minimum score for each criterion and an overall score of 33 for all criteria will be needed as a minimum threshold as detailed in the table below. Only proposals reaching the minimum threshold in all the criteria will be admitted to the next evaluation step and considered for funding. The information on the evaluation will be compiled into an Evaluation Summary Report (ESR) which will be sent to applicants after being approved by SPIRIT Consortium. Proposals not reaching the minimum thresholds either in individual criteria or in the overall score will not be considered for funding. The proposal template requires to provide an implementation plan including deliverables, and a cost estimate justifying the costs and resources. In the evaluation phase, the resource adequacy to fulfil the planned work will be assessed and the justification of the budgeted items. Before the award of the grant, it will be checked whether the third party is a legal entity with a stable financial history and has not been declared insolvent.