StandICT.eu 2023 - 9th Open Call

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StandICT.eu 2023 “ICT Standardisation Observatory and Support Facility in Europe” aims to create a truly consolidated European Standardisation Ecosystem. 

At the heart of this objective is the StandICT.eu Fellowship Programme, which through a series of 9 Open Calls, will provide 3 million Euro through a cascade grant process to support and incentivise participation of European standardisation specialists in key international and global SDOs and consortia. 

The topics for the StandICT.eu 2023 calls are defined through continuous monitoring and careful analysis of the international ICT standards landscape through liaison with Standards Development Organisations (SDOs) and Standard Setting Organisations (SSOs), key organisations such as the EU Multistakeholder Platform for ICT Standardisation, and its prestigious EAG- Expert Advisory Group and EUOS Foresight Committee, as well as industry-led groups, to pinpoint gaps and priorities matching EU DSM objectives.  

In accordance with Annex K of the Horizon 2020 Work Programme 2018, the maximum amount of financial support to be provided to each Third Party cannot exceed 60.000 euro (sixty thousand euro).  This limit applies cumulatively across all the StandICT.eu 2023 Open calls and the overall budget of 2,850,000 (two million, eight hundred and fifty thousand euro) earmarked for Financial Support to Third Parties (Article 137 of the Financial Regulation No 966/2012).

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9th Open Call Topic Priorities

Please note that only the first 70 (seventy) eligible applications submitted in response to the call, taken in chronological order according to the time-stamp of submission will be evaluated by the External Pool of Evaluators for funding

The main topic for the 9th Open Call will be IoT, Cloud and Edge .

Keep in mind that for this Open Call each funded fellowship must be concluded by 31/08/2023

Applications are to be considered equally valid and scored accordingly if they address any of the topics mentioned below taken from the Rolling Plan of the Multi-Stakeholder Platform for ICT Standardisation:

  • Accessibility of ICT products and services
  • Advanced manufacturing
  • Agri-food
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Big Data, Open Data and Public Sector Information
  • Blockchain and Distributed Digital Ledger Technologies
  • Building Trust
  • Broadband infrastructure mapping
  • B2B Platform economy (for digital manufacturing industry)
  • Circular Economy
  • Citizen centric digital public services
  • Clean Planet
  • Cloud computing
  • Cloud Federation
  • Cobots
  • Construction - building information modelling
  • Common Information Sharing Environment (CISE) for the EU maritime domain
  • Covid-19
  • Cross Domain Technologies
  • Cultural Heritage
  • Cybersecurity / network and information security
  • Data Economy
  • Data Governance
  • Data Interoperability
  • Digital Product Passport
  • Digital Twins
  • eCall
  • Edge Computing
  • Electronic identification and trust services including e-signatures
  • eGovernment
  • eHealth, healthy living and ageing
  • e-Invoicing
  • e-Infrastructures for research data and computing intensive science
  • Electromobility
  • EMC Radiation
  • European Global Navigation Satellite System (EGNSS)
  • Emergency communications
  • e-Procurement – pre- and post award
  • e-Privacy
  • European Electronic Toll Service (EETS)
  • Fintech and Regtech Standardisation
  • GDPR
  • Global Standard Governance
  • ICT Environmental impact
  • Identity Management and Anonymisation
  • Industry 4.0
  • Intelligent Transport Systems - Cooperative, Connected and Automated Mobility (ITS-CCAM)
  • Internet of Things (IoT)
  • Justice
  • Language Technologies
  • Learning and Education
  • Machine Learning
  • Management of identities for smart organizations
  • Media
  • Metaverse
  • Ontologies
  • Open Data Standards
  • Open Source
  • Preservation of digital cinema
  • Privacy
  • Privacy protection
  • Public sector information, open data and big data
  • Quantum Technologies
  • Quantum Computing
  • Quantum Key Distribution
  • Robotics and autonomous systems
  • Safety, Transparency and Due Process Online
  • Semantic Interoperability
  • Single European Sky
  • Smart Contracts
  • Smart grids and smart metering
  • Smart City Covid+
  • Smart cities and communities/ technologies and services for smart and efficient energy use
  • Trusted Information
  • Trusted Secure Chips
  • U-Space
  • Water Management Digitalisation
  • 3D Printing
  • 5G
  • 6G
Open Call for Applications - Process and Timing

StandICT.eu will run 9 Open Call cycles. Each call will be open for 60 days to be followed by a 30-day evaluation period.  

9th Call timing
  • Launch: 15th of December 2022;
  • Deadline: 15th February 2022, 17:00 CET;
  • Evaluation: Each proposal will be evaluated by three members of an External Pool of Evaluators;
  • Notification of Outcome: Applicants will be notified on the outcome of their proposal and provided with feedback from the External Pool of Evaluators in an Evaluation Consensus Report by mid March 2023.

If your proposal is successful, you will be contacted within 5-10 business days of notification to take the steps necessary to prepare and sign the contract for the funding. Please note that a deadline of 10 business days from notification will be applied to confirm your intention to take up the contract to enable the funds to be re-allocated to other successful applicants.

Who can receive financial support?

Potential applicants are standardisation specialists, defined as professionals with proven expertise and experience in standardisation activities e.g. previous contributions to standards developments, participation in various SDO groups working, previous or current chairs etc. in the respective priority area.

The StandICT.eu 2023 Calls are open to individuals or natural persons residing in the European Member States Associate Countries from both public and private sectors, industry and service companies including SMEs and start-ups, academia and research, and national and European associations, including NGOs representing consumers interests.

In particular, the target of StandICT.eu open calls are European specialists who:

  • have profound knowledge in one of the priority areas covered by the Open Calls;
  • have experience regarding developments of standards, e.g., in SDOs, , in groups set-up by the EC, or when creating documentation in open source developments;
  • are not receiving support from other instruments (PPPs, EU or national R&I projects) for the proposed activities, and are not being funded from other sources for an identical activity.
Type of Contributions

Three types of proposals can be funded under the StandICT.eu 2023 Open Calls, as shown below 

  • Proposal type: LT – Long term contribution (with travel option)
    • Description: Contribution to ongoing standards development as a chair or member of an SDO WG. E.g. comments on standards development and drafts, attending meetings also as an observer, paying membership or registration fees.
    • Maximum Contract Duration: 6 months
    • Funding Range: €5,000 - €10,000
  • Proposal type: ST – Short-Term contributions (with travel option)
    • Description: Contribution to standards documentation e.g. liaison to WG, comments on standards drafts, participation at meeting paying membership or registration fees.
    • Maximum Contract Duration: 3 months
    • Funding Range: €3,000 - €7,000
  • Proposal type: OS – One-Shot contributions
    • Description: Support to ensure participation at workshop or event (e.g., participant, observer, presentation)
    • Maximum Contract Duration: 3 months
    • Funding Range: Up to €3,000

Please note that neither the maximum funding per submitted proposal can be higher than indicated in the respective funding range nor can the duration of a proposed activity exceed the duration exceed that indicated indicated for the selected proposal type.

Eligible Costs
  • Personal Working Effort (this cannot exceed the EU maximum daily rate of 450 Euro
  • Travel
  • Event registration fee(s)
  • Membership fee(s) for SDO & SSO organisations

 

Evaluation Criteria

The proposals will also have to clearly demonstrate:

  • Added value to existing SDO activities;
  • Impact of work on European interests and the standard in question;
  • Expertise of the applicant in the respective priority area;
  • Expertise of the applicant in standardisation, e.g. previous contributions to standards developments, participation in other groups working on architectures, APIs, guidelines in the respective priority area

Each proposal will be evaluated based on the 4-criterion given below, with a scoring from 1 to 10 and the weighting indicated:

  • Criteria 1: Soundness of the proposal and foreseen impact on the Open Call topic (30%);
  • Criteria 2: Technical excellence & adherence to the Open Call topics (30%);
  • Criteria 3: Experience and qualifications of the applicant (20%);
  • Criteria 4: Economics of the proposal (20%).

The final scoring and ranking will be automatically determined by averaging the scores provided by the three independent members of the External Pool of Evaluators.