Specific Challenge:
RAS technology has evolved significantly in the past decade, moving robots out of constrained environments and into the workplace or home. Technologies ranging from mechatronics to sensing, manipulation and mobility have all contributed to this evolution. However the easy deployment of smart robots in everyday life is still beyond the technical capability of most current laboratory prototypes.
The specific challenge here is to develop robots that respond more flexibly, robustly and efficiently to the everyday needs of workers and citizens in professional or domestic environments, and which will also maintain Europe at the forefront of global research and development. The actions will address the whole research value chain, whether generic technology, developing RAS building blocks in the form of key technical capabilities, or market-led prototypes directly involving end users. End users will help drive Innovation Actions as active partners, setting the operating parameters for a given application as well as testing and validating the prototype solutions.
Scope
Research and Innovation Actions addressing generic advances and technical capabilities:
a. Open, generic forward-looking research into novel technical advances in robotics – open to all robotics-related research topics and disciplines. Proposals are expected to address technical topics which cut across application domains and which can be developed further with a view to achieving high future impact on markets or societal sectors in Europe.
b. Technology research and development to achieve step changes in the capabilities of the following high priority RAS technologies: systems development, human-robot interaction, mechatronics, perception, navigation and cognition. Step changes are sought through either a multiplicative improvement in technical capability, for example achieving a difference in order of magnitude in the number of everyday objects a robot can recognise or handle, or a categorical advance, for example moving from rigid to intuitive human-robot interfaces.
The Commission considers that the open research and the technical capabilities proposals are expected to require EUR 2 to 4 million each; nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts. At least one action will be supported for each bullet (a or b above). Proposals are expected to identify which bullet is their main centre of gravity.
Innovation Actions driven by end users:
c. Improving the deployment prospects of RAS through end user-driven application developments in domains and application areas with significant market potential. Proposals are expected to address system development beyond TRL 5.[1]
The outputs will not be purely technological; actions will generate economic and operational data that will provide a valuable basis for setting operating parameters and for reducing commercial risks for future investors.
d. Filling technology or regulatory gaps through end user-driven innovation actions, where the gap represents a challenging market entry barrier. Proposals are expected to address a gap in either technical capability or system ability. The targeted gap and the required steps to tackle the gap must be clearly identified in the proposal.
The Commission considers that End-user proposals are expected to require 2 to 4 million each; nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts. At least one action will be supported for each bullet (c or d above). Proposals are expected to identify which bullet is their main centre of gravity.
Expected Impact:
The expected impacts for the Research and Innovation Actions are:
- Promote excellent science and technology knowledge in Europe, demonstrated by a high standard of research outputs (including publications, open source software or, as appropriate, patents);
- Develop a new generation of robotic and autonomous systems with clear and measurable progress over the state of the art in terms of step changes in technical capabilities, as evidenced by improvements in performance (including in terms of affordability, reliability and robustness, energy autonomy and user acceptability);
- Greater industrial relevance of research actions and output as demonstrated by deeper involvement of industry and stronger take-up of research results;
- Fostering new links between academia and industry, accelerating and broadening technology transfer;
- Contributing by 2020 to the strategic vision of a more competitive positioning of European robotics providers in the marketplace, in terms of their penetration in new or emerging robotics sectors.
The expected impacts for the Innovation Actions on end-user research are:
- Increasing the market-readiness of robotics applications including in terms of technological validation outside the laboratory and of sound operational and cost-benefit models;
- Lowering of market entry barriers of a business or regulatory nature and increasing industrial and commercial investment in Europe at a rate comparable with other global regions;[2]
- Contributing to the faster growth of competitive small and mid-scale robotics companies in Europe.
Cross-cutting Priorities:
Contractual Public-Private Partnerships (cPPPs)RoboticsOpen Innovation
[1]Technology readiness level 5: technology validated in a relevant environment
[2]According to the PwC/NVCA MoneyTree Report, capital investments by US venture capital firms rose to about $172 million in 2013, nearly tripling 2011 levels
News flashes
2017-08-11
An overview of the evaluation results (called 'CallFlash Info') of the topics of the H2020-ICT_2017-1call is now available under the section Topic conditions and documents - additional documents of each relevant topic.
2017-08-11
An overview of the evaluation results (called 'Flash Call Info') of the topics of the H2020-ICT_2017-1call is now available here
2017-05-22
The submission session is now available for: ICT-42-2017(FPA)
2017-04-28
The submission of proposals to the 18 topics of this H2020-ICT-2017 call closed on 25 April 2017. A total of995 proposals were submitted in response to these topics. Please find below the breakdown per topic and type of action:
Topic RIA IA CSAPCP TOTALICT-05-2017 52 2 54ICT-11-2017 103 9 112ICT-14-2016-2017 44 44ICT-15-2016-2017 18 18ICT-16-2017 7676ICT-17-2016-2017 3 3ICT-20-2017115 115ICT-23-201777 7 84ICT-25-2016-2017 83 48131ICT-27-2017 35 2 3 40ICT-28-2017 88ICT-30-201752 271 80ICT-31-201743 61 50ICT-32-2017 5115 66ICT-33-2017 10 10ICT-39-2016-2017 7171ICT-40-2017 5 5ICT-41-2017 28 28TOTAL536 37779 3 995
2017-03-17
An overview of the evaluation results (called 'Flash Call Info') of the H2020-ICT-2016-2 call is now available under the 'Topic conditions & documents' section on the topic pages of topics ICT-04, ICT-07, ICT-08, ICT-09 and ICT-19.
2017-01-16
As of 1st January 2017, Switzerland is associated to the entire H2020 programme. In consequence, it is now also associated to this topic. In a nutshell this means that Swiss partners in a proposal are now on an equal footing with partners from EU Member States or other Associated Countries. For the details, please read this note.
2016-12-08
The submission session is now available for: ICT-32-2017(IA), ICT-31-2017(IA), ICT-40-2017(CSA), ICT-14-2016-2017(IA), ICT-41-2017(CSA), ICT-15-2016-2017(IA), ICT-20-2017(RIA), ICT-17-2016-2017(RIA), ICT-16-2017(RIA), ICT-11-2017(IA), ICT-33-2017(CSA), ICT-32-2017(CSA), ICT-23-2017(IA), ICT-31-2017(CSA), ICT-30-2017(CSA), ICT-28-2017(CSA), ICT-30-2017(IA), ICT-05-2017(RIA), ICT-27-2017(PCP), ICT-23-2017(RIA), ICT-31-2017(RIA), ICT-30-2017(RIA), ICT-25-2016-2017(IA), ICT-27-2017(IA), ICT-11-2017(CSA), ICT-25-2016-2017(RIA), ICT-05-2017(CSA), ICT-27-2017(RIA), ICT-39-2016-2017(IA)
2016-11-10
The submission of proposals to the5 topicsof this H2020-ICT-2016-2 call closed on8 November 2016. A total of264 proposals were submitted in response to these topics. Please find below the breakdown per topic and type of action:
Topic CSA RIA IA TotalICT-04 7 19 26ICT-075 72 77ICT-08 8 16 24ICT-09 52 52ICT-19 9 75 85
2016-11-10
The submission of proposals to the5 topicsof this call closed on8 November 2016. A total of264 proposals were submitted in response to these topics. Please find below the breakdown per topic and type of action:
Topic CSA RIA IA TotalICT-04 7 19 26ICT-075 72 77ICT-08 816 24ICT-09 52 52ICT-19 9 75 85
2016-08-08
An overview of the evaluation results (flash call info) for the all topics from call H2020-ICT-2016 -1 that closed on 12 April 2016 is now available here or under the ‘Topic conditions & documents’ section on each topic page.
2016-05-10
The submission session is now available for: ICT-08-2017(RIA), ICT-19-2017(IA), ICT-09-2017(RIA), ICT-07-2017(RIA), ICT-04-2017(CSA), ICT-08-2017(IA), ICT-19-2017(CSA), ICT-04-2017(IA), ICT-07-2017(CSA)
2016-04-15
Submission of proposals to 20 topics in this callclosed on 12April 2016. A total of1080 proposals were submitted in response to these topics. The breakdown per topic and type of action is as follows:
Topic CSA RIAIA PCP TotalICT-013 73 76ICT-02 34 7 41ICT-032 75 77ICT-06 87 17 104ICT-10 90 90ICT-12115 1127ICT-13 4 14 18ICT-14 40 40ICT-15 14 14ICT-17 2 2ICT-18 4 31 35ICT-21 33 33ICT-22 94 48 142ICT-24 9595ICT-25 75 39 114ICT-26 49 6 55ICT-29 7 59 5 71ICT-34 5 5ICT-35 18 18ICT-36 16 7 23Total 39 714 322 5 1080
2016-01-26
Submission of proposals to topics ICT-37-2016,ICT-38-2016and ICT-39-2016closed on 19 January 2016. A total of12 proposals were submitted in response to these 3 topics. The breakdown per topic and type of action is as follows:
CSA RIA TotalICT-37-2016 4 4ICT-38-2016 3 2 5ICT-39-2016 3 3Total 10 2 12
2015-10-20
The submission session is now available for: ICT-38-2016(CSA), ICT-39-2016-2017(CSA), ICT-38-2016(RIA), ICT-37-2016(CSA)
