FF4EuroHPC Open Call 2

FF4EUROHPC CALL 2

This call for proposals targets highest quality experiments involving innovative, agile SMEs and putting forward 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, with strong preference being given to engineering and manufacturing, or sectors able to demonstrate fast economic growth or particular economic impact for Europe. The highest priority is given to proposals directly addressing the business challenges of manufacturing SMEs.

Priority will be given to consortia centred on SMEs that are new to the use of advanced HPC services; in particular, prior involvement in the Fortissimo or Fortissimo 2 projects would require the innovation aspects for the proposed experiment to be clearly justified, the same applies for activities already funded through other programs.

 

KEY CALL DETAILS

Submission Deadline: 29^th September 2021 at 17:00 Brussels local time

Expected duration of experiments: maximum 15 months with expected commencement 1^st March 2022

Funding for Call-2: the indicative total funding budget is € 5 M

Maximum funding request per proposal: € 200,000 (covering all participants)

Funding constraints for experiment participants (which will be Third Parties as foreseen by Horizon 2020 funding rules): The maximum funding that can be allocated to any Third Party, across all experiments in which that Third Party is involved (including any experiments selected under Call-1), is € 150,000. Proposals to FF4EuroHPC Call-2 that do not adhere to the abovementioned funding restrictions will be rejected without further evaluation.

While the participation of certain FF4EuroHPC beneficiaries in experiments is eligible, the cost of their activities in experiments must not be included in the requested funding for experiments.

 

EXPECTATIONS FOR NEW EXPERIMENTS

The expectations for the proposed experiments are that they should:

• Involve all 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 is a required component.
• Define the HPC computing resources they need and budget for them, possibly using computing resources provided directly by the EuroHPC JU, PRACE or through national actions. The HPC National Competence Centres may be able to provide assistance with the selection of appropriate resources and the application process. (FF4EuroHPC will not be in a position to provide computing resources).
• 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.
• Generate publishable success stories – preferably in multi-media form – based on solutions for the SME’s real-world problems that clearly identify the resulting business benefits.
• Align, where appropriate, with regional priorities, such as industrial specialisation areas.
• Be complementary to those already included in the past Fortissimo and Fortissimo 2 projects and to those selected in FF4EuroHPC Call 1.

The complete announcement and proposer’s guide for the current open call can be downloaded as a pdf document here.

 

PROPOSAL SUBMISSION

Access to the proposal submission tool and detailed instructions for proposal submission, together with information about the evaluation criteria to be applied, FAQs and an evaluation check-list, are provided on the following webpage. 

See the webinar videos and presentations via the link below and get all information you need for your participation in the second Open Call!

www.ff4eurohpc.eu/en/open-calls/open-call/