Advanced imaging and sensing technologies (IA)(Photonics Partnership)

ExpectedOutcome :

Projects are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:

• The development of next generations sensory systems based on photonic technologies
• Technology leadership in autonomous vehicles, robots and sensory systems; Growth in a number of strategic industries such as medical devices, automotive, manufacturing, agriculture & food, security of large added value which are in Europe.
• Contribution to the Digital Green deal policy and/or to the technological sovereignty of Europe. Scope :

Innovative hardware and software approaches, or to explore novel techniques with potential to outperform the current standards.

The projects should demonstrate the technology in the form of complete function (or building blocks) showing feasibility for future industrialisation.

It should address the following sectors:

• Automotive, where detection of pedestrians, obstacles and other vehicles at long distance is required in order to safely prepare the reaction of the vehicle in all weather conditions;
• Safety and security, where fast reconnaissance and identification of collaborative or non-collaborative targets and surveillance of infrastructures are required;
• Industry, where imaging can be used for logistics and inspection and analysis of safety and quality control of processes or produced goods;
• Health, where minimally and non-invasive spectroscopic and biophotonic imaging and sensing techniques enable diagnosis, screening, monitoring and treatment of a patient, possibly including augmented reality (AR) visualization;
• Agriculture and food, where spectroscopic imaging and sensing enables non-destructive measurement/monitoring of plants and crops and plant nutrients during production and post-harvest (e.g., phenotyping); this allows fast interactions/adjustments and enables monitoring of plant materials and food products along the entire production chain for quality and safety aspects.

Technologies covering more than one application sectors above are encouraged, such as:

• Long range, high speed, eye-safe imaging for automotive, security, and industrial systems
• Imaging in presence of obscurants for medical, automotive, manufacturing, agriculture, food and security, spectroscopic imaging and sensing for medical, environmental, agriculture, food monitoring and security.

This topic implements the co-programmed European Partnership Photonics.

Specific Topic Conditions :

Activities are expected to start at TRL 3 and achieve TRL 6-7 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.

General conditions

1. Admissibility conditions: described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes.

Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System.

2. Eligible countries: described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes.

A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide .

3. Other eligibility conditions: described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes.

4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion: described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes.

5. Evaluation and award:

• Award criteria, scoring and thresholds are described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes.

• Submission and evaluation processes are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual .

• Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement: described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes.

6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants: described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes.

Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum as defined in the Decision of 7 July 2021 authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2021-2027) – and in actions under the Research and Training Programme of the European Atomic Energy Community (2021-2025). [[This decision is available on the Funding and Tenders Portal, in the reference documents section for Horizon Europe, under ‘Simplified costs decisions’ or through this link: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/horizon/guidance/ls-decision_he_en.pdf]].

The funding rate is up to 60% of the eligible costs. This funding rate applies to both members and non-members of the partnership, except for non-profit legal entities, where the funding rate is up to 100% of the total eligible costs.

Specific conditions

7. Specific conditions: described in the specific topic of the Work Programme.

Documents

Call documents:

Standard application form (HE RIA, IA) — call-specific application form is available in the Submission System

Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA) — will be used with the necessary adaptations

Lump Sum MGA v1.0 — MGA

Detailed budget table (HE LS)

Guidance: "Lump sums - what do I need to know?"

Additional documents:

HE Main Work Programme 2023–2024 – 1. General Introduction

HE Main Work Programme 2023–2024 – 7. Digital, Industry and Space

HE Main Work Programme 2023–2024 – 13. General Annexes

HE Programme Guide

HE Framework Programme and Rules for Participation Regulation 2021/695

HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764

EU Financial Regulation

Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment

EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement

Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual

Funding & Tenders Portal Terms and Conditions

Funding & Tenders Portal Privacy Statement