European value chains for rail supply
European Comission
ExpectedOutcome :
Taking into account the lessons learnt on the COVID-19 lockdowns, which resulted in general availabilities constraints of raw materials, electronic components and other supplies arriving from oversee, the Project stemming from this topic is expected to contribute fostering a resilient rail supply chain for the implementation of the future needed rail innovations, as described in the Europe’s Rail Multi-Annual Work Programme.
More specifically in the scope of rail innovations to:
- increasing access to supply chain information and possibilities within Europe;
- increasing resilience of the EU rail products in the global supply chain, considering as well the effect of climate changes;
- provision of confidence, in particular for SMEs, on the supply needs (material, components, etc.) for future rail innovations and their availabilities;
- foster global competitiveness of EU companies.
The Project stemming from this topic is expected to provide all the following:
- Lessons learnt of the impact to the rail supply of technology and innovation on the global value chain and production due the COVID-19 lockdowns, as well as impact of climate change, which resulted in availabilities constraints of raw materials, electronic components and other supplies arriving from oversee;
- Analysis on the type of supply the industrial stakeholder would need in the year to come in order to implement the innovation described in the EU-Rail Multi-Annual Work Programme with an horizon 2030;
- Identification of supply chains patterns within Europe as well as gaps and innovative mitigation measures in term of sourcing and availability of key materials/components (raw, electronics, etc.);
- An easily publicly accessible information responding to the needs in particular of SMEs;
- Recommendations to ensure further European resilience and autonomy. Scope :
This action should research how best to address the global value chain identifying the supply chain needs for the railway system of the future, address the supply constraints and risk of supply availabilities for delivery of the EU rail innovations over time and the strategic options to ensure resilient solutions and autonomy within Europe.
If the global trade and the digitalisation have enabled EU companies to be competitive and produce taking advantage of a global supply chain, it has also showed its limitation in operating under a lock-down situation which affected factories and oversees transportation channels, resulting in scarcity of materials and components and therefore production delays and/or unforeseen costs. This affected the European rail industry as well, but more in particular the SMEs that, if on one side shows great ability to be agile, on the other side they may not have the means to sustain for a long period an unknown supply situation or significantly increased costs. There is therefore a need to identify, mapping – and make easily accessible and available – which alternatives exists or may be viable now and in the future, in particular for the implementation of those rail innovations that requires basic supplies for developing the final hardware and software rail solutions.
The action should also look at existing studies and available material on the global value and supply chains (see for example outcomes from the Horizon Europe call topic “Towards a new normal? Employment and social impacts of changing supply chains and declining trade intensities”[1]), but focus in particular on the needs for the rail sector, identifying the possible supply needs using as a reference (use cases) the foreseen future innovation described in the EU-Rail Multi-Annual Work Programme with an horizon 2030.
The research should involve all relevant actors and gather expertise leveraging from the knowledge of the rail supply industry, in particular SMEs and start-ups, confronted to possible supply shortages. In addition, applicants should leverage from the expectations of the clients, in the horizon 2030, considering the R&I contribution and vision from the EU-Rail Master Plan and Multi-Annual Work Plan.
Gender dimension
In this topic the integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content is not a mandatory requirement.
Specific Topic Conditions :
Activities are expected to be of low TRL, with experiment verification of the formulated concepts at TRL3, higher TRL are possible – see General Annex B for a guide to the TRL definitions and criteria to be used.
[1]Call ID: HORIZON-CL2-2021-TRANSFORMATIONS-01-06 https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/horizon-cl2-2021-transformations-01-06;callCode=null;freeTextSearchKeyword=supply;matchWholeText=true;typeCodes=1,0;statusCodes=31094501,31094502,31094503;programmePeriod=2021%20-%202027;programCcm2Id=43108390;programDivisionCode=null;focusAreaCode=null;destination=null;mission=null;geographicalZonesCode=null;programmeDivisionProspect=null;startDateLte=null;startDateGte=null;crossCuttingPriorityCode=null;cpvCode=null;performanceOfDelivery=null;sortQuery=sortStatus;orderBy=asc;onlyTenders=false;topicListKey=topicSearchTablePageState
General conditions
- Admissibility conditions: described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes
The page limit of the application is as follows:
Regarding admissibility conditions and related requirements, part A of the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2021-2022 General Annexes applies with the following exception: the limit for a full Innovation Action, Research Innovation Action and Coordination and Support Actions applications is set to 70 pages.
Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System
- 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
Financial and operational capacity and exclusion: described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes
Evaluation and award:
- Award criteria, scoring and thresholds are described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes
The award criteria included in the General Annexes of the Horizon Europe – Work Programme 2021 – 2022 are complemented with additional criteria as specified in Annex VIII to this Work Programme.
- Submission and evaluation processes are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual
The granting authority can fund a maximum of one project.
- Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement: described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes
- Legal and financial set-up of the grants: described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes
The starting date of grants awarded under this topic may be as of the submission date of the application. Applicants must justify the need for a retroactive starting date in their application. Costs incurred from the starting date of the action may be considered eligible.
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]].
Specific conditions
- Specific conditions: described in the [specific topic of the Work Programme]
Applicant Private[[As defined in Article 2(5) of Council Regulation (EU) 2021/2085.]] Members of the EU-Rail part of consortia responding to this topic should provide in-kind contributions to additional activities to be declared via the template model available on the F&T portal. The amount of total in-kind contributions (i.e. in-kind contributions for operational activities and in-kind contributions for additional activities) should be no less than 1.263[[In order to support a leverage factor of no less than the ratio between the contribution from members other than the Union and the Union financial contribution, as on the basis of Articles 88 and 89 of Council Regulation (EU) 2021/2085.]] times the funding request, in aggregate, of these applicant Private Members. Any discrepancy shall be well and duly justified.
In this respect, the grant agreements will set, in principle, annual deliverable on in-kind contributions for the projects selected under this topic, as well as mandatory reporting requirements, for those applicants who are Private Members of EU-Rail.
Indicative project duration: 24 months. This does not preclude submission and selection of a proposal with a different project duration.
Special skills and/or capabilities expected from the Applicant(s)
Applicants shall ensure that their proposals and consortium reflect the aggregated expertise to perform the activities and achieve the objectives set by the topic.
The applicants are expected to gather expertise leveraging from the knowledge of the rail supply industry, in particular SMEs and start-ups, confronted to possible supply shortages. In addition, applicants should leverage from the expectations of the clients, in the horizon 2030, considering the R&I contribution and vision from the EU-Rail Master Plan and Multi-Annual Work Plan.
Documents
Call documents:
Application form — call-specific application form is available in the Submission System from 13 September 2022
Evaluation form
Model Grant Agreement (ToMGA)
Europe's Rail -Work Programme 2022 - 2024
Europe's Rail - Master Plan
Europe's Rail - Multi Annual Work Programme
Additional documents:
HE Main Work Programme 2021–2022 – 1. General Introduction
HE Main Work Programme 2021–2022 – 13. General Annexes
HE Framework Programme and Rules for Participation Regulation 2021/695
HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764
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
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