EU-US 6G R&I Cooperation
European Comission
ExpectedOutcome :
- EU-US research cooperation on selected critical 6G technologies and architectures exploring AI, paving the way towards global validation, adoption and standardisation of intelligent approaches, notably in the context of key 6G KPIs.
- A widely accepted framework for meaningful evaluation of proposed AI/ML-powered solutions for 6G networks.
- Technology validation in platforms where appropriate.
- Joint progress towards AI large scale applicability in 6G networks and standardisation opportunities supported by availability of common data sets and learning sequences provided in an open manner. Objective :
Please refer to the "Specific Challenges and Objectives" section for Stream B in the Work Programme, available under ‘Topic Conditions and Documents - Additional Documents’.
Scope :
The scope of the target project covers:
- EU US R&I cooperation on key next generation wireless including 6G technologies and architectures powered by Artificial Intelligence. AI may be considered at various levels from a future target 6G systems, from lower layer radio aspects (e.g. reconfigurable waveform, Reflective Intelligent Surface processing, etc.) to higher layers targeting intelligent function placement, network self-configuration, security and resilience, or AI based support of user applications.
- Support to a reference framework for AI usage for the telecommunications domain in relation to 6G, including methodologies, reference use cases, data acquisition and generation, repositories, curated training and evaluation data, as well as the technologies and functionalities needed to use it as a benchmarking platform for future AI/ML solutions for 6G networks. The framework may address a wide range of usage contexts, covering both different applications areas of AI (e.g. physical layer, networking, security), and different business ecosystems (e.g. typical end to end network operators, open networks, cloud and infrastructure operators, federated and virtual operators). Typical 6G metrics should be able to be evaluated, including data rate, latency, density, energy efficiency, flexibility and performance, and/or security. Methods of accreditation of usage/compliance may also be considered to validate techniques.
- The scope includes availability of data sets, contributing to 6G Human Centricity and Societal acceptance and in compliance with the rules of data legislation, both existing and new ones created by the project, that may be used by researchers to validate AI approaches and inference rules applied to the selected network/device challenge. Contribution to the framework and data access is expected to add value, notably for improvement and expansion of data sets, tools and algorithms for efficient new AI/ML solutions. Generation and exchange of data across EU-US stakeholders is in scope where possible and appropriate. Proposals on validation of AI techniques over experimental platforms, additionally providing the associated datasets, are in scope.
Applicants are invited to explain how the EU-US cooperation will be implemented, i.e., the target US initiative to collaborate with and the approach of cooperation to be deployed with US stakeholders. The retained project is expected to work with relevant US funded project(s). Only organisations established in the EU and associated countries will be eligible for EU funding.
General conditions
This topic deviates from the general conditions and includes additional conditions, which are explicitly stated in the Appendix 1 of the SNS R&I Work Programme 2023-2024 ‘Additional Conditions of the SNS 2023 Call’ .
- 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
The page limit for a full application is 100 pages for RIAs and IAs.
- 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 .
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
Part D of the General Annexes to the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2023-2024 shall apply mutatis mutandis to this topic with the following complements:
The award criteria table is complemented as follows:
§ Introduction in the impact section of a sub criterion assessing the proposal contribution to the reinforcement of an EU supply side in the context of sovereignty;
§ Introduction in the impact section of a sub criterion assessing the proposal contribution to the overall SME objective as appropriate;
§ Introduction in the impact section of a sub criterion assessing the proposal contribution to the IKOP objectives;
Submission and evaluation processes are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual
Annex F of the WP General Annexes shall apply mutatis mutandis to the SNS call 2023 covered by this Work Programme with the following amendment related to the procedure to rank proposal with equal scores:
§ When two RIA proposals are equally ranked and that it has not been possible to separate them using first the coverage criterion, second the excellence criterion, and third the generic Impact criterion (i.e. after step 2 of the procedure outlined in part F of the General Annex), the level of SME participation will be taken as the next criterion to sort out the ties and if still unconclusive, the level of IKOP will be considered as appropriate. If still inconclusive, the procedure outlined in part F of the General Annex will be resumed from step 3 onwards.
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
Funding rates
Please note that the funding rates in this topic are: 100% for non-for-profit organizations and 90% with respect to for-profit organizations. Unfortunately, the maximum funding rate in the budget table is set to 100%. We kindly ask all for-profit organizations to make a manual calculation and request only 90% of the budget.
Specific conditions
- Specific conditions: described in the specific topic of the Work Programme, and in Appendix 1 to the WP: Additional Conditions of the SNS 2023 Call.
Project collaboration.
The project contracted under this call will be expected to enter into a collaboration agreement to collectively work on topics of mutual interests. To that end, they will be subject to contractual clauses outlined in article 7 of the Model Grant Agreement.
For more call-specific questions, please check the [FAQ section](https://smart-networks.europa.eu/faq-2/)[. ](https://smart-networks.europa.eu/faq-2/%C2%A0)
Documents
Call documents:
A call-specific application form will be used in this topic — call-specific application form will be available in the Submission System
Standard evaluation form — will be used with the necessary adaptations
Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA)
MGA
Additional documents:
HE Main Work Programme 2023–2024 – 1. General Introduction
SNS-R&I-Work-Programme-2023-2024
HE Main Work Programme 2023–2024 – 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