Between April 27 and June 29, 2022, it was the first to be active at European level call MIND4MACHINES for the development and testing of digital, automation and robotics solutions for industry. With an allocation of 1.65 million euros to support the technologies necessary for Industry 4.0., the call was carried out within the project MIND4MACHINES, funded by the European Commission through the Horizon 2020 program for research-development-innovation.
202 applications were submitted by consortia from Europe or other countries associated with the Horizon 2020 program. More than 400 companies that develop digital technological solutions and companies from the manufacturing industry applied, which will ensure the testing and validation of innovations.
Of the more than 400 companies that are part of the consortia, 27 are from Romania (of which 14 are leaders of the consortia they belong to). The call was intensively promoted within the information campaign carried out at regional and national level by the two MIND4MACHINES partner organizations in Romania, the North-West Regional Development Agency and IPA-SA Bucharest, with the support of the associated partner Transilvania IT Cluster. Romania ranks 5th in the ranking of applicants' origin, after Turkey (136), Italy (58), Spain (42) and Germany (40).
180 projects (89%) were submitted for the development of innovations (these target grants of up to 60,000 euros/applicant) and 22 projects are intended for mature innovative solutions, in the stage of pre-commercialization and scaling of the technological solution (in in their case, the non-refundable aid is a maximum of 30,000 euros/applicant).
123 of the proposed solutions (61%) were submitted by individual technology suppliers, and 79 applications (39%) are complex submitted by at least two suppliers (software development companies, automation and robotics solutions or machinery and equipment manufacturing companies) .
The submitted projects will be evaluated during the summer and at least 38 applications will be selected for funding. Their implementation will start from the fall of 2022 and will be carried out for a maximum period of 9 months.
Collaterally, the applying companies will have the opportunity to participate for free in the sessions of the MIND4MACHINES Acceleration Program, during which they will benefit from expertise, support for business development, innovation and access to public and private financing.
In the spring of 2023, the second MIND4MACHINES call will be launched, under similar conditions to the first call. Potentially interested companies can find out details and news through newsletter subscription.
The MIND4MACHINES project takes place between June 2021 and June 2024, within a partnership formed by 11 organizations from 7 European countries, coordinated by the Istanbul Chamber of Industry. The partner organizations developed the funding call based on technology needs identified at the industry level. Also, the partners will be involved in the evaluation process, together with external evaluators, and will be responsible for monitoring the development of the solutions that will receive funding.
The North-West Regional Development Agency implements the MIND4MACHINES project through a team of the Department of Regional Development, Projects and International Relations, with the aim of supporting the business environment and boosting the increase in the degree of innovation and digitization of the industry.
https://mind4machines.eu/resources/
Statistical status of the first MIND4MACHINES Call can be downloaded by clicking on the button below: