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Apply for oPEN Lab Project

Deadline: 20-Feb-23

Do you want to test your market-ready solutions in an oPEN Living Lab? If yes, then apply for the oPEN Lab project that aims to change the landscape of urban areas in small to medium-sized cities across Europe.

oPEN Lab aspires to mobilise innovation and system integration within a combined construction and energy value chain leading existing buildings and neighbourhoods towards a positive energy level. Its participatory approach is rooted in the Open Innovation 2.0 methodology, where industry, government, academia, and participants from the civil society co-create and drive structural changes far beyond the scope of what any organisation could do alone.

The oPEN Lab project has the ambition to change the landscape of urban areas in small to medium-sized cities across Europe by mobilising innovation and system integration within a combined construction and energy value chain leading existing buildings and neighbourhoods towards positive energy level.

oPEN Lab aims at designing and implementing replicable and commercially viable services of Positive Energy Neighbourhoods in a set of three European urban contexts, and finally integrating these technologies and packages within existing urban contexts.

oPEN Lab is a project funded by the European Union under the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2014-2020) leading the transition to Positive Energy Neighbourhoods (PENs) in Tartu (Estonia), Pamplona (Spain) and Genk (Belgium).

Objectives

The oPEN Lab Open Call will have a twofold objective:

  • Broaden the innovation capacity of the oPEN Living Labs
  • Enable dynamic response to the rapidily changing market.
Challenges

oPEN Lab foresees to solve three main challenges for oPEN Technologies:

  • Showcase the integration of novel technologies.
  • Accelerate PEN developments in existing neighbourhoods.
  • Upscale and replicate the solutions implemented.
Why apply? 
  • The oPEN Lab Open Call will enhance the selected innovators capacity by offering them the opportunity to collaborate and engage with end users and other industrial parties in a real-life setting within the three oPEN Living Labs for solutions’ enhancement, tailoring and validation.
  • Although there is no funding provided for the oPEN Lab Open Call, the innovators will have the opportunity to benefit from the oPEN Lab infrastructure and collaborate with stakeholders from the oPEN Lab quadruple helix network, thereby increasing their promotion, visibility, and access to the market.
  • Moreover, oPEN Lab will set up an Accelerator Programme to support the innovators in developing a roadmap for commercialisation and market entry of the solutions demonstrated in the oPEN Living Labs, and linking them with future potential clients (e.g., local authorities, project developers but also “integrators”, such as engineering companies, utilities, etc.), as well as with existing business support programmes from EIT KICs and marketplaces (e.g., Smart Cities Marketplace). The Accelerator programme is supported by the oPEN Lab network of innovation clusters across the EU.
Eligibility Criteria
  • The oPEN Lab Open Call intends to involve innovators based in Europe and interested in enhancing their innovation capacity by exploiting innovative solutions for Positive Energy Neighbourhoods in one or more of different local contexts in Genk (Belgium), Tartu (Estonia) and Pamplona (Spain).
  • oPEN Lab Open Call is aimed at innovators from the whole quadruple helix ecosystem: SMEs, start-ups, large enterprises, research institutes, governments and associations representing citizens. Application from SMEs and start-ups will be highly encouraged and favoured in the evaluation and scoring phase. Applications from individuals will not be accepted.
  • For each application there will always be a Lead Applicant.
  • Applicants can apply alone as a single entity, or as a Pilot Group formed of two organisations or more. Individuals cannot apply to the Open Call.
  • In the latter case, the Lead Applicant will coordinate the Pilot Group and is responsible for providing the oPEN Lab project management with reports and feedback for the relevant European Commission auditing.
  • There are no restrictions on the number of organisations that can become part of a Pilot Group. However, applicants need to demonstrate the partners have complementary skills and can deliver the project within the timeline set by the project.
  • There are eight eligibility criteria as listed below:
    • Applicant(s) are SMEs, start-ups, large enterprises, research institutions, governments, and associations.
    • Applicant(s) are located in the European Union Member States or countries Associated to Horizon 2020
    • The proposal is providing solutions to the technical challenges identified by the respective oPEN Living Labs.
    • Completeness of the proposals (i.e., all fields included within the space and page limit).
    • The language of the applications, according to the oPEN Living Lab they apply to (i.e., English, Spanish, Dutch, Estonian).
    • Compliance with ethical principles and relevant legislations.
    • Applications are aligned with the scope of the oPEN Lab Open Call.

For more information, visit oPEN Lab.