Deadline: 17-May-22
The European Commission (EC) is now accepting applications for the Testing and Experimentation Facility for Agri-Food to enable the full benefit of the digital transformation with AI and AI-powered robotics technologies and the move to a Circular Economy for a more sustainable, affordable, efficient and competitive production under high standards.
The selected project will develop reference testing and experimentation facilities with a focus on full integration, testing, validation, demonstration, and where appropriate certification, of advanced AI-based and AI-powered robotics technologies for the agri-food sector. Fields of applications may include, for instance, precision farming solutions, but also other applications from mid- and down-stream such as food processing, wholesale, retail, hospitality and food services. The project may cover the whole value chain of the agri-food sector, but should only cover at least agriculture. Where appropriate demonstration can be done in connection with a specialised demonstration facility, several sub-sector and production types can be considered as well as various variables as it regards crop-livestock types/soils/climatic and environmental conditions/farm structure.
The selected project will develop and, if necessary, adapt over time, a long-term plan over 60+ months:
- to build up or upgrade facilities with resources and services,
- offer and extend the use of facilities to promising future AI and robotics solutions providers, and
- to achieve long-term financial sustainability after EU funding stops.
Contribution to AI innovation:
- Boosting the competitiveness of the European industry, including SMEs in AI, a technology of high strategic relevance;
- Contributing to boost European IP and products based on European technology;
- Creation of world-class experimentation facilities in Europe, offering a comprehensive support combining the necessary expertise, meeting the needs of European innovators. The organisations running the TEFs and their process will ensure the highest level of trust and security for the users of the TEFs, and the highest quality of the testing and validation to guarantee trust and security in the tested solutions, key for their broad diffusion
- Contributing to European technology sovereignty and open strategic autonomy in AI, and AI-enabled solutions;
Funding Information
The available call budget is EUR 30.000.000,00.
Eligibility Criteria
In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:
- be legal entities (public or private bodies)
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be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
- EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs))
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non-EU countries:
- listed EEA countries
- countries associated to the Digital Europe Programme or countries which are in ongoing negotiations for an association agreement and where the agreement enters into force before grant signature.
For more information, visit European Commission.
For more information, visit https://bit.ly/3LQDVQD