F-Interop The 2nd F-Interop Open Call

FIRE+ online interoperability and performance
 test tools to support emerging technologies from
 research to standardization and market launch.
 The standards and innovations accelerating tool. Type of action: Research and Innovation Action (RIA) 

The 2nd F-Interop Open Call is designed to attract projects that test and validate the F-Interop tools and platform, and provide a written report on potential improvements. 

In addition, the 2nd Open Call will select up to two third parties to conduct plugfest events that will engage even more members of the interoperability and standards development communities.

What will be funded

The financial support to third parties in the second F-Interop Open Call will support R&D for two categories of projects:

• SME F-Interop assessment reports: F-Interop will allocate up to 10 grants of €10,000 each to SMEs testing the F-Interop platform and providing a written report on potential improvements. Funding will cover testing on the F-Interop platform and preparation of a report. The outcome of this kind of experiment is a report detailing potential improvements to the F-Interop platform.
• Plugfest Events: F-Interop will select up to two third parties to conduct one or more remote, online plugfest events. The objective of these events will be to involve interop communities to adopt and provide feedback on F-Interop tools for technical and/or syntactical Interoperability tests. €10,000 will be awarded to the third party selected to run an event and another €10,000 will be allocated to the consortium partner that supports this plugfest event. Funding will cover the planning, promotion and delivery of each event, the follow-up with a survey and preparation of a report detailing the results of all the interop tests conducted during the plugfest events.

F-Interop eligible third parties

Eligible persons and entities

Support from the F-Interop open calls programme will be provided to the following categories of persons and entities:

1. Single European mid-caps, SMEs and Micro SMEs as defined in EU law: EU recommendation 2003/361,
2. Web entrepreneurs and individual sole-traders,
3. European secondary and higher education establishments, research institutes (this including also research arm of large corporate organizations) and other not-for-profit research organisations, 
4. Standards Development Organizations (SDOs) such as ETSI, IETF, ITU, IEEE and W3C,

Eligible countries

Support from the F-Interop Open Calls programme will be provided to the persons and entities included in the above categories and established in one of the following countries:

1. A EU Member State,
2. A country associated to the H2020 research programme, such as: Iceland, Norway, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey, Israel, Moldova, Faroe Islands, Ukraine, Tunisia, Georgia, and Armenia (the list is subject to change)1,
3. Switzerland as a country contributing “substantially to the financing of the F-Interop research project”2,
4. Any other non-EU country, only if self-funded and when a clear demonstration that the skills and the impact contributed to the F-Interop Open Call programme cannot be provided by persons and entities in any of the countries above.

The following tables provides a summary of eligibility criteria for each proposal category (each category detail is provided below). In particular with sustainability we require submitted proposal to highlight how maintenance of developed tools and test designs will be maintained after the end of the awarded project and as part of the overall F-Interop platform.

1. SME reports

Eligibility

SMEs only

Proposal type

Lightweight - max 10 pages

Available grants

10 for 10K Euro each

2.Plugtests

Eligibility

All but SDOs preferred

Proposal type

Lightweight - max 10 pages

Available grants

2 for 10K Euro each

Key criteria

In order to qualify for financial support through the F-Interop Open Call Programme, proposals must meet the following evaluation criteria:

• Alignment: Projects must align with one or more of the supported activity categories defined above.
• Excellence: Projects must demonstrate a clear set of objectives aligned with the definition of the F-Interop Open Call and with the general objectives of the ICT-30 Call
• Impact: Proposals must define a clear set of deliverables aligned with the objectives of the Open Call and the specific category to which the proposal relates. Proposals must also include a clear budget, detailing the overall project cost, the amount of funding requested and how it will be spent. This budget must represent good value for money in the opinion of the evaluation panel selected to evaluate the Open Call applications.
• Implementation: Applicants must provide credible evidence that the project delivery team have the necessary skills and management experience to be able to deliver the project in the timescales and budget specified

Total budget

The total budget allocated for the Open Call programme is €700K (23% of project budget), of which €610K will support 19 projects, while €90K will be used to assist consortium partners to deliver technical support for plugfests and new tools integration. Of this, €140K is available for the Second Open Call. For the Second Open Call, €120K will support 12 projects, and €20K will be used to assist consortium partners to deliver technical support for plugfests.

http://www.f-interop.eu/index.php/open-call