NEANIAS Project launches its first Open Call for Atmospheric, Underwater and Space research. In this article, we present everything you need to know about the call.

Call for proposals with a deadline of 9 April 2021 opens for Companies and Teams of individual researchers to utilise the services developed within the NEANIAS project.

What services do we provide for the winners?

Successful applicants will have access to the following services for FREE: 

 Support on business development

• Intros to corporates, companies, investors, and other business stakeholders
• Business coaching and mentoring
• Business development support
• Innovation case implementation support

 Networking

• Support from a pan-European network of experts, and be linked to the NEANIAS community.
• Access to a wide user group developed in the NEANIAS project.

 Access to NEANIAS Thematic services

• Access to NEANIAS Infrastructure.

• Develop your product by using NEANIAS Services within a 3 months project period from the Underwater, Atmospheric and Space thematic fields.

 Promotion

• Promote your project on NEANIAS channels.
• Create professional blog posts and targeted social media messages.

Purpose of the Call

European Start-ups often face difficulties in the early phases, mostly because of the lack of high-quality infrastructure and human resources available to test and efficiently develop their technology. NEANIAS aims to provide technical and financial support to tackle these challenges in similar projects.

The purpose of this Open Call is to spark and support the development of a wide variety of innovation projects, by providing novel services created in the frame of the NEANIAS project, fostering interdisciplinary collaborations and contributing to advance research and innovation in Europe. The overarching goal is to build up and strengthen the European innovation community by identifying and supporting innovative projects with novel services developed in the Underwater, Atmospheric and Space research fields.

Innovation in this scope may refer to (a) new operation models for existing services, that can exploit NEANIAS resources (b) improving existing services utilizing NEANIAS offerings to increase their overall offering (c) brand new services inspired by NEANIAS offerings (d) new services in need offerings such as NEANIAS and EOSC ones, and many more. Award winners will have to show strong reuse of NEANIAS offerings and valid sustainability potential.

Background

NEANIAS drives the co-design and delivery of innovative thematic services, derived from state-of-the-art research assets and practices in three major sectors: Underwater, Atmospheric and Space research, each engaging multitudinous academic and business groups, numerous researchers, professionals and governmental entities.

NEANIAS Project partners have been developing 10+ novel services in hopes of overcoming emerging challenges; like bringing together actors from several disciplines (astrophysics, planetary, ocean, climate, archaeology, geology, computer science and more) to ultimately create opportunities for interdisciplinary research.

• List of NEANIAS Services: https://catalogue.neanias.eu.

What kind of projects are we looking for?

We are looking for innovative projects, which meet the following criteria:

• Novelty: By using one or more services of the NEANIAS project (please check the service list of NEANIAS), a significant impact can be made and achieved on your project in terms of novelty.
• Exclusivity: The project can utilise NEANIAS services, which provide an answer to research needs, which would otherwise not be available by using internal competencies.
• Technical excellence and industrial relevance: The proposed project provides technical excellence, as by developing a new product and/or service, a novel, innovative technology/service can be developed. The developed product has a novelty and relevance in terms of added value in the given industry.
• Feasibility, Sustainability, and Viability: The proposed solution is using NEANIAS services for a limited period, and by utilising these services the added value of NEANIAS is straightforward, and quantifiable metrics are defined.

The Selection process

The selection process is as follows:

1. Submission: you are submitting your application by filling out the form – it requires a maximum of 20 minutes.
2. Evaluation:
   • our internal expert creates a first evaluation of your application.
   • interview prepared with NEANIAS experts.
3. Selection and granting:
   • based on the evaluation of experts you will receive an individual score.
   • we will inform you within 1 month about the result of your application.

The Execution process

After the selection procedure, the successful winners will start working with NEANIAS experts of the selected thematic fields of Underwater, Atmospheric or Space research. After signing an NDA, and creating a concise project abstract, where the clear goals of the project are defined; the project implementation will start. The awarded projects will receive technical and business-related support in the POC implementation phase, at least during three months. This period will be followed by a one-week collaboration with NEANIAS experts on evaluating the POC, and creating the closing report, where the status of development and the added values of NEANIAS will be described. The projects might receive additional support from NEANIAS experts to implement their business cases, which can be further negotiated and agreed upon between the awarded projects and NEANIAS experts.

The mains steps are the following:

1. Project abstract creation
2. NDA signing
3. POC implementation (3 months)
4. POC evaluation (1 week)
5. Case report (1 week)
6. Optional additional support and extension period

How to apply

Please follow the instructions and submit your application by clicking on Open Call Application Form. 

Eligibility criteria

 Eligible participants

NEANIAS aims to foster the advancement of interdisciplinary research and innovation, therefore encourages the application of:

• Start-ups
• Established private companies from diverse industries (SMEs / Multinationals)
• Groups of individual researchers / innovators of up to 3 members

representing a diversified field of research and innovation, which might use the services of NEANIAS with added value to apply.

 Eligible countries

Described in Annex A of the Work Programme.

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 2020 projects. See the information in the Online Manual.

In conformity with the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement, the UK and persons or entities established in the UK continue to be eligible to receive Union funds, which implement Union programs and activities committed under the MFF 2014-2020 until the closure of those Union programs and activities. This includes Horizon 2020 actions. If any restrictions applied, these would be clearly specified in the call for proposals.

Conditions

By submitting your application, you agree with the followings:

• NEANIAS Partners will protect the confidentiality of your proposal, by an NDA signed by both parties.
• The evaluation of applications will be made by NEANIAS experts, and are based on NEANIAS criteria and the overall scope of the project. There is no possibility of appeal against the decision taken by the NEANIAS evaluation board on the awarded projects. Appeals against decisions taken by the NEANIAS Project Partners will not be handled.
• You declare, that the project you are submitting has not received any EU or Government funding. No double-funding is accepted by the NEANIAS board.

For additional information on the Open Call, you can also contact us through This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..