The Better Factory initiative, funded under the European Commission H2020 programme, aims to help European manufacturers become more competitive in the global market by providing up to EUR 200,000 funding to develop and deploy collaborative intra-factory experiments. Manufacturing Companies will discover new business models and digitise their factories to match the production of new or personalised products, thanks to the collaboration with Artists and Technology Suppliers during the lifetime of the Better Factory project and beyond.
The Expression of Interest (EoI), launched on the 25th of April, is a call for individual applications from Manufacturing SMEs/Mid-Caps, Artists, and Technology Suppliers. The pre-selected applicants will get support from the project consortium during a matchmaking stage that will ensure the best fit among them in order to jointly write the full proposal.
The Calls for Expressions of Interest are a preliminary, optional step to applying to the 2nd Better Factory Open Call for Full Proposals from consortia composed of one Manufacturing SME/Mid-Cap, one Artist and one Technology Supplier, which will end up with the selection of 9 KTEs.
With this Call for EoIs, Better Factory is looking for Manufacturing SMEs and Mid-Caps willing to redesign their current products and services together with Artists and Technology Suppliers and to optimise their production costs.
2nd Open Call benefits (launching in September)
Becoming one of the successfully selected consortia will allow manufacturing companies to explore new markets using digital tools, test and develop new lean-agile production technologies, make deals through the Robotics and Automation MarketPlace (RAMP), access training to re-skill staff, receive business support and mentoring, and to get up to EUR 200,000 funding.
Collaborations between Manufacturing SMEs/Mid-Caps, Artists and Tech Suppliers can take on many forms and deliver a wide variety of outcomes. At a technical level, the focus will be to minimise the impact on production cost and to create more value by reducing waste, energy and other production resources; optimising intra-factory logistics; using robots to support workers; production pre-planning and simulation.
Prioritised sectors are plastic and rubber, furniture and wood, food and agriculture, construction, metal and machinery, and textile and leather.
Better Factory Open Calls timeline:
- Expression of Interest remains open until the 25th of June, 2022
- 2nd Better Factory Open Call for Full Proposals will be launched on the 1st of September, 2022
Note to applicants: you can raise all your doubts and questions in the official Open Call helpdesk, project partners will get back to you very soon. You can also watch the webinar recording to find out how to be successful in your application. Good luck!
APPLY for the Expression of Interest here
Contact person
Nina Doklestić ([email protected])
