Questions and answers

The EIT Manufacturing Call for Proposals is a vehicle to allocate funding for projects in line with the strategic objectives and focus areas of EIT Manufacturing. Its aim is to accelerate turning scientific advances into marketable innovations in manufacturing to help prepare the industry for a green, digital and competitive future that is socially and environmentally sustainable. The call guidelines describe all conditions for submission.

As EIT Manufacturing helps to make innovation happen, most of its operational budget of roughly €400 million until 2026 is dedicated to funding projects that turn research into industry-ready solutions.

The 2^nd EIT Manufacturing Call for Proposals 2024 allows for 12- or 18-Month activity proposals.

Proposals can be uploaded to the submission platform from 19 September 2023 23:59 CET.

In the preparation phase, the call thematics are identified and made public through various communication activities to the European manufacturing industry, networks and communities. Leading up to the opening of the Call for Proposal, networking opportunities, ideation sessions and a matchmaking event offer interested parties the opportunity to form their project groups, known as consortia, and refine initial ideas before submitting them as a proposal.

The preparation phase serves to grow ideas, narrow down challenges, find the best entities for your proposal and enhance your chances to have a proposal accepted.

To take part in preparation phase activities, access to EIT Manufacturing community platform AGORA and the dedicated Call for Proposals 2024 sphere is a provided to entities to help build up proposal consortia.

With the publication of the call, the call itself and its guidelines are also made public, as it is an open call. All relevant information is available on the EIT Manufacturing website and is highlighted in the organisation’s digital channels as well.

With the opening of the call you will have the possibility to start submitting your proposal answering to the call topics as well as attend the Call Info Day

After opening, the EIT Manufacturing Call for Proposals 2024 has one single stage. Proposals can be submitted until the deadline. The proposals are then evaluated, and consortia will be informed during the evalution process on the status of their proposal.

The criteria are laid down in the Call for Proposal 2024 guidelines. Please check the call webpage.

Open call:

Participants from Member States (MS) of the European Union (EU) and Horizon Europe Associate Countries are welcome to submit proposals and eligible for funding.

You do not have to be an existing partner of EIT Manufacturing to apply for funding. Entities of selected proposals will asked to be part of the EIT Manufacturing community and choose one of the available partnership models.

Please consider that the Call for Proposals 2024 guidelines usually define additional specific conditions for consortia composition.

You can find information on prior funded activities on our website and you can filter by functional area. In each of them the  partnership is displayed.

The activities in the preparation phase are designed to help organisations find the right entities for their projects and grow initial ideas. With EIT Manufacturing and its community, you have a lot of opportunities at your fingertips:

• A team of experts who can put you in touch with suitable partners for your proposal
• A community you can tap into to refine and grow your idea to make a good proposal
• A wealth of experience with EU projects to guide you through the process

On AGORA, the EIT Manufacturing community platform, there is Call for Proposals 2024 sphere, a dedicated space for everything concerning the call, which serves as the central information hub. This space can be used to network and hold meetings via its video call functionality. Follow this link to obtain access to AGORA.

Wide Ideas is the open innovation platform to share ideas and identify potential collaborations. All entities who take part in the preparation phase activities can acces it. The platform allows searching and filtering ideas and challenges as well as commenting. You can access Wide Ideas via AGORA.

Finally, all proposals are submitted on the EIT Manufacturing extranet platform Plaza by the Activity Leader. Follow this link to request access to Plaza.

Please check the section 2.5 of the EIT Manufacturing Call Guidelines on the Call Webpage.

The submission will be done via the Plaza submission system. Please check the Call Website for direct access.

The evaluation will focus on the proposal’s plan to meet the objectives of the call, in line with the requested resources in time and money, as well as on the feasibility of the proposed sustainability mechanism.

Proposals are evaluated by external experts for excellence, impact, implementation, strategic fit and European dimension. For more details, please refer to the Call for Proposal 2024 guidelines.

All entities of selected proposals need to be part of the KIC EIT Manufacturing community and will have to choose one of the following partnership models (and related annual fee) before signing the relevant agreements and initiating their projects.

Successful applicants whose activities will start in June 2024 and will become Associate Partners will be required to pay membership fees as follows:

• 2024 – Fee applicable from the first day they become Associate Partners (1 June 2024) on a pro-rata basis (7 months /12 x relevant fee according to the type of the organization)
• 2025 – Fee for the full year according to the type of organization.

In the context of this call we are looking for:

Proposals for innovation activities on the following 3 topics:

• Topic 1: Optimising production processes and increasing resources efficiency through digital solutions
• Topic 2: Socially sustainable and human-centric manufacturing
• Topic 3: Environmentally sustainable manufacturing through circular business models and new technologies

Proposals for education activities on the following 3 topics:

• Topic 1: Optimising production processes and increasing resources efficiency through digital solutions
• Topic 2: Socially sustainable and human-centric manufacturing
• Topic 3: Environmentally sustainable manufacturing through circular business models and new technologies

Proposals for RIS activities on the following 2 topics:

• Topic 1: Fair, green and digital ‘twin’ transition for SMEs in EIT RIS countries (RIS Business Creation)
• Topic 2: Adopting Deep Tech innovation in RIS countries (RIS INNOVATION – AI & Deep Tech)

Selected activities will be part of the EIT Manufacturing Business Plan 2023-2025.

The thematic area can be selected in the submission system. More information on the thematics is also available in the guidelines. Each proposal applying to the Innovation call should choose a thematic.

You can use AGORA, search on Wide Ideas, which can be accessed via Agora, or contact the EIT Manufacturing hub nearest you for advice.

No, it only has to be submitted once.

Any entity participating in the call can lead a project.

KAVA is the term used for a project. It stands for KIC Added Value Activity.

K represents KIC = Knowledge and Innovations Center in European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT)

EIT Manufacturing is the manufacturing-focused KIC of EIT.

An Activity Leader is a project leader/coordinator.

The success rate cannot be compared because the goals and criteria are different.

Yes, any entity from Member States (MS) of the European Union (EU) and Horizon Europe Associate Countries are welcome to submit proposals and eligible for funding.

The conditions are different for all Calls. Please refer to the Call for Proposals Guidelines of your interest on the dedicated webpage.

Please refer to the Call for Proposals guidelines.

• Each applicant, including their affiliated parties, can receive up to EUR 1.5 million funding per year.
• Each activity has specific funding threshold outlined in the Call for Proposal 2024 guidelines.

Please refer to the Call for Proposals guidelines and the call webpage.

Linked Third Parties, called Affiliated Entities under Horizon Europe, are:

• either entities that together legally conform the sole beneficiary (i.e. partner). Ex: Entities A and B form entity C. All three entities (A, B and C) are Affiliated Entities
• or eligible entities that have a legal or capital link to the beneficiary that is neither limited to the action nor established for the sole purpose of its implementation.

Before submitting a proposal, all applicants (Activity Leader and consortium partners) must register on the EU Participant Portal and obtain a PIC number and on the PLAZA submission tool. 

If you are not yet registered for Plaza yet, please note that new registrations to the PLAZA platform will be accepted at the latest 3 days before the closing of the Call for Proposals.

For Direct Access, please refer to the EIT Manufacturing 2nd Call of Proposals 2024 website.

PIC number stands for Participant Identification Code (PIC) and is a 9-digit code expedited by the European Commission once any entity registers in the Funding & Tenders (F&T) portal.

To check if your organisation has a PIC number or to register in order to get one, use this link.

There are compulsory deliverables as per Call for Proposals guidelines. Beside this, there in no predefined total number of deliverables. We suggest to keep it lean and avoid to have more than six deliverables per year.

Only legal entities forming a consortium are eligible to participate in actions provided that the consortium includes at least 3 legal entities independent from each other and each established in a different country as follows:

• at least 1 independent legal entity established in a Member State; and
• at least 2 other independent legal entities, each established in different Member States or Associated Countries.

Additional call consortia specific conditions apply and are explained in section 3.3 of the guidelines.

The following number of LTPs of a core partner may receive funding per year through the 2024 Calls:

• Partners being large enterprises, research institutes and universities: 5
• Partners being mid-sized companies: 2
• Partners being SMEs: 1

Yes, you can – any entity from Member States (MS) of the European Union (EU) and Horizon Europe Associate Countries is welcome to submit proposals and eligible for funding.

Previously “Financial Sustainability Agreement”. The Agreement which is signed with the aim of contributing to the Financial Sustainability of the KIC EIT Manufacturing and its community.

A subsidiary of a US company which is registered in a EU member states or in an associated country can particapte and is eligible fo funding. (). The entity should be registered as a EU company and get a PIC number (Funding & tenders (europa.eu)

The EU entity must be the one that will be claiming the costs at the end of the project.

There is no percentage reserved for EIT manufacturing partnership. Nevetheless only legal entities forming a consortium are eligible to participate in actions provided that the consortium includes at least 3 legal entities independent from each other and each established in a different country as follows:

• at least 1 independent legal entity established in a Member State; and
• at least 2 other independent legal entities, each established in different Member States or Associated Countries.

Additional call consortia specific conditions apply and are explained  in section 3.3 of the guidelines.

Similar to all EU-funded projects, all activities selected for funding undergo continuous monitoring by EIT Manufacturing to ensure effective progress and implementation and to trigger payments (the latter only at interim and final stage) according to the achievement of milestones, deliverables and KPIs.

In the case of under-performance, significant delay of implementation, misconduct of the consortium, or any other reason jeopardizing the timely implementation of the activity identified during the monitoring process, EIT Manufacturing reserves the right to discontinue or restructure the funding of the activity at any point during its duration.

This may result in in the stop or reduction of the funding of the activity.

In case the 2 companies are from different sectors and are providing at least 2 different use cases and the requirement about the minimum number of end-users (two) is satisfied.

TRL 6 is at the start of the project for 18-months proposals, TRL 7 is at the start of the project for 12-months proposals.

No, there is no differentiation. For all entities participating in the call, the maximum funding is 1.5 million Euro.

Yes, we do.

Firstly, the activity has to progress according to plan, otherwise there is the risk that funding is reduced or stopped.

Secondly, the activity cost report has to match exactly the initially planned costs. If the costs are below what intially planned, the funding will be reduced accordingly. If the costs are above plan, the co-funding by the partners has to cover the additional costs.

Partner 2 should get the budget, manufacture the parts and deliver them to Partner 1 as part of the activity tasks.

Yes, you can, if the startup has been founded by the date of the closing of the call.

Any legal entity, regardless of its place of establishment, including legal entities from non-associated third countries or international organisations is eligible to participate (whether it is eligible for funding or not), provided that the conditions laid down in the Horizon Europe Regulation* have been met, along with any other conditions laid down in the specific call topic (please note that as indicated in section 3.3 of the Guidelines UK-based entities cannot act as Business Owner).

A ‘legal entity’ means any legal person created and recognised as such under national law, EU law or international law, which has legal personality, and which may, acting in its own name, exercise rights and be subject to obligations.

UK entities may participate in Horizon Europe-funded projects including the EIT Manufacturing Call for Proposals 2024. However, for the time being they are not eligible to receive EIT funding as the UK is a non-associated country to Horizon Europe.

The UK government has put in place a funding guarantee to successful UK-based applicants participating in EIT calls.

* Regulation (EU) 2021/695 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 April 2021 establishing Horizon Europe (OJ L 170 , 12.5.2021, p. 1)