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Open Call Announcement for the CloudiFacturing Project Wave 2 Experiments

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The CloudiFacturing project is a European Innovation Action (IA) under the Horizon 2020 Factories of the Future (FoF). To begin with, the main objective of the CloudiFacturing project is to boost competitiveness of European manufacturers by optimizing production processes using Cloud/HPC-based modelling and simulation. Specifically, the project brings together the results of two previously completed projects, CloudFlow and CloudSME.

Currently, the CloudiFacturing project is looking for teams (3rd party use cases) to submit proposals for additional Application Experiments. In short, Application Experiments are dedicated sub-projects with one-year duration that are executed within the scope of CloudiFacturing. First and foremost, we are seeking innovative use cases in the context of the project’s mission. Moreover, the use cases should clearly state their industrial impact for the involved manufacturing companies. Particularly, the impact needs to be based on the cases’ expected benefit from exploiting computational engineering and production services and workflows powered by the CloudiFacturing technology.

Specifically, we welcome use cases that:

  1. simulate manufacturing processes or manufacturing tools,
  2. leverage factory data to learn from it, and finally
  3. optimize manufacturing processes and/or manufacturability of goods.

In addition, you can find information about the 1st Wave Experiments here.

What are the requirements?

First, the use cases need to be driven by the end-user. In other words, a manufacturing company, preferably an SME. Small consortia consisting of 2 to 5 multidisciplinary partners (e.g. end users from the manufacturing sector, independent software vendors – ISVs, engineering consultants, research organizations, HPC providers, Digital Innovation Hubs) have the opportunity to propose use cases to be executed within the CloudiFacturing framework. Next, the minimum number of third parties (partners in the experiment consortium) in an Application Experiment is one end user and one ISV. Also, the consortium must be cross-border meaning that third parties must be located in different European countries or associated countries. Besides, end-users should (preferably) be new to the technology being investigated in the experiment; being new to EC projects is also welcome. Generally, we encourage proposals with a high ratio of SMEs (or mid-caps). Likewise, we encourage participants from new member states.

Why to participate?

In summary, selected teams will have the opportunity to:

  • investigate and gather experience with HPC/Cloud Computing technologies for their use case;
  • explore technical benefits; for example, better assessment of the producibility and production process optimization by more accurate simulation results using HPC/Cloud resources;
  • exploit information discovered in factory data to improve processes;
  • assess Cloud- based business settings and their impact; and finally
  • leverage the CloudiFacturing Digital Marketplace being developed as a new distribution
    channel.

What does CloudiFacturing offer?

  • Vendor-independent Cloud infrastructure already containing engineering and simulation applications and services on which new experiments can be built to extend the range of service offerings via the CloudiFacturing Digital Marketplace.
  • A tailored HPC/Cloud infrastructure (with a contractual environment protecting IPR).
  • Independent evaluation of experiments against your requirements.
  • Experiences from more than 30 experiments.
  • Consultancy on business models.
  • Participation in the I4MS ecosystem (www.i4ms.eu).

If you are interested in this Open Call, you can find out if you are eligible by visiting the CloudiFacturing website here. Besides, if you have any questions you can contact one of our local Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) for your region. More than that, DIHs will support you with your ideas and will help you prepare a high-quality proposal. Below, you can see the contacts for each Hub:

CFG DIHs 768x493

Geographical distribution of the DIHs in the CloudiFacturing project

Southwest Europe
Elena Femenía: efemenia@insomniaconsulting.es
Insomnia, Spain

Southern Europe
Marco Barbagelata: m.barbagelata@stamtech.com
Stam, Italy

Southeast and Northeast Europe
Gabor Vicze: gabor.vicze@innomine.com
Innomine, Hungary or
Tomáš Karásek: tomas.karasek@vsb.cz
Technical University of Ostrava, Czech Republic

Northwest and North Europe
Simon Bergweiler: Simon.Bergweiler@dfki.de
SmartFactory KL / DFKI, Germany

Also, if you are interested or you have questions, you can contact us at: contact@cloudifacturing.eu.

In the meantime, the CloudiFacturing consortium will publish more information (e.g. Guide for Applicants, FAQ, webinar, etc.) on its web page about its 1st Open Call between now and the 1st of July 2018. Therefore, it is advisable to check it regularly:  http://www.cloudifacturing.eu.

Summary of the Open Call Facts:

Additionally, seven or more Application Experiments will receive funds in this call with an overall EC contribution of roughly 700 k€.

Opening date Closing date Duration of experiment Funding (EC contribution)*
01/07/2018 30/09/2018 12 months (1st Jan to 31st Dec 2019) Approx. 100 k€ per experiment depending on number of partners (max. 60k€ per 3rd party)

Afterward, the time between the closing of the call and the start of the experiments is used for experiment
selection by independent experts and contract set-up between the 3rd parties and the coordinating organization of CloudiFacturing, namely the Fraunhofer Institute Germany.

  • The H2020 funding rules for EC contributions apply. In addition, technical support from the CloudiFacturing Core Partners (Competence Centres) will be given.
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About Zhenya Mocheva

Zhenya is a Digital Marketing Expert at CloudSigma, focusing on brand strategy, social media marketing and digital marketing campaigns. She is passionate about the continuous innovation within the digital environment and the endless growth opportunities that inbound marketing brings.