Filter Search for grants
Call Navigation
Deadline expired
The deadline for this call has expired.
Call key data
Developing and deploying a network of quantum gravimeters in Europe
Call number
HORIZON-CL4-2024-DIGITAL-EMERGING-02-01
deadlines
Opening
23.04.2024
Deadline
18.09.2024 17:00
Funding rate
70% (NPO:100%)
Call budget
€ 25,000,000.00
Estimated EU contribution per project
€ 25,000,000.00
Link to the call
Link to the submission
Call content
short description
Under this action, a consortium of public laboratories, metrology institutes, scientific institutes and/or other relevant partners is expected to carry out innovation activities to develop and demonstrate the practical viability and usefulness of a network of quantum gravimeters in specific operational settings, both in the form of a terrestrial network and also mounted on flying carriers (these could include innovative carriers such as drones, balloons or other flying carriers) and/or on ships or other seaborne carriers.
Call objectives
Quantum gravimeters (gravity sensors) can deliver high-sensitivity, real-time, non-invasive gravity measurements, with much greater precision than classical gravimeters. They have started to demonstrate their disruptive potential in many application sectors, including Earth observation and civil engineering. The unmatched precision offered by quantum gravimeters will only become more important in a world where extreme weather events are becoming more and more common, and where there is an even greater need to observe and track resources that are located up to several kilometres under the ground, such as water basins, gas deposits or magma concentrations.
Mounted gravimeters are to be deployed flexibly in different locations as needed, in order to provide gravity maps of potential areas of interest and confirm where more detailed exploration is worth pursuing. Terrestrial networks are then to be deployed at those specific sites to enable high-resolution, reproductible measurements to be performed over time to monitor and investigate areas of interest (such as volcanoes or zones with underground reservoirs). In all cases, gravimeters should be operated in order to deliver results for innovative use cases in areas including, but not limited to, Earth observation, geodesy, oceanography, hydrology, volcano monitoring and civil engineering.
Proposals should seek to:
- Deliver an extended proof-of-concept for deploying quantum gravimeters in innovative operational settings, including a) as terrestrial networks of several (8 to 10 in total) quantum gravimeters (possibly in hybrid mode with classical gravimeters and/or other types of quantum sensors such as magnetometers) and b) as individual quantum gravimeters mounted on flying carriers (which could include innovative carriers such as drones, balloons or other flying carriers) and/or on ships or other seaborne carriers. The proposal should detail the actions planned to procure gravimeters capable of carrying out the tasks needed to achieve the project’s deliverables, including the adaptation of these gravimeters for use on mounted carriers.
- Develop the components, tools, techniques and processes for optimising and industrializing quantum gravimeters for these innovative configurations, by enhancing their performance according to parameters such as resolution, sensitivity, precision, reproducibility, integration time, autonomy, footprint, robustness, compactness, and real-time data processing. They should seek to optimise the network configuration and carriers for operating quantum gravimeters and assess exhaustively and reproducibly the performances of the systems that are designed.
- Operate the optimised quantum gravimeters and their network infrastructure and carriers to deliver scientific results beyond the state-of-the-art (including in terms of precision) for use cases in areas including, but not limited to, Earth observation, geodesy, oceanography, hydrology, volcano monitoring and civil engineering. They should demonstrate the added value of operating mounted gravimeters and terrestrial networks of gravimeters, if possible in combination (e.g. by analysing areas of interest sequentially).
- Provide a plan for the long-term operation of the infrastructure beyond the life of the project, involving other EU actors working in relevant areas, so that it is ready for integration into a multi-country initiative such as a European Digital Infrastructure Consortium. They should also provide an extensive review of use cases that can be addressed by quantum gravimeters for various configurations. Interoperability of the data for potential further reuse with European data ecosystem initiatives including, but not limited, to the Data Spaces (funded under the Digital Europe Programme), the European Open Science Cloud, and Destination Earth, should be duly taken into account, while respecting all applicable legislation and access and using rights distinguished between different user groups (government, cooperations, research institutes etc.) for the data generated. They should also demonstrate how other types of quantum sensors could be integrated into the infrastructure.
The Commission considers that proposals with an overall duration of 36-48 months would allow these outcomes to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude the submission and selection of proposals requesting other durations.
Proposals should also cover synergies with other relevant European initiatives and programmes, including the Quantum Technologies Flagship and the planned development and deployment of a European space gravimetry infrastructure under Horizon Europe Cluster 4 Destination 5 (Open strategic autonomy in developing, deploying and using global space-based infrastructures, services, applications and data). In addition, they should contribute to spreading excellence across Europe; for example, through the involvement of Widening Countries.
The intended users of the infrastructure built by the project and the services it offers are entities established in the eligible countries.
In this topic the integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content is not a mandatory requirement.
read more
Expected results
Projects are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:
- Demonstration of the advantage of quantum gravimeters in innovative operational settings, delivering results beyond the state-of-the-art for real-world use cases. These operational settings should include a) an onboard gravimeter and b) terrestrial networks of gravimeters, consisting of at least eight gravimeters in total.
- Identification of new use cases and provision of innovative quantum gravimeter services for these use cases.
- The network of quantum gravimeters developed and optimised as part of the project should be ready for integration into a multi-country initiative such as a European Digital Infrastructure Consortium.
Eligibility Criteria
Regions / countries for funding
Iceland (Ísland), Israel (ישראל / إِسْرَائِيل), Norway (Norge)
eligible entities
Education and training institution, International organization, Non-Profit Organisation (NPO) / Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Other, Private institution, incl. private company (private for profit), Public Body (national, regional and local; incl. EGTCs), Research Institution incl. University, Small and medium-sized enterprise (SME)
Mandatory partnership
Yes
Project Partnership
To be eligible for funding, applicants must be established in one of the following countries:
- the Member States of the European Union, including their outermost regions
- the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) linked to the Member States
- third countries associated to Horizon Europe - see list of particpating countries
Only legal entities forming a consortium are eligible to participate in actions provided that the consortium includes, as beneficiaries, three legal entities independent from each other and each established in a different country as follows:
- at least one independent legal entity established in a Member State; and
- at least two other independent legal entities, each established in different Member States or Associated Countries.
Any legal entity, regardless of its place of establishment, including legal entities from non-associated third countries or international organisations (including international European research 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.
A ‘legal entity’ means any natural or 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, or an entity without legal personality.
Specific cases:
- Affiliated entities — Affiliated entities (i.e. entities with a legal or capital link to a beneficiary which participate in the action with similar rights and obligations to the beneficiaries, but which do not sign the grant agreement and therefore do not become beneficiaries themselves) are allowed, if they are eligible for participation and funding.
- Associated partners — Associated partners (i.e. entities which participate in the action without signing the grant agreement, and without the right to charge costs or claim contributions) are allowed, subject to any conditions regarding associated partners set out in the specific call conditions.
- Entities without legal personality — Entities which do not have legal personality under their national law may exceptionally participate, provided that their representatives have the capacity to undertake legal obligations on their behalf, and offer guarantees to protect the EU’s financial interests equivalent to those offered by legal persons.
- EU bodies — Legal entities created under EU law including decentralised agencies may be part of the consortium, unless provided for otherwise in their basic act.
- Joint Research Centre (‘JRC’)— Where provided for in the specific call conditions, applicants may include in their proposals the possible contribution of the JRC but the JRC will not participate in the preparation and submission of the proposal. Applicants will indicate the contribution that the JRC could bring to the project based on the scope of the topic text. After the evaluation process, the JRC and the consortium selected for funding may come to an agreement on the specific terms of the participation of the JRC. If an agreement is found, the JRC may accede to the grant agreement as beneficiary requesting zero funding or participate as an associated partner, and would accede to the consortium as a member.
- Associations and interest groupings — Entities composed of members (e.g. European research infrastructure consortia (ERICs)) may participate as ‘sole beneficiaries’ or ‘beneficiaries without legal personality’. However, if the action is in practice implemented by the individual members, those members should also participate (either as beneficiaries or as affiliated entities, otherwise their costs will NOT be eligible.
other eligibility criteria
If projects use satellite-based earth observation, positioning, navigation and/or related timing data and services, beneficiaries must make use of Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS (other data and services may additionally be used).
In order to achieve the expected outcomes, and safeguard the Union’s strategic assets, interests, autonomy, and security, it is important to avoid a situation of technological dependency on a non-EU source, in a global context that requires the EU to take action to build on its strengths, and to carefully assess and address any strategic weaknesses, vulnerabilities and high-risk dependencies which put at risk the attainment of its ambitions. For this reason, participation is limited to legal entities established in Member States, Iceland and Norway and the following additional associated country: Israel.
For the duly justified and exceptional reasons listed in the paragraph above, in order to guarantee the protection of the strategic interests of the Union and its Member States, entities established in an eligible country listed above, but which are directly or indirectly controlled by a non eligible country or by a non-eligible country entity, may not participate in the action unless it can be demonstrated, by means of guarantees provided by their eligible country of establishment, that their participation to the action would not negatively impact the Union’s strategic, assets, interests, autonomy, or security.
The participants directly subject to this eligibility condition are not only beneficiaries, affiliated entities and associated partners but also subcontractors. Their participation is therefore subject to an ex-ante ownership control assessment by the EC and, if relevant, the EC acceptance of a guarantee approved by an eligible country.
Activities are expected to start at TRL 6 and achieve TRL 8 by the end of the project.
Additional information
Topics
Relevance for EU Macro-Region
EUSAIR - EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region, EUSDR - EU Strategy for the Danube Region, EUSALP - EU Strategy for the Alpine Space, EUSBSR - EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region
UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs)
Additional Information
All proposals must be submitted electronically via the Funders & Tenders Portal electronic submission system (accessible via the topic page in the Search Funding & Tenders section). Paper submissions are NOT possible.
Proposals must be complete and contain all parts and mandatory annexes and supporting documents, e.g. plan for the exploitation and dissemination of the results including communication activities, etc.
The application form will have two parts:
- Part A (to be filled in directly online) contains administrative information about the applicant organisations (future coordinator and beneficiaries and affiliated entities), the summarised budget for the proposal and call-specific questions;
- Part B (to be downloaded from the Portal submission system, completed and then assembled and re-uploaded as a PDF in the system) contains the technical description of the project.
Annexes and supporting documents will be directly available in the submission system and must be uploaded as PDF files (or other formats allowed by the system).
The limit for a full application (Part B) is 45 pages.
Call documents
Horizon Cluster 4 Work Programme 2024-2025Horizon Cluster 4 Work Programme 2024-2025(3756kB)
Contact
To see more information about this call, you can register for free here
or log in with an existing account.
Log in
Register now