East and North Finland industrial transition High impact action call 2019

Evaluation of the project proposals has been finalized and applicants have been notified of the results. You can read about the results here. 


Digitisation and Circular Economy in the Tree, Wood and Timber value chain

Open call for companies and public research organisations from 04.09.2019 until 02.10.2019

In January 2018, the European Commission selected the ENF regions as the “Regions in Industrial transition” pilot. With the pilot, the European Commission is looking for new ways of developing  the economy of European regions. The pilot is focusing on smart specialisation, interregional and  cross-organisational collaboration. In the ENF region, the collaboration resulted East and North Finland in Industrial Transition – Smart specialisation strategy 2019-2023.

The second phase of ELMO cooperation has been started in August 2019, with the definition and implementation of more specific measures in the strategy. One of measures is the launch of this HIA call for ENF region.

Call covers the sub-dimensions of “Digitisation and Circular Economy in the Tree, Wood and Timber value chain”. Call will be open from 04.09.2019 until 02.10.2019; selected projects would start 12/2019 – 01/2020 and end 30/06/2020

Call targets to stimulate digitisation and circular economy in the tree, wood and timber value chain, including for instance:

  • Improved automation and digitisation of (segments of) the value chain
    (advanced manufacturing);
  • New smart, digital solutions (new sensors, real-time monitoring of forestry bio-mass, digital
    platform for storing, sharing and bundling of side-streams, AI applied to harvesting and
    logging, etc.);
  • Innovations in natural products towards (potential) end-users (wood construction, drugs,
    medicines and cosmetics, energy, textile, food, inorganic chemistry, etc.);
  • Improved / scaled-up industrial symbiosis through better valorisation of side streams (and
    their spin-off products) in the tree, wood and timber value chain such as wood chips, tree bark, saw dust, bio-ethanol, lignin, turpentine, CO², bio-composites and bio-plastics, etc;
  • Upscale of (existing and new) solutions for water treatment and recycling (in the tree, wood and timber value chain).

Targeted projects and eligibility:

The support in the form of a voucher will be targeted towards collaborative projects of one or more companies who aim to co-develop together with a public research organisations
(university lab or Research and Technology Organisation (RTO)) a workable solution for a
(previously identified) end-user, intending to increase the technological and market maturity of their solution beyond technology readiness level (TRL) 6. The voucher system will help
domestic SMEs make better use of inter-regionally connected Research and Innovation
Infrastructures to deploy innovative solutions in the tree, wood and timber value chain.

  • The consortium is composed of at least 3 legal entities based at least in two different East
    and North Finland regions.
  • One of the participating entities shall act as a Lead Partner.
  • The direct beneficiary must have its home location in an ENF region. The service provider must have its home location or an office located in an ENF region.
  • At least one of these entities is a direct beneficiary.
  • The proposal has to be submitted by the 2.10.2019 16.00 (Helsinki Time)
  • Proposals must be written in English following the given structure with a maximum of 12 pages including a cover page and index (see guideline).
  • The Declaration of Honour is duly signed. The beneficiaries must certify that all information provided is correct. They must also be completely committed to participate in the project that they are submitting and comply with the eligibility criteria. The declaration of honour also states that this very same project proposal does not receive funds elsewhere (see guideline).
  • Regarding ethical compliance: applications that contravene ethical principles or any applicable legislation, or which do not fulfil the conditions set out in Decision No 2013/743/EU, which will serve as a reference document for this call, may be excluded from the evaluation, selection and award procedures at any time.

For more information, see Introduction on the High Impact Action.

Target group

Collaborative projects involving SME´s who aim to co-develop together with RDI organisations a workable solutions, intending to increase the technological and market maturity   

Topic

Product value innovations in the wood value chain – in particular solutions for circular economy management, intelligent solutions for product development and new innovative products. Requirement level in product development is beyond TRL level 6 (TRL level describes product technology readiness level on scale of 1-9). Please read more here.

“Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) are indicators of the maturity level of particular technologies. This measurement system provides a common understanding of technology status and addresses the entire innovation chain. There are nine technology readiness levels; TRL 1 being the lowest and TRL 9 the highest.”

Implementation

6-7 vouchers worth between 40,000 and 45,000 € will be distributed in the High Impact Action, which represents 80% of the total budget. The Innovation Voucher is awarded to consortia of SMEs and public research organisations, which must have partners from at least two regions in the ENF area. The ENF area includes Kainuu, Central Ostrobothnia, Lapland, South Savo, North Karelia, Oulu Region and Pohjois-Savo

Timeline

From 4/9 – 2/10 2019. The call is open for 4 weeks and the pilot decisions are made within 6 weeks of closing the call.

Guidelines

For more information, please contact:

elmo@lapinliitto.fi

Questions sent to the email will be answered online in FAQ section of these webpages in five days of time.