Source of Funding: Xjenza Malta

Xjenza Malta, in collaboration with the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK), has launched the 5th Xjenza Malta-TÜBİTAK 2025 Joint Call for R&I Proposals. This initiative aims to foster cooperation in science, technology, and innovation between Malta and Turkey by supporting researchers and innovators in strengthening their scientific expertise and networks.

This Call will focus on two distinct pillars:

Pillar 1: PRIMA Thematic Areas

1. Management of Water
2. Farming System
3. Agro-Food Value Chain

Pillar 2: Shared National Priority areas:

1. Smart Manufacturing
2. Health
3. Aviation

Cross-Cutting Theme: Digital Technologies

Digital Technologies is a cross-cutting theme, relevant across both pillars.

Funding & Project Details for the Xjenza Malta- TÜBİTAK 2025 Joint Call

• Funding: Up to €100,000 for the Malta-based consortium (at least one Malta-based partner).
• Project Duration: Up to 24 months
• Application Deadline: 20th June 2025, 23:59 PM CET
• Technology Readiness Levels (TRL): 1–7

Who Can Apply?

Each consortium must include:

• At least one eligible Malta-based entity
• At least one eligible Turkey-based entity

Projects should be balanced in terms of workload and funding distribution between the two partners.

Visit the below link for eligibility and application guidelines.

Online Information Session

Xjenza Malta will be hosting an online information session on 16 April 2025 from 10:00 to 11:00 AM CET. This session will cover key details about the call, eligibility criteria, and the application process.

Interested participants can register here: Click to Register.

Still looking for a partner? Use the plumtri matchmaking tool to find your partners by registering your interest here: Marchmaking Tool, you can also use the partner search tool by registering here: Partner Search Tool

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Source of Funding: Xjenza Malta

Xjenza Malta is receiving proposals under the Technology Development Programme Lite (TDP Lite).

The TDP Lite is a national funding programme aimed at providing support for the development of innovative projects proposed by public entities or industry players. The programme is designed to provide Maltese innovators with an expedited route to develop and demonstrate their novel technologies.

TDP Lite provides financial support of up to €200,000 for sole entities to carry out research, development and innovation, with the SMART Specialisation Areas:

• Aviation and Aerospace
• Future Digital Technology
• Health and Well-being
• Marine and Maritime Technology
• Smart Manufacturing
• Sustainable Use of Resources

In order to be an eligible applicant under this funding programme, the technology must be at a minimum Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 4 and must increase to a maximum of 7 by the end of the project. The TDP Lite covers a duration of 12 or 18 months.

Interested applicants are to submit their application form electronically to rtdi.xjenzamalta@gov.mt keeping in copy Ms Mariah Vella at mariah.vella.5@gov.mt and Mr Kyle Bonnici at kyle.bonnici.4@gov.mt with ‘TDP Lite 2025 Application’ as the subject heading. The application must be dated and signed by the applicant and the legal representative. All received applications shall be acknowledged by email.

The deadline for submission is Friday 23 May 2025 at 11:59 p.m. Late or incomplete applications will not be considered.

An online information session will be held on Friday 14 March 2025 at 10:00a.m. This information session is intended to provide further information on the call. Any interested parties are encouraged to click here to access the registration form.

Further information can be found in the guidelines documents found on the below link. Alternatively, interested parties may contact Ms Mariah Vella on 23602114.

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Source of Funding: EU Emissions Trading System

What will the Innovation Fund 2024 General Call finance?

Budget: 2.4 billion EUR

Small-scale projects call window: budget 100 000 000 EUR

‘small-scale project’ means a project with a total capital expenditure not exceeding EUR 20 000 000 but larger than EUR 2 500 000

Link: EU Funding & Tenders Portal | EU Funding & Tenders Portal

Medium-scale projects call window budget: 200 000 000 EUR

‘medium-scale project’ means a project with a total capital expenditure above EUR 20 000 000 and not exceeding 100 000 000

 Link: EU Funding & Tenders Portal | EU Funding & Tenders Portal

Large-scale projects call window budget: 1 200 000 000 EUR

‘large-scale project’ refers to a project with a total capital expenditure above 100 000 000 EUR

Link: EU Funding & Tenders Portal | EU Funding & Tenders Portal

Clean tech manufacturing call window budget 700 000 000 EUR

The capital expenditure for such projects must be greater than 2 500 000 EUR

Link: EU Funding & Tenders Portal

Pilot projects call window budget 200 000 000 EUR

The capital expenditure for such projects must be greater than 2 500 000 EUR

Link: EU Funding & Tenders Portal

Activities that can be financed under the large-, medium-, and small-scale projects topics:

• activities supporting innovation in low-carbon technologies and processes in sectors listed in Annex I and Annex III to the EU ETS Directive 2003/87 , including environmentally safe carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) that contributes substantially to mitigating climate change, in particular for unavoidable process emissions, as well as products substituting carbon-intensive ones produced in sectors listed in Annex I to the EU ETS Directive
• activities helping stimulate the construction and operation of projects that aim at the environmentally safe capture and geological storage of CO2 (CCS)
• activities helping the construction and operation of innovative renewable energy and energy storage technologies

The clean-tech manufacturing topic finances the manufacturing of innovative clean-tech components for hydrogen production/consumption, renewable energy and energy storage.

The pilot projects topics financing the construction and operation of pilot projects that focus on validating, testing and optimising highly innovative, deep decarbonisation solutions in all sectors eligible for Innovation Fund support.

 (sectors listed in Annex I and Annex III to the EU ETS Directive 2003/87, including environmentally safe carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) that contributes substantially to mitigating climate change, as well as products substituting carbon-intensive ones produced in sectors listed in Annex I to the EU ETS Directive or construction and operation of innovative energy storage or construction and operation of CO2 storage solutions or construction and operation renewable energy installations (in photovoltaics, concentrated solar power, onshore and offshore wind power, ocean energy, geothermal, solar thermal, and others), including innovative systems aspects such as connection to the electricity/heat grid)

 A 1 billion EUR call has also been dedicated to the manufacturing of batteries for Electric Vehicles (innovation can be in chemicals, life cycle, sustainability, et cetera). The project CAPEX must be greater than 2 500 000 EUR.

 Link: EU Funding & Tenders Portal | EU Funding & Tenders Portal.  

The Innovation Fund grant must not exceed 60% of the relevant costs. Relevant costs refers to the net extra costs, calculated as the difference between the best estimate of (i) the economic costs (covering investment and operation) and (ii) the economic revenues and operational benefits– known as the ‘No Reference Plant Methodology’ (taken as default).

More specifically, the Relevant Costs shall be calculated using the best estimate of the undiscounted total eligible Project capital expenditure (CAPEX) and the Net Present Value (NPV) 1 of the eligible Project Revenues, Operational Benefits, Maintenance CAPEX, and Operational Costs (OPEX), arising over the first ten years of the Project’s operation. This is the default methodology for all Projects

There is also the fall-back option of ‘Reference Plant Methodology’.

 Link: relevant-cost-methodology_innovfund_en.pdf

Eligibility

In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:

• be legal entities (public or private bodies)
• be established in one of the eligible countries: any country in the world

Projects must be located in EU Member States or EEA countries (i.e. Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein).

Projects may also be located in Northern Ireland on the condition that they concern the generation, transmission, distribution or supply of electricity.

For maritime sector project, please refer to the call text.

Examples of Innovation Fund successful projects: Innovation Fund projects per country - European Commission

Funds and Programmes Division (FPD) as the National Contact Point urges interested applicants to thoroughly read the respective call text.

Recordings of information sessions can be found here: Innovation Fund 2024 Call and Battery Info Day - European Commission

Information source: FPD

Source of Funding: WASABI Project

With the aim of expanding the WASABI ecosystem, the project foresees two different Open Calls to finance 20 additional experiments.
This represents a huge opportunity for SMEs and Small Mid-caps to participate in the process of Digital Transformation of Industry 5.0, receiving complementary funding for the full implementation of their experiments.
The involvement of new experiments will undergo three stages:

1. Experiment design by the proposers
2. Submission of the experiment by the proposers
3. Selection of the experiments

Proposals will be funded through Lump Sum, with a total amount of €125.000,00 per proposal, and led by an SME.

The Open Call will provide an important opportunity to address advanced functionalities on the implementation of digital assistance solutions, such as:
• Human machine interface for complex processes;
• Agile onboarding of new employees in complex manufacturing systems;
• Conversation AI facilitating data access in different thematic areas;
• Conversation guided maintenance operations.

KEY INFORMATION:
OC Launch: July 12th, 2024
OC Deadline: Sept 20th, 2024 (17:00 CET)
OC Total Budget: €1.250.000,00
Experiment Duration: 12 Months
Consortium Composition: 1 SME
Number of experiments: 10
Financial support: €125.000,00 (per experiment)

MANDATORY TASKS:
1) Each experiment will develop their Wasabi solution (AI-based assistance for their processes or products)
2) Each experiment will participate in the Wasabi ecosystem
3) Each experiment will need to collaborate with a DIH included in the European DIH Map.

Read further on the below link.

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COROB aims to develop a flexible, cooperative and intelligent multi-robotic solution for arc welding-based manufacturing processes (joining and additive manufacturing), to offer new operational capabilities that allow to increase the efficiency and improve the flexibility of industrial processes.

The purpose of the Open Call is to integrate and test innovative solutions within the COROB project’s framework. This initiative aims to enhance the efficiency and flexibility of arc welding-based manufacturing processes by employing a cooperative multi-robot system powered by Inspection, Monitoring, Control, and AI techniques.

Visit the below website to read further on this opportunity. 

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Source of Funding: Malta Council for Science and Technology

The Clean Energy Transition Partnership (CETPartnership) is a multilateral and strategic Horizon Europe partnership with the aim of empowering the energy transition and contributing to the EU’s goal of becoming the first climate-neutral continent by 2050.

The 2023 CETPartnership Joint Call is a 2-stage call structured around 12 call modules. The call modules describe specific topics and/or challenges that applicants shall address in their project proposal. Applicants must choose and apply a specific call module when submitting their project proposal. Evaluation and ranking of the project proposals will be performed separately per call module.

Source of Funding: European Commission

Under the Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS), the European Commission funds research on:

• New, sustainable and low-carbon steelmaking and finishing processes
• Advanced steel grades and applications
• The conservation of resources, protection of the environment and circular economy
• The management of workforce and working conditions

Visit the below link to read further.

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Image source: pixabay.com

Source of Funding: Malta Council for Science and Technology

The Malta Council for Science and Technology (MCST) and the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) are relaunching the MCST-TÜBİTAK 2023 Joint Call for R&I Proposals to support cooperation in Science, Technology, and Innovation in the following thematic areas:

• PRIMA Programme Thematic fields (Water management, Sustainable Farming systems, Agro-food value chain)
• Digital Technologies
• Smart Manufacturing
• Health

Visit the below link for further information, to download the call application forms and guidelines.

ONLINE INFORMATION EVENT

An online information event is going to be jointly organised on the 17th of March 2023 at 10.00 (CET). Interested Malta-based and Turkey-based entities are encouraged to register for this event here to learn more about the Call and about partner searching. The agenda and Zoom link will be directly sent to registrants.

For more information on the Online Event and/or for assistance with the Call Documentation, please contact the Malta Council for Science and Technology (MCST) on prima.mcst@gov.mt / 0035623602152.

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