OC1-T2 - Innovation Studies

This FFplus open call for the development of generative AI models addresses the needs of SMEs and Start-ups proficient in generative AI and HPC for large-to extreme-scale computing resources. The strategic objective is to facilitate and strengthen the technological development of European SMEs in the area of generative AI. The participating SMEs and Start-ups will be supported in enhancing their innovation potential by leveraging new generative AI models, such as Large Language Models (LLMs), building on their existing expertise, application domain, business model and potential for expansion.

This announcement is the first call for proposals for “innovation studies” driven by the business needs of SMEs and Start-ups highly competent in generative AI, professional software development, and data processing. The innovation studies must use large-scale European HPC resources (e.g., pre-exascale and exascale supercomputers) to develop and customise generative AI models such as foundation and large language models.

This FFplus call is complementary to the open call for proposals for business experiments addressing the uptake of HPC by SMEs (Identifier FFplus_Call-1-Type-1) that is executed in parallel. It should be noted that SMEs may only participate in one of the two types of sub-projects; i.e. participation is mutually exclusive.

 

Key Call Details

Submission Deadline: September 4th, 2024 at 17:00 Brussels local time

Expected duration of experiments: maximum 10 months with targeted commencement December 1st, 2024

The indicative total funding budget for all sub-projects funded under this call is € 4M.

A number of funding constraints and eligibility conditions apply, detailed in the full announcement text.  Proposals that do not adhere to these conditions will be rejected without further evaluation.

 

Expectations for the experiments and for proposals

The expectations for the proposed experiments are detailed in the full announcement text, a summary of which is as follows:

• Be fully aligned with the FFplus call objectives
• Motivate the decision to develop generative AI as a solution to business problems or prospects and the timeliness of that decision.
• Explain how using large-scale HPC will lead to positive business impact.
• Define specific objectives that must be achieved and the corresponding action plan.
• Provide details on: the models to be developed, the availability of necessary data, the performance metrics and reproducibility plan, potential riks relating to trustworthy AI.
• Explain how the allocated resources are commensurate with the proposed action & define in particular the HPC resources needed.
• Provide a comprehensive data management plan
• Support the FFplus project in the generation of success stories suitable for publicationdiscussing business benefits, technical and business challenges, and societal and environmental impact.
• Produce a pre-final results and potential impact report to be delivered by the end of the 7th month of the innovation study.

 

The complete announcement and proposer’s guide for the current open call can be downloaded as a PDF document.

 

Proposal Submission

Submission Deadline

All submissions must be made by 17:00 Brussels local time, September 4th, 2024.

 

Electronic Submission

Proposal submission is exclusively in electronic form using the proposal submission tool accessed via the link below. Proposers are encouraged to submit draft versions in advance of the deadline, which may be updated (replaced) up to the submission deadline.

Proposals must be submitted in English.

Each proposal must comprise 2 parts: Part A (containing administrative information), Part B (containing the body of the proposal, whose structure is explained below).

The central component of proposal submission is the uploading of two PDF-documents (whose individual size must not exceed 5.0 MB) compliant with the proposal content, structure and formatting instructions detailed in the call announcement and proposer’s guide, downloadable as a PDF document. That document also explains the evaluation criteria to be applied.

 

Please note that proposals that are not compliant with those instructions (for example, not adhering to page limits or including extraneous information such as letters of support) will be rejected without further evaluation.

It is a requirement that the downloadable proposal exemplars are used: Part A and Part B.

The proposal exemplar document includes, in particular, an embedded spread-sheet for budget data.

 

 

FAQ

 

When should I submit my proposal?

We strongly recommend against last minute submissions and recommend that proposers make use of the option to submit and update draft proposals throughout the period in which the call is open. Proposal submission after the deadline will not be possible.

 

Are there restrictions on the organisations that may participate?

Successful proposals will be included in the FFplus Project as clearly defined activities within the project and new participants will be included as Third Parties contracted by the FFplus Coordinator, the University of Stuttgart. All organisations that are eligible to participate within the Digital Europe framework programme[1] would be expected to be accepted for participation as Third Parties in FFplus.

The SME or start-up (main participant) should be highly competent in generative AI, professional software development, and data processing and should have an existing business model that would significantly benefit from the proposed new developments.

Please note, that all seven FFplus beneficiaries are ineligible to participate as either main or supporting participants. Please check the answer to the next question for a complete list of the seven excluded organisations.

 

Who is not allowed to participate?

All seven FFplus beneficiaries are not allowed to take part in the open call:

· Universität Stuttgart

· scapos AG

· Arctur

· CINECA

· CESGA

· Teratec

· Cyfronet

 

Which companies are SMEs and can participate as main participants?

The SME definition of the European Commission will be used: in particular, this means that an SME is an independent enterprise with less than 250 employees and € 50 M annual turnover.

Before conclusion of the funding agreements, the SME will be required to document their status as SME in line with European Commission definitions and their self-assessment of adherence to EU guidelines for trustworthy AI.

 

Can start-ups participate as main participant?

Yes, assuming that they also qualify as SME using the EC SME definition and are able to explain the expected business impact, whereby it is understood that they would not be in a position to report on an established history of business operation and an extensive customer base.

 

Are there any rules regarding the structure of the proposal Consortium?

The FFplus Type-2 open calls are open to proposals that address business challenges from European SMEs and start-ups highly competent in generative AI, professional software development, and data processing but lacking large-scale HPC resources.

A main participant is an SME or a Start-up and supporting participants are organisations assisting the main participant to complete activities foreseen for the innovation study.

The expectation is that the consortium for the new innovations study includes all necessary partners for the execution of the innovation study. The coordinator of the innovation study should be chosen to best meet the needs of the coordination of the activities to be performed within the innovation study.

While single-member consortia are eligible in principle, the proposal would need to clearly demonstrate that the sole partner SME or start-up has all necessary competences and skills to carry out the innovation study.

The total number of consortium partners (main participant and supporting participants) is limited to three (3).

Please note, that SME participation in the FFplus innovation studies and in the business experiments (addressed by the open call for proposals for business experiments addressing the uptake of HPC by SMEs) is mutually exclusive.

 

My company participated already in a prior FF experiment. Can we be a partner in an FFplus experiment?

For FFplus Type-2 open calls this is not a problem if the company has a clearly defined role in the consortium and the necessary skills and competences to carry out the proposed work.

 

What is the funding model and what financial restrictions apply?

The maximum EC funding expected to be allocated to an individual innovation study is € 300,000. However, that is a maximum figure and the proposal evaluators will be asked to pay attention to the planned resources (effort & budget) being commensurate with the stated objectives of the innovation study.

The FFplus project receives funding based on a Grant Agreement following the regulations of the Digital Europe Programme and the eligibility rules of that Grant Agreement will apply for the direct costs arising in the sub-projects.

In particular, Third Parties will receive 100% funding of incurred eligible direct costs necessary for the completion of innovation study activities; no indirect costs or overheads will be funded.

The details of funding rules that will be applied can be found in the annotated model grant agreement for the Digital Europe programme.

The maximum funding that can be allocated to the main participant (SME or start-up) is € 200,000.

Funding limits for organisations participating as supporting participant: a maximum of 150 K€ under this open call (i.e. under call identifier FFplus_Call-1-Type-2); a maximum of 300 K€ over all FFplus innovation studies.

In principle, the major part of the funding applied for should be allocated to the main participants. Any deviations from this principle must be duly justified.

For supporting participants, only engineering activities are eligible for funding. Activities such as business consultancy, marketing initiatives, administrative tasks, and other non-engineering activities are not eligible for funding.

More information about eligibility of costs for equipment, travel, HPC compute capacity and material are available in the call announcement.

 

Do the innovation studies have to target use of large-scale HPC systems?

Yes. The innovation studies must use large-scale European HPC resources (e.g., pre-exascale and exascale supercomputers) to develop and customise generative AI models such as foundation and large language models.

 

Can a single organisation submit several proposals?

The main participant is allowed to take part in only one innovation study per tranche. While an SME or start-up could be main participant of several proposals, we strongly recommend to concentrate on a single proposal. 

However, it is expressly foreseen that the SMEs/start-ups may participate in more than one tranche of innovation studies, that is, if developments and results of their initial innovation study are evaluated successfully, then they would be eligible to submit a proposal for an extension of the developments in a subsequent open call. More information about this is available in the call announcement.

There are no formal restrictions on the number of proposals in which a supporting participant participates. However, the funding restriction for supporting participants (a maximum aggregated funding of € 150,000 for all innovation studies in which they take part in) must of course be considered.

 

What is the requirement for attending meetings?

Meetings organized by FFplus which are mandatory for innovation study partners or coordinators will in general be held online. Each innovation study will hold a kick-off meeting which all participants are expected to attend. Further innovation study-internal meetings, whose attendance and frequency depend on the work plan, are anticipated. As a guide, two such innovation study-internal meetings are to be expected. If these meetings would lead to substantial travel costs, online meetings should be preferred

Furthermore, a representative of the innovation study is expected to attend one FFplus review meeting.

 

What are the time-scales for evaluation & commencement?

The target is for the new innovation studies to commence at the beginning of December 2024. We expect to be able to communicate the results of the evaluation of proposals by late October 2024. However, the exact dates will depend on the number of proposals received and the resulting workload of the evaluation.

 

How long should Part B of the proposal be?

Proposals submitted with a Part B whose length (excluding the cover page and excluding the provision of scientific literature references) exceeds the 12-page limit will be rejected without further evaluation.

Please note, that during past open calls, there have been some issues connected with the export of “google doc” documents to the final pdfs. This sometimes led to blank pages or page breaks being inserted which created a final pdf document with more than 12 pages. If you use an online tool for writing of the proposal, please be careful to check the page count before submitting.

 

Which activities for supporting participants are eligible for funding?

For supporting participants, only engineering activities are eligible for funding. Activities such as business consultancy, marketing initiatives, administrative tasks, and other non-engineering activities are not eligible for funding.

 

Which kind of support will the innovation studies receive from the FFplus project?

The innovation studies will receive support from the project with a range of actions relating to interactions with the project and also relating to potential collaborations with other sub-projects. Furthermore, direct support for each individual innovation study will be provided relating to gaining access to EuroHPC JU-provided computing resources and technical consultation relating to the effective execution of the innovation study work plan.

 

Are travel costs eligible? 

Travel must be well justified in terms of the necessity for performance of the proposed innovation study work plan.

 

When will the next tranche of Open Calls be published? 

According to our current planning, the deadline for the next tranche of Open Calls for business experiments and innovation studies will be (approximately) in August or September 2025. The calls will be published two months earlier.

 

Can supporting participants participate in Type-1 experiments and Type-2 innovation studies? Are there any restrictions for this situation? 

Supporting participants can participate in both Type-1 experiments and Type-2 innovation studies if their roles are well justified. Of course, they need to stick to the funding restrictions for both types: 150,000 € for Type-1 business experiments in this open call and 150,000 € for Type-2 innovation studies in this open call. In addition, it should be noted that for Type-2 innovation studies there is a global limit of 300,000 € for supporting participants over all Type-2 calls.

 

How can innovation studies access the EuroHPC JU compute resources - are they expected to use the usual access schemes? 

Yes, there are no special access rules for the FFplus innovation studies  and they are expected to use the access scheme for AI and data intensive applications (see for example the Question concerning the target to use large-scale HPC systems).

 

[3]https://eurohpc-ju.europa.eu/eurohpc-ju-access-call-ai-and-data-intensive-applications_en