The AIRISE Open Call for Pilot Applications supports European SMEs and mid-caps in scaling AI solutions in manufacturing to enhance sustainability, resilience, and efficiency. The program offers funding up to €60,000, mentorship, and advanced AI services, with applications due by March 31, 2025.
About the AIRISE Open Call
AIRISE promotes the increased use of Artificial Intelligence in manufacturing. Our primary focus is on empowering small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) on the adoption of AI, by enhancing their skills and capabilities.
The AIRISE ecosystem offers a comprehensive range of services, ranging from scientific support, across shop-floor deployment support, to skills and education on the use of AI in manufacturing. The key objective is a reduction of waste and carbon footprint while ensuring a resilient production.
To build a truly pan-European initiative, several renown research institutes and best-of-breed consulting companies are involved in the AIRISE project, from Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Greece, Poland, Bulgaria among other countries. These partners will provide the technological backbone for guidance and support in transferring ideas to applications in a profitable way.
Why Apply?
Through its open calls, AIRISE provides financial support, expert mentorship, and tailored services to help SMEs and mid-caps implement AI-driven solutions that enhance sustainability and business resilience.
This call presents an opportunity for accessing funding up to 60,000€ per applicant for European SMEs and midcaps to scale up AI applications in manufacturing to enhance sustainability and resilience.
In addition to financial support, AIRISE provides expert mentoring on key areas including Design and Engineering, Process Monitoring and Control, Manufacturing Operations, Supply Chain, Cybersecurity and Training; as well as access to advanced AI services to enable to scale-up an AI driven manufacturing solution.
Who can Apply?
The AIRISE call is open to individual SMEs and midcaps. Applicants must be legal entities, SMEs or Midcaps, with a PIC number, based in the EU or associated countries.
You can apply for this support if your challenge is on scaling-up AI in your manufacturing environment, which is at TRL5-6 at start and should have progressed one to two levels in the end. You need to have a solid starting point for scaling-up especially on IT infrastructure and data. You also need to have demonstrated that your approach is viable, describing your “AI in manufacturing application and your current knowledge in that field”, the challenge on scaling-up, your plan to implement the solution at high TRL, and how a successful implementation will help your business.
The AI solution must be implemented in a European manufacturing environment. AIRISE will fund industrial AI Pilot Applications aimed at scaling up AI solutions in manufacturing environments. The projects should contribute to sustainability, resilience, and efficiency while reducing waste and energy consumption. Applicants must demonstrate prior AI experience and propose a well-defined business case. The AI application must address at least one of the following:
- Sustainability: Reduce energy consumption, carbon footprint, and waste.
- Resilience: Improve agility and security of manufacturing processes.
- Workplace attractiveness: Enhance human-machine interaction for better working conditions.
How to Apply?
Submission of the applications is enabled through: https://airise.eu/calls/oc-experiment-submission. You can find the templates at the open call website:
Important Dates
- 1st cutoff: March 31st 2025, 1700 Brussels Time
- 2nd cutoff: June 30th 2025, 1700 Brussels Time
- Guidelines
Proposal Requirements for AIRISE
AIRISE aims to conduct so called “experiments” to support European SME’s and mid-caps to develop their idea of using artificial intelligence at their manufacturing shop floor, to support manufacturing SMEs with prior positive experience in AI to scale up use of AI solutions in their shopfloor towards improving sustainability and/or resilience of their businesses. Each proposal needs to describe the business case that drives the experiment.
AIRISE offers AI related services through its services area (more details in Annex 1 in the guidelines for applicants). Each applicant needs to describe its lack of knowledge, the selected services and how the selected services are expected to close these knowledge gaps. The proposal needs to define an “Experimentation Plan” for this.
Evaluation and Selection Process for AIRISE
Proposals will be evaluated based on their potential impact, the excellence and innovation of the idea, and the overall quality and feasibility of the proposed implementation, based on the following criteria:
- Excellence of the idea and approach: The objectives of the application experiment must be SMART (specific, measurable, assigned, realistic, time-bound) and must demonstrate a clear focus on the application area, relevant Industry4.0 and AI maturity and describe the need of support from the ARISE technology building blocks.
- Quality and efficiency of the implementation: The proposed work plan needs to contain all necessary actions that are needed to achieve the objective and to prevent risks to occur. Resources need to be realistic with respect to amount and timing.
- AI experience/maturity: Applicants should be able to demonstrate clear experience with AI and I4.0 and adequately argue how scaling up use of AI would support their business goals.
- Relevance to manufacturing in Europe: The application experiment needs to have a clear European dimension – either by carrying out cross border experimentation or in other ways expanding the impact of local experiments to European scale.
The evaluation process involves a thorough eligibility check, a detailed external assessment by independent experts, and a final consortium prioritisation to ensure alignment with project goals and strategic objectives.
Additional Support Beyond Funding
In addition to financial support, AIRISE provides access to advanced AI services, with expertise in the fields of:
- Design and Engineering
- Process Monitoring and Control
- Manufacturing Operations
- Supply Chain
- Cybersecurity
- Training
AIRISE services will enable to scale-up an AI driven manufacturing solution. For more detail about the services, visit AIRISE services pages.
Final Thoughts on AIRISE
The AIRISE Open Call represents a significant opportunity for SMEs and mid-caps to leverage AI technologies to enhance their manufacturing processes, specifically focusing on sustainability, resilience and workplace attractiveness. You can apply for this support if your company is a SME or mid-cap and if your challenge is on scaling-up AI in your manufacturing environment. An important consideration is to have a solid starting point for scaling-up in terms of TRL (at least TRL5-6 at start), IT infrastructure and data, and a clear business plan detailing how a successful implementation will help your business.
More Information
For further details on AIRISE and the Open Call, visit:
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