FORTIS Open Call #1: Boosting Development of the FORTIS Solution
SMEs, mid caps, universities and research institutions developing breakthrough solutions in collaborative robotics, AI-driven automation, or digital twin environments.
FORTIS Open Call 1 invites applications to accelerate the development, integration, and validation of human-robot interaction solutions. The call seeks to attract multidisciplinary consortia of innovators from academia and industry to contribute to the FORTIS project, which aims to enhance productivity, job quality, and public services through human-centric approaches.
Type of projects to be funded: The projects should focus on developing technology solutions that can be integrated into FORTIS toolkits. These solutions may include sensors, machine learning modules, simulators, robots, software, or hardware, with a TRL (Technology Readiness Level) up to 5-6.
Sectors / domain: The call targets sectors such as computational and artificial intelligence, autonomous robots, intelligent robots, robot learning, robotics and automation, human-robot interaction, Internet of Things (IoT), systems, human and cybernetics, activity recognition, human factors, behavioural systems, and biosignal processing.
Individual or consortium: Only consortia of 2-3 entities are eligible, with a requirement for multidisciplinary collaboration. Each consortium must include at least one SME, and non-industry partners cannot exceed 30% of the total project contribution.
Specific eligibility requirements:
- Eligible participants must be from EU Member States, H2020/HEU Associated Countries, or the Overseas Countries and Territories linked to the Member States.
- The consortia must be a multidisciplinary consortium of at least 2 entities. At least 1 SME per project. The non-industry partners involved cannot exceed 30% of total project budget.
- The entities of the consortia need to be multiple countries, i.e. the applicants must be from at least 2 countries.
- The OC will accept proposed solutions up to TRL 5-6.
- Applications will not be accepted from entities with conflicts of interest related to the FORTIS consortium members.
Specific topics or challenges: Applicants must submit their proposals to one of the FORTIS topics or subtopics:
Topic 1: Activity Recognition
- 1.1 Human Activity Recognition Using Non-wearable
- 1.2 Human Activity Recognition Using Wearable Sensors
Topic 2: Long-term memory
- 2.1 Memory Consolidation and Forgetting Mechanisms
- 2.2 Lifelong and Continual Learning for Personalized Adaptation
Topic 3: Enhancing Robotic Intelligibility Through Directional Audio and Visual Effects
- 3.1 Spatialized and Adaptive Audio for Robot Communication
- 3.2 Visual Cues for Enhanced Intelligibility
Topic 4: Multimodality semantic segmentation/perception
More detailed information about the topics’ technical specifications can be found in Annex 1 - FORTIS Technical specifications
Projects duration: The funded projects will last for 10 months, divided into three sprints of 3, 4, and 3 months.
Budget, funding rates and payment conditions:
- Funding rate: Up to 100% for non-profit organisations and 70% for SMEs and profit organisations.
- Budget conditions / limitations: Each project can receive up to €250,000.
- Payments: Payments are distributed at the end of each sprint, based on the achievement of agreed KPIs, in a 30%+40%+30% distribution.
Links
Closes
21/01/2026
Max funding per project
250.000€