Call for expression of interest to participate in EIT Food RIS PSRAL – testing service

Through this call, we are looking for companies that will deliver testing of R&D services successfully developed by scientific organisations within the InfraBooster programme.

InfraBooster is a part of the EIT Food RIS Public Sector Representatives Activity Line project, that delivers capacity building and professional education to representatives of public sector in countries of EIT Regional Innovation Scheme in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe (“RIS”). InfraBooster training programme promotes effective use of publicly funded research infrastructures owned by universities or research institutes and relevant for R&D efforts of private sector agri-food companies and startups.

More information about the InfraBooster programme: https://www.eitfood.eu/project...

The present call is launched to select companies that will deliver in 2024 testing of R&D services that were successfully developed within the second stage of InfraBooster training programme - InfraBooster Practitioner, to ensure the highest quality and effectiveness of developed services. Each subcontractor will benefit from net funding of 9,500€ to carry out the tasks and implement the contractual obligations.

Eligible companies need to meet the following criteria:

1. A legal person (informal organisations/unregistered startup teams are not eligible);
2. Operate within sectors or industries that can benefit from advanced if testing R&D service;
3. Willing to carry out tests of a selected R&D services that was successfully developed within the InfraBooster Practitioner training programme;
4. Able to sign a subcontracting agreement with the EIT Food Co-Location Centre and act as a subcontractor in a project funded based on Horizon Europe/EIT modalities;
5. Possessing knowledge, skills, and resources needed to carry out the subcontracted tasks.

While evaluating applications, EIT Food will also consider the following criteria:

6. Clear and compelling justification of motives for the applicant company to select a specific R&D service, including its alignment with the business needs, goals, and operational challenges;

7. Proposed plan of service testing, incl. timeline.

Tasks of selected organisations:

• Participation in meetings with the service provider unit to plan and implemented the testing;

• Implement and integrate the selected R&D service into the Subcontractor’s operational environment;
• Conduct comprehensive testing to assess the service's functionality, performance, and compatibility with existing Subcontractor’s company systems and processes;
• Provide regular updates and feedback to the service provider team regarding the testing progress, challenges encountered, and initial observations;
• Submitting “Report on the new R&D service testing”confirmed by an invoice issued by the service provider to the subcontractor, amounting to at least 10,000€ net;
• Participation in the debriefing session with the team from University of Warsaw to discuss the Project experiences and lessons learned, following the submission of the report.

Selection process

Interested and eligible organisations are invited to submit their applications by 26 July 2024, 3 pm CEST, using the attached “EIT Food PSRAL Application Form”. Please send the electronic version of application, based on the attached template, to: infrabooster@wz.uw.edu.pl. Incomplete applications or applications submitted by ineligible organisations will be rejected. Complete applications will be evaluated by an expert committee using standardised selection criteria.

Benefits for selected organisations:

Organisation selected as subcontractor will be offered the following benefits in 2024:

• Ability to benefit from the association with EIT Food and the EIT community (as subcontractor in EIT Food activities), and the brands of EIT Food and the EIT;

• Rights to participate in thematic project meetings, organized by EIT Food and its partners;

• Rights to promote the association with EIT Food project, commercialise the product(s) developed as outcomes of the testing of R&D services process and introduce them to the market;

• Opportunities for networking with EIT Food partners, including opportunities for joint project ideation and involvement in other EIT Food projects;

• Subcontracting agreement with EIT Food Co-Location Centre with net funding of 9,500€, contingent upon the delivery of contractual tasks;

• Opportunity to leverage R&D services providers’ and their researchers teams’ insights for new product design and commercialisation using services functionality;

• Knowledge and organisational support of EIT Food, its CLCs and partners in implementation of the activities planned for each subcontractor of the Project.

Deadline for applications: 26.07.2024, 3 pm CEST.

Below you can download the Call for EIT Food RIS PSRAL document and Application Form.

EMAIL

infrabooster@wz.uw.edu.pl