The evaluation process will start soon. 

The second SPIRIT Open Call (OC2) was open to a wide range of third-party contributors to validate and test their applications on the SPIRIT platform, Europe’s first multi-site and interconnected platform for real-time immersive telepresence applications.

Project Full Name: Scalable Platform for Innovations on Real-time Immersive Telepresence
Project Grant Agreement number: 101070672
Call Identifier: SPIRIT-OC2
Call Title: SPIRIT Open Call 2

Final Submission Deadline: 19 December 2024,17:00 CET
Notification of the Result: February 2025
Start of the Third-Party Project: March 2025
End of the Third-Party Project: October 2025

Information Workshop: 04 November 2024 – 13:00 – 15:00 CET

Watch the workshop

OPEN CALL DOCUMENTS

SPIRIT Open Call 2 Toolkit

The SPIRIT Open Call Toolkit provides essential information for both Open Call 1 and 2. For the latest updates, including timeline changes or template revisions, please refer to this webpage. 

Be sure to use the documents linked below when preparing and submitting your proposal.

Proposal Template (.docx) Declaration of Honour SME Self-Declaration Agreement for the Use of the SPIRIT Platform for Experimentation

IMPORTANT NOTE on MANDATORY DOCUMENTS for submission: Proposal template, Declaration of honour, SME Self-Declaration (in case the applicant is an SME) are mandatory documents for submission.

OVERVIEW

SPIRIT’s 2nd wave of Open Call (SPIRIT-OC2) is now open and provides up to 100K € to financially support the involvement of third parties to develop and test a wide variety of collaborative telepresence applications on the SPIRIT platform. OC2 aims to engage different organisations to test and validate their specific use cases (applications), or to contribute components that enhance/extend the SPIRIT platform.
The material available on the deliverables page provides an in-depth description of the technical results of the project. 

The SPIRIT project has recently released three significant deliverables, each providing updates and advancements on different aspects of the telepresence platform. Deliverable D2.2 outlines the updated use case requirements, system architecture, and interface definitions, focusing on four key telepresence scenarios. It refines system and application requirements and presents an evolved architecture with interface specifications. Deliverable D3.2 discusses the innovation platform enablers, highlighting improvements in areas such as scalability, split rendering, and security, as well as new innovations integrated into 5G testbeds. These innovations are now available to Open Call partners. Lastly, Deliverable D4.2 presents the second version of the SPIRIT platform, detailing the expanded testbed infrastructure, including the addition of imec’s Virtual Wall, and successful interconnections between Berlin and Surrey testbeds. This deliverable also covers the integration of partner components, implementation of use cases, and quality assessments, with a focus on future scalability and third-party application possibilities.

D2.2 Use Case Requirements, System Architecture
and Interface Definition D3.2 Innovation Platform Enablers D4.2 Spirit Platform

OC2 aims to engage different organisations to validate and test their individual applications between remote sites over the public Internet. The targeted organisations in this Call are (i) SMEs; (ii) Industry; (iii) Research/scientific organisation; (iv) Academia. Both individual organisations and consortia may participate. Consortia must consist of a maximum of three organisations.
The selected projects will indicatively start in March 2025 and are supposed to run for 8 months maximum until the end of October 2025.

Financial support will be provided to develop applications in various vertical sectors, including:

  • Healthcare
  • Retail
  • Education
  • Training
  • Entertainment
  • Manufacturing
  • Tourism

Following the review process, the consortium reserves the right to consider additional factors, such as sectoral diversity, in the final selection of proposals to ensure balanced representation across different vertical sectors.

OC2 OBJECTIVES

The OC2 of the SPIRIT project invites proposals that concentrate on one or more of the subsequent activities, each contributing to the growing impact on SPIRIT:

  • Validating and testing third-party applications on the SPIRIT platform: Conducting experiments with external applications to validate and test their performance on the SPIRIT platform. These experiments focus on integrating third-party solutions into real-world use cases, evaluating their scalability, reliability, and overall contribution to enhancing SPIRIT platform capabilities. The process aims to uncover insights about the platform’s limitations and identify opportunities for improvement.
  • Complementing and enhancing the SPIRIT platform with additional functionalities: Building on the current SPIRIT platform by integrating and testing new features, services, or components that complement its existing infrastructure. This objective is geared toward enriching the platform, making it more versatile and adaptable to various vertical sectors and use cases.
  • Defining requirements and strategic goals for future developments: Identifying new requirements, goals, and visions for the future development of the SPIRIT platform and related projects. By leveraging results from experiments and validations, this objective aims to establish a roadmap for enhancing platform functionalities and ensuring that future iterations align with the broader technological landscape and EU strategic objectives.

EXPECTED OUTCOMES

The OC2 of the SPIRIT project invites proposals that concentrate on one or more of the subsequent activities, each contributing to the growing impact on SPIRIT:

  • Practical demos in one of the testbeds, validation and test procedures, and actual validations: The expected outcome is tangible demonstrations of how third-party applications work within a test environment on the SPIRIT platform. This involves validation through structured testing procedures, ensuring that the applications are functioning correctly and in line with the platform’s standards.
  • Contributions to the platform: Participants or third-party developers are expected to contribute enhancements, improvements, or new functionalities to the SPIRIT platform as part of the validation and testing process.
  • Reporting of findings, e.g., additional requirements: After completing the testing and validation, the outcomes will include detailed reports. These will highlight new requirements, improvements, or issues identified during the testing process, which will guide future development efforts.

PATRON ROLE

Each selected project will be supervised by a PATRON, a project partner  who is responsible for supporting the experimenters during execution and following up on the experiment results.

Testbeds
Platform ComponentDescriptionPatron
5G Testbed,
Berlin		The Deutsche Telekom testbed offers an area of around 500 m² outdoor space and 1000 m² indoor space. The indoor area as well as the outdoor area is covered by a private 5G Standalone Network. Computing power is provided by an edge server that is located on premise and is connected via fibre to the 5G Network.Deutsche Telekom
T-Systems
5G Testbed, SurreyThe 5G Innovation Centre (5GIC) at University of Surrey, UK, is a fully operational network consisting of both self-contained 4G and 5G radio access network (RAN) and the core network components following 3GPP standards (up to R16). Furthermore, the testbed hosts a 3GPP compliant network operations centre (NoC) to orchestrate communication services over end-to-end 5G network slices. A containerised virtual machine (VM) based computing environment is provisioned for hosting different telepresence applications.University of Surrey
Application Platforms
Platform ComponentDescriptionPatron
Holographic CommunicationThe application supports use cases of digital human-to-human interaction with a particular focus on one-to-one collaboration in real time using holographic communication technology with end devices such as mobile phones and AR glasses.Ericsson
Real-time Animation & Streaming of Realistic AvatarsThe application platform provides real-time animation and streaming of realistic avatars. This includes a variety of tools to capture media on a producer device, to animate the representation of a human as a volumetric object and to send both video and audio to a consumer user by making use of low latency mechanisms such as WebRTC.Fraunhofer HHI
Multi-source Live TeleportationThe application platform supports applications using live teleporting people from multiple remote internet locations to a common virtual space of the audience such that the audience can have the immersive and multisensory perception that.University of Surrey
Tools
Platform ComponentDescriptionPatron
Holographic CommAutonomous Mobile Robot (AMR)In the Berlin testbed an Autonomous Mobile Robot (AMR) is available to be integrated in third party use cases. The AMR available for the project is the “Husky” Robot from ClearPath RoboticsDeutsche Telekom
T-Systems
Network-aware Resource SchedulingIn SPIRIT, a network-aware scheduling component for Kubernetes that supports both computational and network resource efficiency, called Diktyo, can be used as an alternative for the default K8s scheduler.IMEC
Quality of Experience (QoE) Study and ResourcesSPIRIT performed a subjective QoE study on point cloud videos and provides results, a dataset, and a subjective test/presentation tool. The software, dataset, results (findings) from the subjective test, and the QoE models can be used by Open Call participants in use cases (applications) involving point cloud content in AR environments.University of Klagenfurt
Security – Trusted Execution EnvironmentIn the project we provide tools to create confidential virtual machine images and to deploy and manage their operation in our test lab in Berlin, consisting of two AMD servers, one of them with NVIDIA GPU resources. These secure hosting services are available to all SPIRIT and open call partners to deploy cloud-enabled SPIRIT and third party components for demos and trials.Deutsche Telekom Security

FUNDING AND DURATION

OC2 has a total budget of 1,500,000€. The targeted number of Third-Party Projects (TPP) to be selected via this Open Call will be 15. The number of TPP funded will vary depending on the funding requested as well as the outcome of the evaluation by external reviewers. The requested funding cannot exceed 100,000€ per project. Each TPP funded within OC2 is expected to have a total maximum duration of 8 months.

Opens Call numberMax funding per project [€]Projects Duration [months]Number of projects fundedTotal funding [€]
SPIRIT-OC2100,000815 (at least)  1,500,000

Eligible costs:

Financial support will be allocated based on the following eligible expenditures:

  • Personnel expenses
  • Travel expenses
  • Overhead (equivalent to 25% of direct costs)

Payment Procedures:

The payment structure for TPP comprises two instalments. The initial instalment, equivalent to 75% of the Maximum Grant Amount, is scheduled for disbursement in Month 5 of the TPP, following the submission of the mid-term report (1st report). The second instalment will be processed subsequent to the final review. Further details on reporting requirements are provided in the Report Template.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

A proposal will be considered eligible for the SPIRIT Open Call 2 if: 

  • The applicant (single organisation or consortium) is eligible for participation in the Horizon Europe programme. As the SPIRIT project was funded within the HORIZON-CL4-2021-HUMAN-01 call, the list of eligible countries is the one applied to this call.
  • In the case of a Consortium, it is composed of a maximum of three organisations.
  • Targeted organisations in this Call are: 
    • SMEs;
    • Industry;
    • Research/scientific organisation;
    • Academia.
  • The applicant is not affiliated to any of the consortium partners of the SPIRIT project.
  • The proposal complies with the type of activity qualified for financial support as indicated in section 1.4.
  • For implementation reasons, only proposals that are deemed to be executable with the current state of the SPIRIT platform and tools will be accepted. 
  • The proposal is submitted in English.
  • The proposal is submitted through the official Open Call Submission Tool on the SPIRIT website providing all the required documents.
  • The proposal follows all the required steps as specified in Section 4 of SPIRIT Open Call 2 TOOLkit.
  • The proposal has been submitted within the deadline set in this web page (Opening dates + at least 2 months). Late proposals will not be admitted.
  • The proposal complies with the Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (General Data Protection Regulation) regarding all personal data that might be included in the proposal.

SUBMISSION PROCESS

The entire proposal submission process is managed through the online platform. By the specified deadline, the following steps are required:

Note: To make a final submission, select ‘Final Submission’ under the ‘Stage’ tab. Proposals submitted under the ‘Feasibility Advisory’ option will not be considered final and will not undergo evaluation.

Multiple submissions of the same proposal are allowed, but only the latest submission will be considered during the evaluation phase.

Feasibility advisory

SPIRIT consortium offers an optional advisory service to evaluate project feasibility. This step is not mandatory but highly recommended and involves submitting a condensed version of the proposal template for feasibility verification.

To receive feedback on feasibility, applicants must select the ‘Feasibility Advisory’ option under the ‘Stage’ tab and submit a description of the planned experiment, covering sections A, B, C, and H of the proposal template. The feasibility advisory service will be active up to three weeks before the OPEN CALL closes.

The deadline to receive feedback on the non-mandatory Feasibility Advisory is 29 November 2024, 17:00 CET. We recommend that you do not wait until the last minute to send in your feasibility application. Feasibility requests will be processed as soon as they are received, so the sooner you send them in, the sooner you will get feedback and have more time to redefine the final proposal

Note: Applicants should be aware that undergoing a feasibility advisory does not guarantee the selection of the proposal and does not imply any commitment to move forward with the proposal. It is also important to note that submitting a partial proposal for the ‘Feasibility Advisory’ is an optional preliminary step which is not considered as a final submission.

WORSKSHOP

A dedicated workshop for potential applicants, providing technical and administrative information on OC2 application process and requirements, was organised on November 4th, 2024.

Watch the workshop Download the slides

F.A.Q. – Frequently Asked Questions

Important information is already included in the available Call documents (see above). Please review thoroughly these documents and the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) below.  Should you have any question not addressed in the provided documentation or FAQ, you can reach out to us at [email protected]. Please ensure to submit your questions no later than 7 calendar days before the submission deadline.

Eligible entities for application encompass both individual entities based in one of the EU Member States or a Horizon Europe Associated country, as well as consortia consisting of no more than 3 entities. 

As the SPIRIT project was funded within the HORIZON-CL4-2021-HUMAN-01 call, the list of eligible countries is the one applied to the above-mentioned call.[1]. 

https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/common/guidance/list-3rd-country-participation_horizon-euratom_v1.2_en.pdf

In the case of a consortium application, a designated coordinator will be appointed. The coordinator assumes the responsibility for signing the agreement and is the designated recipient of the grant, responsible for its subsequent distribution among the consortium members.

The targeted organisations in this Call are (i) SMEs; (ii) Industry; (iii) Research/scientific organisation; (iv) Academia.

Applicants based in the UK can participate in the Open Call, but are not eligible to receive funding from Horizon Europe. This approach follows the same rules in force for the financing of the SPIRIT project. As the SPIRIT project was funded within the HORIZON-CL4-2021-HUMAN-01 call, the list of eligible countries is the one applied to the above-mentioned call.[1].

It should be noted that the SPIRIT consortium includes partners from the UK whose funding does not come from EC funds but from UK government funds.

Applicants based in Switzerland can participate in the Open Call, but are not eligible to receive funding from Horizon Europe.

As the SPIRIT project was funded within the HORIZON-CL4-2021-HUMAN-01 call, the list of eligible countries is the one applied to the above-mentioned call.[1].

It should be noted that the SPIRIT consortium includes partners from the Switzerland whose funding does not come from EC funds but from Swiss government funds.

The maximum amount that can be requested per project is 100,000€. A breakdown of costs is required in the proposal template, outlining the budget allocation across the following budget categories: 

  • personnel costs, 
  • travel costs, 
  • overhead costs (25% of direct costs)

A proposer or consortium can only be selected for funding for one proposal, even if the proposer submitted several different proposals that are ranked high enough to be selected for funding. In the latter case, the proposer may be given the opportunity to choose the one to be retained for funding.

The proposer should apply through the online submission portal available on the Open Call webpage by filling in the online form and uploading: 

1) the completed Proposal Template

2) the signed Declaration of Honour

3) the signed SMEs Self-Declaration

Please follow the guidelines provided in the proposal template on how to fill in each section.

Please note that in the draft proposal to be submitted for the Feasibility Advisory, at least sections A, B, C and H of the Proposal Template should be fully completed.

Yes, a consortium consisting of no more than 3 entities based in one of the EU Member States or a Horizon Europe Associated country is eligible to participate. In the case of a consortium application, a designated coordinator will be appointed. The coordinator assumes the responsibility for signing the agreement and is the designated recipient of the grant, responsible for its subsequent distribution among the consortium members.

According to the definition outlined in the Horizon Europe program, an affiliated entity is characterized by having a legal or capital connection with one of the project partners. Specifically, an affiliated entity encompasses any legal entity that is under direct or indirect control of a project partner, shares the same direct or indirect control as the project partners, or directly or indirectly controls the project partners.

At least 15 Third-Party Projects (TPP) will be selected for funding.

All submitted applications will be reviewed for admissibility and eligibility. Project proposals that fail to meet the admissibility and eligibility criteria will be directly discarded and the applicants will be notified via email.

Following this initial screening, eligible proposals will be evaluated by an external jury of experts. Evaluation will be carried out by appointed External Experts who are not part of the consortium and who don’t have any conflict of interest. Each proposal will be reviewed by at least two assigned experts who will evaluate it independently of each other.

The evaluation criteria are the following:

  1. Clarity and methodology: Soundness of the approach and credibility of the proposed methodology. 
  2. Ambition: Advancement regarding the state-of-the-art and expected output. 
  3. Impact: Technology and domain fit to SPIRIT scope and objectives. 
  4. Replicability of the proposed solution.
  5. Contribution to standardisation of the proposed solution. 
  6. Team capacity to perform: knowledge, technological and business expertise, research domain & track-record of the team. 
  7. Value for money: justification and effectiveness of the requested resources.
  8. SME participation: is encouraged. 
  9. Gender dimension awareness requested to the proposers. 
  10. Maturity of the proposing organisation and trajectory of the proposed development

For more information, please refer to the Open Call 1 Toolkit.

You can start their Third-Party Project (TPP) as soon as the Sub-Grant Agreement signature procedure is completed (tentative: June/July 2024). The project is expected to have a total duration of 9 months.

Each accepted TPP will be supported by a Patron, a member of the Consortium that acts as a mentor who will provide basic and advanced support as required. The Patron will be assigned to the various funded Third-Party Projects (TPP) according to the use case developed and the specific needs. While at least one Patron is necessary per experiment, multiple Patrons are possible based on the TPP’s complexity and requirements.

Payment for each Third-Party Project (TPP) will be made in two instalments. The first instalment, equivalent to 75% of the Maximum Grant Amount, is scheduled for disbursement at Month 5 of the TPP following the submission of the Mid-Term Report (1st report). The second instalment will be processed after the final review. 

Yes, personnel expenses are covered 100%

In order to support open and repeatable scientific experiments, the EC is advocating that experimenters publish their experiment data. This is not mandatory: the EC recognises that there are legitimate reasons why experimenters may want to keep their data confidential. The EC’s guiding principle regarding open research data is “AS OPEN AS POSSIBLE, AS CLOSED AS NECESSARY”.

The Results achieved by the Experimenter using the Platform will be owned by the Experimenter.

The Experimenter will deliver a final report describing the Results of the Experiment and the experience gained in using the Platform. This final report can be made public to the European Commission and all Beneficiaries including their Affiliated Entities.

Publications and demonstrations made based on the Results of the Experiment should clearly mention the usage of the Platform and the provider and refer to the Project even if the publication or demonstration takes place after the end of the Experiment.

The Experimenter agrees that the Coordinator and the other relevant SPIRIT Partner(s) may monitor the Platform and traffic for vulnerabilities and conformance to authorised use and may collect and use data and information, including but not limited to the information about Experimenter’s use of the Platform. This information, provided it is anonymised, can be used by the SPIRIT consortium to improve the Platform.

SMEs must be incorporated before the final submission deadline

There is no preference in consortium composition. However, SME participation is encouraged and participation of SMEs receive 5 points in their final score. Moreover, the Team’s capacity to perform is one of the evaluation criteria. To summarize there is no preference in Consortium composition but team composition will be evaluated and SMEs’ participation is of relevance in the final score.

The consortium expects to provide feedback on feasibility within 5 working days from the date of submission of the feasibility advisory proposal. The earlier you submit your feasibility advisory proposal, the earlier you will receive feedback and have more time to work on the final version of the project proposal

For this purpose, a Linked-in group was set up to connect potential applicants with like-minded organisations to work together on the funding proposal. SPIRIT OPEN CALL matching group

Of course, the webinar was recorded. You can find the video and the slides here.

Should you have any question not addressed in the Open Call documentation, feel free to reach out to us at [email protected]. Please ensure to submit your questions no later than 7 calendar days before the submission deadline.

Information clause for personal data processing in the Open Call organised under SPIRIT Project Grant Agreement No.101070672

The data controller is Digital for Planet; you can contact us using the following email address: [email protected].

  1. To run an Open Call and collect data necessary to evaluate applications submitted in the Open Call.
  2. To realise the Project goals described in the Grant Agreement (e.g. communication, reporting, collaborating with other project partners). 
  3. To consider potential complaints and defend against them.
  4. To evaluate proposal eligibility (based on eligibility rules) and identify potential conflict of interest. 
  5. To gather feedback from applicants when the Open Call is over to improve processes. 
  6. To send a newsletter about other Digital for Planet activity (e.g. information about other funding opportunities).
    When a proposal is selected for funding: 
  7. To collect the applicant’s details and documentation necessary to verify its legal status and prepare Third Party Agreement.

Legitimate interest of Digital for Planet (based on Art. 6.1.f of GDPR) which is fulfilling the obligations and our other interests related to implementation of the Project, and implementation of Third Party Agreement (based on Art. 6.1.b of GDPR).

The  data collected through our Open Call submission platform will be retained for 6 years from the end of the Project.

In principle, we do not share your personal data with anyone other than the persons who work for us, as well as with the SPIRIT project partners and with the suppliers who help us process your personal data. Anyone who has access to your personal data will always be bound by strict legal or contractual obligations to keep your personal data safe and confidential. This means that only the following categories of recipients will receive your personal data:

  • You;
  • Your employer or business partners, but only when this is necessary for the purposes mentioned above (e.g. when your employer is our supplier or customer);
  • Our employees and suppliers; and
  • Government or judicial authorities to the extent that we are obliged to share your personal data with them (e.g. tax authorities, police or judicial authorities).

We do not transfer your personal data outside the European Economic Area (EEA) (the European Economic Area consists of the EU, Liechtenstein, Norway and Iceland). We will only transfer your personal data outside the EEA if you or your employer, as a customer or supplier, have offices outside the EEA with which we need to communicate. If a transfer were to take place, we will take sufficient safeguards to protect your personal data during the transfer (e.g. by entering into an agreement based on standard data protection clauses approved by the European Commission).

SPIRIT is a project funded by the European Commission, meaning that it is possible that another (consortium of) partner(s) will take over it in the future as a result of a new funding round. In that case, your personal data may be transferred to the new (consortium of) partner(s) in order to ensure the continuity of the SPIRIT project and after you have been informed thereof.

Due to the fact that we process your personal data, you have the right to: 

  1. request access to your personal data, 
  2. demand the rectification of your personal data, 
  3. Request to remove or limit the processing of your personal data. Important: Data collected for the purpose of investigating a potential conflict of interest will be stored for the indicated retention period and will not be deleted even at the request of the applicant before the end of the retention period. 
  4. Complain with the supervisory authority (https://edpb.europa.eu/about-edpb/about-edpb/members_en). 
  5. You also have a right to object to processing of your personal data for all purposes indicated above (according to the Article 21 of GDPR).