Fostering co-innovation for future detection and imaging technologies

The aim is the establishment of an open initiative oriented towards a novel research and innovation collaborative framework engaging both the research communities in Europe using Research Infrastructures and the industry (including SMEs), for the mutual benefit of these stakeholders and the European society at large.

This initiative should address:

• The identification of a wide spectrum of technology opportunities with breakthrough potential across Europe; the assessment of the feasibility and scalability of the identified opportunities; the selection and clustering of those opportunities with a clear potential for industrial implementation; and the support of those opportunities towards industrial applications having societal value;
• The support of technology and innovation transfer and joint development measures of high-tech components;
• The enabling of the best conditions for full exploitation by industrial partners of the innovation potential of Research Infrastructures (e.g. in the field of instrumentation and detectors);

As a pilot initiative, the proposals should mainly address the development of future detection and imaging technologies, which have applications in the fields of medicine, manufacturing industry, aerospace, ICT, engineering, environmental sciences and beyond, and should constitute a driver enabling the transfer of fundamental research towards industrial application.

This action allows for the provision of financial support to third parties in line with the conditions set out in Part K of the General Annexes. The financial support to third parties is the primary aim of the action.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of up to EUR 20 million would allow this topic to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Research infrastructures, as providers of advanced services and as procurers of leading-edge technologies, have an innovation potential that has not always been sufficiently exploited. Opportunities provided by the development of components, instruments, services and knowledge for the implementation and upgrade of research infrastructures, could be better exploited to push the limits of existing technologies. There is a clear innovation potential associated with procurement from industry during the construction and upgrade of research infrastructures.

A co-innovation approach to continuously generate, scale and deploy breakthrough technologies with market and social value needs to be adopted by research infrastructures.

This activity will:

• establish a co-innovation platform in the field of detection and imaging technologies
• provide financial support and guidance towards industrial applicability to the identified co-innovation opportunities
• increase the capacity to generate, absorb and use new technologies in Europe;
• enhance the innovation capability of European Research Infrastructures;
• increase the involvement of industry (including SMEs) in the development of research infrastructures, raising the technological level and competitiveness of European companies and generating market opportunities for them;
• raise the awareness of industry (including SMEs) regarding opportunities offered by research infrastructure to improve their products, e.g. as experimental test facilities, innovation hubs, knowledge-based centres;
• support the integration of research infrastructures into local, regional and global innovation systems;
• when applicable, the socio-economic impact of past investments in research infrastructures from the European Structural and Investment Funds is enhanced.