Open calls are how Europe’s Large-Scale Pilots bring in technology they did not build themselves. Over the past year, O-CEI and COP-PILOT have each run a first call, selected their winners, and started working with them inside the pilots. This webinar looks at what that has produced so far, and at what the two projects are looking for next.
Organised within the CEI-Sphere framework, the session is a chance to understand both programmes properly: the kinds of technology they fund, the challenges they ask applicants to solve, how the selected projects are being integrated into real pilot environments, and what the first round revealed about where the strongest proposals came from.
The response to round one was substantial. O-CEI received 249 proposals from 37 countries and selected 24 companies from 13 countries, each receiving 100,000 euros in equity-free funding alongside a seven-month technical and business mentoring programme. COP-PILOT selected eight projects for up to 200,000 euros each, covering 100 percent of eligible costs, with eight months of mentoring and platform training. Both projects will share what they learned from running those processes.
With a second round on the horizon for both pilots, the session will close with a first look at what is coming, so that anyone considering an application has time to prepare rather than reacting to a deadline.
Why attend this webinar
This session is particularly relevant for:
- SMEs, start-ups and research organisations planning to apply to either call,
- technology providers looking to validate their solutions in real deployment environments,
- organisations that considered the first round but did not apply, and want a clearer picture this time,
- and anyone wanting to understand how O-CEI and COP-PILOT complement each other before choosing where to submit.
No prior involvement with either project is needed. The calls are open to newcomers, and the webinar assumes no background knowledge. More information will follow.