Fund collaborative research

Copernicus, the Union's Earth observation and monitoring programme entered into force in 2014 and produces a wealth of data and information regarding the Earth sub-systems (land, atmosphere, oceans and inland waters) and cross-cutting processes (climate change, disaster management and security). Copernicus data and information are mainly made available on a free, open and full basis. This is expected to unleash unique market opportunities.

The EU depends strongly on external sources for the supply of key fertilisers used in agriculture. Resource depletion and an increasing global demand for mineral fertilisers may, in the long term, lead to price tensions with an impact on food security. Mineral-based fertilisation also poses significant environmental problems, linked e.g. to the amounts of fossil energy needed to produce and transport these fertilisers.

In the past years several open service platforms for Active and Healthy Ageing domains have been developed, originating from the medical, independent living, and IoT domain. These platforms aim at building a common basis for application development, assuring interoperability at the application and service level, and reducing development cost by re-use of components. As these platforms mature more insight is needed in the way they contribute to the development of a scalable and open market for digital solutions for health and ageing, and which value is actually achieved through them.

Senior people are statistically at greater risk of cognitive impairment, frailty and multiple chronic health conditions with consequences for their independence, their quality of life (and the one of their families) but also for the sustainability of health and social care systems. There is also increasing evidence that interactions with the environment play an important role in the evolution of the patient's health status and condition. The challenge is now to foster secure, scalable and robust digital solutions for integrated care which will:

An ageing population is increasing demand-side pressures on public health and social care providers across Europe. These pressures undermine the long-term sustainability of existing models for delivering care services to the ageing population.

Currently available methods and strategies for diagnosis and treatment of cancer help clinicians continuously improve quality of care and prevent cancer deaths in the population. Accurate risk assessment, availability of genetic tests, timely diagnosis and effective treatment has created the impression of cancer being a chronic disease that can be cured.

Combining several activities such as renewable energy, aquaculture, marine bio-resources and biotechnologies, maritime transport and related services, in the same marine space, including in multi-use platforms, can serve to divide and reduce the costs of offshore operations and the demand on the space needed for different activities. Research on multi-use platforms funded under the FP7 call ‘The Oceans of Tomorrow’ has provided promising designs, technological proposals and models for combining activities in terms of economic potential and environmental impact.

Agricultural productivity that does not keep up with the current population increase, the growing demand for biomass production (as feedstock for biofuels) and the nonstop rise of global CO2 emissions with its consequences for climate change, are all circumstances that make it urgent to increase the yield of biomass. Indeed, increased agricultural yield efficiency can have huge impacts in a society driven by the bio-economy.

The transfer to industrial companies of the Do It Yourself (DIY), fablabs, micro-factories and makers approaches can pioneer ways towards engineering solutions throughout the whole value chain. These innovative methods can lead to new processes, machines and products with new functionalities and shorter time to market.

While robots originated in large-scale mass manufacturing, they are now spreading to more and more application areas. In these new settings, robots are often faced with new technical and non-technical challenges. The purpose of this topic is to address such issues in a modular and open way, and reduce the barriers that prevent a more widespread adoption of robots. Four Priority Areas (PAs) are targeted: healthcare, inspection and maintenance of infrastructure, agri-food, and agile production.