Are you a student or researcher eager to test your knowledge and solve real-world challenges from European companies?
Gain invaluable experience and win up to 1,000 EUR gross per student (300 prizes of 3,000 EUR gross per team available).
The Horizon Europe project INDUSAC, aims to financially support short-term (four-to-eight week) research collaborations between academia (students and researchers) and industry (companies), in solving real-world company Challenges. The INDUSAC will support 300 teams in solving 300 challenges through INDUSAC platform (on the contrary to hackathons and similar challenges, where there is one of the very few winners, in INDUSAC, every selected team that successfully resolves the challenge, will be awarded)
Why Apply?
- Be a part of an innovative project driving industry-academia collaboration.
- Put you knowledge to test and solve real-world challenges from European companies
- Contribute to impactful research and development.
- Connect with a network of like-minded professi onals and experts.
- Gain an invaluable experience and win up to 1,000 EUR gross per student (3,000 EUR gross per team)
- INDUSAC will support 300 projects (teams) with 900,000 EUR gross in total
Location:
EuropeBenefits
Benefits
- Up to 1,000 EUR gross per student (lump sum)
- Up to 3,000 EUR gross per co-creation team
300 projects will be funded, with 900,000 EUR gross in total.
Students can also benefit from extended networking opportunities, both with students from all over Europe, as well directly with companies posting challenges.
Eligibilities
- Eligible countries: In accordance with the Horizon Europe Call, students and researchers in each co-creation team must come from either
- EU Member States (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Spain, Sweden), in particular Widening countries (Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia; source) or
- Associated Countries to Horizon Europe (1. Albania, 2. Armenia, 3. Bosnia and Herzegovina, 4. Faroe Islands, 5. Georgia, 6. Iceland, 7. Israel, 8. Kosovo, 9. Moldova, 10. Montenegro, 11. North Macedonia, 12. Norway, 13. Serbia, 14. Tunisia, 15. Turkey, 16. Ukraine, 17. Morocco, 18. UK), as indicated by their citizenship or residency.
- Eligibility for Students.
- Students must study at public universities during the entire duration of the activity (from the co-creation team establishment until one month after the final report of the co-creation team is confirmed).
- An individual student will be able to participate in more than one co-creation team but be a candidate with a maximum of three Motivation Letters.
- Eligibility for Researchers (not mandatory: teams can consist of only students)
- Researchers must be employed at a public research organisation during the entire duration of the activity (from the co-creation team establishment until one month after the final report of the co-creation team is confirmed).
- An individual researcher will be able to participate in more than one co-creation team but be a candidate with a maximum of three Motivation Letters.
- Eligibility of Co-creation Teams
- The co-creation team must have at least three and up to six members.
- Co-creation team members must be from at least three different EU Member States or Associated Countries.
- The co-creation team has to be gender balanced (operationally, gender balance entails selecting at least two different gender options (Male, Female, Would rather not say)).
- Each co-creation team must include at least one student, ie. no co-creation team may comprise exclusively researchers.
- At least 60% of the members of the co-creation team must be from Widening Countries (The list of widening countries is comprised of 15 member states (Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia))
- English is the official language of all INDUSAC documents using the Latin alphabet
Application Process
Deadlines to submit motivation letters – we acept motivation letters at any time until the last cut-off date listed below. MLs are reviewed after each of the following cut-off dates:
- 30.11.2024, 23:59 CET
- 30.01.2025, 23:59 CET
- 28.02.2025, 23:59 CET
- 31.03.2025, 23:59 CET
- 15.04.2025, 23:59 CET
After each cut-off date, the MLs are reviewed.
If accepted, the teams will start the co-creation process with the companies shortly after.
Application Process
- Step 1 – Registration
Before submitting Motivation Letters, students and researchers register (sign-up) (Appendices 1 and 2) on the INDUSAC platform (each student/researcher creates their appropriate user account) and provides certain information.
- Step 2 – Putting together a co-creation team (matchmaking channels available)
- Student selects a Challenge. Once students/researchers have chosen a Challenge, they assemble a co-creation team.
- They may use the platform Slack or another communication channel of their choice to form teams. Each co-creation team (created on the platform) automatically gets an ID.
- Students already registered on the INDUSAC platform can invite students not yet registered, to join a co-creation team via e-mail. Once a co-creation team has been assembled, members can create their own channels and discuss their ambitions, goals, and further details. In this chat, they also start preparing their Motivation Letter.
- Step 3 – Motivation Letter Submission
- Once all co-creation team members are registered on the platform, a co-creation team can apply for a Challenge.
- The co-creation team must select the co-creation team leader, who submits a common Motivation Letter (ie. a single Motivation Letter per co-creation team) that is confirmed by all co-creation team members before the final submission.
- After the cut-off date, the company selects co-creation teams based on evaluation criteria and instructions for Motivation Letter (see below)
- Step 4 – Before the start of the co-creation project implementation
- Students – Once the co-creation project is approved, each student member of the co-creation team fills out the Questionnaire (Appendix 4), provides certain data (bank details, etc) and signs the FTSP declaration electronically.
- Researchers – Once the co-creation project is approved, each research member of the co-creation team fills out the Questionnaire (Appendix 4).
- Step 5 – Implementation of co-creation projects
- Students and researchers must solve companies’ Challenges within four to eight weeks.
INDUSAC will provide the co-creation teams with a list of deliverables, methods and tools for the Challenge. In addition, the co-creation teams will be provided with a planned timeline / mentoring plan (to-do list) to complete the Challenge.
Throughout the process, each co-creation team should have the kick-off, at least one milestone meeting, and the feedback meeting with the company.
Application Deadline: April 15, 2025 (139 Days Remaining)
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