ECSEL JU opened 4 concurrent Calls in 2018 (1 for ECSEL-IA, 1 for ECSEL-RIA and 2 for ECSEL-CSA type of actions). The ECSEL-CSA actions are related to the 2 Lighthouse Initiatives adopted in 2017
The evaluation and funding decisions for the Calls in 2018 yielded a total of 13 projects representing an additional investment of almost 800M€, bringing the total for the programme so far to 3.4bn€, more than half of which is funded by the industrial participants. Among the 7 “IA” projects, representing a total investment of some 586M€ (MADEin4, PIN3S, Arrowhead Tools, VIZTA, Power2Power, CPS4EU and APPLAUSE), we find interesting projects from across the broad ECS supply network, from power semi-conductors to advanced manufacturing solutions in Industry4.0. Characteristically, these larger projects recognisably build further on previous successful projects, pulling the technologies further towards marketable maturity. There are complemented by six “RIA” projects with value 212M€ (UltimateGaN, NewControl, TEMPO, AI4DI, HELIAUS and COMP4DRONES). These comparatively smaller projects, as intended, introduce newer ideas that will surely become mainstream in the very near future, such as the use of AI techniques in Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, or the extension of automated drone technologies to address a broad range of potential markets and applications.