FORTIS Open Call #1
FORTIS Open Call #1
The European Union (EU) has experienced a decline in employment rates in various sectors such as industry, construction, and healthcare, with an aging workforce exacerbating the issue. To improve overall life standards and welfare, the EU's Horizon Europe programme is investing in emerging technology such as robotics and AI. FORTIS specifically focuses on providing a complete Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) solution that includes multi-modal communication and multi-aspect interaction. The goal is to develop a human-centric solution that addresses the needs of both the human workforce and the robots, allowing them to work together efficiently and safely. With cutting-edge research and advanced technology, this solution can help to mitigate the negative effects of an aging workforce on employment, working conditions, and welfare in the EU. The project will conduct three main pilots in the sectors of construction, infrastructure services, and manufacturing. These pilots will provide a total of 5 use cases to demonstrate the effectiveness and safety of the Human-Robot Interaction. Moreover, FORTIS will allocate a portion of the budget to finance pilots that allow civilians to interact with the robots in different settings, such as healthcare, public events, shopping centres, and grocery stores. This will provide an opportunity to evaluate the performance of the HRI solution in various real-world scenarios.
Entité de financement
Commission Européenne - Horizon EuropeClôture de l'appel
21 janvier 2026Zone géographique
eur
Objectif
“FORTIS OC#1: Boosting Development of the FORTIS Solution” aims at attracting and engaging systems actors and innovators - universities/researchers, mid-caps, SMEs and start-ups - that are developing services that can benefit and speed up the uptake of technology. The outcome of this open call will contribute to develop, integrate and validate solutions in FORTIS project.
Applicants must submit their proposals to one of the FORTIS topics or subtopics :
Topic 1: Activity Recognition
1.1 Human Activity Recognition Using Non-wearable
1.2 Human Activity Recognition Using Wearable Sensors
Topic 2: Long-term memory
2.1 Memory Consolidation and Forgetting Mechanisms
2.2 Lifelong and Continual Learning for Personalized Adaptation
Topic 3: Enhancing Robotic Intelligibility Through Directional Audio and Visual Effects
3.1 Spatialized and Adaptive Audio for Robot Communication
3.2 Visual Cues for Enhanced Intelligibility
Topic 4: Multimodality semantic segmentation/perception
Critères d'éligibilité
The call will fund projects developed by a consortium of a minimum of 2 partners. Natural persons or entities applying alone are not eligible.
The following types of entities may apply as part of a consortium:
● Research and technology organizations (RTOs) and universities working on advancing the state-of-the-art technologies to assist in the understanding, coordination and adaptation of robots, and understanding and developing human behaviour analysis techniques.
● Mid-caps, small and medium companies (SMEs) and startups developing solutions for human and robot interaction.
The consortia must be a multidisciplinary consortium of at least 2 entities, led by one of the beneficiaries that will act as the consortium coordinator. The partners must collectively show capacity for technology development and innovation.
There’s a minimum of 1 SME per project. The non-industry partners involved must comply with the following: non-industry partners cannot exceed 30% of total project budget.
The entities of the consortia need to be multiple countries, i.e. the applicants must be from at least 2 countries.
Entities established in the following countries are eligible to participate in the FORTIS – Open Call #1:
● All EU organizations that are eligible to EC funding under the rules of Horizon Europe.
● Eligible countries (e.g. EU Member States, H2020/HEU Associated Countries, others).
Technologies clés
● Computational and artificial intelligence
● Autonomous robots
● Intelligent robots
● Robot learning
● Robot programming
● Robotics and automation
● Robot sensing systems
● Human-robot interaction
● Internet of Things (IoT)
● Systems, human and cybernetics
● Activity recognition
● Human factors
● Behavioural systems
● Biosignal processing
Typologie de consortium
The FORTIS – OC #1 focuses on the development of technology (sensors, machine learning modules, simulators, robots, software, hardware) that will be part of one or more toolkits. Therefore, with the objective of enabling solutions to be integrated in each one of the pilots, the OC will accept proposed solutions up to TRL 5-6.
Selected projects will be funded up to EUR 250K and will have a maximum duration of 10 months.
NOTE: Scaling to TRL 6 is desired but not required. Applicants must demonstrate a clear pathway to TRL advancement during the programme. Feasibility of stated projection, as well as current TRL, will be evaluated both during the evaluation and the interview.