SAF€RA’s 2024 call for proposals

Date: 2024-04-04

SAF€RA launched its eighth joint call for transnational, collaborative research projects on April 4^th 2024. The call title is Health and safety implications of industrial digital twins and algorithmic management, with two topics:

• Topic 1: Health, safety and sustainability applications of industrial digital twins

  Many industry sectors are seeing interest in digital twins for applications such as process optimization, design-for-maintainability and lifecycle management. The call aims to explore the potential of these technologies for improving health and safety in the workplace, including the intersection with safe-and-sustainable-by-design (SSbD) principles. Applications in the hydrogen economy and the circular economy will be explored.

• Topic 2: Impact of algorithmic management on worker well-being and accident rates

  Several case studies from the USA have shown that the introduction of algorithmic management technologies and automated systems that monitor, evaluation, influence and control worker behaviour in workplace settings can improve declared accident rates. At the same time, their impact on the privacy, dignity and well-being of workers is profound. The call aims to explore the lived experience of these technologies and management practices, and their possible impacts on health and safety in the workplace.

Funding available

The total available budget for the 2024 call is approx. 1.44 M€. Two forms of funding are available:

• “in cash”: research grants for researchers from universities, institutes, research organizations and public firms;
• “in kind”: person-months for personnel from certain participating institutes and research organizations.

Most projects funded within this call will include 2 to 4 partners, for a duration between 12 and 36 months and funding between 20 and 150 k€ per project partner. The call aims to fund mainly applied research carried out in universities or research institutes, though contributions from industry are also eligible. Interdisciplinary research is encouraged. Cooperation and joint activities between different consortia funded within the call will be encouraged.

Call timeline

The 2024 joint call will use a two-stage application process with a pre-proposal mechanism for the first stage. The calendar of the various stages is shown below.

Documents

• The Guidelines for proposers contains a description of the topics covered by the 2024 joint call, information on the participating funding organizations and the budgets available, and other important information for researchers wishing to submit a proposal.
• The pre-proposal form to use to prepare pre-proposals in the first stage of the call.
• The Guidelines for evaluators are written for the experts who will evaluate the projects, but will be useful to researchers who wish to understand the evaluation criteria.
• Templates for the SAF€RA progress reports, which must be sent to the SAF€RA Call Secretariat by the project coordinator on behalf of the project consortium. The mid-term reporting template should be submitted halfway through your project, assuming the project has a duration greater than 18 months. A final administrative report should be sent by all projects, within three months of the end of the project. (This report is distinct from the final scientific report which most projects will be producing as one of their deliverables.)

A web-based matchmaking facility is available to help researchers wishing to submit projects as a consortium to find partners.

Contact information

For general queries concerning the joint call, please email the call secretariat at call-secretariat@safera.eu.

If you have questions concerning the eligibility criteria of specific funding organizations, please check the contact information provided in the Guidelines for proposers document, which can be downloaded above.

Deadline for pre-proposals June 12^nd 2024