StandICT.eu Open Calls (2018–2020): A Snapshot of StandICT.eu Open Calls Fellowships
StandICT.eu (under H2020 Grant Agreement No. 780439) launched a total of 8 Open Calls for funding standardisation specialists between January 2018 and February 2020. Across these bi-monthly calls, 501 eligible applications were received, resulting in 113 funded applicants and 239 funded proposals. Direct financial support allocated to external EU specialists totaled approximately €1.4 million (€1,247,060.00 spent in direct grants). The main targeted technology domains covered across the funded proposals were Cybersecurity (54 proposals), Big Data (39 proposals), Internet of Things (IoT) (33 proposals), 5G Communications (16 proposals), Artificial Intelligence (AI) (15 proposals), and Cloud Computing (7 proposals).
Engaged SDOs and Impact
StandICT.eu supported European experts participating in continuous international ICT standardisation efforts across major global and European standardisation bodies. Supported experts engaged with prominent Standard Developing Organisations (SDOs) and Standard Setting Organisations (SSOs), including ISO/IEC, ETSI, CEN-CENELEC, IEEE, 3GPP, ITU, IETF, OneM2M, and OASIS.
Grantees contributed actively across 31 distinct topics, impacting more than 70 standards in development across the targeted SDOs and SSOs.
Fellowship Profiles and Demographics
Grant Allocation Types
Financial support for successful applicants was structured into three distinct cascading grant categories:
- Long-Term Grants (€4,000 to €8,000).
- Short-Term Grants (€1,000 to €5,000).
- One-Shot Grants (€1,000 to €3,000).
Community & Evaluation Platform
Registered Platform Users: Over 750 registered, profiled users within the StandICT.eu community.
External Pool of Evaluators (EPE): 50 selected ICT standardisation and domain experts recruited to evaluate and score open call applications transparently.
Target Stakeholders: Funding supported independent specialists, researchers, start-ups, SMEs, large enterprises, and public bodies across European Member States.
Budget and Open Call Breakdown
The initiative originally planned 10 calls, which were restructured into 8 continuous bi-monthly open call cycles to allow longer-term support for standardisation activities. The breakdown of eligible applications received and funded applicants per call is as follows:
- Open Call 1: 60 eligible applications received, 19 funded applicants.
- Open Call 2: 53 eligible applications received, 18 funded applicants.
- Open Call 3: 57 eligible applications received, 22 funded applicants.
- Open Call 4: 84 eligible applications received, 46 funded applicants.
- Open Call 5: 61 eligible applications received, 37 funded applicants.
- Open Call 6: 52 eligible applications received, 36 funded applicants.
- Open Call 7: 52 eligible applications received, 38 funded applicants.
- Open Call 8: 82 eligible applications received, 23 funded applicants.