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CFP
EMIL-2: EMIL - European Media and Immersion Lab
Websitehttps://emil-xr.eu
Submission linkhttps://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=emil2
Submission deadlineAugust 14, 2023
Topics: extended reality innovation funding virtual reality

This is the second call of the EMIL project that invites proposals, especially for areas related to the core competencies of the consortium partners and the four Lighthouse projects that reflect the expertise and supporting infrastructure of EMIL. However, XR-project proposals that are not directly related to these four areas will also be considered.

The submission is open from 12 June 2023 to 14 August 2023 at 23:59(CET) Central European Time.

Submission Guidelines

EMIL will support and execute two calls for European-based XR technology developers and content creators. The EMIL consortium partners will support and guide the funded Financial Support for Third Parties (FSTP) projects towards their goals. The EMIL network is an open network looking for new members and growth and it will also entice more members through the two FSTP calls, providing funding in the range of 250.000-500.000€ per selected project, with an indicative duration of 15 months to ensure focused effort. FSTP funding is aimed at projects by outstanding technology developers, media innovators, SMEs, academia and others that enable new ways of creative storytelling and interaction through immersive media technologies. The total funding to be provided to all FSTP by EMIL is 5.800.000€.

The both EMIL’s FSTP calls will be carried out in the light of the same basic principles which govern European Commission calls:

  • Excellence. The proposal(s) selected for funding must demonstrate a high quality in the context of the topics and criteria set out in the call.
  • Transparency. Funding decisions must be based on clearly described rules and procedures, and all applicants should receive adequate feedback on the outcome of the evaluation of their proposals.
  • Fairness and impartiality. All proposals submitted to a call are treated equally. They are evaluated impartially on their merits, irrespective of their origin or the identity of the applicants (in the frame of any restrictions provided for in the call).
  • Confidentiality. All proposals and related data, knowledge and documents are treated in confidence.
  • Efficiency and speed. Evaluation of proposals and award of financial support should be as rapid as possible, commensurate with maintaining the quality of the evaluation and respecting the legal framework.

NOTES:

  • The funding is 100% funding. In addition to the financial support, the EMIL nodes’ facilities, equipment and services are opened for the use of the FSTP projects. So in fact, for the projects, the total value of the funding is more than 100%.
  • When starting the project it must be on the Readiness Level 4 (RL4) and at the end of its execution on RL8. This is the case for both Technology-oriented proposals, as well as for Content & Production-oriented proposals. (Please check the EMIL website Apply for Funding section for further details).

List of Topics

Wearable Haptics Interfaces for XR

Adding tactile sensations to XR has proved to enhance the immersive experience and has attracted tremendous attention from both academia and industry. EMIL develops smart garments (e.g., gloves and shirts) that combine vibrotactile, electrotactile and potentially also chemical stimulations to implement various tactile sensations and integrate stimulations into textiles. We will open-source the designs of our smart garments and will provide open APIs for (re)configuring and (de)activating tactile sensations.  

FSTP projects in this area are expected to focus on XR experience design utilizing the smart garments developed by EMIL or new designs of smart garments that provide different types of tactile sensations. 

In either case, the proposed designs are expected to be prototyped and evaluated through user tests. Each FSTP project is free to choose any type of XR application for demonstration and is encouraged to demonstrate the interplay between tactile sensation and other sensory modalities. 

Affective Exergaming

Virtual environments hold great promise in supporting users to be physically active. EMIL is developing technologies to enable gamified exercise ("exergames") in an effective and motivating manner, e.g. allowing users to interact naturally in virtual environments by cycling on an exercycle or running and jumping on the spot. Besides physical activity, our technologies make it possible to measure how users feel ("affect") and to adjust and optimise virtual environments accordingly. We demonstrate the value of these technologies in VR exergames for sports training and rehabilitation, optimising the user experience to be both physically engaging and emotionally motivating.  

Possible FSTP projects include VR experiences that engage users through physical activity, e.g. for sport, rehabilitation and entertainment, and affective VR experiences such as interactive narratives.

Group-oriented Spatial VR

The common type of AR experiences based on smartphones is often difficult to adopt by users and isolating, which breaks the group user experience (UX) of visitors in public spaces such as museums, culture centres, heritage sites, schools, etc. Headset-based AR is also considered to be isolating, high cost, lacks robustness, and presents hygiene issues that have become obvious in the pandemic.

We expect novel approaches to group-based AR experiences for public spaces that:

  • do not force all users in a group to use a device;
  • keep the sense of group UX; and
  • allow a shared, co-located experience.

Proposals of such AR experiences for public spaces may take advantage of University Pompeu Fabra's novel World-as-Support paradigm and the device that implements it, the AR Magic Lantern. The SDK will support the rapid prototyping of experiences for this platform and it will allow the proposal of novel augmentation of content and meaning for contexts such as learning, digital tourism, heritage transfer to younger generations, storytelling, an increase of interest in historical knowledge, etc. 

Narrative Location-Based Entertainment (LBE)

The scalable LBE, at its core, tells a compelling story by means of visual and physical immersion. LBE by nature is restricted to dedicated hardware and spatial constraints, therefore the experience is planned in different scales as individually seated, individually in a room-scale environment and as a group experience in a large room-scale environment. LBE and existing toolsets are expected to foster and blossom FSTP projects with strong narrative elements in XR. 

Open Track – Something Wilde

The open track is for the proposals for VR, AR or MR productions or development projects that do not fall into any of the four thematic areas mentioned above. We expect to see radically different approaches with innovative and surprising content productions, applications, and services of extended reality such as Virtual Productions utilizing the latest achievements in real-time graphics for VFX and character-centric applications including animated assistive services where believable facial animation of humanoids is essential.

General Requirements for FSTP Projects

The EMIL funding calls will be open to all legal entities located within an EU member state or in a Horizon Europe (HE) associated country and possessing a validated Participant Identification Code (PIC) granted by the European Commission (EC) will be required at the time of signature. The proposals should include a plan on how they can benefit from the expertise and/or infrastructure of EMIL lab nodes. 

Requirements for eligibility of applicants

The proposal must be submitted by a legal entity located within an EU member state or in a Horizon Europe (HE) associated country.

UK companies and other UK entities are encouraged to apply, however, due to the complexities of the UK-EU research relationship, at the time of writing, UK companies are not eligible for funding under this call.

The legal entity must register in the Participant Register before submitting their application, in order to get a participant identification code (PIC) and be validated by the Central Validation Service (REA Validation) before signing the FSTP agreement. For the validation, they will be asked to upload the necessary documents showing their legal status and origin during the grant preparation stage. A validated PIC is not a prerequisite for applying, however, it must be validated before the funding can be admitted.  

Applicants cannot be affiliated with the EMIL consortium partners nor can they be employees of the EMIL partners. All potential conflicts of interest will be assessed carefully. Please click for more information.

Individuals will not be permitted to act as project coordinators in more than one application.

The applicants submitting the proposal have not had a proposal funded in a previous EMIL application window.

Financial eligibility requirements for applicants

Financial and viability checks will be made to ensure Horizon Europe funding eligibility. It will be verified that:

  1. The applicant is entitled to carry on the business; the applicant is registered in the trade register or in an equivalent register.
  2. The applicant’s financial resources are sufficient regarding the volume and quality of the procurement.
  3. The applicant has paid 1) taxes, 2) pension contributions and 3) social security contributions and is able to effect the payments of any similar social liabilities.  
  4. All the above-mentioned requirements apply both to the principal applicant and to possible subcontractors. 
  5. If subcontractors are being used the funding rules of Horizon Europe must be followed (the best value for money and no conflict of interests).

Documentation:  

  1. Applicant's turnover or average magnitude of the business in years 2018 - 2021 (where available) plus a forecast for the project timeframe (2022-2025) was on average at least the value of the proposed FSTP project grant. Financial reports that would include P&L, balance sheet and cash flow shall be attached to the application.  OR if the applicant concerned is a new company or entrepreneur, the applicant shall submit the information (the latest balance sheet, a business plan and a statement from the bank) on the basis of which the financial resources can be verified plus a forecast for the project time frame (2023-2025).
  2. Statement of outstanding taxes and certificates of pension and social security contributions. 

The reports of the above mentioned documents may be required later.

Evaluation Process

  1. Proposals will first be checked by the Programme Committee (PC) for compliance with the eligibility criteria. Proposals that are not eligible or do not comply with the administrative instructions will not be evaluated by the expert panel.

  2. The eligible proposals will be evaluated by the international Independent Experts Panel (IEP). The IEP will be formed for each proposal in order to match their main focus, it will be composed of two international independent experts in the field that will seek a balance between academia and industry, as well as gender parity whenever possible.

  3. IEP will give individual evaluation reports to Programme Committee. 

  4. PC will rank the proposals and divide them equally and by the substance to EMIL nodes.

  5. The technological experts –the FSTP projects' support teams– of each EMIL node check the feasibility of the proposals. 

  6. The Expert (or Scientific) Advisory Group (EAG) will give their statements of the ranked proposals.

  7. PC will propose to EMIL's General Assembly (and EC) to accept the proposals to be invited to negotiations. Since the final decision of the general assembly and the acceptance of the EC, the chosen projects will be funded.

  8. The funded projects will be published on EMIL's website (https://emil-xr.eu)

Questions and Contact

All questions about submissions should be emailed to call@emil-xr.eu

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