OPEN CALL FOR
STARTUPS & SMEs

The Final REACH Open Call for startups is now closed!

Three ways to apply

TRACK 1

REACH consortium has collaborated with the 8 leading European Digital Innovation Hubs to define the cross-sectorial Data Value Chain (DVC) themes to be tackled by participants.

TRACK 2

Applications will tackle the challenges defined by the REACH Data Providers according to the needs detected in their market.

TRACK 3

A single SME will apply together with their own Data Provider/s (at least one) and propose a novel DVC joint challenge to be solved.

For more information about REACH application tracks, please check out our Guidelines for Applicants located at the bottom of this page.

Benefits of joining

Equity free funding
up to €120K

Cascade equity-free funding for organizations to finance their innovations

Access to Large Corporations AND their Industrial data sets

A range of Data Providers coming from different sectors offering their data and corporate challenges for experimentation

Access to digital and business skills

Data mentoring and business coaching will be available for companies to help develop their experiments and turn them into market-ready solutions

REACH toolbox for secure and trusted data value chains

Ready-to-use tools an state-of-the-art technologies for increasing trust and security in data sharing and exchange (blockchain, data anonymisation and minimization components and tools for the development of trused-by- design applications)

Big Data Computing Infrastructure

Big Data infrastructure to host experiments and facilitate the development of data-fuelled solutions in short time

Access to Private Investment

A network of corporate and private investors engaged to select and potentially invest in promising companies with great go-to-market and growth potential.

Visibility

REACH will offer ecosystem and organizational visibility towards new partnerships and business opportunities

Check out the resources available to the incubated applicants

REACH Incubator Timeline

Reach Timeline

REACH is a four-phase incubation programme:
Explore, Experiment, Evolve, Expose.

*Expose phase is open to all Experiment phase teams

The best solution per incubation round will be awarded €20K

Our Data Providers

Eligibility

PROGRAMME FIT

The accepted applicants for REACH open calls are start-ups in the form of SMEs, that fit with the proposed participation tracks:

Individual SME experiment: Data Driven SMEs or Startups solving challenges and experiments.

Collaborative SME experiment: Several data driven SMEs will conduct different experiments under a common DVC theme or Data Provider’s challenge. This way of collaboration will be fostered by REACH partners, for example, identifying synergies among applicants along the incubation and facilitating their collaboration. The consortium will aim 20% of the experiments progressing on this collaborative scheme to contribute towards the DVC concept.

  • The use of big data tools is needed.
  • Uniqueness of the proposal.

TYPE OF ENTITY

The accepted applicants for REACH open calls are start-ups in the form of SMEs. A SME will be considered as such if accomplishing with the Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC and the SME user guide. As a summary, the criteria which define a SME are:

  • Headcount in Annual Work Unit (AWU) less than 250.
  • Annual turnover less or equal to €50 million or annual balance sheet total, less or equal to €43 million.

LOCATION

Both SMEs and DPs must be established in a Horizon2020 eligible country:

  • The Member States (MS) of the European Union (EU), including their outermost regions;
  • The Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT) linked to the Member States;
  • H2020 Associated countries: according to the updated list published by the EC. The UK applicants are eligible under the conditions set by the EC for H2020 participation at the time of the deadline of the call as long as there is a fit with any of that call challenges.

PRIOR APPLICANT STATUS

  • Only one proposal per applicant will be accepted for evaluation. Others will be discarded.
  • Resubmission is allowed in further calls, if the SME/start-up was not accepted in a previous first call.
  • No double funding is allowed. Start-ups or SMEs that have previously been beneficiaries in other incubators approved under the same topic (H2020- DT-ICT-05-2019 subtopic 2), namely, i4Trust, will not be funded by REACH.

Main eligibility aspects are included here, however, further details on the eligibility rules are available in the guidelines for applicants.

JOT Internet Media España is one of the world’s leading platforms for High Quality Audience Acquisition for Global Digital Players. It was created in October 2004 and operates internationally in brokering high volumes of multichannel internet traffic which includes search engine queries (Search), social networks media (Social) and advertising space (Display). JOT is one of the three largest worldwide players in internet traffic brokerage. The company operation is supported by large technology partners such as Google, Bing/Yahoo, Ask.com, Web.de, CBS. JOT is a multinational digital company that generates large amounts of qualified and high quality2 traffic in Search, Social and Display.

Migros Ticaret A.Ş. was founded in 1954 in İstanbul through the joint initiatives of the Swiss Migros Cooperatives Union and the İstanbul Municipality. Embracing the mission of procuring food supplies and consumables from producers under the supervision of the municipal authorities and of serving these products to İstanbul inhabitants in hygienic conditions and at economic prices. Migros opened its first store in Istanbul in 1957. Today, Migros offers spacious stores in a wide range of formats and locations whose vast selection of stationer, glass and kitchenware, appliance, book, recorded media, clothing and other necessities give it the ability to satisfy nearly all of the shopping needs of its customers.

Yapı Kredi Teknoloji is a technology company established in 2015 to deliver innovative and patentable products and solutions with high added value. We develop innovative and R&D oriented comprehensive software projects, especially for the banking and finance sector. For the solutions and products, we mostly employ artificial intelligence, machine learning, natural language processing, data mining. WIth several AI projects deployed so far, Yapi Kredi Teknoloji has always been a leader ideas in the era of bank operation models. We focus on the functions/applications/systems that better translate AI results to the customers. Among all AI applications better results come out of customer centric solutions. We put ourselves in the customers’ place and focus on AI at key dialogue points.

VRT is the public broadcaster of the Flemish Community in Belgium. Its mission is to inform, inspire and unite and so reinforce Flemish society. As a service providing organization, the VRT wants to take up a special position in society. The VRT strives for a large audience, not so much to gain a high market share, but because it wants to be relevant to as many Flemish people as possible. This is the most important charter of the public broadcaster, i.e. reinforcing democracy and society by contributing to a social and pluralistic debate, documenting society and stimulating culture and language and Flemish society in all its diversity.

Play&go experience is a tool to create customized apps that improves the visitor’s experience, based on gamification, geolocation and augmented reality. With geolocated data we provide the visitor information of interest getting more interaction, fun and immersion, in mixed reality

Almerys is specialized in collecting, storing and processing sensitive data. Almerys ambitions are to become the global digital trust leader over the coming 10 years. Almerys provides products and services in digital trust, sovereignty and privacy-by-design, ranging from tier 4+ level data centers , to identities management, electronic signature, dynamic consent management, transactional payments, legal and probative archival of sensitive data, as well as personalized services brokering.

Sonae is a leader in the Portuguese retail market (food and non-food). Established in 1959, grew and strengthened its core business during 1980’s and 1990’s and achieved a turnover of more than 6 Bn € in 2018. Innovation in products and services has been the main tool to increase the company’s competitiveness. Sonae holds other businesses and interests such as retail properties, and core partnerships, such as shopping centres and telecommunications (one of Portugal’s biggest Telco companies).

Idea75 is a SME that aims at providing innovative solutions for process optimization and energy efficiency of industrial plants following the new guidelines of Industry 4.0 and ISO 50001. The company has gained skills and experience in design and implementation of system automation, monitoring and supervision of production lines and automatic control systems. Idea75’s smart manufacturing solutions help our customers to significantly improve their operations by leveraging the data provided by related devices, people and processes (e.g. development of descriptive, predictive and prescriptive analytical models for Business Intelligence applied to energy efficiency and predictive maintenance of industrial machinery).

Biscay (NUTS3) is a one of the three provinces of the Basque Country, in the north of Spain with Bilbao, its capital, as the business, social and cultural center. The provincial executive body is the Government of Biscay (Diputación Foral de Bizkaia), which is directly elected by citizens. Core competences of the Government of Biscay are full taxation power, complete development of Social Services and Economic Promotion, among others, such as culture promotion, transport, infrastructure promotion, agriculture and environment, within the wide level of autonomy of the Basque Country. The Department of Social Action will participate in this project. The Department’s main function is to provide service to all those in Biscay who, due to a personal, family or social situation, have difficulties in leading a dignified and full life.

EDP is a multinational, vertically integrated utility company. Throughout over 40 years of history, they have been building a relevant presence in the world energy scene, being present in 29 countries, on 4 continents.
With more than 12.100 employees, they are present throughout the electricity value chain and in the gas commercialization activity. They are the fourth-largest wind energy production company in the world and 74% of their energy is produced from renewable resources. They provide electricity and gas to more than 9 million customers.

Cofares is the leading pharmaceutical wholesaler in Spain. It is a cooperative with 100 % pharmaceutical capital that provides pharmacies with products as well as health-related services.

Grupo AN is a centenary cooperative and a leader in the Spanish agri-food sector. They are a second-degree cooperative formed by 160 agricultural cooperatives and 40,000 farmers and livestock owners. Grupo AN is the largest producer of cereal in Spain and is also highly active on national and international wheat, barley, corn, rape and sunflower markets. They are mainly producers of agricultural products, including fruits and vegetables of worldwide commercial interest.

The Bilbao City Council is the municipal executive body of Bilbao, which is directly elected by the citizens. The main competencies of the Bilbao City Council’s security area are public safety and civil protection, including the management and planning of the city’s fire brigade.

SMAT (Società Metropolitana Acque Torino S.p.A.) is the water utility managing the integrated water supply and wastewater service in the whole Metropolitan City of Turin (in the Piedmont region, north-west of Italy), for more than 2.2 million inhabitants from almost 300 municipalities. These include Turin urban area, which accounts for about half of the total population served. SMAT Group is a leader in the field of integrated water services and operates in the areas of engineering, construction and management of diversified water sources, state-of-the-art drinking water treatment systems, drainage systems and recycling of urban wastewater, collection, purification and recycling networks, energy cogeneration and recovery systems. 

Since 2008, SMAT has strongly engaged in research activities, with the inauguration of the Research Centre counting 7 full-time researchers and about 50 operators with a variety of competences including engineering, chemistry, physics, biology and biotechnology and has a fully equipped laboratory. Currently, SMAT Research Centre is involved in about 20 projects (two EU-funded Horizon 2020 projects).

INVAT·TUR (Institute of Tourism Technologies of Region of the Valencia), is a center conceived as a meeting platform for all agents in the tourism sector and represents one of the main axes in improving the competitiveness and sustainability of the tourism model of the Region of the Valencia. The goals are to develop lines of action in R+D+i adapted to the needs of the tourism sector, as well as transfer knowledge to tourism companies and organizations, giving the tourism sector access to the most advanced knowledge, services and technologies.