The Robotics for Inspection and Maintenance (I&M) Acceleration Programme, RIMA, funded by the European Commission, has selected 19 beneficiaries out of the 121 applications submitted in its first open call to support them in the development and deployment of robotics I&M applications with equity-free funded grants.
A total of 385 applications were started, 121 of them, submitted and 114, eligible. After an evaluation process, 51 proposals were invited to participate in the online Jury Day (25-26 March, 2020). Out of these 51 proposals, 13 participants were selected to join the Technology Demonstrators Programme (TD) and 6, to start the Technology Transfer Experiments Programme (TTE).
Technology Demonstrators (TD) consist of validating the technical and economic viability of a new or improved robotic-based technology, product, process, service or solution in a ‘Target-Use Domain’ operational environment, whether industrial or other, involving where appropriate a larger scale prototype or demonstrator. Technology Demonstrators may receive up to 100.000 euros per proposal, and join a 6-month training programme.
Meanwhile, Technology Transfer Experiments (TTE) consist of developing, testing and validating the technical and economic viability of a robotics-based representative model or prototype system to be applied in ‘Target-Use Domain’ operational environment. Technology Transfer Experiments may receive up to 300.000 euros per consortium, and start a 14-month training programme.
Regarding the countries, France leads the list with 20 submitted proposals, followed by Spain (16), Netherlands (16), Denmark (9) and Italy (8) in the top five.
Speaking about the domains, 50% of the applications belong to Oil and Gas together with Energy Generation and Distribution (25% each); Road, Rail and Infrastructure Connected with Cities (15%); Transport Hubs (14%); Water Supply and Sanitation (11%), and Nuclear (10%).
