Focused Technical Projects
ROS is of great value and almost immediate applicability for service robotics: in fact, the overwhelming majority of today’s service robots run on ROS. ROS-Industrial aims to transfer this value and the ease of application to industrial hardware, by developing new components, improving existing ones, but also by performing non-development work such as compiling usage and development guidelines or performing license audits.
The bigger the ROS-Industrial community and the higher its engagement in actively using and further developing it, the more business-relevant and hence successful the platform will be. For this reason, a considerable part of ROSIN’s budget (3+ Million EUR) is reserved for co-financing Focused Technical Projects (FTPs): you identify what you need to develop for your ROS application and outline a technically sound plan to achieve it. If successfully evaluated, you receive 33% of the total cost to perform the work, provided that you commit to sustain the remaining 67%.
The bigger the ROS-Industrial community and the higher its engagement in actively using and further developing it, the more business-relevant and hence successful the platform will be. For this reason, a considerable part of ROSIN’s budget (3+ Million EUR) is reserved for co-financing Focused Technical Projects (FTPs): you identify what you need to develop for your ROS application and outline a technically sound plan to achieve it. If successfully evaluated, you receive 33% of the total cost to perform the work, provided that you commit to sustain the remaining 67%.
What does the process look like?
We provide two benefits to the community thanks to ROSIN funding: the possibility to have part of their project’s cost financed, and technical shepherding to ensure that the infrastructure that they build fits within the bigger ROS and ROS-Industrial picture.
Apply
Download the applicant’s guide.Prepare your application following the guidelinesSubmit it
Get the funding
- If successfully evaluated, your application will enter negotiation phase
- A legal contract will be stipulated and signed
- A first portion of the ROSIN co-financing will be transfered
Receive guidance
- During the development of your FTP, continuous monitoring will be performed by ROSIN partners
- This not only ensures a timely and within budget completion of your project, but it is also a chance to receive guidance
Have your code merged into ROS
- Once the project is over, the ROSIN technical leads will merge it appropriately in the ROS and ROS-Industrial codebases
- A report on the FTP will highlight its technical features, to further promote reuse across the community
FAQ
(All the calls are now closed. No new calls are being accepted)
1How do I apply?
The submission of an FTP proposal will consist of a single step process to submit the FTP application to the Online Submission System managed by ROSIN.
2Do I need a partner for an FTP?
ROSIN FTPs target ROS-I technology for which there is a clear need in the market. A company participating in an FTP proposal by providing part of the funding as future user of the developed technology, shows the market pull and increases the chances of receiving funding.
3Has the industry sector to be in manufacturing strictly? Can a project concern other production sectors such as precision agriculture, fish farms, etc.?
A ROSIN FTP proposal addressing any industrial sector is eligible, as long as it is eligible for H2020 funding. ROSIN is not limited not manufacturing, and proposals targeting different production sectors are welcome.
4Which project costs can we request ROSIN funds for?
ROSIN FTP program only covers development costs: only person months are eligible. Other associated costs in the project (hardware, facilities, etc.) must be covered by the FTP applicants.
ROSIN funds 33% of the person months of development. This means, the ROSIN max contribution is not calculated from the total project budget, but from the total person months in software development.
5Can we cover the 66,6% of our FTP not funded by ROSIN with other public funding sources, e.g. by another H2020 project?
Funding the part of an FTP that is not covered by ROSIN through other funding or grants is fine. As far as the work is clearly divided into milestones and only ROSIN funding is used for the first one, it is ok to fund the remaining of the project from other sources, including other publicly funded projects.
Just make sure to comply with the H2020 rules, for example (but not exclusively):
- Do not double fund your work (you cannot declare the cost from the same activity in two projects).
- Do not exceed the max amount you can receive from the EU according to H2020 rules.
- Do not double fund your work (you cannot declare the cost from the same activity in two projects).
- Do not exceed the max amount you can receive from the EU according to H2020 rules.
6How much is the overhead I have to consider?
ROSIN FTP funding is based on a lump-sum, you simply need to give a calculation of the person months and the associated total cost of your milestones. We are not funding any overhead. You can request up to 33% of the total person months budgeted for your project, which should correspond to Milestone 1 (the other 66,6% corresponding to the remaining milestones).
7What are the criterions for selection of proposals?
Proposal evaluation criteria are described in Annex 2 of the applicants' guide.
8When do we get the funding?
You will receive 60% of the ROSIN grant for your FTP upon signature of the FTP contract.
The remaining 40% will be transferred upon successful completion of Milestone 1.
9During the audit for each milestone, what administrative documentation should be exhibited by the participants?
The participants should submit a Milestone Report, providing technical evidence that the milestone was achieved as defined in the proposal.
10What are the procedures for the costs reporting? Do we need to send timesheets?
You do not need to report any timesheet; after everyone milestone only the technical achievement of it needs to be reported. To approve the payment upon completion of milestone 1, we are only going to look at the result, in the spirit of the lump sum mechanism. Therefore, we need a technical report and access to what has been developed.
11For each milestone, how does the coordinator demonstrate the transfer of the costs?
The coordinator will provide copy of the bank transfers to the performers as proof of the transfer of the costs. Note that in the FTP proposal it has to be detailed how much personnel costs are needed to reach each milestone.
12How do I address Quality Assurance in my application?
At ROSIN we expect FTPs to follow Quality Assurance methods and tools, and provide a reasonable strategy regarding QA in their application. You can find herea guide of how it will be evaluated after Milestone 1, for reference.
13We have several ROS developments (tools, algorithms) we want to make fully available to the community, shall we make a common FTP application?
In ROSIN we prefer smaller projects, typically corresponding to a ROS package or a stack. What is important is that there is a coherent outcome of the project in the form of a new robot capability made available or improved as a result. Therefore we typically suggest to create different FTPs applications for different components, only gathering in one proposal components that are meant to be used together.
14Is ROSIN funding ROS 2.0 or ROS 1.0 developments?
Both! ROS 2.0 developments are welcome, but they are not required, expected or preferred. We are also funding ROS 1.0 developments.
15What does the FTP contract looks like?
A template ROSIN FTP agreement is provided in the ROSIN website:
ROSIN-FTP-GrantAgreement.pdf