Library FAQ
What technology areas should proposals for in-space energy harvesting address?
Scalable in-orbit solar energy collection/storage solutions, conversion of harvested energy into a form for long-distance space transmission, efficient wireless and secure power transmission between harvesters and receivers, and innovative green propulsion usi...
What types of materials are sought under the Responsible Electronics Challenge?
Materials with improved properties such as flexibility, durability and recyclability; low-energy/low-carbon processable materials; alternatives (including nano-sized) to common electronic materials like silicon and silicon nitride.
What unconventional applications are of interest for responsible electronics?
E-textiles and e-skin applications including backplane and logic circuits, microprocessors (4–8 bits), sensors, displays, power supplies, and wireless transmitters/receivers, particularly for IoT use and with life-cycle thinking.
Which previous projects make results eligible for EIC Transition proposals?
EIC Pathfinder projects (and earlier FET calls), FET Flagships, ERC Proof of Concept projects, European Defence Fund research projects for exclusively civil applications, and for Transition Challenges only: projects funded under Horizon 2020 or Horizon Europe.
Which specific classes of advanced electronic materials are targeted?
Small-molecule and polymeric organic materials, solution-processable inorganic materials, hybrid organic-inorganic materials, polymer-matrix nanocomposites, and bio-based or nature-inspired materials.
Who can apply to EIC Transition and in what forms?
A single legal entity (start-up, SME or research performing organisation), a small consortium of two independent legal entities from two different Member States or Associated Countries, or a consortium of three to five independent legal entities.
How could advances in CAR manufacturing support Europe’s resilience and autonomy?
Automated, decentralised, and standardised manufacturing could enable secure EU-based production of ATMPs under the ATMP regulatory framework, reduce exposure to external supply dependencies for vectors and reagents, and align with Pharmaceutical Strategy obje...
How could AI-assisted protein design affect Europe’s strategic autonomy?
It could shorten discovery-to-production cycles for therapeutics, enzymes, and vaccines, reduce dependence on non-European platforms for biologics discovery and biomanufacturing, and support skills development and a distributed innovation base consistent with...
How could autonomous robotic surgery impact Europe’s resilience and strategic autonomy?
Incremental autonomy in surgical robotics can support workforce resilience and technology sovereignty, reduce dependency on non-European hardware and software, and requires EU-based validation, qualification and certification in line with the Medical Devices R...
How could microbiome therapeutics matter for Europe’s resilience and strategic autonomy?
They could shift healthcare toward preventive and personalised interventions, leverage European strengths (population cohorts, regulated clinical research, food–health interfaces), and establishing EU manufacturing and regulatory pathways for live biotherapeut...
What applications does computational protein design enable?
Applications include de novo binding proteins for specific epitopes, enzyme optimization for stability and catalytic efficiency in biocatalysis, and development of therapeutics and vaccines.
What are biohybrid microrobots?
Biohybrid microrobots are small systems combining synthetic materials with living biological components (bacteria, microalgae, cells, contractile proteins) to exploit biological motility, sensing, and adaptability while using synthetic frameworks for control,...
What are CAR immune cell therapies?
CAR immune cell therapies are engineered immune cells modified to recognize specific targets and perform immune functions; they are advanced for T cells with oncology as the primary application and six CAR T cell products approved in the EU for haematological...
What are microbiome therapeutics?
Microbiome therapeutics are therapies that target microbial communities and their functions to improve host health by reshaping the ecological balance of the microbiome rather than acting on a single host protein or pathway.
What is autonomous robotic surgery?
Autonomous robotic surgery integrates robotics, AI, and multimodal imaging/sensing to perform surgical tasks with minimal human intervention; current research focuses on narrow tasks (knot-tying, suturing, trajectory planning) rather than full-procedure autono...
What is computational protein design?
Computational protein design uses data-driven methods, including machine learning and biophysical folding models, to predict structure and function from sequence and to design novel protein sequences that fold into predefined topologies and perform targeted ta...
What manufacturing challenges do CAR therapies face and what is new?
Manufacturing is complex and variable due to patient-derived starting material and centralized, labor-intensive processes. New developments include miniaturisation and automation for semi-closed or fully closed platforms, non-viral engineering (mRNA, transposa...
What real-world example demonstrates that AI-designed proteins can meet regulatory and clinical requirements?
A computationally designed protein nanoparticle carrying the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein was licensed as the SKYCovione vaccine.
What recent advances are driving progress in computational protein design?
Recent advances include deep learning architectures trained on large sequence and structural datasets that improve structure prediction, integration with high-throughput synthesis and screening to form iterative design–build–test cycles, and a research shift t...
What recent advances are enabling mechanism-driven microbiome therapies?
Advances include large-scale sequencing, high-throughput cultivation, improved spatial sampling of the gut, synthetic biology for engineered strains, bacteriophages and phage enzymes for precision targeting, targeted delivery technologies, and large participat...
What recent innovations are advancing biohybrid microrobots toward translation?
Innovations include improved propulsion and manoeuvrability via biological propulsion units combined with magnetic nanoparticles or responsive polymers, targeted ligands or antibodies for selective localisation, AI-enabled control for adaptive behaviour, and w...
What technical advances are enabling more integrated autonomous surgical workflows?
Advances include deep learning-based computer vision for real-time anatomical and phase recognition, incorporation of force sensing and haptic feedback, adaptive control mechanisms, and integration of multimodal intraoperative data to enable closed-loop contro...
What types of interventions are used in microbiome therapeutics?
Interventions include providing nutrients for beneficial microbes, limiting substrates for harmful microbes, introducing beneficial or suppressive microbes (live biotherapeutics, single strains, defined consortia, engineered microbes), small molecules from mic...
Which clinical areas can microbiome therapeutics potentially address?
Applications extend beyond gastrointestinal disorders to oncology, autoimmunity, infections, and neurological conditions, reflecting systemic roles of the microbiome.