COMMISSION EUROPEENNE eXtended Reality for All (XR4ALL) Open Call XR Solutions 2020

Interactive technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) are set to transform the ways in which people communicate, interact and share information.

The XR industry is now at a stage where after years of research and development, it has reached a point where technology becomes accessible and allows market introduction.

However, the European XR scene is still fragmented. In this context, XR4ALL is set to address 6 objectives, which together will create a thriving European XR community:

1. Unite the XR community to coordinate and foster collaboration among the members;
2. Offer access to a common development platform (XR developers platform) to ease XR software components and applications development and sharing. This consists of a wide range of tools to ease the development of XR components using a methodology inspired by DevOps as well as an XR solutions Catalogue where XR solutions developers can find or publish software components and applications developed by the XR developers community;
3. Launch and manage an open call with 4 cut-off dates to increase XR innovation through funding of research teams to develop new XR solutions;
4. Monitor trends, visions and developments to create a Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) for interactive technologies;
5. Boost the take-up of XR technologies through a technology transfer strategy and connections with investors;
6. Carry out efficient dissemination activities to pave the way towards sustainability of the project.

XR4ALL, co-funded from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 825545, foresees as an eligible activity the provision of financial support to third parties, as a mean to achieve its own objectives. XR4ALL launches the current open call to attract, select and provide financial support to third parties (outstanding XR research teams from organisations such as SMEs, industry, research institutions, and academia) to develop new XR solutions (plugins for games engines such as Unity, low level components based on open APIs, standards and frameworks such as SolAR, or any XR Application) using the XR developers platform and publishing their solution in the XR solutions catalogue.

The projects selected through the open call will undergo through two support phases with specific required deliverables at the end of each phase and a corresponding funding
(for more information see Open Call website http://xr4all.eu/opencall/ )

The total funding to be sub-granted by XR4ALL is € 1,500,000 for a total of 50 projects in phase 1, receiving each a funding of € 10,000, from which up to 25 projects will be admitted in phase 2 with a corresponding funding of € 40,000. The maximum granted amount per project is € 50,000.

Interested parties can apply before one of the 4 cut-off dates for the open call which are:

• 31/10/2019 at 17:00 (Brussels time)
• 31/01/2020 at 17:00 (Brussels time)
• 30/04/2020 at 17:00 (Brussels time)
• 31/07/2020 at 17:00 (Brussels time)

The XR4ALL open call for applications will open on 20 June 2019. The basic information needed to guide potential applicants in preparing a proposal are included in the Guide for Applicants and additional questions received by XR4ALL will be answered and made available to all potential applicants in a FAQ, both available on XR4ALL website (www.xr4all.eu/opencall). This gives instructions on how to structure a proposal, how to submit it, and the criteria on which it will be evaluated as well as the way the selected projects will be managed.

Email address for further information: opencall@xr4all.eu