The FFplus Consortium is excited to report on the response to the first FFplus call for business experiments and innovation studies!

Through the six FFplus open calls, the FFplus project provides funding to innovative and agile European SMEs and start-ups, to optimise or develop high-value services or products, and thus contributing to a more competitive European economy.

The first FFplus open call was launched on 21 June 2024 and closed on 4 September 2024.

For the business experiments call, a total of 126 proposals were submitted from 30 countries, involving 183 SMEs and 40 other supporting organisations.

Meanwhile, for the innovation studies call, 62 proposals were submitted from 24 countries, involving 83 SMEs and 36 other organisations.

A two-stage, consensus-based evaluation process is now underway, involving about 60 external expert evaluators and 10 moderators.

Each proposal will be independently assessed by two experts, followed by a consensus review facilitated by a moderator. We expect to announce the list of successful sub-projects by the end of this year.

Detailed statistics on the open calls will be provided in the coming weeks.