GSS EU Science Funding Gateway

The FUTURAL Open Call aims to expand its concept, demonstrating its benefits and impacts in other European rural regions beyond the current consortium geographical coverage (pages 5-7 of the Applicants Guide). FUTURAL Open Call will provide a significant opportunity to encourage SMEs and other interested parties (e.g., start-ups, research organisations and rural communities) to develop and apply their own Smart Solutions within the 5 FUTURAL following domains, therefore increasing the number of Smart Solutions available to rural communities. Development agencies, NGOs etc and proposed solutions must fall within one of the 5 domains:

Applicants must develop a) a digital solution that can seamlessly be incorporated into FUTURAL and contribute to its growth and expansion and b) an inclusive and collaborative business model aiming to increase the uptake of the Superposed solutions must be different from the eight (8) existing SS developed within the FUTURAL project as described in section 1 of the Applicants Guide. Proposed solutions must demonstrate their innovative character at a high level of scientific and technological excellence. OC Smart Solutions are expected to start at TRL4 and reach TRL7 by the end of the project, while business models are expected to start at BRL4 and reach BRL.

The 12-month implementation period will be divided into 3 phases:

• Phase 1 – Design (Deliverable: Activity plan (June 2025 – September 2025)
• Phase 2 – Development (Deliverable: Digital smart solution demonstration (October 2025 – February 2026)
• Phase 3 – Validation (Deliverable: Report on market or community associated activities) (March 2026 – May 2026)