InDiCo- Global Second Open Call | Indico Global Grants

InDiCo-Global will provide € 1.000.000 of funding to promote European digital/ICT standards in target countries/regions (African Union, China, Eastern Partnership, India, Latin America and Caribbean, Southeast Asia, Western Balkans), building bridges across technical communities. Through three open calls, this funding will enable the specialists to promote the European Standardisation System (ESS) and European standards in partner countries/regions for select ICT/digital technologies, thereby creating opportunities for capacity building as well as strengthening and promoting Europe’s position and vision in global standardisation initiatives.

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The topics and priorities for the 2nd InDiCo-Global Open Call, which will run from June 2025 until early August 2025, are defined through continuous monitoring and careful analysis of the international standardisation landscape including activities by international, regional and national Standards Development Organisations (SDOs), key EC advisory groups including the High-Level Forum on European Standardisation (HLF) the EU Multi-Stakeholder Platform for ICT Standardisation (MSP), and InDiCo-Global partners ETSI, CEN and CENELEC, the European Standards Organizations.

IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ BEFORE SUBMITTING AN APPLICATION

In accordance with Article 137 of the Financial Regulation No 966/2012 on Financial Support to Third Parties, the maximum amount to be granted to each Third Party may not exceed € 50.000 (fifty thousand euro). In practice, an individual beneficiary may apply and be awarded funding (Financial Support to Third Parties) under different calls but cannot exceed an overall total limit of € 50.000 (fifty thousand euros) in funding.

An application evaluated as eligible for FSTP funding but not selected for funding (due to higher-ranking proposals) may be re-submitted in a subsequent call.

Rejection of a former application does not prevent an applicant from submitting other proposals in subsequent calls.

Open Call timing

Call Launch: 16 June 2025

Call Closure: 31 August 2025

2nd Open Call Topic Priorities

Applications that address any of the topics mentioned below, linked to digital/ICT standards in target countries/regions (see above), will be considered of equal validity and merit during the evaluation process.

All projects should refer to the Multi-Stakeholder Platform Rolling Plan for ICT Standardisation and other relevant EU policy papers and initiatives.

Given the overall scope of the core of the InDiCo-Global project, calls should ideally address a combination of EU-relevant ICT/Digital policy agendas, international cooperation principles and technical topics.

Project proposals are requested for the following topic priorities, with a focus on tangible outcomes, in the following sections:

Training (targeting implementers, administrations, help for use in public procurement) on
- e-ID/Trust Services,
- IPRs,
- e-Accessibility in, e.g., China, ASEAN, Africa and LAC.
- Train the trainer approach in LAC on market access requirements related to DPP and, e.g., Consumer IoT, eGovernment, eID, Digital Wallet, Data Governance, AI.
Hackathons (oneM2M, MEC, NFV, etc.) and developer events pivoting around the application of European standards
Proof of concepts on the implementation of European standards (proposals to be validated before submission)
Promotion of
- EN 303 645 (Consumer IoT Security)
- Approaches to Data Protection aligned with GDPR principles
- Open Data principles and practices in LAC, building on European experiences
Workshops on
- 5G/6G (e.g., at IMC 2026)
- Consumer IoT security
- Certification of ICT products
- Green and inclusive digitalization (i.e., inclusive standards and technical policies for circular ICT products and digital infrastructure & societal aspects)
Standards meetings (proposals to be validated before submission)
- Organization and hosting of European Standardization Events/Meetings
- Participation of Observers in European Standardization Events/Meetings

Evaluation Process

Each proposal received through the InDiCo-Global grants platform will be screened for eligibility. Should the proposal comply with the criteria indicated herein, applicants will receive notification of the proposal's eligibility (label "eligible"). Rejected applications will be labelled as "non eligible".

After being deemed eligible, proposals will be sent to the evaluation phase through the InDiCo-Global External Pool of Evaluators, scored, and ranked for funding (labelled as "in evaluation"). Each proposal is evaluated by two members of the External Pool of Evaluators, and after reaching a consensus, the evaluation undergoes a quality check by a third member of the pool. The peer-review phase will last for about 30 days. Should the proposal pass the evaluation phase, it will undergo a final scrutiny check of the InDiCo-Global's Steering Committee to minimise potential issues and conflicts of interest.

If your proposal is retained for funding, upon notification, you will be provided with the information and instructions to prepare and sign the contract for the funding. Please note that a deadline of 10 business days from notification will be applied to confirm your intention to take up the contract to enable the funds to be reallocated to other successful applicants.

Please note that two EPE members independently evaluate each application and undergo quality control by a third member of the pool after a consensus is reached to guarantee maximum fairness and transparency. As the EPE are highly skilled experts whose qualifications are assessed through an open call process, their decision is binding, and any redress requests or complaints will be dealt with strictly in relation to the procedural aspects of the evaluation and not on the merits of the scientific or technical judgement of the experts.

Who can receive financial support?

Potential applicants to InDiCo-Global’s Open Calls must be legal entities based in European Union Member States and Associate Countries or in the countries within the targeted geographies of InDiCo-Global, excluding China and Belarus.

To avoid double-funding, any proposed activities already financed through other means or instruments will be rejected. However, co-funding of the submitted proposal is permissible.

Eligible Costs

Eligible costs that will be reimbursed are:

personnel costs;
equipment costs;
travel costs (calculate travel costs on the EC website)
subsistence costs (check EU's subsistence and hotel ceiling here);
other direct costs (e.g., hosting costs, dissemination costs);
subcontracting costs;

The exact amount to be funded will be calculated on the basis of the submitted costs by the Proposing Organisation. Funding will adopt the lump sum principle, meaning that once costs are agreed upon, the beneficiary does not have to further justify spending. Funding will, in most cases, come in two waves: a pre-financing provided at the start of the project and a final payment to be made upon completion of the project, subject to acceptance of deliverables/milestones by the InDiCo-Global project team. The balance between pre-financing and final payment will depend on the funds needed for the implementation of the project. For proposals spanning over a long period, further pre-financing during execution may be considered.

Evaluation Criteria

The initial eligibility screening will be undertaken by the Consortium to assess compliance with the call. Proposals that are ineligible for any reason or that do not meet the call criteria will be identified as such, and the applicant will be notified. The consortium will consolidate all eligible proposals and submit them to the external evaluators (selected from the External Pool of Evaluators – EPE) to undertake the formal evaluation.

Formal evaluation will include a thorough review of each of the proposals. Evaluations (for each proposal) will be performed using the following 4-criteria principle (score 1 to 10):

Criterion 1: Impact and alignment with the call – Soundness of the proposal and foreseen impact in alignment with the call (weight: 30%);
Criterion 2: Excellence – Technical excellence & relevance of the activities proposed (weight: 30%);
Criterion 3: Capacity – Experience and qualifications of the applicant (s) (weight: 20%);
Criterion 4: Resources – Economics of the proposal (weight: 20%).

Furthermore, the assessment of the above criteria will be supplemented by the below sub-criteria, which, while not mandatory, may boost the score for the criterion under consideration:

Topics which are relevant to InDiCo-Global;
Involvement of societal stakeholders;
Inclusion of the applicant organisation in the ICT standardisation ecosystem in the target country;
Participation in relevant international and/or global standards development organisations;
Proven capacity and/or relevance in the chosen area;
Existing or possibility to develop an ESS case study on the selected tech topic & share with the target country;
Inclusion of New Legislative Framework (NLF) and ESS visibility as a part of the capacity-building package.

The proposal’s final score will be automatically determined by averaging scores from the various evaluators and then applying a weighting process among the four criteria as per the percentages indicated above. In case of a tie between 2 or more proposals, the proposal received first will be selected (the “time stamp” of submission will be the reference). The evaluation of the Open Calls will ensure impartiality and applicants selected for funding have to guarantee that no conflicts of interest exist.

Proposals are encouraged to exhibit consideration for social equality and inclusiveness.

For more info about the InDiCo-Global Second Open Call, please contact info@indico-global-grants.eu and watch the recording of the first information session here.