Call for projects ImplementIT4CW (1st edition)

Why take part in Digital 4 Circular Wallonia?

The benefits for participants are improved business competitiveness through criteria such as local employment, environmental impact, sustainability, resilience, project innovation, economies of scale and, more specifically, benefits for :

• the applicant (beneficiary). Reduced environmental impact, integration into the circular economy, increased efficiency to improve sustainable competitiveness, product offering and business.

• the supplier (expert / service provider). Growth for technology suppliers in the implementation of their technology and the reproducibility and scalability of the same solutions in other use cases.

• Wallonia. Societal and innovation impacts on the regional socio-economic fabric, creation of a regional database of use cases that can serve as inspiration for other players.

What is a D4CW project?

This call for proposals finances individual or collective demonstrators (PoC) of digital technologies that accelerate the spread of the circular economy in Wallonia. Projects must bring together an entity representing the "business" side (digital demand - beneficiary) and another entity representing the "technology" side (digital offer - expert).

These entities can respectively be made up of several companies (demand) and several companies and/or organizations (supply).

The beneficiary entity must be made up of Walloon companies, or have at least one operating headquarters in Wallonia. Companies can be of any size, startups or established, and present any degree of digital maturity.

Selected themes

• Construction.

• Energy storage.

• Water cycle.

Maximum amount

All technologies and digital applications contributing to the integration of beneficiaries into the circular economy can be financed.

The budget requested for each single application may not exceed 75,000 euros (for a maximum of 70% of total estimated project costs), to be completed within 12 months.

Support

A pool of experts (service providers) is currently being set up to support beneficiary companies and implement projects. These may be private Walloon or European companies (EU members), Approved Research Centers (ARCs) or Research Centers attached to universities.

In the event that a winning company has not yet identified a service provider capable of meeting its needs, a list drawn from the pool of experts will be proposed.

How to apply

Candidates are invited :

• télécharger et compléter ce formulaire Word.

• and renvoyer par e-mail no later than midnight on October 3, 2022.

Applications will be examined by a selection panel comprising representatives of the Agence du Numérique, the Confédération Construction Wallonne, the Greenwin competitiveness cluster, the Centre Scientifique et Technique de la Construction, the MecaTech competitiveness cluster, Service public de Wallonie et du Cabinet du Ministre Borsus.

Selection criteria (non-exhaustive list)

• Economic viability of the project.

• Partnerships in place or planned once the solution is in place.

• Growth potential with focus on sustainable competitiveness.

• Potential impact on the environment.

• Potential impact on local job creation.

• Degree of innovation of the proposed solution (in relation to the company's current situation).
  Degree of excellence/quality in methodology, implementation and action plan.

• Feasibility of the digital solution.
  Representativeness of the project's issues in relation to the sector (and in line with the bidder's specific business), and of the digital technologies proposed.

• Priority given to open source approaches and transferable results.

• Potential visibility to stimulate the use of digital technologies in the context of the circular economy in Wallonia.

Deadlines

This first call for projects was launched on August 17, 2022, with applications closing at midnight on October 3, 2022.
The call for applications for the pool of experts opened in mid-July 2022, with no predefined closing date.

For further information

Contact Renaud Delhaye, Senior Expert in Digital Business Transformation on 0478/226664 or by email.

This call for projects has been drafted thanks to the contribution of :

• Confédération de la construction

• CSTC

• Greenwin

• Cap Construction

• Sirris

• Tweed

• Cluster H2O

• Infopôle

• Mecatech

• Agence du Numérique