Strong Starts (Grant Opportunity)

The ARM Institute's 27-01 Core-Funded Technology Project Call is the current cycle of the institute's recurring robotics funding programme, and this round is framed explicitly around Robotics and Physical AI Defense Manufacturing Solutions. ARM is a Manufacturing USA institute funded by the Office of the Secretary of Defense with a consortium of more than 450 industry, academic and government members, and its project calls exist to push robotics, autonomy and AI into U.S. manufacturing rather than to fund basic research. The 27-01 call targets defense manufacturing needs including high-mix castings and forgings, naval vessels, unmanned systems, munitions, and rapid production expansion, with a strong preference for dual-use technology that also benefits the broader U.S. manufacturing base. The preceding 26-01 call, a useful guide to scale and topic style, made roughly USD 2,000,000 available with a USD 500,000 per-project cap and named topic areas of Multi-Modal Inputs for AI Robotics in Manufacturing, Rapid Re-Tasking and Robot Agility, Multi-Robot and Multi-Human Collaboration and Supervised Autonomy, Adaptive Real-Time Path Planning and Control, and Mobile Robotics. The single most important eligibility constraint is membership: only ARM Institute members may submit, so non-members intending to apply need to start the membership process well ahead of the deadlines. The process is two-stage - concept papers are due 16 September 2026 and final submissions by 2 December 2026 at 5:00 PM ET, with a target project start on or before 1 February 2027 and project end by 31 January 2028, which implies a tightly scoped twelve-month execution plan rather than a multi-year research programme.

Boosting biorefinery competitiveness through biotech is sponsored by European Commission — Horizon Europe. Expected Outcome: Successful proposals will contribute to the implementation of the EU initiative on Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing, the EU Life Sciences Strategy, the updated EU Bioeconomy Strategy, the EU Biotechnology Act, the Clean Industrial Deal, the European Chemical Industry Action Plan and the upcoming EU Circular Economy Act. Projects results are expected to contribute to the following expected outcomes: Full industrial scale biorefinery and related value chain(s) for the sustainable production of bio-based products using biotech as a key enabling technology. Availability of bio-based products meeting market and technical performance requirements as relevant for their respective application areas. Improvement of sustainability, circularity and resource efficiency compared to relevant benchmark(s). Contribution to increasing the EU’s strategic autonomy, resilience and competitiveness. Scope: Biorefineries integrating biotechnologies, underpinned by sustainably sourced bio-based feedstock, have a huge potential to transform the EU manufacturing landscape, spurring socio-economic growth, fostering job creation and contributing to defossilisation of the EU economy. Europe is strong in life sciences including industrial biotechnology. However, research results often struggle to be deployed to the market; in most cases, scale-up needs de-risking and requires overcoming challenges in large-scale process and reactor design, cell productivity, efficient use of feedstock, operative condition stability, reactor sterility and efficient integration of downstream operations among others. Proposals under this topic should: Demonstrate (at TRL 8) a sustainable and robust biomanufacturing route to obtain bio-based product(s). The proposal should focus on processes in which biotechnology is the key enabling technology; the integration of (upstream and/or downstream) supporting unit operations based on technologies other than biotechnology is in scope. Products in scope include chemicals, intermediates, polymers, ingredients and enzymes. Food and feed ingredients as main application are out of scope. Optimisation of selected cells, enzymes and/or microorganisms is also in scope provided that the starting TRL is at least 6. Demonstrate (at TRL 8) the further conversion or use of the obtained biorefinery product(s) into at least one end-product driving the business case; validate it (TRL 6 and above) in relevant market applications. Additional end-product(s) with high prospective market potential can be targeted, reaching at least TRL 6. In addition to the specific requirements applicable for the type of action, as described in section 2.2.3.1 of the CBE JU Annual Work Programme 2026 [1] , proposals under this topic should: As part of the multi-actor approach (MAA), ensure adequate involvement of all key actors in the value chains relevant for this topic and across the sustainable circular bio-based system, including feedstock providers, policymakers and end users. Address compliance with EU regulatory frameworks as relevant for targeted products and applications, identify potential gaps and provide recommendations to overcome them. Perform a risk assessment on impacts, potentially deriving from the use of biotechnology, on human and ecosystem safety and identify adequate mitigation measures. Assess the adequacy of policy and regulatory means to manage these risks and provide recommendations to overcome potential identified bottlenecks. Include a task to apply the SSbD framework, developed by the European Commission, for the assessment of the production process of targeted biorefinery product(s) as well as the chosen derived end product(s). For more information on the SSbD framework and criteria, refer to Safe and sustainable by design . Seek complementarities and avoid overlaps with past and ongoing R&I projects addressing similar challenges, including those funded by BBI JU/CBE JU and under Horizon 2020/Horizon Europe (under Cl Programme areas: Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness, Food, Bioeconomy Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment, Bio-based Innovation Systems in the EU Bioeconomy, Horizon Europe (HORIZON) Keywords: Applied and industrial chemistry, Bioprocessing technologies (industrial processes relying on biological agents to drive the process) biocatalysis, fermentation, Industrial bioengineering, Industrial biotechnology, bio-based feedstock, bio-based products, bio-conversion, bioreactors, biorefineries, downstream technologies, safe and sustainable by design, STEP-Biotech