PEPR SPIN Exploratory “Spintronic innovations for frugal, agile and sustainable digital” – Call for proposals – 2024

The objective of PEPR SPIN is to push the boundaries of knowledge in spin electronics in order to prepare a new cycle of innovations taking into account digital frugality upstream, in the fields of calculation, the Internet of Things, reprogrammable logic, and intelligent sensors. The PEPR SPIN contributes to these objectives while seeking to deeply structure the national spintronics scientific community and further strengthen its attractiveness, to take full advantage of its strong potential. The objective of this Call for Proposals (CFPs) is to resource and complete the initial work program of the PEPR with the aim of capitalizing on new opportunities aimed at amplifying its impact, consistent with its mission and objectives.

This call for proposals addresses four thematic axes:

• Axis 1: contribute to the scientific and/or technological resourcing of the 5 targeted and/or transversal projects initially defined in the PEPR SPIN;
• Axis 2: create bridges between these existing projects, to go beyond the objectives initially identified in them;
• Axis 3: explore emerging functionalities likely to be disruptive applications (high risk/high gain);
• Axis 4: create bridges with other communities (e.g. other PEPRs) or other structuring projects beyond the core of the PEPR SPIN.

Two financing instruments are open: essentially ambitious collaborative projects, for an amount of aid allocated between €800,000 and €1 million per project, and one to two young scientist projects, whose amount of aid will be between €300k and €400k per project. In both cases, the duration of the projects must be between 3 and 4 years. The beneficiaries of the aid are research organizations and higher education and research establishments. Foreign companies and establishments may have the status of partner establishment in the projects, but will not benefit from financing for this participation. The maximum total volume of aid for this first CFPs is €7.6 million, i.e. half of the budget dedicated to CFPs in the PEPR SPIN.

The call for proposals will take place in two stages. In a first, mandatory phase, two-page letters of intent are requested, on the basis of which a reduced number of project proposals will be retained after evaluation by an internal PEPR SPIN evaluation committee, as well as, to the extent whenever possible, by the members of the office of the committee of international experts. In a second phase, the projects pre-selected in phase 1 will be asked to submit complete projects, which will be evaluated by a committee of international experts set up by the ANR.