NEURA Research Programme — Call for Proposals (Funding Year 2026/2027)

About

The NEURA Research Programme funds universities, publicly funded research institutes and startups established in Germany, the EU, the UK or Switzerland with up to €500,000 per project over 12–18 months to bring Physical AI research to pilot readiness on NEURA's MiPA service robot in health care, retail or hospitality.

Benefits

• 💰Funding — Up to €500,000 per project over 12–18 months, based on actual need, with up to €10 million total funding expected for this call
• 🤖MiPA Platform (required) — Mobile dual-arm service robot with an open software API (2 × 7-DoF lightweight arms, 3.0 kg payload per arm, 1 kHz low-level control, NVIDIA Jetson Thor onboard compute, ROS 2 + Python SDK, Isaac Sim + Gazebo models), provided under a monthly leasing model with the leasing rate paid from the granted funding
• 🧪NEURA Gym Services — Real-world test environment to integrate, train and evaluate capabilities on the target system and collect data remotely with MiPA
• 🌐Neuraverse — Simulation and exchange platform with digital twin, integrated data recorder, training and qualification, plus a marketplace to publish your own skills and models
• 🤝Application Partners — Access to NEURA's application partners in the health care, retail and hospitality segments

Eligibility Criteria

• Mandatory: applicants must be universities or higher education institutions, publicly funded research institutes, or startups
• Mandatory: the applicant organization must be established in Germany, another EU Member State, the United Kingdom or Switzerland
• Mandatory: the project must be implemented on the NEURA platform MiPA
• Mandatory: the project must have a clear focus on at least one segment — Health Care, Retail or Hospitality
• Mandatory: the project must show a realistic path to TRL 6–7 within the funding period, enabling a pilot with an application partner
• Mandatory: proposals must be submitted as a single PDF (max. six pages in English or German, plus CVs, letters of intent and a work and cost plan) to mipa_research@neura-robotics.com before 24:00 CET on the deadline
• Not eligible: basic research without a concrete application and piloting focus
• No minimum TRL is required at application; early-stage research is eligible
• Preferred: joint projects with several eligible institutions and cooperations with application partners from the target segments are welcome and viewed favourably, and demonstrated piloting experience with robotic systems in real-world environments is a selection criterion.

Participation Commitments

• Selected projects must implement their capability on the NEURA platform MiPA and focus on at least one of the three segments
• MiPA is provided under a monthly leasing model, and the costs of NEURA's contributions — in particular the MiPA leasing rate and NEURA Gym Services — are covered from the granted funding and must be included in the work and cost plan
• Project start is subject to a separate cooperation agreement with NEURA
• No application fee, tuition or equity requirement is stated in the call; the cost of NEURA's contributions is financed from the granted funding.

Target Region

Applicants must be established in Germany, another EU Member State, the United Kingdom or Switzerland. This requirement applies to the applicant organization — universities and higher education institutions, publicly funded research institutes and startups. Joint projects with several eligible institutions and cooperations with application partners from the target segments are welcome.

Target Sector

Healthcare & Life Sciences, Retail & Consumer, Travel & Hospitality