European programmes

SPARC — The Partnership for Robotics in Europe

SPARC has no grant agreement: it was a contractual public-private partnership, not a project, which is why it appears in no CORDIS record. Its EUR 700M of Commission funding was matched by roughly triple that from European industry, for about EUR 2.8bn in total.

Updated 2026-09-03 · Last verified 2026-09-03

KindPartnership
FrameworkOutside any framework programme
CountryBE
Start2014-01
End2020-12
StatusClosed
Partners tracked here0
Full titleSPARC — The Partnership for Robotics in Europe
CoordinatoreuRobotics AISBL et Commission européenne
FunderCommission européenne et industrie européenne (partenariat public-privé contractuel)
EU contributionEUR 700M
Total costEUR 2.8bn
Focusrobotics public-private partnership, multi-annual roadmap, civilian robotics
What it left behindEUR 700M of European funding dedicated to robotics alone between 2014 and 2020 — the largest civilian-funded robotics innovation programme in the world at the time — and the multi-annual robotics roadmap that euRobotics still maintains. What it did not leave behind is a successor dedicated to robotics.

Trajectory

The dated, sourced shifts in this project's life: licence, governance, archival, a component opening up. What the brick did, not what it announces.

  1. Partnership signed Opening

    The contractual public-private partnership in robotics is signed on 17 December 2013 by Commission Vice-President Neelie Kroes and euRobotics president Bernd Liepert, for the 2014-2020 period.

  2. Project end Closing

    SPARC's term ends. European robotics loses the partnership that was its own.

  3. Successor announced Neutral

    ADRA is founded on 21 May 2021 by five associations — BDVA, CAIRNE, ELLIS, EurAI and euRobotics — as the private side of a partnership that now covers AI, data and robotics together.

Sources: euRobotics AISBL (page SPARC) (2026-09-03)euRobotics AISBL (2026-09-03)ADRA (AI, Data and Robotics Association) (2026-09-03)

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Christian Verbrugge

Christian Verbrugge · D·Fairy

Bringing a physical AI solution into European industry?

15 years at KUKA on automotive OEM programs (€100M), now focused on edge AI and autonomous agents. I support robotics and embodied AI companies on their EMEA market entry: OEM and Tier 1 access, co-funded pilots, AI Act readiness.

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