Imminent closure of calls for proposals
We offer you our selection of cascade funding calls that will soon close. There is still time left to participate.
Pathways2Resilience
This is an expression of interest, marking the first step for regions and communities to join the next selection cycle. Selected regions and communities will benefit from a range of support services and capacity-building activities designed to enhance their capacity to implement transformative climate adaptation actions and formulate their strategic adaptation instruments. Pathways2Resilience project will launch a second call for applicants in May 2025 (TBC), to select an additional 60 regions and communities to receive sub-grants of up to €210 000 for an 18-month project period. The expression of interest represents the first step of this selection cycle.
Maximum funding request per proposal: not funding in this stage. Up to €210 000 in the next cycle.
Eligibility and consortia: local and regional public authorities.
Deadline: 18th April 2025.
CoARA Boost
This programme supports institutions in reforming research assessment practices. It facilitates knowledge exchange, pilot initiatives, and the development of innovative research assessment approaches. The aim is to promote lasting institutional changes in research assessment practices within participating institutions.
Maximum funding request per proposal: €30,000-€60,000, depending on the type of project.
Eligibility and consortia: universities, research organisations, funding bodies, and other non-for-profit entities involved in research assessment. Faculties of universities may apply, but the application must be in the name of the university, not the faculty.
Deadline: 21st April 2025.
NebulOuS
The aim is to validate extended aspects of the NebulOuS platform by funding projects that test and demonstrate the platform’s capabilities in real-world applications, particularly for latency-sensitive and data-intensive scenarios. Applicants should propose innovative solutions to enhance the NebulOuS Meta-OS architecture.
Maximum funding request per proposal: €150,000.
Eligibility and consortia: SMEs working in the fields of IoT, Edge, Cloud, or other related technologies. Proposals can be submitted by single entities or consortia of up to two entities.
Deadline: 23rd April 2025.
Autoassess
Autoassess focuses on a fully autonomous inspection of ballast tanks and cargo holds of vessels. The open call searches innovative technology solutions to: reliable high-bandwidth communication for off-board control of drones; stereo event-camera on miniature drone; human operator interface for FA-IUAS; crack detection with multi-element ultrasound transducer; synchronization of multi-modal sensor data.
Maximum funding request per proposal: €100,000.
Eligibility and consortia: startups and SMEs applying individually or in consortia (up to two entities)
Deadline: 24th April 2025.
Up2Circ
The call supports projects focused on the adoption of circular business models and technologies, aiming to improve the sustainability of SMEs in the EU. It funds small-scale feasibility studies and large-scale piloting or demonstration activities to enhance circularity in businesses.
Maximum funding request per proposal: €15,000 fors small scale projects; €50,000 for large scale projects.
Eligibility and consortia: SMEs. Applicants must complete a circularity assessment with Up2Circ support and participate in the Up2Circ Academy. Only single entities can apply.
Deadline: 30th April 2025.
Elias
Projects based on AI applications that engage with the network in the categories Methodology, Software/Tools, Benchmarks relevant but not limited to the use cases of in the scope of AI for Sustainability: AI for building optimization; AI for monitoring the virtual infrastructure; responsible, user-centric advertising; mitigating misinformed migrant perception in EU; AI for forecasting of vegetation state; materials discovery; personalized co-piloting systems. The proposals will address high-impact societal and economic challenges using machine learning.
Maximum funding request per proposal: €60,000.
Eligibility and consortia: SME, startups and NGOs.
Deadline: 30th April 2025.
Magician
Magician addresses the challenge of enhancing production processes by integrating modular robotic solutions. These solutions aim to detect and rework production defects before final product aesthetics are completed. The innovations include Sensing Robot (SR), focused on defect detection and Cleaning Robot (CR), designed for defect rework, which are robotic solutions can operate independently or collaboratively, incorporating a human-centered approach to optimize collaboration, productivity, and quality while enhancing working conditions and revitalising industrial environments. The call aims to integrate new functionalities into the Magician project’s robotic solutions, with a focus on enhancing the capabilities of the SR and CR. Particularly interested in: advanced defect detection algorithms; efficient rework techniques; complementary AI modules for real-time optimization.
Maximum funding request per proposal: €200,000.
Eligibility and consortia: startups and SMEs, either individually or as part of a consortium (maximum of two legal entities).
Deadline: 2nd May 2025.
Jarvis
First open call for projects committed to advancing human-robot collaboration in a user-centric manner. Challenges: agile Manufacturing; AI enhanced inspection; maintenance; and an open topic.
Maximum funding request per proposal: €60,000.
Eligibility and consortia: two or three organisations, including a mandatory technology adopter (end-user) and a technology developer/integrator (SME or start-up).
Deadline: 5th May 2025.
NEBA
The open call aims to expand the regional and thematic reach of the New European Bauhaus Alliance (NEBA) by offering three types of cascade grants: Regional hub grants (up to €15,000), funding for consortia to establish a hub in underrepresented regions; Partnering grants (up to €10,000), support for institutions in existing NEBA regions to provide training on uncovered topics; Training course & Material grants (up to €2,000), funding for developing new training courses and materials for the NEBA portfolio.
Maximum funding request per proposal: €2,000-€15,000.
Eligibility and consortia: legal entities that are already actively implementing trainings to up-skill and re-skill workers and shape a new building culture, considering ecological limitations, circularity, waste reduction, technical innovations and novel construction materials. Regional hub grants: consortium of at least 3 legal entities. Partnering with existing NEBA hubs grants: one legal entity as single beneficiary. Training course and material grants: one legal entity as single beneficiary. If a course is implemented as a joint course between two or more entities, a consortium can apply.
Deadline: 5th May 2025.
We-Rise
First open call (phase 1) to empower underrepresented female entrepreneurs in GreenTech, AgriTech, and ClimateTech, through a strategic blend of funding and tailored support. The project’s pillars include amplifying market presence through targeted funding and investor matchmaking, integrating startups into the ecosystem through cross-border acceleration activities, and providing a holistic growth program.
Maximum funding request per proposal: €55,000.
Eligibility and consortia: women-led tech startups.
Deadline: 14th May 2025.
Soprano
This open call supports innovative SMEs or startups in the robotics field to develop demonstrators involving human-robot collaboration, with a focus on multi-human multi-robot scenarios. The goal is to integrate Soprano technologies into robotics solutions addressing various industrial sectors.
Maximum funding request per proposal: €200,000. For SMEs, the financial support covers 70% of the project budget, meaning the maximum grant is €140,000. Startups receive 100% funding, with no co-financing required.
Eligibility and consortia: eligible applicants include robotics SMEs/startups or consortia of two-three SMEs/startups. Who should apply? Robotics equipment vendors, robotics systems developers, robotics systems integrators, industrial robotics application providers.
Deadline: 14th May 2025.
Echoes
It supports projects aimed at enhancing digital engagement, data sharing, and collaboration within the cultural heritage community. Proposals should define the dataset’s intended user community, its purpose (e.g., research, education, virtual exhibitions), expected outcomes, and broader benefits. Additionally, proposers are asked to provide a scenario of how the project would like to make use of the Cultural Heritage Cloud. This should include a list of the possible steps needed to analyse and process the Cultural Heritage dataset. Finally, a detailed dataset description is required, covering content, technical specifications, ethical considerations, availability, and licensing.
Maximum funding request per proposal: €60,000 for call 1 (Data). A maximum of 12 projects will be funded.
Eligibility and consortia: the coordinator must be a Cultural Heritage Institution (CHI) located in an eligible country under Horizon Europe. The consortium can include a mix of CHIs, researchers, SMEs, civil society actors, and others. Smaller or lesser-resourced CHIs are especially encouraged to apply.
Deadline: 15th May 2025.
Lilas4Soils
Lilas4Soils project promotes carbon farming practices to enhance soil health and mitigate climate impacts in Mediterranean and Southern EU regions. Selected farmers are expected to commit to the following conditions: provide a field of a minimum size of 1 ha for the implementation of carbon farming practices; provide historical data on the identified field such as production history and farming practices (i.e. fertilization and amendments, irrigation practices, tillage practices, crop rotations), and previous soil analysis; discuss and agree with Lilas4Soils Living Lab leaders, etc.
Maximum funding request per proposal: €15,000.
Eligibility and consortia: farmers through a registered company located in France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Portugal or Spain.
Deadline: 16th May 2025.
EIT Culture & Creativity
The EIT Culture & Creativity (EIT CC) offers two tailored programmes to support start-ups and scale-ups in the Cultural and Creative Sectors and Industries (CCSI). The programmes aim to enhance business growth, market expansion, and sustainability through mentorship and strategic guidance. The programmes focus on the priority areas of Fashion, Architecture, Cultural Heritage, Audiovisual Media, and Gaming.
Maximum funding request per proposal: Shape Programme (Acceleration – Up to €30,000 for first-place prizes, €15,000 for second-place, and €7,500 for third-place, with a total prize budget of €330,000 per cohort); Scale Programme (Post-acceleration – Up to €60,000 for first-place prizes, €30,000 for second-place, and €15,000 for third-place, with a total prize budget of €660,000 per cohort).
Eligibility and consortia: Shape Programme (Acceleration – Start-ups and SMEs with at least two years of operation, a tested business model, and ambitions for future growth and investment within two years); Scale Programme (Post-acceleration – Scale-ups and SMEs with at least three years of commercial success and presence in at least two EU member states or Horizon Europe-associated countries, with plans to raise capital).
Deadline: 23rd May 2025 (cohort 1). 11th July 2025 (cohort 2).
Spade
Three main case studies with a focus on developing innovative drone technology solutions for agriculture, forestry, and livestock management: Open-field agriculture (Spain): drones for crop monitoring and management; Forestry (Norway): using drones to improve forest monitoring and operations; Livestock (Greece): drones for livestock monitoring and grazing management. Also, Universal Challenges (applicable to all case studies). These challenges focus on cutting-edge drone technologies that can be used across various agricultural and environmental applications.
Maximum funding request per proposal: €60,000.
Eligibility and consortia: universities and research centers; NGOs and foundations, Non-profit organizations; SMEs and startups.
Deadline: 26th May 2025.
PQ-React
It is focused on the implementation of post-quantum cryptography (PQC) solutions. It invites consortia to develop and test innovative solutions for the challenges of PQC use cases, which involve computational complexity and energy efficiency.
Use case 1: Smart grid meters. Apply PQC and QKD hybridization in 5G/6G networks to improve security and performance for critical infrastructure in highly connected environments.
Use case 2: 5G and 6G architectures. Leveraging PQC and QKD hybridisation approaches related to 5G and their evolution to 6G architectures. PQ-REACT will investigate their application to significant use cases, especially related to protection mechanisms for the network infrastructure, addressing the security and performance requirements in highly-pervasive, critical networked environments.
Use case 3: Test and validate PQC-enabled services/apps for communication, authentication, and network security protocols like QUIC, SIP, DNSSEC, and OAuth2 to resist quantum attacks.
Use case 4: Eclipse-Qrisp for PQC. Validate new PQC solutions using HPC or QC tools, including QAOA, Shor’s algorithm, and quantum primitives for problem-solving with Qrisp.
Maximum funding request per proposal: €162,500.
Eligibility and consortia: proposals must be submitted by a consortium consisting of two-three partners. At least one SME and one technical provider (such as a university, research centre, NGO, or foundation) must be involved.
Deadline: 27th May 2025.
Stage
A program dedicated to aiding SMEs in becoming sustainable leaders within their respective industries. The initiative includes three phases: sustainability assessments, including carbon footprint assessments, EU taxonomy assessments, and the development of transition roadmaps and sustainability transition plans for at least 500 SMEs; training and capacity building across four pillars, facilitated by Stage partners; advisory services to help SMEs create investment project plans and secure private funding. Through this initiative, 2,000 SMEs will be matched with experienced sustainability advisors who will guide them through the process.
Maximum funding request per proposal: 500 SMEs shall be granted up to €50,000 through the Stage Financial Grant Programme via separate calls and additional application process. The best performing 20 companies shall receive dedicated financial advisory.
Eligibility and consortia: any European industrial SME.
Deadline: 31st May 2025.
Fortis
It aims to attract and engage universities, research organizations, mid-caps, SMEs, and startups in developing and integrating solutions that will enhance human-robot interaction (HRI). Successful projects will contribute to the Fortis solution, focusing on creating technologies that can be integrated into the Fortis ecosystem to support safe and efficient human-robot collaboration.
Maximum funding request per proposal: €250,000 for a duration of 10 months. Funding is disbursed in three tranches across three sprints: 30% for Sprint 1, 40% for Sprint 2, and 30% for Sprint 3.
Eligibility and consortia: RTOs, universities, mid-caps, SMEs, and startups in fields like human-robot interaction, robotics, AI, and activity recognition. Consortium Requirements: proposals must involve two-three entities from at least two different countries, with a minimum of one SME per project. Non-industry partners cannot exceed 30% of the total project budget.
Deadline: 4th June 2025.
Master
The second open calls seeks to attract the best candidates to create educational content and validate the platform, as well as the technologies developed in the project. The call invites applications from educational institutions, SMEs, and large companies to contribute to the creation and validation of XR technologies for the teaching and training of robotics in manufacturing.
Maximum funding request per proposal: €100,000. Funding breakdown: 100% for educational institutes (non-profit organizations), 70% for SMEs, and 0% for large for-profit companies.
Eligibility and consortia: university/research/education non-profit organizations that can provide education or content creation services and guarantee the participation of students in the validation of technologies. SMEs and large for-profit companies can participate voluntarily as challenge providers but will not receive funding. Micro-consortiums must include at least one non-profit educational institution as the coordinator.
Deadline: 12th June 2025.
VR Health Champions
An initiative that aimed at accelerating the development of XR (Extended Reality) technologies in healthcare, particularly in less developed regions of Central, Eastern, and Southern Europe. The project focuses on five flagship SMEs (Lightspace, MEEVA, MedApp, Metaskills, and Virtuleap) that are leading this transformation. The goal is to upgrade their TRL for VR/AR innovations from TRL 6 to TRL 9. Applicants must select one of the five challenge areas, each aligned with the innovation roadmap of a VR Health Champions Flagship SME: Lightspace – AR-specific camera/sensor integration with focus on depth sensing; MedApp – Developing a clinical risk assessment framework for XR in surgical navigation; Metaskills – Feasibility study, market strategy and pilot implementation for AI-assisted VR soft skills training in EU healthcare institutions; MEEVA – AI-based virtual agents in VR-based therapy; Virtuleap – VR-specific technical documentation framework development.
Maximum funding request per proposal: lump sum grant of up to €40,000 to address a specific challenge in the XR healthcare sector.
Eligibility and consortia: SMEs with at least one year of business or professional activity. Applicants are expected to collaborate with one of the five flagship SMEs on specific challenges aligned with the innovation roadmap of each SME. A region covered by the VR Health Champions consortium. Belgium: Brussels Capital region. Germany: Oberbayern region. Hungary: Budapest region. Italy: Trento region. Latvia. Poland: Malopolska region, Lodzkie region. Portugal: Centro region. Spain: Madrid.
Deadline: 23rd June 2025.
EITUM-BP23-25
Call to address gaps in our innovation portfolio related to business plans and strategic agendas, as well as respond to external changes such as technological advancements, policies, and urgent events. The 2nd cut-off-related topics and requirements should be announced in October 2024 (two months prior to the deadline). Always, at least the following two mandatory tasks shall be included: to develop a new product/service/solution or significantly improve an existing product/service/solution, reaching full market readiness by the end of the project (TRL 8/9); to conduct a demonstration of the product/service/solution. Additional mandatory/optional tasks may be defined in relation to the different topics, as appropriate.
Maximum funding request per proposal: total EIT funding for this call: €4,2 million euros. A minimum co-funding rate of 33%. However, the co-funding rate may differ from one cut-off to the next. For applicants applying for topics addressing solely RIS countries, a co-funding rate of 20% may apply. Additional co-funding will be positively assessed.
Eligibility and consortia: organisations from Member States of the EU.
Deadline: 31st December 2025.