Horizon Europe European Union
Neutral-Atom Platform Technologies
This action aims to establish European leadership in neutral-atom quantum simulation and digital quantum computing by delivering: • Fully programmable industry-ready quan…
Horizon Europe · European Union
Apply AI: Challenge-Driven AI Innovation Booster in Apply AI prioritised sectors (RIA) (Partnership in AI…
Full title in the source: Apply AI: Challenge-Driven AI Innovation Booster in Apply AI prioritised sectors (RIA) (Partnership in AI, Data and Robotics)
Opens 17 Nov 2026
The EU's Horizon Europe programme expects to make 3 awards of €14 million each, from a total budget of €42 million. Applications close on 18 Mar 2027 (EU calls usually close at 17:00 Brussels time). Organisations in EU member states and Horizon Europe associated countries such as Türkiye can usually take part; the topic conditions control.
- Deadline
- 18 Mar 2027 (in 123 days)
- Opens
- 17 Nov 2026
- Grant amount
- €14 million per project
- Total budget
- €42 million
- Funding rate
- 100% of eligible costs Standard rule for this programme; the call can differ.
- Total budget
- €42 million
- Expected awards
- 3
- Type of action
- HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions · HORIZON Action Grant Budget-Based
- Likely applicant types
- Companies, SMEs / start-ups, Non-profits, Universities & research, Public bodies From source categories or programme rules; the call decides.
- Funder
- Horizon Europe (HORIZON)
- Reference
- HORIZON-CL4-2027-04-DIGITAL-EMERGING-04
- Call
- HORIZON-CL4-2027-04
- Last checked
- 14 Nov 2026
Expected outcome
The Apply AI Strategy [1] proposes a comprehensive set of measures to notably harness the transformative potential of AI. It lays down targeted measures to boost AI use in key strategic sectors of the EU economy including healthcare, mobility and manufacturing for example. With challenges designed to spark breakthroughs in such strategic sectors, the current topic will directly support key activities of the Apply AI Strategy.
Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:
• Significant technological progress and innovation in Apply AI Strategy's prioritised sectors driven by challenge-oriented, AI-powered solutions.
• Increase competitiveness and visibility of the relevant AI community within key application sectors, and promote collaborative approaches for AI development in these sectors, fostering the ecosystem.
• Increase adoption of AI technologies across the following three key application sectors: healthcare, advanced manufacturing (including AI-powered robotics) and in-vehicle autonomous driving.
Scope
The Challenge-Driven AI Innovation Booster aims to drive significant technological progress and innovation in Apply AI prioritised sectors through challenge-oriented, AI-powered solutions. This initiative seeks to boost Europe's developer community and the adoption of powerful, trustworthy AI solutions in three strategic sectors such as:
• In healthcare - advanced AI will accelerate diagnostics and treatment plans, enhance robotic surgery, or improve patient care through predictive analytics.
• In advanced manufacturing - advanced AI will optimize production processes, improve quality control and product design, or enable predictive maintenance.
• In autonomous driving - advanced AI will enhance vehicle safety, improve navigation systems, or optimize traffic management. Provided sufficient quality of the proposals received, at least one selected project will focus on in-vehicle autonomous driving applications, in line with the Automotive Action Plan, ensuring coordination with the announced Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Alliance.
Read the full text
Each proposal should address exclusively on one of the three key sectors mentioned above, and clearly indicate which sector they address.
It is expected to focus primarily on the definition and organization of a multi-stage competition in the chosen sector, as well as on the accompanying support to the SMEs/teams taking part in each of the challenges.
User-industry companies from the strategic sector targeted by the proposal should be core partners in each consortium. They should demonstrate a genuine interest in the project results and therefore support the challenge participants to reach the most powerful and exploitable results benefiting their industry. The expected results are pre-competitive, but the proposal must include a draft exploitation plan focused on how the solutions developed by the third parties will be taken up, with support from the user-industry partners for their future exploitation.
The consortium leading the project is responsible for the various stages of the challenges. This consortium should provide the necessary support resources during each stage of the competition (including technical assistance and business support to develop an exploitation strategy) and, most importantly, the consortium should ensure that the teams competing for and receiving financial support to third parties have access to relevant data to fine-tune models and build high-impact solutions meeting industry needs.
Proposals should be driven by impactful use-cases where advanced AI can make the difference: a number of industries from the targeted sector are expected to join forces to define challenging problems to solve with advanced AI solutions, which then drive the rest of the project. Based on such challenges, each project consortium should organize a multi-staged competition with an increasing level of complexity. In the different stages (see below), third parties, either single SMEs or small teams of organisations…
Who can apply
Consortium of at least 3 independent legal entities from 3 different EU Member States or associated countries, at least one in a Member State (Horizon Europe standard rule). Country restriction: participation is limited to legal entities established in Member States, Iceland and Norway and the following additional associated countries: Canada, Israel, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
Applicant categories are a starting point. The official call decides eligibility.
Topics
Artificial intelligence, intelligent systems, multi agent systems Apply AI Artificial Intelligence Challenge Competition Robotics
Timing
Single-stage call. Next deadline 2027-03-18. The portal states the exact cut-off time (EU calls usually close at 17:00 Brussels time).
How to apply
- Read the full topic on the Funding & Tenders Portal: expected outcome, scope, type of action and the topic conditions, including any country restrictions.
- Register each participating organisation in the Funding & Tenders Portal to get a PIC.
- Consortium of at least 3 independent legal entities from 3 different EU Member States or associated countries (Horizon Europe standard rule; Türkiye is associated). Confirm in the topic conditions.
- Prepare Part A (administrative forms and budget, completed in the portal) and Part B (the technical description on the official template for this type of action).
- Submit in the portal before the cut-off time on the deadline day. Late submissions are not accepted.
From the call text
- Who can apply
- Not stated in the call text we hold — check the official page
- Company stage
- Not stated in the call text we hold — check the official page
- Single applicant or consortium
- Read the topic conditions on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal for eligible countries, consortium requirements, budget and the application route.
- Where applicants must be based
- Read the topic conditions on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal for eligible countries, consortium requirements, budget and the application route.
- Where to apply
- Read the topic conditions on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal for eligible countries, consortium requirements, budget and the application route.
Where these facts come from
| Fact | Value | How we know | Taken from the source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deadline | 18 March 2027 “Single-stage call. Next deadline 2027-03-18. The portal states the exact cut-off time (EU calls usually close at 17:00 Brussels time).” | official data field | 15 Nov 2026 |
| Amount per applicant | Unknown — not stated in the source we hold | unknown | — |
| Total budget | €42 million | official data field | 15 Nov 2026 |
| Funding rate | 100% of eligible costs | programme standard rule | 15 Nov 2026 |
| Who can apply | Consortium of at least 3 independent legal entities from 3 different EU Member States or associated countries, at least one in a Member State (Horizon Europe standard rule). Country restriction: participation is… | programme standard rule | 15 Nov 2026 |
| Where to apply | Read the topic conditions on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal for eligible countries, consortium requirements, budget and the application route. | read from the official text | 15 Nov 2026 |
Official sources
Facts on this page come from the funder’s official data, taken on 14 Nov 2026. The funder's own documents, including later amendments, always take precedence.
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