Advancing AI-readiness and Machine-Actionability in the EOSC Ecosystem

The grant opportunity titled "Advancing AI-readiness and Machine-Actionability in the EOSC Ecosystem" is designed to improve the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) by integrating artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities and enhancing data interoperability. This initiative is part of the Horizon Europe program and emphasizes collaboration among various stakeholders, including universities, research institutes, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as well as public-private partnerships.

Eligible applicant types include research organizations, universities, research institutes, and consortia that can effectively contribute to research and innovation actions related to AI, machine learning, and open science. The funding primarily takes the form of a Horizon Lump Sum Grant, which requires a consortium approach to foster collaboration across countries and scientific disciplines. Geographic eligibility encompasses EU member states, countries associated with the Horizon Europe framework, and potentially other non-associated countries under specific provisions.

The target sectors for this grant include artificial intelligence, data science, machine learning, and open science infrastructure, with a strong focus on enhancing the findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability (FAIR) of data through AI-driven solutions. The expected project stages involve development, validation, and integration of AI tools into existing EOSC services. While specific funding amounts for individual projects aren’t explicitly stated, they are anticipated to range from €1 million to €5 million based on historical funding patterns within similar initiatives.

The application process is a single-stage open call, with applications due by September 18, 2025. Given the competitive nature of Horizon Europe grants, success rates typically vary from 10% to 39%. Co-funding is expected as part of the EOSC co-investment model, which includes contributions from both EU and national partners.

This funding initiative aims to build a federated research environment that supports open science and facilitates seamless access to FAIR data and services across Europe. It encourages the development of tools and protocols that enhance machine-actionable workflows, contributing significantly to the European landscape of data-driven research. The overall goal is to establish an AI-ready ecosystem capable of fostering trustworthy and transparent AI practices.

This is a summary of multiple Horizon Europe funding opportunities related to research infrastructures, specifically focusing on advancing AI-readiness and machine-actionability within the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) ecosystem. The calls aim to improve data FAIRification (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable), data curation, and data quality assurance using AI and machine learning (AI/ML). The overall goal is to create a European web of FAIR data and services.

Key Objectives:

Advance AI-readiness and Machine-Actionability: Develop AI-ready federated infrastructure and platform services within EOSC to address the lack of interoperability in AI/ML solutions.

Integrate Machine-Actionable Repositories: Focus on integrating repositories that support machine-actionability into the EOSC ecosystem, ensuring seamless integration with the EOSC EU Node.

Provide Compute and Repository Services: Offer European researchers access to necessary compute and repository services for developing, training, and validating AI/ML models.

Customize AI-Based Assistance Tools: Develop and train AI-based tools to discover and compose open science resources into custom workflows.

Ensure Openness and Transparency: Promote the use of Open Data and Open Research Software to ensure reliability, trustworthiness, and transparency in AI/ML.

Specific Areas of Focus:

Tools for Machine-Actionability: Develop and prototype tools to enhance machine-actionability in repositories, data, and services, creating a network of trusted repositories linked to the EOSC EU Node.

Open Protocols and Policies: Formulate open protocols and policies to facilitate data access, transfer, processing, and provenance updates within the EOSC repository and service network.

Interoperable AI/ML Solutions: Deliver AI-based capabilities to make AI/ML solutions interoperable and facilitate custom workflows for research data processing.

Quality Measures for AI/ML Models: Offer tools and services for automatic quality assessment of inputs and outputs of AI/ML models.

Federated Infrastructure Services: Provide federated infrastructure services for serving AI models, integrating horizontal and thematic EOSC nodes, and ensuring capacities for AI model retraining and inference.

Easy-to-Use Technology Platform: Provide access to a technology platform with reference implementations and recipes for working with AI/ML, promoting state-of-the-art AI/ML operational best practices.

AI/ML Model Repositories: Establish and provide access to AI/ML model repositories and services for retraining generic models, enhancing FAIRness, and offering services for model utilization, including fine-tuning and inference.

EOSC AI/ML Competency Center: Establish a competency center for expertise pooling and coordinated support on AI/ML use of data, compute infrastructure, and AI/ML models.

Eligible Applicants:

The Joint Research Centre (JRC) may participate as a member of the consortium.

A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects.

Funding Details:

Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum.

Grants awarded under these topics will be linked through collaboration agreements to the grants from the action: HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-EOSC-05: Using Generative AI (GenAI4EU) for Scientific Research via EOSC.

Specific Grant Topics:

HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-DEV-01: Coordination and Support Actions with a budget of 10,000,000 EUR, contributions ranging from 1,000,000 to 1,500,000 EUR, and an indicative number of 8 grants.

HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-DEV-02: Coordination and Support Actions with a budget of 16,500,000 EUR, contributions ranging from 1,000,000 to 1,500,000 EUR, and an indicative number of 11 grants.

HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-DEV-03: Research and Innovation Actions with a budget of 30,000,000 EUR, contributions ranging from 3,000,000 to 4,000,000 EUR, and an indicative number of 8 grants.

HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-DEV-04: Coordination and Support Actions with a budget of 3,000,000 EUR, contributions ranging from 1,500,000 to 3,000,000 EUR, and an indicative number of 1 grant.

HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-DEV-05: Coordination and Support Actions with a budget of 4,500,000 EUR, contributions ranging from 1,000,000 to 1,500,000 EUR, and an indicative number of 3 grants.

HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-EOSC-01: Research and Innovation Actions with a budget of 30,000,000 EUR, contributions ranging from 6,000,000 to 8,000,000 EUR, and an indicative number of 4 grants.

HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-EOSC-02: Research and Innovation Actions with a budget of 16,000,000 EUR, contributions ranging from 5,000,000 to 8,000,000 EUR, and an indicative number of 2 grants.

HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-EOSC-03: Research and Innovation Actions with a budget of 15,000,000 EUR, contributions ranging from 7,500,000 to 15,000,000 EUR, and an indicative number of 2 grants.

HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-EOSC-04: Coordination and Support Actions with a budget of 8,000,000 EUR, contributions ranging from 5,000,000 to 8,000,000 EUR, and an indicative number of 1 grant.

HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-EOSC-05: Research and Innovation Actions with a budget of 37,500,000 EUR, contributions ranging from 7,500,000 to 10,000,000 EUR, and an indicative number of 4 grants.

HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-SERV-01: Research and Innovation Actions with a budget of 30,000,000 EUR, contributions around 10,000,000 EUR, and an indicative number of 3 grants.

HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-SERV-02: Research and Innovation Actions with a budget of 20,000,000 EUR, contributions around 5,000,000 EUR, and an indicative number of 4 grants.

HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-SERV-03: Research and Innovation Actions with a budget of 20,000,000 EUR, contributions around 10,000,000 EUR, and an indicative number of 2 grants.

HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-SERV-04: Research and Innovation Actions with a budget of 20,000,000 EUR, contributions around 5,000,000 EUR, and an indicative number of 5 grants.

HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-TECH-01: Research and Innovation Actions with a budget of 25,000,000 EUR, contributions around 5,000,000 EUR, and an indicative number of 5 grants.

HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-TECH-02: Research and Innovation Actions with a budget of 45,000,000 EUR, contributions around 10,000,000 EUR, and an indicative number of 4 grants.

HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-TECH-03: Research and Innovation Actions with a budget of 30,000,000 EUR, contributions ranging from 7,000,000 to 10,000,000 EUR, and an indicative number of 4 grants.

HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-TECH-04: Research and Innovation Actions with a budget of 40,000,000 EUR, contributions ranging from 8,000,000 to 10,000,000 EUR, and an indicative number of 4 grants.

Key Dates:

Opening Date: May 6, 2025

Deadline Date: September 18, 2025, 17:00:00 Brussels time

Additional Access Rights for Beneficiaries:

Each beneficiary must grant royalty-free access to its results to the EOSC Association for monitoring and developing policies and strategies for the European Open Science Cloud.

Each beneficiary must provide directly to the EOSC Association the information the beneficiary deems necessary for monitoring and developing policies and strategies for the European Open Science Cloud.

Each beneficiary must grant royalty-free access to its intellectual property rights which are part of the results and are needed for further developing the European Open Science Cloud to legal entities identified by the granting authority and established in Member States or countries associated to the Horizon Europe Framework Programme. Such access rights are limited to non-commercial use.

Beneficiaries must deposit the digital research data generated in the action in a trusted repository federated in the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) in compliance with EOSC requirements.

Overall, this funding opportunity aims to bolster the European Open Science Cloud by integrating AI and machine learning technologies to improve data FAIRness, interoperability, and accessibility for researchers across Europe, fostering a new paradigm for scientific production.

Eligible Applicant Types: The eligible applicant types are not explicitly stated but can be inferred to include research organizations, universities, research institutes, and potentially other entities capable of contributing to research and innovation actions related to AI, machine learning, and open science cloud infrastructures. The Joint Research Centre (JRC) may participate as a member of the consortium. The Enterprise Europe Network is mentioned for advice to businesses with special focus on SMEs.

Funding Type: The funding type is primarily a grant, specifically a HORIZON Lump Sum Grant, under the HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions (HORIZON-RIA) and HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions (HORIZON-CSA).

Consortium Requirement: The opportunity appears to favor a consortium approach, as the Joint Research Centre (JRC) may participate as a member of a consortium. The call also mentions partner search announcements, suggesting that collaboration is encouraged.

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility): The primary geographic eligibility includes EU member states and countries associated with the Horizon Europe Framework Programme. Non-EU/non-Associated Countries may also be eligible under specific provisions.

Target Sector: The program targets the following sectors: AI/ML, ICT, space, software services, quantum computing, artificial intelligence, semiconductors, research infrastructures, data FAIRification, open science, and cloud computing.

Mentioned Countries: The opportunity explicitly mentions EU member states and countries associated with the Horizon Europe Framework Programme, as well as non-EU/non-associated countries with specific funding provisions.

Project Stage: The expected maturity of the project for this opportunity includes development, prototyping, validation, and potentially demonstration, given the focus on developing tools, federated infrastructure services, and technology platforms.

Funding Amount: The funding amounts vary depending on the specific topic within the call, ranging from €1,000,000 to €15,000,000 for Coordination and Support Actions (CSA) and from €3,000,000 to €15,000,000 or even around €5,000,000 to €10,000,000 for Research and Innovation Actions (RIA).

Application Type: The application type is an open call with a single-stage submission process.

Nature of Support: Beneficiaries will receive money in the form of a lump sum grant.

Application Stages: The application process involves a single stage.

Success Rates: The success rates are not explicitly mentioned, but the indicative number of grants for each topic provides some insight into the potential competitiveness.

Co-funding Requirement: Co-funding requirements are not explicitly mentioned in the provided text.

Summary: This Horizon Europe call, specifically HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-EOSC-03, focuses on "Advancing AI-readiness and Machine-Actionability in the EOSC Ecosystem." It aims to enhance the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) by integrating AI and machine learning (AI/ML) to improve data FAIRification, curation, and quality assurance. The call seeks proposals that develop tools and infrastructure to make data and services machine-actionable, promote interoperability of AI/ML solutions, and establish an AI/ML competency center within EOSC.

The call targets research organizations, universities, and other entities capable of contributing to research and innovation in AI/ML and open science. Funding is provided through HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions (RIA) as lump sum grants, with project budgets ranging from several million euros. The geographic scope includes EU member states, associated countries, and potentially non-EU/non-associated countries with specific funding arrangements.

Projects should focus on prototyping tools, formulating open protocols, delivering AI-based capabilities, providing federated infrastructure services, offering easy-to-use technology platforms, and establishing AI/ML model repositories. The ultimate goal is to create an AI-ready EOSC ecosystem that supports European researchers in developing, training, and validating AI/ML models, fostering trustworthy and transparent AI/ML practices.