Apply AI: Challenge-Driven AI Innovation Booster in Apply AI prioritised sectors (RIA) (Partnership in AI, Data and Robotics)

This summary presents a Horizon Europe funding opportunity titled "Apply AI: Challenge-Driven AI Innovation Booster in Apply AI prioritised sectors (RIA) (Partnership in AI, Data and Robotics)." The planned opening date for applications is November 17, 2026, with a submission deadline of March 18, 2027. The total budget for this initiative is €42 million, with three grants expected to be awarded, each valued at €14 million.

The opportunity is categorized as HORIZON-RIA (Research and Innovation Actions) and aims to foster innovation in three key sectors: healthcare, advanced manufacturing (including robotics), and autonomous driving. This initiative seeks to promote the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies across these fields through competitive challenges aimed at SMEs (small and medium enterprises) and teams.

Eligible applicants must form a consortium comprising major industry players from the targeted sectors, where a core partner must be an established industry participant. These consortia will be responsible for organizing multi-stage competition processes. Geographic eligibility includes entities from EU Member States, Iceland, Norway, Canada, Israel, South Korea, New Zealand, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Conditions also state that entities controlled by non-eligible countries may only participate if they can assure that their engagement will not harm the EU's strategic interests.

Funding is structured across three stages of competition. In Stage 1, an open call will select ten teams, each receiving a total of €3 million distributed among them. In Stage 2, the top four teams from Stage 1 will receive €300,000 each, advancing them into Stage 3, where each of the four winners can obtain grants of €2.25 million for their final project delivery. The maximum amount for any single third party is capped at €2.55 million.

The consortium leading the project is tasked with providing financial support, technical assistance, and ensuring access to relevant data to facilitate the competition. An open-call submission process is implemented, but the actual competition proceeds through multiple stages of evaluation and selection.

Key outcomes expected from this initiative include significant technological advancements and increased competitiveness within the AI community across Europe. Proposals must include a detailed exploitation plan outlining how the developed solutions will be utilized in industry, underlining the importance of collaboration between industry partners and participating entities.

All proposals are also encouraged to seek sponsorship to enhance visibility and attract reputable developers to the challenges. The opportunity focuses on defining a rigorous methodology for challenge implementation, including objectives, timelines, KPIs, and evaluation criteria, to encourage innovation aligned with EU strategic priorities.

In summary, this Horizon Europe funding opportunity is designed to significantly stimulate AI innovation through structured competitive frameworks, emphasizing collaboration and aiming to integrate advanced AI solutions into critical sectors that drive technological progress in Europe.

This EU funding opportunity, HORIZON-CL4-2027-04-DIGITAL-EMERGING-04, is a HORIZON Research and Innovation Action (RIA) under the DIGITAL (HORIZON-CL4-2027-04) call of the Horizon Europe (HORIZON) program. It focuses on the Apply AI: Challenge-Driven AI Innovation Booster in Apply AI prioritised sectors, specifically targeting the Partnership in AI, Data and Robotics. The planned opening date is November 17, 2026, and the deadline for submission is March 18, 2027, at 17:00:00 Brussels time. The total budget allocated for this topic is EUR 42,000,000, with an indicative number of 3 grants to be awarded. The type of Model Grant Agreement is HORIZON Action Grant Budget-Based [HORIZON-AG].

The expected outcomes of this funding opportunity are:

Significant technological progress and innovation in Apply AI Strategy's prioritised sectors driven by challenge-oriented, AI-powered solutions.
Increased competitiveness and visibility of the relevant AI community within key application domains, and promotion of collaborative approaches for AI development in these domains, fostering the ecosystem.
Increased adoption of AI technologies across three key application domains: healthcare, advanced manufacturing (including AI-powered robotics), and in-vehicle autonomous driving.

The scope of this funding opportunity is centered around the Challenge-Driven AI Innovation Booster, which aims to drive technological progress and innovation in Apply AI prioritised sectors through challenge-oriented, AI-powered solutions. The initiative seeks to boost Europe's developer community and the adoption of powerful, trustworthy AI solutions in the following strategic domains:

Healthcare: Advanced AI will accelerate diagnostics and treatment plans, enhance robotic surgery, or improve patient care through predictive analytics.
Advanced Manufacturing: Advanced AI will optimize production processes, improve quality control and product design, or enable predictive maintenance.
Autonomous Driving: Advanced AI will enhance vehicle safety, improve navigation systems, or optimize traffic management.

It is specified that, provided the quality of proposals is sufficient, at least one selected project will focus on in-vehicle autonomous driving applications, aligning with the Automotive Action Plan and ensuring coordination with the announced Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Alliance. Each proposal must focus exclusively on one of these three key sectors.

The primary focus of the proposals should be on defining and organizing a multi-stage competition within the chosen sector, along with providing support to the participating SMEs and teams. User-industry companies from the targeted strategic sector should be core partners in each consortium, demonstrating a genuine interest in the project results and supporting the challenge participants. The expected results are pre-competitive, and the proposal must include a draft exploitation plan outlining how the solutions developed by third parties will be taken up, with support from the user-industry partners.

The consortium leading the project is responsible for all stages of the challenges and should provide the necessary support resources, including technical assistance and business support. Crucially, the consortium must ensure that teams competing for and receiving financial support have access to relevant data for fine-tuning models and building high-impact solutions.

Proposals should be driven by impactful use-cases where advanced AI can make a significant difference. Industries from the targeted sector are expected to collaborate to define challenging problems solvable with advanced AI solutions. Based on these challenges, each project consortium should organize a multi-staged competition with increasing complexity. Third parties, either single SMEs or small teams led by an SME, will compete to address the challenges with advanced AI solutions in the following stages:

Stage 1 Open Call: The consortium launches an open call for proposals, selecting the 10 highest-ranked proposals for Stage 2 based on predefined criteria. Solutions are expected from single SMEs developing advanced AI solutions or small teams led by such an SME.
Stage 2 Competition Among Stage 1 Winners: The 10 selected teams receive a EUR 300,000 FSTP grant each to address the tasks and challenges defined for this stage. At the end of Stage 2, the 4 highest-ranked solutions will be selected for the next stage.
Stage 3 Grand Finale Competition Among Stage 2 Winners: The 4 selected teams receive EUR 2,250,000 FSTP grants each to address the tasks and challenges for this stage. They will prepare for the grand finale to identify the best-performing solution.

The consortium should define measures to support the winners in maximizing the impact and uptake of their solutions, such as partnerships or contracts with user industries. Measures to support the broad uptake of solutions in the whole sector should also be considered.

The projects selected from this call are expected to collaborate to achieve economies of scale in sharing best practices, defining processes for organizing challenges, ensuring efficient monitoring, and organizing dissemination and communication activities. This collaboration will be formalized by a collaboration agreement after the grant agreement signature.

For each proposal, EUR 3,000,000 is foreseen to be distributed among the winners of Stage 1, and EUR 9,000,000 among the winners of Stage 2. The proposal should justify this investment by defining the objectives and expected results. The EUR 9,000,000 will be distributed equally among the 4 winning teams of Stage 2.

Visibility is crucial, and dissemination and communication campaigns are essential. Proposers are encouraged to seek sponsorship to enhance the visibility and prestige of their challenge and attract the best developers, particularly SMEs, from eligible countries.

All proposals are expected to incorporate mechanisms for assessing and demonstrating progress, including qualitative and quantitative KPIs, benchmarking, and progress monitoring.

Proposals should build on and reuse public results from relevant previous funded actions and share communicable results with the European R&D community through the AI-on-demand platform and other relevant digital resource platforms.

This topic implements the co-programmed European Partnership on AI, data, and robotics (ADRA), and proposals should allocate tasks for cohesion activities with ADRA and the CSA HORIZON-CL4-2025-03-HUMAN-18: GenAI4EU central Hub.

Proposals should also build on or seek collaboration with relevant projects and develop synergies with other relevant International, European, national, or regional initiatives. Projects selected will link to the resources offered by the AI Factories, including the Data Labs, and results may be validated in Testing and Experiment Facilities and deployed via the European Digital Innovation Hubs (EDIHs).

Eligible countries for participation are limited to legal entities established in Member States, Iceland, Norway, Canada, Israel, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Entities controlled by non-eligible countries may not participate unless they can demonstrate that their participation would not negatively impact the Union’s strategic assets, interests, autonomy, or security.

Beneficiaries must provide financial support to third parties in the form of grants. FSTP grants may be provided to either a single SME or a small team of legal entities, where the coordinator must be an SME. The maximum amount to be granted to each third party is EUR 2,550,000.

Application form templates are available in the Submission System, and standard evaluation form templates will be used with necessary adaptations.

In summary, this funding opportunity aims to stimulate AI innovation in healthcare, advanced manufacturing, and autonomous driving by supporting multi-stage competitions. Consortia are expected to define challenging problems, organize competitions, and provide resources to participating SMEs and teams, ultimately fostering the adoption of powerful and trustworthy AI solutions across key application domains. The funding is distributed in stages, with increasing amounts awarded to the highest-ranked solutions as they progress through the competition. The initiative emphasizes collaboration, visibility, and the broad uptake of AI solutions within the European R&D community.

Eligible Applicant Types: The eligible applicant types for this opportunity are SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises), research organizations, public bodies, and secondary or higher education establishments. Specifically, the call targets consortia where user-industry companies from the strategic sector are core partners, and the coordinator of a small team of legal entities receiving Financial Support to Third Parties (FSTP) must be an SME.

Funding Type: The primary financial mechanism is a grant, specifically HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions (HORIZON-RIA) and HORIZON Innovation Actions (HORIZON-IA) and HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions (HORIZON-CSA). Financial Support to Third Parties (FSTP) is provided in the form of grants to selected SMEs or small teams.

Consortium Requirement: A consortium of multiple applicants is required. User-industry companies must be core partners in each consortium. The consortium leads the project and is responsible for organizing the multi-stage competitions.

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility): Participation is limited to legal entities established in Member States, Iceland, Norway, Canada, Israel, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Entities established in third countries which may become associated to Horizon Europe during 2026 and 2027 may be eligible to participate in this topic if the third country is identified for this topic as an eligible country in the List of Participating Countries in Horizon Europe at the time of submission of the application.

Target Sector: This program targets the following sectors: healthcare, advanced manufacturing (including AI-powered robotics), and in-vehicle autonomous driving. The overarching theme is the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to drive innovation and technological progress in these sectors.

Mentioned Countries: Iceland, Norway, Canada, Israel, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

Project Stage: The project stage is aimed at development, validation, and demonstration, with an emphasis on pre-competitive results and exploitation plans. The program supports projects that define and organize multi-stage competitions, provide technical and business support, and ensure access to relevant data for fine-tuning AI models.

Funding Amount: The funding range is variable. For each proposal, a total of EUR 3,000,000 is foreseen to be distributed among the winners of Stage 1, and EUR 9,000,000 among the winners of Stage 2. The maximum amount to be granted to each third party is EUR 2,550,000. The indicative number of grants varies by topic, ranging from 1 to 8.

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 grants, specifically Financial Support to Third Parties (FSTP). The consortium leading the project will also provide non-monetary services such as technical assistance and business support to the participants in the challenges.

Application Stages: The application process involves three stages:
Stage 1: Open call for proposals, selecting the 10 highest-ranked proposals.
Stage 2: Competition among Stage 1 winners, with each team receiving EUR 300,000 FSTP. The 4 highest-ranked solutions advance.
Stage 3: Grand finale competition among Stage 2 winners, with each team receiving EUR 2,250,000 FSTP.

Success Rates: The success rates are not explicitly stated, but the indicative number of grants per topic is provided, allowing for an estimation of the competition level.

Co-funding Requirement: Co-funding is not explicitly mentioned as a requirement for the initial proposal. However, the proposal should 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, implying some form of commitment or investment from these partners.

Summary: This opportunity is a Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Action (RIA) and Innovation Action (IA) call focused on boosting the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in healthcare, advanced manufacturing, and autonomous driving. It aims to foster innovation by funding multi-stage competitions where SMEs and small teams develop AI-powered solutions to tackle industry-defined challenges. Consortia applying for this call are expected to include major industry players and define a clear methodology for implementing the competition, including specifications, timelines, KPIs, and evaluation criteria. The selected consortia will then distribute Financial Support to Third Parties (FSTP) to the participating SMEs and teams across three stages, with increasing funding amounts for each stage. The ultimate goal is to drive significant technological progress, increase the competitiveness of the European AI community, and promote the adoption of trustworthy AI solutions in key application domains. The call encourages collaboration, dissemination of results, and synergy with other relevant initiatives within the European AI, Data, and Robotics ecosystem.