Autonomous Drive Ambition Cities (IA) - Apply AI

Who can apply:Consortia led by cities or urban agglomerations (from Member States, Iceland, Norway and associated countries) partnering with mobility service providers/operators, vehicle manufacturers, technology providers, R&I organisations and public transport operators. Participation is limited to legal entities established in eligible countries; entities controlled by non-eligible countries may be excluded. Proposers must demonstrate cross-border readiness and close interaction with ECAVA and CCAM activities Topic page.

Apply / reference:Full topic text, templates and submission are on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal: Autonomous Drive Ambition Cities topic.

Call identifier:HORIZON-BRIDGING. Programme: Horizon Europe (HORIZON). Call title: Bridging actions 2027. Type of action: HORIZON-IA (Innovation Action). Type of Model Grant Agreement: HORIZON Action Grant Budget-Based [HORIZON-AG]. Planned opening date: 20 October 2026. Deadline (single-stage): 16 February 2027, 17:00 Brussels time. Indicative EU contribution for this topic: around €15 000 000 for one selected grant (budget overview 2027). Submission model: single-stage open call via the Funding & Tenders Portal submission system. Applicants must follow the proposal page limits and layout described in the Application Form in the Submission System and the General Annexes of the Horizon Europe Work Programme.

Objective:select one large-scale demonstrator project implementing the Apply AI Strategy flagship action Autonomous Drive Ambition Cities (ADACities). The demonstrator must develop and demonstrate AI-enabled electric autonomous mobility services at SAE automation level 4 in urban traffic. The project will integrate 5 to 7 coordinated city pilots located in 5 or more EU Member States or Horizon-associated countries, and must include at least one cross-border pilot between adjacent cities or urban agglomerations.

Expected outcomes (all bullets must be addressed within proposals):demonstration of near-to-market level 4 autonomous driving technologies operating in real urban traffic; increased safety, sustainability and accessibility of urban mobility; improved secure access to and sharing of data, AI models and tools to support development, testing, validation and safe operation of autonomous driving systems; demonstration of scalable and future-proof supporting infrastructure ensuring operational continuity, safety and cybersecure-by-design operation; addressing regulatory, operational and governance barriers and supporting procurement frameworks, city capacity building and harmonisation of deployment conditions; identification of viable business models and replication pathways for pan-European scale-up; strengthened competitiveness for European vehicle manufacturers, AD stack providers, mobility service brokers and operators via real-world deployment opportunities.

Scope and mandatory features of pilots:consortia must support cities or urban agglomerations from countries that have signed or plan to sign the Joint Declaration of Intent concerning creation of a cross-border testbed for automated vehicles or can demonstrate comparable readiness. Projects must prepare integration, operations and deployment of autonomous vehicles in 5–7 city pilots across at least 5 Member States/associated countries, including prototyping equipment (vehicle, software, hardware), integration with transport infrastructure and mobility systems, initial real-traffic demonstrations and development of scaling and financing roadmaps. Include at least one cross-border pilot to demonstrate interoperability across national regulations and physical/digital infrastructures. Mandatory sharing of data, AI models and experiences across all pilots is required via a scheme to be agreed by involved players (for example a European neutral, secure and trusted data handling entity). The sharing scheme shall define interoperable digital infrastructures, federated data-sharing and AI training frameworks, vehicle-perception augmentation, cybersecurity and interoperability requirements for data and model sharing.

Policy and programme interactions:proposers are expected to comply with EU AI, Data and cybersecurity policy objectives (including for Connected and Automated Vehicles). Consortia will closely interact with the European Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Alliance (ECAVA), particularly its Autonomous Driving deployment working group, and show complementarity with CCAM partnership activities (including the SYNERGIES project and CCAMbassador CSA), and related Horizon topics (e.g. Federated CCAM data exchange platform, Large Scale Demonstration topics). Projects should leverage emerging European infrastructures (AI factories and data labs, CEF projects, the European Mobility Data Space EMDS, the emerging European Digital Infrastructure Consortium on Mobility and Logistics, IPCEI or other pan-European initiatives) to capitalise on mature technologies with strong commercial potential.

Technology Readiness Level:activities are expected to achieve TRL 8 by the end of the project (see General Annex B). Proposals must include a credible staged plan to reach TRL 8: engineering, integration, prototype vehicle/software/hardware, operational validation in real urban traffic, safety cases, initial commercialisation/roll-out plan and a financing/scale-up roadmap. Proposals are expected to apply the European Common Evaluation Methodology (EU-CEM) for CCAM and to include rigorous evaluation, monitoring and reporting plans aligned with EU-CEM.

Key demonstrator features required:Deployment of AI-enabled electric autonomous vehicles with SAE level 4 automation across a minimum of 5 Member States/associated countries; 5–7 coordinated city pilots; at least one cross-border pilot; mandatory federated data and AI model sharing; scalable supporting infrastructure design; demonstration in real urban traffic and evidence-based recommendations for regulatory alignment, certification, procurement approaches and infrastructure integration.

Eligible applicant types:legal entities established in EU Member States, Iceland and Norway and in Horizon-associated countries (see General Annex B for the full list of associated countries and details). Participation is limited to legal entities established in Member States, Iceland and Norway and associated countries. Entities established in eligible countries but directly or indirectly controlled by a non-eligible country or non-eligible country entity are not eligible to participate unless an approved guarantee or exemption applies under the call conditions. Public bodies validated in the Portal are treated as controlled by their country and are exempt from certain declaration obligations.

Consortium requirement:consortium mandatory. This call expects a multi-actor consortium (cities plus industry and R&I partners) able to deliver 5–7 coordinated city pilots across 5 or more countries. Single-entity applications are not the intended mode. The call expects one large-scale demonstrator project to be selected.

Funding type:grant (Horizon Europe Innovation Action — budget-based HORIZON-AG Model Grant Agreement). Indicative funding amount: around €15 000 000 EU contribution for this topic (indicative number of grants: 1). The Budget Overview for Bridging actions 2027 shows around €15 000 000 allocated to HORIZON-BRIDGING in 2027. The Commission note indicates that this estimated contribution is indicative and does not preclude proposals requesting different amounts.

Co-funding and leveraged investments:proposals are expected to seek complementary public funding and industrial investments to support actual vehicle deployment and roll-out of mobility services at scale. The call text explicitly expects proposers to build on on-going actions and to seek complementary public funding and industrial investments; such matching funding is strongly encouraged to enable deployment but the call text does not state a flat mandatory co-funding percentage in the topic description. Applicants should therefore provide a clear financing and scaling roadmap showing public and private contributions (grants, procurement, commercial investments) to deliver pilots and follow-on deployment.

Beneficiary scope (geographic eligibility):EU Member States, Iceland and Norway and Horizon-associated countries (full list in General Annex B of the Work Programme and the Programme Guide). The topic explicitly requires city pilots in 5 or more Member States or associated countries and at least one cross-border pilot between adjacent cities/urban agglomerations. The call further refers to the Joint Declaration of Intent on creating a cross-border testbed for automated vehicles signed by many Member States under the Industrial Action Plan for the European automotive sector (March 2025).

Countries explicitly mentioned in the text:European Union Member States, Iceland, Norway, associated countries (general). The topic references Member States signatories to the Joint Declaration of Intent; no specific individual Member States are named in the topic text. References are made to EU-level initiatives (ECAVA, CCAM partnership, EMDS, CEF, Important Projects of Common European Interest) rather than particular third countries.

Target sector(s):transport and mobility (urban mobility), intelligent transport systems, automotive industry and connected and autonomous vehicles (CCAM), artificial intelligence and AI systems applied to mobility, cyber-physical systems, smart city infrastructures, energy (electric vehicles and charging infrastructure), data spaces and data sharing, cybersecurity for mobility, urban planning and public transport integration.

Project stage and maturity:near-to-market demonstration and pre-commercial deployment. Activities are expected to start at high TRLs and deliver TRL 8 by project end. Expected work includes prototyping, vehicle and system integration, infrastructure integration, initial real-traffic demonstrations in pilot cities, safety and certification work, regulatory and procurement frameworks, and development of scaling and financing roadmaps.

Application type:open single-stage call with submission through the Funding & Tenders Portal (Submission System). The Submission System will host the application form specific to the call. Required templates and documents (available in the Portal and referenced in the topic): Standard application form (HE RIA, IA), Part A and Part B application forms in the Submission System, Standard evaluation forms (HE RIA, IA) used by evaluators (with necessary adaptations), the Horizon Europe Programme Guide, Model Grant Agreements (HE MGA and HORIZON-AG), Call-specific instructions and the Ownership Control Declaration Annex. The topic also lists a number of guidance documents and legal references (Work Programme Main Document, General Annexes, HE Programme Guide, EU Financial Regulation, Rules for Legal Entity Validation, Guidance on participation in EU calls with ownership and control restrictions, EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement, Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual).

Application templates and key annexes to prepare:1) Application form (Part A and Part B) in the Submission System — follow Part B page limits and layout (Part B page limits may be extended for business plan and market-readiness strategy where indicated). 2) Standard application form (HE RIA, IA). 3) Evaluation form templates (standard HE RIA/IA). 4) Model Grant Agreement HORIZON-AG. 5) Ownership Control Declaration Annex (ownership and control template must be completed by beneficiaries and affiliated entities; associated partners/subcontractors provide it if required by the call conditions). 6) Business plan and market-readiness strategy to be included in dissemination and exploitation activities and in Part B (consult call-specific guidance on allowed page limit extensions).

Admissibility conditions:proposals must comply with page limits and layout set out in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes and Part B of the application form available in the Submission System. Eligible countries and other eligibility conditions are described in General Annex B. The topic contains ownership and control restrictions: participation is limited to legal entities established in Member States, Iceland and Norway and associated countries; legal entities from eligible countries but directly or indirectly controlled by non-eligible countries/entities are in principle not eligible to participate unless exceptional derogations apply and required guarantees are provided and approved. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion rules are described in Annex C. Award criteria, scoring and thresholds are set out in Annex D. Submission and evaluation processes and indicative evaluation timeline are described in Annex F; legal and financial set-up in Annex G.

Evaluation and award process:single-stage evaluation according to standard Horizon Europe procedures. The call notes close interaction of consortia with ECAVA and CCAM partnership activities; proposals should demonstrate complementarity with relevant initiatives and achieve pan-European added value through aggregation, standard-setting, data and model sharing, and scaling/replication pathways.

Special eligibility and security arrangements:the call requires an Ownership Control Declaration for participants and may trigger the Ownership Control Assessment (OCA) by the Central Validation Service or the responsible EU service. Where a participant is found to be controlled by a non-eligible non-EU country, the call conditions specify that guarantees approved by national competent authorities may be requested in order to allow participation. Applicants should carefully consult the Guidance on participation in EU calls with ownership and control restrictions and the Ownership Control Declaration template and follow the instructions and deadlines for submission. The Ownership Control Declaration template is provided as a separate document to be filled in and uploaded by the coordinator as a consolidated file for all participants where required 1.

Nature of support:financial grant (EU contribution) for Horizon Innovation Actions. Projects will also receive non-monetary support via alignment with EU networks, evaluation frameworks (EU-CEM), access to European data infrastructure initiatives, stakeholder networks (ECAVA, CCAM) and visibility through EU-level coordination activities and expected technical/regulatory engagement.

Business plan and market-readiness strategy:mandatory elements. Proposers must include a business plan and a credible initial market-readiness strategy as part of the dissemination and exploitation activities and demonstrate how the project will become fit for deployment and attract further investments. The call notes an exceptional extension of the Part B page limit to include these documents and requires that the business plan and market-readiness strategy be updated during implementation (yearly deliverable and final report).

Documents available via the Funding & Tenders Portal and referenced in the topic:Application form specific to this call (Submission System), Standard HE RIA/IA application form, Standard evaluation form templates, HE Programme Guide, HE Model Grant Agreement (MGA) HORIZON-AG, Work Programme 2026-2027 main documents and General Annexes, Ownership Control Declaration Annex template (docx), Guidance on participation in EU calls with ownership and control restrictions, Rules for Legal Entity Validation and LEAR appointment, and Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual.

Main implementation risks:insufficient multi-country regulatory harmonisation and permitting, unresolved cross-border interoperability issues, delays in securing complementary public/private financing, insufficient industrial commitments for vehicle supply and operations, data sharing and cybersecurity gaps, unclear procurement and business model readiness, and ownership/control eligibility issues for participants. Recommended mitigations: early engagement with national/regional authorities and ECAVA/CCAM working groups; strong legal and procurement experts in consortium; binding letters of support from vehicle manufacturers, operators and city authorities; pre-arranged co-funding commitments or procurement plans; robust data governance and federated model-training architecture; early completion of Ownership Control Declaration and pre-positioning for any guarantee approvals.

Interaction with EU initiatives:ensure active engagement with ECAVA and CCAM partnership activities, align demonstration and data-sharing approaches with the Federated CCAM data exchange platform and other CCAM projects and use common EU infrastructures such as AI factories, data labs, EMDS and CEF projects to maximise pan-European replication and standard-setting impacts.