Coordinated call with India on waste to renewable hydrogen

The grant opportunity titled "Coordinated call with India on waste to renewable hydrogen," part of Horizon Europe, focuses on collaborative research between the EU and India in developing innovative technologies for producing renewable hydrogen from biogenic wastes. The call is classified under Horizon Research and Innovation Actions, using a budget-based grant mechanism aimed at fostering research and innovation across the energy sector, specifically in hydrogen production through biochemical and thermochemical conversion methods.

Eligible applicants for this call include research institutions, universities, small and medium-sized enterprises, and large enterprises from EU Member States, Horizon Europe-associated countries, and India. Projects must form a consortium involving entities from both regions, emphasizing shared objectives, synchronization in project timelines, and coordinated work plans.

The geographic eligibility is specifically aimed at participants from the EU and India, fostering international collaboration under the EU-India Strategic Partnership. The target sector of the grant is primarily focused on energy, particularly renewable hydrogen production, while also addressing waste management and technologies related to sustainability efforts.

Although the specific funding amount for the call is not explicitly stated, Horizon Europe projects typically vary, and similar calls suggest a range between €1 million to €5 million per project. The call follows a single-stage application process with a set deadline of September 2, 2025. Projects must assess the economic feasibility, environmental impacts, and social ramifications of their proposed technology, utilizing advanced modeling techniques.

Successful projects are expected to improve the sustainability, safety, and affordability of renewable hydrogen production, developing innovative solutions aimed at increasing resource efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions while ensuring economic viability. Proposals need to demonstrate added scientific value through coordinated EU-Indian research activities and must include provisions for joint networking and collaborative efforts to maximize the impact of the projects.

The call encourages proposals that address technical advancements, economic assessments, safety considerations, and collaboration, ultimately aiming for a significant contribution toward a cleaner energy future through enhanced hydrogen production technologies derived from biogenic wastes.

The EU Funding Opportunity is a coordinated call with India focusing on developing innovative technologies for renewable hydrogen production from biogenic wastes. This initiative falls under the Horizon Europe (HORIZON) program, specifically the Cluster 5 Call 02-2025 (WP 2025). The call type is HORIZON-RIA, which stands for HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions, utilizing a HORIZON Action Grant Budget-Based [HORIZON-AG] Model Grant Agreement.

The call follows a single-stage submission process, with the opening date set for May 6, 2025, and a deadline of September 2, 2025, at 17:00:00 Brussels time.

The primary goal of this funding opportunity is to foster research and innovation in Waste to Renewable Hydrogen (W2rH) pathways, utilizing biochemical and thermochemical conversion methods. It aims to address the increasing demand for sustainable hydrogen in various sectors, including industry, energy, and transport, by leveraging agricultural, forest, and industrial biogenic waste resources.

Expected outcomes of the projects funded under this call include:

Improved sustainability, safety, and affordability of renewable hydrogen production technologies from biogenic wastes for producers and consumers in both the EU and India.
Expanded portfolio of renewable hydrogen production concepts through biogenic wastes use for technology developers in the EU and India.
Enhanced knowledge sharing and collaboration between stakeholders in the EU and India regarding renewable hydrogen production from biogenic wastes.
Strengthened cooperation between key researchers, institutions, and industries in the EU and India active in biogenic waste to renewable hydrogen research.

The scope of the projects should encompass the development of innovative technologies for producing renewable hydrogen from biogenic wastes that have limited recycling potential. These wastes include agricultural residues, forest biomass, the biogenic fraction of municipal solid waste, sewage sludge, and industrial waste waters. The projects should focus on:

Increasing resource efficiency, specifically carbon to hydrogen yield.
Reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, aiming for a negative carbon footprint.
Decreasing the environmental footprint related to pollution and water consumption.
Significantly reducing the production cost of hydrogen.

The call encourages the use of advanced catalysts to enhance primary conversion or upgrade intermediates from primary conversion processes. It also supports process intensification methods, including advanced reactor technologies. The utilization of side streams, such as aqueous and gaseous streams from primary conversion, and their further conversion using biological, electrochemical, biochemical, or catalytic technologies are also within the scope. Furthermore, the development of feedstock pretreatment methods, including sorting and post-treatment technologies for hydrogen purification, is encouraged.

Projects are expected to assess the feedstock cost supply at regional and local levels, tailored to the selected conversion technology. They should also improve feedstock mobilization patterns through enabling technologies like digitalization. A preliminary economic feasibility assessment, along with a socioeconomic and environmental sustainability analysis, is required. This includes assessing potential impacts on land use, water use, biodiversity, and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as social impacts, using a life-cycle analysis approach. The production cost of the W2rH pathway should be compared to state-of-the-art renewable hydrogen production technologies, with the aim of reducing costs.

Projects should develop an overall process concept using advanced modeling techniques, including flowsheet modeling for mass and energy flows. Safety aspects and ways to increase safety concerning hydrogen and other gaseous and system component leakages are expected to be addressed in a ‘hydrogen safety planning and management’ plan at the project level. Project developers are encouraged to contact the European Hydrogen Safety Panel (EHSP) for guidance on hydrogen safety issues. The projects should lead to commercially viable and economically interesting pathways when upscaled.

Organic waste that is not biogenic is explicitly excluded from the scope of this call.

The exploitation of project results, including intellectual property rights (IPR), should be appropriately addressed in the proposal.

Joint work should capitalize on the existing experience in W2rH from both India and Europe. Linked EU and Indian projects must have the same start date, duration, and targets. Proposals must clearly demonstrate how coordination between EU and Indian projects will bring added scientific value. To ensure genuine EU-Indian cooperation, coordinated research activities between EU and India should be included in the Work Plan of both projects. Proposals should provide detailed explanations of tasks and effort for the coordinated proposal as a whole, with cross-references to the linked project's proposal.

This call aims to exploit synergies between India and Europe by implementing coordinated projects, focusing on optimizing fermentation and thermochemical processes, developing new catalysts, improving separation techniques, and assessing sustainability, technoeconomic feasibility, and safety aspects using advanced process modeling.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy of the Government of India (MNRE) has allocated funding for coordinated projects on the Indian side. A balanced effort and matched budget between the European and Indian projects are expected.

Selected projects will be required to participate in common networking and joint activities to maximize synergies and increase impact. Proposals should allocate sufficient budget for attendance at periodic joint meetings.

The admissibility conditions include adherence to proposal page limits and layout guidelines as described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes and Part B of the Application Form.

Eligible countries are described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes. Non-EU/non-Associated Countries may have specific provisions for funding their participants, as detailed in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide.

Other eligible conditions mandate that the project includes at least one work package for coordinated activities with the linked project awarded by MNRE. Indian legal entities can participate as associated partners, as India is considered a third country under Horizon Europe.

Financial and operational capacity and exclusion criteria are detailed in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes.

Evaluation and award criteria, scoring, and thresholds are described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes. Submission and evaluation processes are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual. The indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement is also described in Annex F.

Grants awarded under this call will be linked to the coordinated project awarded by MNRE, as described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes. Specific conditions are described in the specific topic of the Work Programme.

Application form templates are available in the Submission System, including the Standard application form (HE RIA, IA). Evaluation form templates, including the Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA), will be used with necessary adaptations.

Additional guidance and documents include:

HE Programme Guide
HE Model Grant Agreements (MGA)
HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 1. General Introduction
HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 8. Climate, Energy and Mobility
HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 14. General Annexes
HE Framework Programme 2021/695
HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764
EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509
Decision authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme
Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment
EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement
Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual
Funding & Tenders Portal Terms and Conditions
Funding & Tenders Portal Privacy Statement

The budget overview for the call includes various topics with different budget allocations, action types, and indicative numbers of grants. All topics share the same opening date (May 6, 2025) and deadline (September 2, 2025).

HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D2-03 - HORIZON-IA HORIZON Innovation Actions: Budget 20,000,000 EUR, Indicative number of grants 2
HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D2-06 - HORIZON-CSA HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions: Budget 3,000,000 EUR, Indicative number of grants 1
HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D2-08 - HORIZON-RIA HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions: Budget 10,000,000 EUR, Indicative number of grants 2
HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D2-10 - HORIZON-COFUND HORIZON Programme Cofund Actions: Budget 69,000,000 EUR, Indicative number of grants 1
HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D2-11 - HORIZON-CSA HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions: Budget 7,500,000 EUR, Indicative number of grants 15
HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D2-12 - HORIZON-CSA HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions: Budget 500,000 EUR, Indicative number of grants 1
HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D3-03 - HORIZON-IA HORIZON Innovation Actions: Budget 20,000,000 EUR, Indicative number of grants 2
HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D3-04 - HORIZON-RIA HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions: Budget 12,000,000 EUR, Indicative number of grants 3
HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D3-06 - HORIZON-IA HORIZON Innovation Actions: Budget 28,000,000 EUR, Indicative number of grants 4
HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D3-09 - HORIZON-IA HORIZON Innovation Actions: Budget 18,000,000 EUR, Indicative number of grants 2
HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D3-11 - HORIZON-IA HORIZON Innovation Actions: Budget 18,000,000 EUR, Indicative number of grants 3
HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D3-15 - HORIZON-CSA HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions: Budget 4,000,000 EUR, Indicative number of grants 1
HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D3-16 - HORIZON-CSA HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions: Budget 1,000,000 EUR, Indicative number of grants 1
HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D3-17 - HORIZON-IA HORIZON Innovation Actions: Budget 20,000,000 EUR, Indicative number of grants 2
HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D3-21 - HORIZON-IA HORIZON Innovation Actions: Budget 14,000,000 EUR, Indicative number of grants 2
HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D3-25 - HORIZON-RIA HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions: Budget 10,000,000 EUR, Indicative number of grants 2
HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D3-26 - HORIZON-RIA HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions: Budget 5,000,000 EUR, Indicative number of grants 1
HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D3-27 - HORIZON-IA HORIZON Innovation Actions: Budget 14,000,000 EUR, Indicative number of grants 2

Partner search announcements are available, and LEARs, Account Administrators, or self-registrants can publish partner requests.

This EU funding opportunity is designed to promote collaborative research and innovation between European and Indian entities to develop sustainable and cost-effective technologies for producing renewable hydrogen from biogenic waste. It aims to support the EU's and India's transition to a cleaner energy future by addressing the challenges associated with hydrogen production and waste management. The call encourages projects that not only focus on technological advancements but also consider the economic, social, and environmental impacts of the proposed solutions. By fostering cooperation and knowledge sharing, this initiative seeks to accelerate the development and deployment of renewable hydrogen technologies, contributing to a more sustainable and resilient energy system.

Eligible Applicant Types: The eligible applicant types are not explicitly defined in the provided text. However, based on the nature of Horizon Europe calls, eligible applicants could include universities, research institutes, SMEs, large enterprises, and other organizations capable of conducting research and innovation activities. The call is specifically designed to foster collaboration between European and Indian entities.

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) and HORIZON Programme Cofund Actions (HORIZON-COFUND). These are budget-based action grants.

Consortium Requirement: The opportunity requires a consortium, as it emphasizes coordinated activities between EU and Indian projects. A linked project awarded by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy of the Government of India (MNRE) is a must.

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility): The geographic eligibility includes the EU and India, as this is a coordinated call between the two regions. While India is a third country under Horizon Europe, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy of the Government of India (MNRE) has made funding available for the coordinated projects of the Indian side.

Target Sector: The program targets the energy sector, specifically renewable hydrogen production, waste management, and technologies related to biochemical and thermochemical conversion pathways. It also touches on agriculture, forestry, and industrial biogenic waste resources.

Mentioned Countries: The countries explicitly mentioned are the EU member states and India.

Project Stage: The project stage targets research, development, and innovation, aiming to develop innovative technologies and processes. The projects should lead to commercially viable and economically interesting pathways when upscaled, suggesting a technology readiness level (TRL) ranging from research to demonstration.

Funding Amount: The funding amounts vary depending on the specific topic within the call.
HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D2-03 - HORIZON-IA HORIZON Innovation Actions 20 000 000 EUR
HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D2-06 - HORIZON-CSA HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions 3 000 000 EUR
HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D2-08 - HORIZON-RIA HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions 10 000 000 EUR
HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D2-10 - HORIZON-COFUND HORIZON Programme Cofund Actions 69 000 000 EUR
HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D2-11 - HORIZON-CSA HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions 7 500 000 EUR
HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D2-12 - HORIZON-CSA HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions 500 000 EUR
HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D3-03 - HORIZON-IA HORIZON Innovation Actions 20 000 000 EUR
HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D3-04 - HORIZON-RIA HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions 12 000 000 EUR
HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D3-06 - HORIZON-IA HORIZON Innovation Actions 28 000 000 EUR
HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D3-09 - HORIZON-IA HORIZON Innovation Actions 18 000 000 EUR
HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D3-11 - HORIZON-IA HORIZON Innovation Actions 18 000 000 EUR
HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D3-15 - HORIZON-CSA HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions 4 000 000 EUR
HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D3-16 - HORIZON-CSA HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions 1 000 000 EUR
HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D3-17 - HORIZON-IA HORIZON Innovation Actions 20 000 000 EUR
HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D3-21 - HORIZON-IA HORIZON Innovation Actions 14 000 000 EUR
HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D3-25 - HORIZON-RIA HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions 10 000 000 EUR
HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D3-26 - HORIZON-RIA HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions 5 000 000 EUR
HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D3-27 - HORIZON-IA HORIZON Innovation Actions 14 000 000 EUR

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

Nature of Support: The beneficiaries will receive money in the form of grants to fund their research and innovation activities.

Application Stages: The application process is single-stage.

Success Rates: The success rates are not explicitly mentioned in the provided text.

Co-funding Requirement: A balanced effort and matched budget between Europe and India regarding the two coordinated projects are expected, implying a co-funding or in-kind contribution aspect.

Summary: This Horizon Europe call is a coordinated initiative between the EU and India, focusing on developing innovative technologies for renewable hydrogen production from biogenic wastes. The call aims to foster collaboration between European and Indian researchers, institutions, and industries to improve the sustainability, safety, and affordability of renewable hydrogen production technologies. Projects should focus on biochemical and thermochemical Waste to renewable Hydrogen (W2rH) pathways, increasing resource efficiency, reducing GHG emissions, and lowering hydrogen production costs. A key requirement is the coordination with a linked project funded by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy of the Government of India (MNRE), ensuring a balanced effort and budget between the European and Indian sides. The call encourages participation in common networking and joint activities to maximize synergies and impact. Eligible applicants can include universities, research institutes, SMEs, and other organizations capable of conducting research and innovation activities. The funding is provided through HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions (RIA) and Innovation Actions (IA), with varying budget allocations for different topics within the call.