ELIAS - European Lighthouse of AI for Sustainability - 2nd Open Call

The ELIAS 2nd Open Call offers cascade lump-sum funding of up to €60,000 per project (total €240,000) to select up to four SMEs, startups or NGOs to develop AI solutions that advance sustainability. Projects must be machine learning based at TRL 5 or higher, run for six months, and payment is released after validation of the final report. Eligible applicants are legal entities established in EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries, while ELIAS consortium members, affiliates and employees are ineligible. The single-stage call opened 27 February 2026 and closes 31 May 2026 at 23:59 CET with submissions in English via the F6S online form.

What it funds

Scope

Short development projects (6 months) that apply machine learning/AI to sustainability challenges. Priority categories include Methodology, Software/Tools, and Benchmarks and example use cases such as building optimization, virtual infrastructure monitoring, responsible advertising, migration perception mitigation, vegetation forecasting, materials discovery, and personalized co-piloting systems.

Funding available:Total envelope €240,000; up to 4 winners; each selected SME/start-up receives a lump sum of up to €60,000 for a 6-month programme. ¹

1. 1Who can apply: legally registered SMEs, startups or NGOs established in EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries (ELIAS partners and their affiliates are ineligible).
2. 2Selection: 4 projects will be selected following evaluation on Excellence, Impact and Scope, and Implementation.
3. 3Application channel and language: submit in English via the online form on F6S (ELIAS call page) before the deadline.

Proposals are assessed on ambition and innovation, technical soundness, scope and market opportunity, team capacity and resource sufficiency. Apply through the official call page on F6S: ELIAS 2nd Open Call on F6S. ¹

Footnotes

1. 1Full call details, eligibility rules and application form are published by the project: ELIAS call page.

Opportunity summary

ELIAS (European Lighthouse of AI for Sustainability) runs a cascade funding open call to select up to 4 SMEs or start-ups (and eligible NGOs) to join a 6-month support programme. Each selected beneficiary will receive a lump-sum award of up to €60,000. The total funding available for this call is €240,000. The call opens on 27 February 2026 and the single-stage deadline for submission is 31 May 2026, 23:59 Brussels time. Applications must be submitted in English via the online form hosted on F6S: f6s.com. Proposals are assessed against Excellence, Impact and Scope, and Implementation criteria. ELIAS targets AI solutions for sustainability across Methodology, Software/Tools, and Benchmarks and invites projects relevant to a list of specified use cases.

Eligibility and applicant requirements

Eligible applicants at the moment of applying must be officially registered legal entities established in EU Member States (including overseas departments) or in Horizon Europe Associated Countries. The call explicitly targets SMEs, start-ups and NGOs. ELIAS partners, their affiliates and employees are not eligible to apply or receive funding. Legal entities established outside the EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries are not eligible to receive funding under this call. Applications must be submitted in English through the specified online form.

Eligible Applicant Types:SMEs, startups, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that are legally established entities in EU Member States (including overseas departments) or Horizon Europe Associated Countries.

Ineligible Applicants:ELIAS project partners, their affiliates or employees are explicitly excluded from participation and cannot apply or receive funding.

Funding, financial modalities and programme structure

This is cascade funding delivered as lump-sum grants to selected beneficiaries. The programme will award up to €60,000 (lump sum) per selected organisation for a 6-month project period. The total budget allocated to this open call is €240,000 and up to four beneficiaries will be funded. The grant is intended to support the development of novel AI-based applications aligned with ELIAS focus areas for sustainability.

1. 1Funding type: Cascade funding; lump-sum grant awards.
2. 2Total funding available: €240,000.
3. 3Maximum award per beneficiary: Up to €60,000 (lump sum).
4. 4Project duration for each selected beneficiary: 6 months.

Scope, focus areas and use cases

ELIAS seeks AI applications that engage the ELIAS network in one or more of the categories Methodology, Software/Tools, or Benchmarks, addressing AI for Sustainability. While the project is focused on three research spheres (not exhaustively listed in the scraped text), proposals are not restricted to those spheres provided they address high-impact societal and economic challenges using machine learning. The call lists explicit use cases that are of particular interest.

• AI for Building Optimization
• AI for Monitoring the Virtual Infrastructure
• Responsible, User-centric Advertising
• Mitigating misinformed migrant perception in the EU
• AI for Forecasting of Vegetation State
• Materials Discovery
• Personalized co-piloting systems

Evaluation and award criteria

Proposals are evaluated against three overarching headings:EXCELLENCE, IMPACT and SCOPE, and IMPLEMENTATION. Each heading contains specific criteria that will be used to score applications.

1. 1EXCELLENCE: Ambition (goes beyond state-of-the-art and leverages ELIAS results/expertise), Innovation (market-level innovation), Technical soundness and feasibility (appropriateness and technical correctness of the approach).
2. 2IMPACT and SCOPE: Scope (how the proposal addresses barriers to deployment of sustainable AI), Market opportunity and competition (how the proposal increases competitiveness relative to competitors).
3. 3IMPLEMENTATION: Team (capability to manage and deliver the project), Resources (sufficiency of requested and owned resources to deliver the project).

Submission, timeline and process

Opening date:27 February 2026. Submission model: single-stage open call. Deadline: 31 May 2026, 23:59 Brussels time. Applicants must submit proposals in English using the online application form on F6S: f6s.com. Upon submission the system will send an automatic confirmation of receipt. Selection will identify up to four beneficiaries who will enter the 6-month programme.

Geographic and legal participation rules

Applicants must be legal entities established in EU Member States (including their overseas departments) or in Horizon Europe Associated Countries. The call follows Horizon Europe rules regarding associated country participation; a list of eligible associated countries is provided through Horizon Europe guidance. Entities established in other countries or regions are not eligible to receive funding in this call. The ELIAS partners and their affiliates are excluded from eligibility.

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility):EU Member States (including overseas departments) and Horizon Europe Associated Countries. No funding for entities established outside these countries.

Who should apply and expected project maturity

The call targets SMEs, startups and NGOs developing AI-driven solutions for sustainability. Appropriate applicants will have an existing team and demonstrable technical capability to develop or advance AI methodologies, software/tools or benchmarking activities that can move toward real-world deployment or validate technical and market feasibility within a 6-month timeframe. Typical project maturity suitable for this call ranges from development and demonstration to early commercialization/scale-up activities that show clear market opportunity and competitive advantage.

Project Stage:Development, demonstration and early commercialization / scale-up (projects that can deliver significant technical and market validation within 6 months).

Assessment of application mechanics and selection probabilities

Application type:open single-stage call (one submission stage). Proposals must be submitted electronically through the F6S application form in English. The call will select up to four beneficiaries; exact success rate depends on the number of eligible submissions received and is therefore not fixed. The selection process evaluates proposals against the listed Excellence, Impact and Implementation criteria. There is no public indication in the scraped text of required co-funding; the award is described as a lump-sum grant of up to €60,000. Applicants should check the detailed call page and rules on the ELIAS website or the F6S application for any administrative requirements, reporting obligations or terms linked to the lump-sum payment.

Consortium Requirement:Single applicant legal entities (SME, startup or NGO) are targeted. The call description and selection note indicate individual organisations will be selected to receive lump-sum awards; there is no requirement for multi-party consortia for the cascade funding award. If partnering or subcontracting is intended, applicants must follow any administrative rules presented in the application form and ELIAS guidance.

Co-funding requirement:No explicit co-funding requirement is stated in the scraped content. The call provides lump-sum funding up to €60,000 per beneficiary. Applicants should review the official call page and application form for any later-specified co-funding or in-kind contribution requirements or conditions attached to the lump-sum award ¹.

Application structure and templates

The call is submitted via an online form on F6S. The scraped content does not include the full template or question set from the online form. Typical cascade funding application forms for ELIAS-style calls require: administrative details of the legal entity, project summary, technical description (objectives, methodology, innovation beyond state-of-the-art), alignment with ELIAS use cases and categories (Methodology, Software/Tools, Benchmarks), implementation plan and timeline for the 6-month period, work plan and deliverables, team CVs and relevant experience, requested funding breakdown and justification, market and exploitation plan describing impact and competitiveness, and declarations of eligibility. Applicants should prepare documentation addressing the evaluation criteria explicitly: ambition and innovation (Excellence), scope and market opportunity (Impact), and team capability and resources (Implementation). Applicants must provide the requested legal and financial information required by the F6S form and any attachments requested by the call.

1. 1Administrative and legal information (company registration, address, country of establishment).
2. 2Project abstract and keywords aligned to AI for Sustainability and the listed use cases.
3. 3Technical description: objectives, novelty, methodology, technical approach and feasibility.
4. 4Work plan and 6-month timeline with milestones and deliverables.
5. 5Team details and CVs demonstrating capability to deliver.
6. 6Resource and budget justification for the requested lump sum.
7. 7Market, exploitation and competitiveness analysis.
8. 8Ethics, data protection and IP management summary where relevant.
9. 9Declarations of eligibility and any required supporting documents.

Target sectors and technologies

Primary thematic targets are artificial intelligence and sustainability. Specific technical and sectoral areas explicitly mentioned include building optimization, virtual infrastructure monitoring, responsible advertising, migration perception mitigation, vegetation forecasting, materials discovery, and personalized co-piloting systems. Proposals should leverage machine learning and AI methods, and may include algorithm development, model benchmarking, dataset curation, tools and software for deployment, and evaluation methodologies relevant to sustainability outcomes.

Target Sector:Artificial Intelligence applied to sustainability challenges. Cross-cutting sectors include buildings/construction (building optimization), ICT and virtual infrastructure, advertising and media, migration and social sciences, agriculture and environmental monitoring (vegetation forecasting), materials science (materials discovery), and human-computer interaction/assistive systems (personalized co-piloting).

Mentioned countries and geographic references

The scraped text explicitly references EU Member States (including overseas departments) and Horizon Europe Associated Countries as eligible jurisdictions. No specific third countries are listed in the call text. Applicants from countries outside the EU and associated countries are ineligible to receive funding under this call.

• European Union Member States (including overseas departments)
• Horizon Europe Associated Countries (as listed in Horizon Europe guidance)

Project management, reporting and programme engagement

Selected organisations will join a 6-month programme coordinated by ELIAS. The lump-sum award is intended to cover project activities and delivery of agreed outputs and milestones. Applicants should expect reporting and deliverable obligations defined by ELIAS and the cascade funding contract. Full terms, IP arrangements, reporting frequency and other administrative conditions will be specified in the grant agreement and programme documentation available on the ELIAS website and in the F6S application materials.

Success rates and selection probability

The call will select up to four beneficiaries. The scraped content does not provide historical application volumes or concrete success rate statistics. Therefore the absolute selection probability depends on the number of eligible and competitive applications received. Applicants should assume selection is competitive and prepare proposals that clearly address the Excellence, Impact and Implementation criteria.

Key links and references

Official call and more detailed information are provided on the ELIAS opportunities page:elias-ai.eu and applications must be submitted via the F6S form: f6s.com. The action is part of the EU-funded project European Lighthouse of AI for Sustainability, Grant Agreement number 101120237, under HORIZON-CL4.

Concise answers to categorisation questions

1. 1Eligible Applicant Types: SMEs, startups, NGOs (legal entities registered in EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries).
2. 2Funding Type: Cascade funding delivered as lump-sum grants (grant instrument).
3. 3Consortium Requirement: Single applicant (individual organisation) targeted; no consortium requirement for funding award.
4. 4Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility): EU Member States (including overseas departments) and Horizon Europe Associated Countries.
5. 5Target Sector: Artificial intelligence for sustainability; cross-sectoral including buildings, ICT/virtual infrastructure, advertising, migration/social perception, environmental monitoring/agriculture, materials science, HCI/co-piloting systems.
6. 6Mentioned Countries: EU Member States and Horizon Europe Associated Countries (no specific country list in the scraped text).
7. 7Project Stage: Development, demonstration, early commercialization/scale-up suitable for delivery within 6 months.
8. 8Funding Amount: Up to €60,000 per beneficiary; total €240,000; up to 4 beneficiaries.
9. 9Application Type: Open call, single-stage, electronic submission via F6S.
10. 10Nature of Support: Monetary (lump-sum grant) plus participation in the ELIAS 6-month support programme (non-monetary services such as network access, mentoring and support are implied by programme membership).
11. 11Application Stages: 1 (single-stage submission and selection).
12. 12Success Rates: Not stated; selection of up to 4 beneficiaries (success rate depends on number of submissions).
13. 13Co-funding Requirement: Not explicitly stated in scraped text; appears no co-funding required for the lump-sum award but applicants must confirm on the official call pages ¹.

What this opportunity is about and final summary:This open call from ELIAS funds innovative AI projects addressing sustainability challenges. It targets SMEs, startups and NGOs established in EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries, offering up to €60,000 lump-sum funding and a 6-month programme of support to accelerate development of AI methodologies, software/tools or benchmarks aligned with ELIAS use cases. Proposals are assessed on ambition and innovation, impact and scope (including market competitiveness), and implementation capability and resources. Interested applicants should prepare a focused 6-month work plan, demonstrate technical feasibility and market opportunity, and submit a proposal in English via the F6S application form before the 31 May 2026 deadline. For full administrative details, templates and contractual terms consult the official ELIAS call page and the F6S application form listed above ¹.

Footnotes

1. 1Applicants must consult the official ELIAS call page and the F6S application form for authoritative information, final terms and conditions, lists of Horizon Europe Associated Countries, reporting obligations and any co-funding or eligibility clarifications: elias-ai.eu and f6s.com.

Funding Opportunity Overview

The ELIAS 2nd Open Call is a cascade funding opportunity designed to support SMEs, startups, and NGOs in developing innovative AI-based applications, methods, software tools, and benchmarks that advance sustainable and trustworthy artificial intelligence. The call is part of the European Lighthouse of AI for Sustainability project, a Horizon Europe-funded initiative coordinated by the University of Trento that aims to establish Europe as a global leader in AI research driving sustainable innovation and economic development. The call focuses on connecting applied innovation with cutting-edge research to address high-impact societal and economic challenges through machine learning.

Key Funding Details

Total Funding Available:€240,000 total across the call, with individual project awards of up to €60,000 as a lump sum ¹.

Number of Projects to be Funded:Four SMEs or startups will be selected to participate in the 6-month program.

Project Duration:Six months from project start.

Funding Rate:Lump sum funding with no pre-financing or installment payments during the project. Payment is released only after validation of the Final Report ².

Call Opening and Deadline:The call opened on 27 February 2026 at 08:00 CET and closes on 31 May 2026 at 23:59 CET (Brussels time). This is a single-stage submission process.

Eligible Applicants

The call is open to individual applicants only; consortium applications are not required or accepted. Eligible applicants must be one of the following:

• Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
• Startups
• Non-governmental organisations (NGOs)

All applicants must be officially registered legal entities established in either an EU Member State (including overseas departments) or a Horizon Europe Associated Country at the time of application. Legal entities established in any other country or region cannot receive funding under this call.

Importantly, ELIAS partners, their affiliates, and their employees are explicitly ineligible and cannot apply for funding under this call ³.

Project Focus Areas and Use Cases

Proposals must address sustainable AI and engage with the ELIAS network in one of three primary categories. Projects should be relevant to one or more of the seven proposed use cases, though applications addressing other high-impact societal and economic challenges using machine learning are also considered.

Three Primary Categories:Methodology (novel approaches for energy-efficient AI, trustworthy learning, foundation models with reduced footprint, or methods that improve transparency and robustness), Software and Tools (open-source toolkits, benchmarks, datasets, or evaluation frameworks supporting sustainable and responsible AI development), and Applied Use Cases (solutions applying ELIAS-relevant methods to real-world domains).

Seven Proposed Use Cases:

• AI for Building Optimization
• AI for Monitoring the Virtual Infrastructure
• Responsible, User-centric Advertising
• Mitigating misinformed migrant perception in the EU
• AI for Forecasting of Vegetation State
• Materials Discovery
• Personalized co-piloting systems

Projects must demonstrate real-world impact in societal, environmental, or public-sector contexts and contribute to energy-efficient and resource-aware AI methods, strengthen trustworthiness and transparency of AI systems, or provide benchmarks and evaluation frameworks for sustainable AI.

Technical Requirements

All projects must be based on machine learning and reach at least Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 5 at the time of application, demonstrating validation in an industrially relevant environment. This requirement ensures that proposed solutions have moved beyond theoretical development and have been tested in realistic operational settings.

Submission Process and Requirements

Proposals must be submitted exclusively through the online application form available at [[f6s.com before the deadline of 31 May 2026 at 23:59 CET. Upon receipt, the system will send an automatic confirmation of submission.

All proposals must be written in English in all mandatory sections to be eligible for evaluation. Only sections written in English will be evaluated. All mandatory sections of the proposal must be completed with actual, true, and complete data that allows proper assessment. Additional material not specifically requested in the online application form will not be considered during evaluation.

Applicants must verify the completeness of their submission before the deadline, as no additional information can be added after the submission deadline has passed.

Evaluation Process and Criteria

The ELIAS evaluation process follows a rigorous, transparent, and fair two-stage framework designed to identify the highest-quality proposals ⁴.

Stage 1: Internal Evaluation and Eligibility Check:All proposals submitted before the deadline undergo an initial eligibility assessment conducted by the ELIAS consortium to ensure alignment with the program's core objectives and technical requirements. Proposals that do not comply with eligibility criteria are excluded and marked as ineligible, preventing them from advancing to the selection phase. Applicants will be informed of eligibility check results.

Stage 2: External Evaluation:Following the internal review, the top 30 ranked candidates advance to external evaluation conducted by independent external experts with wide expertise in sustainable and trustworthy AI. Each proposal is assessed by at least two independent evaluators who score the application on a scale of 0 to 5 for each evaluation criterion and produce individual evaluation reports.

Scoring Thresholds:The threshold for individual criteria is 3 out of 5. The overall threshold, applying to the sum of the three individual scores, is 10 out of 15. If scores show significant divergence between the two evaluators, a third evaluator will be involved to provide an additional independent assessment. The final score is calculated as an average of the individual assessments provided by all evaluators.

Evaluation Criteria - Excellence:

• Ambition: The proposal goes beyond the state-of-the-art and leverages the results and expertise of ELIAS
• Innovation: The level of innovation within the market
• Technical soundness and feasibility: Whether the overall approach is appropriate and technically correct

Evaluation Criteria - Impact and Scope:

• Scope: How the proposal addresses challenges that hamper deployment of sustainable AI
• Market opportunity and competition: How the proposal increases the competitiveness of the company in comparison to competitors

Evaluation Criteria - Implementation:

• Team: The capability of the applicant and its team to manage, perform, and succeed with the project
• Resources: Sufficient resources (requested and owned) to perform the project

Special Conditions and Important Notes

Contract registration costs required under Italian law will be deducted from the awarded grant amount. Applicants should account for this when planning their project budget.

Formal status documentation may be requested from selected applicants to verify eligibility. Failure to provide requested documents within specified deadlines without clear and reasonable justification will result in exclusion from further formal assessment.

If multiple proposals from the same applicant are submitted, only the most recent proposal (counting back from the deadline) will be evaluated.

Application Resources and Support

Comprehensive information about the call is available on the official ELIAS website at [[elias-ai.eu. The Guide for Applicants provides detailed guidance on proposal preparation, submission procedures, and evaluation criteria. Applicants are strongly encouraged to review all available documentation before submitting their proposals.

The ELIAS project is part of the broader European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS) network, which brings together leading European research institutions and industry practitioners to advance AI research and innovation. The ELIAS consortium comprises 34 partner organisations and affiliated members from 17 countries, providing a rich ecosystem of expertise and resources that successful applicants can leverage.

Strategic Context

ELIAS is funded under the Horizon Europe research and innovation program (Grant Agreement Number 101120237) under the cluster HORIZON-CL4 focused on European Networks of AI Excellence Centres. The initiative aims to establish Europe as a global leader in AI research that drives sustainable innovation and economic development while contributing to a cohesive society and respecting individual rights and preferences. By supporting applied innovation projects through this open call, ELIAS seeks to bridge the gap between fundamental research and real-world application, accelerating the development and deployment of sustainable and trustworthy AI solutions across Europe.

Footnotes

1. 1The lump sum approach provides flexibility for project management while ensuring predictable funding levels. Individual project budgets should be carefully planned to align with the €60,000 maximum, accounting for all project costs including personnel, equipment, and operational expenses.
2. 2The single payment structure upon Final Report validation differs from typical Horizon Europe grant payment models. Applicants should ensure adequate cash flow planning to cover project expenses during the 6-month implementation period before receiving the lump sum payment.
3. 3This restriction applies to all ELIAS consortium members and their direct affiliates or employees. Applicants should verify their organizational independence from ELIAS partners before submitting proposals. A complete list of ELIAS consortium members is available on the project website.
4. 4The two-stage evaluation process ensures that only proposals meeting minimum eligibility and quality standards advance to expert review, while the involvement of multiple independent evaluators provides robust quality assurance and reduces evaluation bias.