Energy efficiency and sustainability of AI data processing in Data Centres (IA)

The grant opportunity is titled HORIZON-CL4-2027-04-DATA-09, focusing on "Energy efficiency and sustainability of AI data processing in Data Centres" within the Horizon Europe Innovation Actions framework. The status of this call is forthcoming, with a planned opening date for submissions on November 17, 2026, and a submission deadline of March 18, 2027. The total budget allocated for this topic is €39 million, intended to fund four projects, with three focusing on technological innovations and the fourth dedicated to establishing an open pilot demonstration site.

Eligible applicants include a diverse range of organizations such as research institutions, universities, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), large companies, data centre operators, and cloud computing providers based in EU Member States and associated countries. However, entities controlled by China or closely associated with Chinese interests are explicitly excluded from participation.

The funding mechanism is grant-based, designed to support projects that are already at a mature development stage, emphasizing activities that surpass basic research and enter into the piloting and demonstration phases. A consortium of multiple partners is required, particularly due to the integration of technologies across different fields like thermal management, backup power systems, and data centre operations, necessitating collaboration among various expertise.

The call targets the high-priority sectors of energy efficiency, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and advanced materials, addressing key challenges in the European Industrial Strategy. The types of expected innovations include advanced thermal management systems, novel backup power solutions incorporating emerging battery technologies, and AI-driven optimization methods for data centre energy efficiency.

The projects are expected to produce demonstrable outcomes, including innovations for better heat removal from data centres, prototypes of energy-efficient backup power systems, and comprehensive frameworks for AI workload management and system optimization. The demonstration site is envisioned as a reference point for industry stakeholders, showcasing cutting-edge technologies and facilitating knowledge transfer within the sector.

The application process is straightforward, requiring a single-stage submission of fully developed proposals. Evaluation will cover multiple criteria including eligibility, scientific and technical quality, and potential impact. Success rates are historically around 10-25%, influenced by the competition and quality of proposals submitted.

Co-funding is not explicitly required, but potential beneficiaries are encouraged to demonstrate their own financial commitment. The call emphasizes the need for projects to align with broader EU goals of sustainability and strategic autonomy within the context of advancing technologies relevant to data centres.

Overall, this grant opportunity aims to foster the development and deployment of innovative technologies that improve the sustainability and efficiency of AI data processing in European data centres, reinforcing the EU's strategic objectives related to climate and industrial competitiveness.

This is a Horizon Europe call, specifically HORIZON-CL4-2027-04-DATA-09, focusing on Energy efficiency and sustainability of AI data processing in Data Centres (IA), which stands for Innovation Actions. The call falls under the DIGITAL category (HORIZON-CL4-2027-04) of the Horizon Europe program. The type of MGA (Model Grant Agreement) is HORIZON Action Grant Budget-Based [HORIZON-AG].

The call adopts a single-stage deadline model. The planned opening date for submissions is November 17, 2026, and the deadline for submissions is March 18, 2027, at 17:00:00 Brussels time.

The expected outcome of this call is to fund pilot projects for new technologies and establish a demonstration site that contributes to energy-efficient and sustainable AI data processing in data centers. This initiative aims to reinforce EU strategic autonomy and climate goals. The projects should contribute to one or more of the following outcomes:

1. Demonstrated innovations that substantially improve heat removal from high-power AI chips, such as direct on-chip cooling, advanced thermal interface materials, and multi-scale thermal management. The goal is to enable higher performance without thermal throttling, leading to lower cooling energy needs and higher reliability for dense AI workloads.

2. Prototypes of novel backup power systems, such as graphene-enhanced batteries, that operate with minimal cooling requirements. This aims to improve data center resilience and enable better use of renewable power.

3. New methods and frameworks that optimize the entire data center for energy-efficient AI processing. This includes intelligent workload scheduling and AI model optimization techniques to reduce energy use, such as carbon-aware job scheduling and power capping, as well as designs for integrating on-site/off-site renewables and waste-heat reuse.

4. An open pilot demonstration site that allows for the testing and integration of the outcomes of these projects. This site should serve as the European reference for showcasing breakthroughs and cutting-edge technologies for energy-efficient and sustainable data centers. It should also serve as a model for technology uptake for the European data center industry. The outcomes should demonstrate the potential for improved power usage effectiveness and utilization of waste heat in external applications, aligning with European targets for carbon-neutral heating/cooling.

The scope of the actions should address the following development areas:

1. Direct on-chip cooling and thermal management, including novel and innovative cooling techniques applied at chip and module level (direct liquid cooling, heat spreaders, thermal interface materials, and advanced packaging) and multi-scale thermal management techniques.

2. Energy-efficient power backup and storage systems: Innovations in early-stage energy storage concepts (graphene-enhanced batteries, supercapacitors, and other emerging battery chemistries) and approaches for net-zero backup.

3. Sustainable data center architectures and AI workload optimization: addressing AI-driven workload scheduling, adaptive power management, dynamic resource allocation and integration of data center heat capture and reuse.

4. Materials research for energy efficiency: Projects to make use of existing research in new materials and components supporting energy efficiency and thermal management, and to employ these for data centers benefit.

5. Optimization of data center operation and functioning: explore AI solutions to optimize the Data centre functioning, computing architecture, and virtualization, minimizing its carbon and environmental footprint.

6. Integration of data centres into energy systems and the wider region: including solutions that integrate Data centres into energy system planning and operation.

The pilot demonstration site must allow for combining the outcomes supplied by the other funded projects in the topic and enable for showcasing, benchmarking, and promoting their results across interested industrial stakeholders, including the European data centre and collocation industry, as well as other AI data centre operators, such as cloud and edge computing providers.

Overall, the topic is expected to fund four projects. Three projects are expected to address expected outcomes 1-3, while a fourth project is expected for expected outcome 4 (the open pilot demonstration site). For projects addressing expected outcomes 1-3, at least two use cases should showcase each project's results.

Beneficiaries intending to transfer ownership or grant an exclusive license must formally notify the granting authority (DG-CNECT and HaDEA) before the transfer or licensing takes place. The granting authority may object to a transfer of ownership or the exclusive licensing of results up to four years after the end of the action.

Projects funded under this topic are encouraged to build synergies and leverage their outcomes with funded projects from Cluster 5 HORIZON-CL5-2027-05-D4-06: Thermal energy optimisation and waste heat recovery of high energy demand IT rooms in buildings or small edge data centres.

Regarding admissibility conditions, the proposal page limit and layout are described 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 are described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes. 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. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide.

Other eligible conditions include restrictions on control in innovation actions in critical technology areas, where entities established in an eligible country but directly or indirectly controlled by China or by a legal entity established in China are not eligible to participate. The call is also subject to restrictions for the protection of European communication networks, as described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes.

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

To ensure a balanced portfolio coverage, grants will be awarded to applications not only in order of ranking, but also to at least three proposals addressing expected outcomes 1-3 (improve heat removal from high-power AI, novel backup power systems and data centre optimisation for energy-efficient AI processing) and one proposal focussed on offering an open pilot demonstration site, subject to proposals passing all evaluation thresholds.

The 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 described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes.

The legal and financial set-up of the grants is described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes. Specific conditions are described in the specific topic of the Work Programme.

Application and evaluation forms and model grant agreement (MGA) information: Application form templates are available in the Submission System, including the standard application form (HE RIA, IA). Evaluation form templates will be used with the necessary adaptations, including the standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA). Guidance is provided in the HE Programme Guide. The Model Grant Agreement (MGA) is the HE MGA. Call-specific instructions include the Ownership Control Declaration Annex (new template to be added in January 2026).

Additional documents include: HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027 – 1. General Introduction, HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027 – 7. Digital, Industry and Space, HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027 – 15. General Annexes, HE Programme Guide, HE Framework Programme 2021/695, HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764, EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509, 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, and Funding & Tenders Portal Privacy Statement.

The budget overview indicates that the total budget for HORIZON-CL4-2027-04-DATA-09 is 39,000,000 EUR. The call is a single-stage process with the opening date planned for November 17, 2026, and a deadline of March 18, 2027. The indicative number of grants is 3, with contributions around 10,000,000 EUR.

There are partner search announcements available for collaboration on this topic. LEARs, Account Administrators, or self-registrants can publish partner requests for open and forthcoming topics after logging into the Portal, as well as any user having an active public Person profile.

The submission system is planned to be opened on the date stated on the topic header. There are no topic Q&As found.

General support and FAQs are available, along with the Online Manual, Horizon Europe Programme Guide, Funding & Tenders Portal FAQ, Research Enquiry Service, National Contact Points (NCPs), Enterprise Europe Network, IT Helpdesk, European IPR Helpdesk, CEN-CENELEC Research Helpdesk and ETSI Research Helpdesk, the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for their recruitment, and Partner Search.

In summary, this Horizon Europe call aims to foster innovation in energy-efficient and sustainable AI data processing within European data centers. It seeks to fund projects that develop and pilot new technologies, optimize data center architectures, and promote the integration of renewable energy sources and waste heat reuse. The call encourages collaboration and knowledge sharing among industrial stakeholders and research institutions, with the ultimate goal of reinforcing EU strategic autonomy and achieving climate neutrality targets. The call is structured to fund four distinct projects, each contributing to different aspects of energy efficiency and sustainability in AI data processing, including a dedicated project for establishing an open pilot demonstration site.

Eligible Applicant Types: The eligible applicant types are not explicitly stated, but based on the nature of Horizon Europe Innovation Actions (IA) and Research and Innovation Actions (RIA) and Coordination and Support Actions (CSA), eligible applicants could include: research organizations, universities, SMEs, large enterprises, and other types of organizations capable of conducting research, development, and innovation activities, or coordination and support activities.

Funding Type: The funding type is primarily grant-based, specifically through HORIZON Innovation Actions (HORIZON-IA), HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions (HORIZON-RIA) and HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions (HORIZON-CSA).

Consortium Requirement: The information does not explicitly state whether a consortium is required, but given the scope and the desire to fund four projects that address different aspects of the topic, a consortium approach is highly probable and encouraged, especially for the open pilot demonstration site.

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility): The primary geographic eligibility is for EU and associated countries. However, the documentation mentions that a number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries have made specific provisions for funding their participants in Horizon Europe projects, as detailed in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide. There is a restriction for entities controlled by China.

Target Sector: The target sectors are:
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Data Centres
Energy Efficiency
Sustainable Technologies
Thermal Management
Renewable Energy
Materials Research
Cloud and Edge Computing

Mentioned Countries: China is explicitly mentioned as having restrictions on control in innovation actions in critical technology areas. Non-EU/non-Associated Countries are mentioned as potentially eligible, depending on specific provisions outlined in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide. The primary focus is on the European Union and associated countries.

Project Stage: The project stage is primarily focused on demonstration and validation, with elements of development and research. The call emphasizes pilots for new technologies and the establishment of a demonstration site, suggesting projects should be at least at the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 5 or higher.

Funding Amount: The funding amounts vary depending on the specific topic.
HORIZON-CL4-2027-04-DATA-03: EUR 35,000,000 (around EUR 17,500,000 per grant, 2 grants)
HORIZON-CL4-2027-04-DATA-08: EUR 38,000,000 (around EUR 19,000,000 per grant, 2 grants)
HORIZON-CL4-2027-04-DATA-09: EUR 39,000,000 (around EUR 10,000,000 per grant, 3 grants)
HORIZON-CL4-2027-04-DIGITAL-EMERGING-04: EUR 42,000,000 (around EUR 14,000,000 per grant, 3 grants)
HORIZON-CL4-2027-04-DIGITAL-EMERGING-05: EUR 18,000,000 (around EUR 18,000,000 per grant, 1 grant)
HORIZON-CL4-2027-04-DIGITAL-EMERGING-06: EUR 3,000,000 (around EUR 1,500,000 per grant, 2 grants)
HORIZON-CL4-2027-04-DIGITAL-EMERGING-10: EUR 4,000,000 (around EUR 4,000,000 per grant, 1 grant)
HORIZON-CL4-2027-04-DIGITAL-EMERGING-11: EUR 44,000,000 (around EUR 44,000,000 per grant, 1 grant)
HORIZON-CL4-2027-04-HUMAN-01: EUR 39,000,000 (EUR 4,800,000 to EUR 5,600,000 per grant, 8 grants)
HORIZON-CL4-2027-04-HUMAN-02: EUR 3,000,000 (around EUR 3,000,000 per grant, 1 grant)
HORIZON-CL4-2027-04-HUMAN-07: EUR 7,000,000 (around EUR 7,000,000 per grant, 1 grant)

Application Type: The application type is a single-stage call, meaning applicants submit a full proposal at once.

Nature of Support: Beneficiaries will receive money in the form of grants to support their projects.

Application Stages: There is a single stage for application.

Success Rates: Success rates are not explicitly mentioned, but the indicative number of grants for each topic provides some insight. Success rates in Horizon Europe are typically below 10%, but this can vary.

Co-funding Requirement: The information does not explicitly state whether co-funding is required. However, Innovation Actions typically require some level of co-funding, while Research and Innovation Actions may not.

Summary: This Horizon Europe call, under the DIGITAL program (HORIZON-CL4-2027-04), focuses on enhancing the energy efficiency and sustainability of AI data processing in data centers. The primary goal is to develop and pilot new technologies that reduce energy consumption, improve heat removal, optimize data center operations, and promote the use of renewable energy sources. The call aims to fund four projects, with three focusing on innovations in heat removal, backup power systems, and data center optimization, and a fourth project dedicated to establishing an open pilot demonstration site. This site will serve as a European reference for showcasing cutting-edge technologies and promoting their adoption within the data center industry. The call encourages synergies with other relevant projects and emphasizes the importance of European strategic autonomy and climate goals. Eligible applicants include a wide range of organizations, and the funding is provided through grants under Horizon Europe's Innovation Actions (IA), Research and Innovation Actions (RIA) and Coordination and Support Actions (CSA). The application process involves a single-stage submission, with a planned opening date in November 2026 and a deadline in March 2027.