Innovative Advanced Materials (IAMs) for conformable, flexible or stretchable electronics (RIA) (Innovative Advanced Materials for Europe partnership)

The grant opportunity HORIZON-CL4-2025-03-MATERIALS-47 focuses on advancing Innovative Advanced Materials for conformable, flexible, and stretchable electronics. This initiative is part of the Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Actions framework and aims to enhance the EU's digital and industrial capabilities. Eligible applicants include universities, research institutions, small and medium-sized enterprises, and industry partners, all of which must collaborate in consortia of at least three entities from different EU countries or associated nations.

The funding type is a non-repayable grant, with each project expected to receive approximately €5 million, totaling around €15 million for the entire call. The application process is a single-stage submission, with a deadline set for October 2, 2025.

The primary objective of this grant is to develop environmentally friendly and sustainable materials for next-generation flexible electronics, addressing challenges such as user discomfort, environmental impact from hazardous materials, and the limitations of current technology in terms of performance and integration. Projects should focus on enhancing flexibility, conformability, and stretchability while ensuring compatibility with energy-efficient manufacturing processes.

Grantees are encouraged to collaborate with existing initiatives, such as the Graphene Flagship, and are expected to leverage European research infrastructures. While the general success rate for such Horizon Europe projects typically ranges from 10-39%, this particular call requires no mandatory co-funding, aligning with the typical practices for Research and Innovation Actions.

Overall, this grant represents a significant opportunity for advancing research in flexible electronic materials, with the aim of fostering innovation, sustainability, and improved user experiences in the electronics domain.

This is a Horizon Europe call, specifically HORIZON-CL4-2025-03-MATERIALS-47, focusing on Innovative Advanced Materials (IAMs) for conformable, flexible, or stretchable electronics. It is a Research and Innovation Action (RIA) under the DIGITAL - CNECT call, with a single-stage deadline model. The planned opening date is June 10, 2025, and the deadline for submission is October 2, 2025, at 17:00:00 Brussels time. The total budget for this topic is 15,000,000 EUR, and it is expected that around 3 grants will be awarded, each with a contribution of around 5,000,000 EUR.

The expected outcomes of the projects funded under this call are: conformable, flexible, or stretchable electronic devices and circuits that improve user experience and adoption; sustainable electronics based on low environmental impact materials, promoting reparability and/or recyclability and compatible with energy and resource-efficient manufacturing processes; and materials tailored for solution-processed electronics, such as semiconductor, conductive, dielectric, electroactive polymers, low environmental impact and/or functional substrates, enabling high-performance and reliable flexible electronics devices.

The scope of the call is to discover Innovative Advanced Materials (IAMs), including 2DMs, with improved properties in terms of flexibility, conformability, and stretchability that can enable novel flexible electronic applications, with a focus on environmentally friendly technologies with reduced carbon footprint processing.

The challenges that proposals should address include: discomfort of existing wearables leading to non-adoption; environmental impact of current electronics due to the use of hazardous and/or critical raw materials, energy-hungry and resource-intensive processes; low or limited performance and durability of existing materials for high-performance and reliable flexible electronic devices and circuits; and limited integrability of current electronics due to size and/or weight, complex cabling, interface between flexible and rigid components, and design limitations.

Proposals should address reparability and/or recyclability of devices and circuits, such as reversible adhesives and interconnects, low-temperature soldering, bio-based or recycled substrates, and bio-resorbable conductive materials. They should also ensure compatibility with energy and resource-efficient manufacturing processes like printing, thermoforming, high-pressure forming, lamination, and injection moulding.

Proposers are encouraged to leverage European analytical research infrastructures and services, such as those in the ARIE network, and to build their innovations on top of relevant existing standards, considering standardisation as part of innovation and dissemination activities.

This topic implements the co-programmed European Partnership Innovative Advanced Materials for Europe (IAM4EU). Proposals funded under this topic are part of the IAM4EU partnership portfolio and are expected to develop synergies with the related stakeholder community and contribute actively to the objectives of the partnership. Proposals should seek collaboration with existing projects and develop synergies with other relevant European, national, or regional initiatives, including the Graphene Flagship for proposals investigating 2D materials. Outreach to relevant national projects in EU Member States and Associated Countries is also encouraged, and adequate resources for these synergies should be included in the proposal.

The general conditions for this call include: admissibility conditions related to proposal page limits and layout 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 as described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes, with specific provisions for non-EU/non-Associated Countries outlined in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide; other eligible conditions 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 criteria as described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes; evaluation and award criteria, scoring, and thresholds as described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes; submission and evaluation processes as described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual; an indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement as described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes; and legal and financial set-up of the grants as described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes. Specific conditions are described in the specific topic of the Work Programme.

The application and evaluation forms, as well as the Model Grant Agreement (MGA), are available in the Submission System. Additional documents include the HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 1. General Introduction, HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 7. Digital, Industry and Space, HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 14. General Annexes, the 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.

There are 20 partner search announcements available for this topic. The submission system is planned to open on June 10, 2025.

In summary, this Horizon Europe call aims to foster research and innovation in advanced materials for flexible electronics, promoting sustainability, improved performance, and wider adoption of ubiquitous electronic devices. It encourages collaboration, synergy with existing initiatives, and the use of European research infrastructures. The call seeks to address key challenges in the field, including material limitations, environmental impact, and integration issues, with a focus on creating a more sustainable and user-friendly electronics ecosystem in Europe.

Eligible Applicant Types: The eligible applicant types are not explicitly stated, but based on the nature of Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Actions (RIA) and Coordination and Support Actions (CSA), eligible applicants can include universities, research institutes, SMEs, large enterprises, and other relevant organizations. The program guide should be consulted for full eligibility details.

Funding Type: The funding type is primarily a grant, specifically a HORIZON Action Grant Budget-Based [HORIZON-AG]. The actions are divided into HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions (RIA) and HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions (CSA).

Consortium Requirement: While not explicitly stated, the encouragement of collaboration with existing projects, other European, national, or regional initiatives, and the Graphene Flagship suggests that consortia are preferred, although single applicants might be possible. The specific requirements would be detailed in the call documents.

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility): The primary geographic eligibility includes EU Member States and Associated Countries. The opportunity mentions that 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.

Target Sector: The target sector is advanced materials for electronics, specifically focusing on Innovative Advanced Materials (IAMs), 2D materials (2DMs), flexible electronics, wearable electronics, e-textiles, e-skin, wellbeing solutions, and the Internet of Wearable Things (IoWT). It also targets environmentally friendly technologies with reduced carbon footprint processing.

Mentioned Countries: The opportunity explicitly mentions EU Member States and Associated Countries. It also refers to non-EU/non-Associated Countries that have made specific provisions for funding participants in Horizon Europe projects.

Project Stage: The project stage targets research, development, and innovation, aiming to move from idea to validation and demonstration, with a focus on enabling novel flexible electronic applications. The actions include both Research and Innovation Actions (RIA) and Innovation Actions (IA), suggesting a range from research to demonstration and validation.

Funding Amount: The funding amounts vary depending on the specific topic within the call:
HORIZON-CL4-2025-03-DATA-08: around €75,000,000
HORIZON-CL4-2025-03-DATA-09: €1,800,000 to €2,500,000
HORIZON-CL4-2025-03-DATA-10: €1,800,000 to €2,500,000
HORIZON-CL4-2025-03-DATA-11: around €10,000,000
HORIZON-CL4-2025-03-DATA-12: €1,900,000 to €2,100,000
HORIZON-CL4-2025-03-DATA-13: €7,000,000 to €9,000,000
HORIZON-CL4-2025-03-DIGITAL-EMERGING-01: around €4,500,000
HORIZON-CL4-2025-03-DIGITAL-EMERGING-02: around €5,000,000
HORIZON-CL4-2025-03-DIGITAL-EMERGING-03: €2,500,000 to €2,700,000
HORIZON-CL4-2025-03-DIGITAL-EMERGING-04: around €2,500,000
HORIZON-CL4-2025-03-DIGITAL-EMERGING-07: €40,000,000 to €45,000,000
HORIZON-CL4-2025-03-DIGITAL-EMERGING-08: around €1,000,000
HORIZON-CL4-2025-03-DIGITAL-EMERGING-09: around €15,000,000
HORIZON-CL4-2025-03-HUMAN-14: €5,000,000 to €6,000,000
HORIZON-CL4-2025-03-HUMAN-15: €4,000,000 to €5,000,000
HORIZON-CL4-2025-03-HUMAN-16: €1,000,000 to €3,000,000
HORIZON-CL4-2025-03-HUMAN-17: around €2,500,000
HORIZON-CL4-2025-03-HUMAN-18: around €3,000,000
HORIZON-CL4-2025-03-HUMAN-19: around €3,000,000
HORIZON-CL4-2025-03-MATERIALS-46: around €5,000,000
HORIZON-CL4-2025-03-MATERIALS-47: around €5,000,000

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 a grant to support their research and innovation activities.

Application Stages: The application process involves a single stage.

Success Rates: The success rates are not explicitly mentioned, but Horizon Europe projects typically have success rates below 10%, depending on the specific call and topic.

Co-funding Requirement: The co-funding requirement is not explicitly stated, but Horizon Europe grants usually fund a significant portion of the project costs, implying that some co-funding might be expected, although not mandated.

In summary, this Horizon Europe call, specifically HORIZON-CL4-2025-03-MATERIALS-47, focuses on Innovative Advanced Materials (IAMs) for conformable, flexible, or stretchable electronics. It is a Research and Innovation Action (RIA) under the DIGITAL - CNECT call, with a budget of approximately €5,000,000 per project and a total call budget of €15,000,000. The call aims to discover and develop advanced materials, including 2D materials, that can enable novel flexible electronic applications with a focus on environmentally friendly and sustainable technologies. The call encourages collaboration with other projects and initiatives, particularly the Graphene Flagship, and outreach to national projects in EU Member States and Associated Countries. Eligible applicants include a wide range of organizations such as universities, research institutes, SMEs, and large enterprises from EU Member States and Associated Countries, as well as potentially non-EU/non-Associated Countries with specific funding arrangements. The application process is a single-stage open call with a deadline of October 2, 2025. The expected outcomes include conformable, flexible, and stretchable electronic devices and circuits, sustainable electronics based on low environmental impact materials, and materials tailored for solution-processed electronics. The call addresses challenges such as the discomfort and environmental impact of existing wearables, the limited performance and durability of current materials, and the limited integrability of current electronics.