Integration of control & monitoring tools and strategies for improved Fuel Cell System durability & reliability

The HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2026-03-01 grant opportunity is offered by the European Clean Hydrogen Partnership under the Horizon Europe program, focused on research and innovation in hydrogen technology, specifically the integration of monitoring and control tools for enhancing fuel cell system durability and reliability. This initiative primarily targets organizations such as research institutions, universities, SMEs, large enterprises, and technology developers engaged in fuel cell systems. Proposals must form a consortium of at least three independent legal entities from different EU Member States or Associated Countries, ensuring broad collaboration.

Funding provided is a lump sum grant, with a maximum contribution of 4 million euros per project, as part of a total budget of 105 million euros across 21 topics related to clean hydrogen technology. The initiative emphasizes a move from Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 4, representing experimental validation, to TRL 6, which involves demonstration in relevant operational environments. Projects should showcase innovative control strategies, predictive maintenance tools, and the development of monitoring solutions, specifically focusing on the Balance of Plant components rather than the fuel cell stack.

The application process is single-stage and opens on February 10, 2026, with a submission deadline of April 15, 2026. Many applicants are anticipated, with previous calls receiving significant interest and a competitive selection likely, suggesting a success rate in the range of 10 to 39 percent.

Eligible applicants and partners are encouraged to develop robust funding strategies, even though co-funding is not formally required, as joint investment showcases commitment to the project goals. The scope of the projects includes the integration of advanced monitoring tools, control systems for energy management, and collaboration with established partners to enhance hydrogen technology, aligning with the overall EU strategy for hydrogen development, which aims to bolster sustainable energy initiatives.

Projects should aim to produce two power demonstrators with at least 100 kW output, fostering collaboration, open data sharing, and contributing to European technological sovereignty. Overall, this funding opportunity seeks to accelerate advancements in clean hydrogen technologies, focusing on practical applications and industry engagement in various transportation sectors.

This EU grant opportunity, under the Horizon Europe program and the Clean Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (JU), call HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2026-03-01, focuses on "Integration of control & monitoring tools and strategies for improved Fuel Cell System durability & reliability." It aims to improve the lifetime, reliability, and efficiency of Fuel Cell Systems (FCS) by developing and integrating advanced prognostic and health management strategies. The call specifically targets the Balance of Plant (BoP) components of FCS, encouraging the use of experimental testing, digital modelling, and AI-based techniques.

The expected outcomes of this grant are improvements in control and energy management for increased lifetime and reliability, new product ideas for FCS monitoring and diagnostics, enhanced durability of fuel cell systems, development of modular hardware and software platforms for diagnostic methodologies, a European open-source platform for data sharing, increased confidence in FC technology, and support for technological sovereignty and decarbonisation in Europe.

Key performance indicators (KPIs) include reduction of FCS OPEX, improved dynamic operation and efficiency, development of monitoring and control tools, increased FCS durability, increased Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF), increased lifetime of fuel cell stack or BoP components, increased deployment of fuel cell technologies, and enabling cross-sectoral applicability of solutions.

The scope of the projects should include developing innovative control and monitoring strategies, contributing to standardized protocols for State of Health (SoH) diagnostics, integrating strategies in an open framework with adaptable hardware/software, identifying and quantifying the influence of BoP components on FCS durability, improving FCS reliability through predictive maintenance and condition monitoring, and using AI and data-driven methods combined with physics-based modelling. The projects should also make tools and methodologies available through open data infrastructure and validate algorithms using experimental data from real demonstrators.

Projects must develop two power system demonstrators integrating FCS, software/hardware for diagnostic/prognostic functionalities and power electronics, with a power output representative of at least 100 kW. One demonstrator could be replaced by a Hardware-in-the-Loop (HiL) system if aging and malfunction models are available. The methodologies should be versatile for different fuel cell technologies and fuels. A key deliverable is the creation of an open-access, anonymized datalake integrating experimental and high-fidelity simulated datasets.

Projects should build on results from previous projects like Ruby, GiantLeap, Helenus, or Virtual-FCS. Synergies with partnerships like EU-Rail JU, 2ZERO Partnership, or Zero Emission Waterborne Transport Partnership should be explored. Collaboration with JRC is foreseen for activities developing test protocols.

Activities are expected to start at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 4 and achieve TRL 6 by the end of the project. The JU estimates a maximum EU contribution of EUR 4.00 million for this topic.

The general conditions for this call include admissibility conditions related to proposal page limits and layout, eligible countries as described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes, and other eligible conditions. There is an additional eligibility condition related to the maximum contribution per topic.

Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum. Subcontracting is allowed only to entities in Member States of the European Union and all Associated Countries. There is an additional information obligation for topics including standardisation activities related to Intellectual Property Rights (IPR).

Application form templates and evaluation form templates are available in the Submission System. Guidance documents include the HE Programme Guide, Model Grant Agreements (MGA), Clean Hydrogen JU Annual Work Programme 2026, Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA), and Lump Sums Guidance.

The total budget for the call is EUR 105,000,000, with a single-stage submission process. The planned opening date is 10 February 2026, and the deadline is 15 April 2026.

This funding opportunity is designed to accelerate the development and deployment of reliable and efficient hydrogen fuel cell systems for sustainable mobility applications. It encourages collaborative projects that integrate advanced monitoring, control, and diagnostic technologies to improve the durability and performance of fuel cell systems, particularly focusing on the Balance of Plant components. The emphasis on open data, standardized protocols, and collaboration with existing initiatives aims to create a robust ecosystem for fuel cell technology development in Europe. The call seeks to bridge the gap between research and practical application, fostering innovation and market uptake of fuel cell technologies across various transportation sectors.

Eligible Applicant Types: The eligible applicant types are not explicitly defined in the provided text. However, given the nature of Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Actions (RIA) and Innovation Actions (IA) and Coordination and Support Actions (CSA), eligible applicants can be inferred to include a range of entities such as universities, research institutes, SMEs, large enterprises, and other organizations capable of conducting research, development, and innovation activities in the field of clean hydrogen technologies. The mention of "manufacturers, researchers, system integrators, and policymakers" suggests that these groups are also considered potential applicants or partners.

Funding Type: The primary financial mechanism is a grant, specifically a HORIZON Lump Sum Grant. This is indicated by the "Type of MGA: HORIZON Lump Sum Grant [HORIZON-AG-LS]" designation.

Consortium Requirement: While not explicitly stated, the call encourages collaboration and synergy, particularly with existing projects and partnerships. The additional eligibility condition regarding membership in Hydrogen Europe / Hydrogen Europe Research for certain topics implies that a consortium of multiple applicants is generally expected, especially for large-scale demonstration and flagship projects. Partner search announcements are present.

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility): The target countries for subcontracting are all Member States of the European Union and all Associated Countries. 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 program targets the clean hydrogen sector, specifically focusing on fuel cell systems (FCS) and their integration into sustainable mobility solutions. This includes the development, integration, and validation of robust online monitoring and control algorithms for FCS, targeting prediction and mitigation of degradation, faults, and failures throughout the system lifetime. The target sectors of mobility include maritime applications, heavy-duty vehicles, and aeronautics.

Mentioned Countries: The target countries are all Member States of the European Union and all Associated Countries.

Project Stage: Activities are expected to start at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 4 and achieve TRL 6 by the end of the project.

Funding Amount: The JU (Joint Undertaking) estimates that an EU contribution of a maximum of EUR 4.00 million would allow these outcomes to be addressed appropriately for the topic HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2026-03-01. However, the budget overview shows that the contributions for different topics range from around EUR 1.5 million to EUR 17 million.

Application Type: The application type is an open call, as indicated by the "Forthcoming" deadline model and the single-stage submission process.

Nature of Support: Beneficiaries will receive money in the form of a lump sum grant.

Application Stages: The application process is single-stage.

Success Rates: The indicative number of grants is 1 for each of the topics listed. The success rates are not explicitly stated.

Co-funding Requirement: For some topics, in line with the Clean Hydrogen JU SRIA, an additional eligibility criterion has been introduced to limit the Clean Hydrogen JU requested contribution mostly for actions performed at high TRL level, including demonstration in real operational environment and with important involvement from industrial stakeholders and/or end users such as public authorities. Such actions are expected to leverage co-funding as commitment from stakeholders. It is of added value that such leverage is shown through the private investment in these specific topics.

Summary:

This Horizon Europe call, under the Clean Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (JU), seeks to fund research and innovation projects focused on improving the durability, reliability, and efficiency of fuel cell systems (FCS) for sustainable mobility applications. The call specifically targets the development, integration, and validation of online monitoring and control algorithms for FCS, with a focus on Balance of Plant (BoP) components. Projects should aim to predict and mitigate degradation, faults, and failures throughout the system lifetime, leveraging experimental testing, digital modeling, and AI-based techniques.

The expected outcomes include enhanced control and energy management, new product ideas for FCS monitoring and diagnostics, improved durability and reliability through predictive maintenance, and the development of open-source platforms for data sharing and collaboration. Projects should contribute to the objectives and KPIs of the Clean Hydrogen JU's Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA), such as reducing FCS OPEX, improving dynamic operation and efficiency, increasing FCS durability and MTBF, and enabling cross-sectoral applicability of solutions.

The call encourages collaboration with existing projects and partnerships, as well as collaboration with the JRC for developing test protocols. Activities are expected to start at TRL 4 and reach TRL 6 by the end of the project. Funding is provided as a lump sum grant, with a maximum EU contribution of EUR 4.00 million for the topic HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2026-03-01, but other topics have different maximum contributions. Eligible applicants include universities, research institutes, SMEs, large enterprises, and other organizations capable of conducting relevant research and innovation activities. The call is a single-stage open call with a deadline of April 15, 2026.