Lighthouse Codes for HPC Applications

The Lighthouse Codes for HPC Applications grant opportunity under Horizon Europe focuses on developing high-performance computing software aimed at enhancing Europe’s leadership in this field. This initiative encourages collaborative projects among various stakeholders, including research institutes, universities, and private sector entities, particularly emphasizing the participation of industry partners.

Eligible applicants must be legal entities located in EU Member States and associated countries of Horizon Europe. A consortium must be formed for project proposals, ensuring a balanced mix of HPC specialists and domain experts which is a requirement for submissions. The funding type is a grant under the Research and Innovation Actions (RIA), with the EU covering up to 50% of eligible costs, meaning co-funding from applicants is necessary.

The call has a total budget of 60 million euros with funding for individual projects ranging from 1 million to 4 million euros. There are three specific topics within this grant, with the submission process being a single-stage open call. The submission deadline is set for January 20, 2026.

Projects under this call are expected to focus on the development, consolidation, or expansion of "Lighthouse Codes," which are essential HPC applications or software development kits. These codes aim to address significant scientific challenges including personalized medicine, energy solutions, and advanced AI capabilities. Success in these projects will be measured against criteria such as scalability, sustainability, and community impact.

The application process is competitive, with a typical success rate not explicitly stated but generally noted to be around 10-20% for Horizon Europe initiatives. Proposals are required to demonstrate a comprehensive software development strategy and clearly outline how the developed codes will contribute to open science and remain sustainable beyond the grant funding period.

Overall, the Lighthouse Codes initiative aims to strengthen Europe’s technological independence and capacity for innovation within the exascale and AI domains, fostering collaborations that enhance scientific and industrial productivity and drive forward significant advancements in high-performance computing.

The Lighthouse Codes for HPC Applications is a Horizon Europe call under the HPC Centres of Excellence and HPC Lighthouse Codes initiative (HORIZON-JU-EUROHPC-2026-COE-LH-01). It aims to develop globally competitive HPC application software and accelerate Europe's leadership in high-performance computing (HPC) applications. The call is structured around three topics: HORIZON-JU-EUROHPC-2026-COE-LH-01-01, HORIZON-JU-EUROHPC-2026-COE-LH-01-02, and HORIZON-JU-EUROHPC-2026-COE-LH-01-03, all of which are HORIZON JU Research and Innovation Actions (RIA).

The total budget for this call is 60,000,000 EUR. The call employs a single-stage submission process, with the opening date set for June 10, 2025, and the deadline for submissions on January 20, 2026, at 17:00:00 Brussels time. The indicative number of grants is between 10 and 48. The EU-funding rate for eligible costs in grants awarded by the JU for this topic will be up to 50% of the eligible costs.

The expected outcomes of this call include: Successful integration of cutting-edge capabilities into production-grade software, driving innovation and enhancing Europe’s scientific excellence and industrial competitiveness. Enhanced scientific and engineering productivity: Consolidated and optimized Lighthouse Codes lower technical barriers, enabling faster and more accurate simulations and computations. This supports scientific discovery, advances engineering solutions, and drives cross-sector innovation. Well-documented, high-quality codebases with well-defined scope and functionality, passing rigorous validation and reproducibility standards. Stronger alignment with EU grand challenges, ensuring that Lighthouse Codes contribute to Europe’s strategic priorities in science and industry.

The central objective is the strategic and focused development of globally competitive HPC codes with high impact. This includes further developing existing Lighthouse Codes, but also consolidating, refactoring, redesigning or rewriting existing applications, which will result in a state-of-the-art Lighthouse Code during the implementation of the proposal, and making the Lighthouse Code accessible to the wider HPC user community.

A "Lighthouse Code" is defined as an application, a software development kit (SDK), or a software library which is distributed as a single package and meets the following broad criteria: Established professional software development and management structures involving professional HPC software engineers, including policies to ensure quality, coherence and compliance of contributions with community standards and best practices. An established large or rapidly growing user community, demonstrated through appropriate KPIs (e.g., number of users/growth trend, downloads, HPC resource allocations). Processes for systematic documentation as part of the development process providing comprehensive documentation of functionality, ensuring usability for both users and developers, including APIs, user manuals, and developer guides. Commitment towards code stewardship by at least one eligible legal entity, ensuring ongoing maintenance, updates, and strategic development beyond the grant period. Competitive scalability in the respective domain, and availability across multiple supercomputing architectures, including heterogeneous and accelerated platforms. Potential for broad adoption and high-impact applications in scientific, industrial or societal domains. Ownership and licensing framework, allowing both open-source and proprietary codes to be included, provided that access and development rights are clearly defined and consortium members demonstrate the competence to control and further develop the code.

The software developments will establish best practices among European contributors and lead to sustainable, globally competitive software that can significantly impacts the wider HPC ecosystem. Lighthouse Codes are expected to demonstrate potential collaboration with relevant Centres of Excellence (CoEs) and the EuroHPC Academy, where appropriate, to benefit from the European community building and training efforts in key HPC domains.

The scope of the call includes specifying and describing the Lighthouse Code in detail, consolidating efforts dedicated to multiple domain science codes into one common Lighthouse Code, and clearly identifying and describing the Lighthouse Code(s) to be developed or consolidated which must either already exist or, in exceptional and well-justified cases, be a state-of-the-art reimplementation of functionality of existing code. Each proposal may include only one Lighthouse Code. If an entirely new Lighthouse Code is proposed, it must be based on existing applications with high impact, for example in science and technology, and demonstrate a credible potential to meet the Lighthouse Code criteria within the project’s duration.

Proposals should focus on the development, consolidation, or expansion of a Lighthouse Code with clearly demonstrated scientific, technical, or societal impact. A robust software development plan, including a well-defined scope, timeline, and sustainability strategy, should be central to the proposal.

Proposals should focus on at least one of the following activities, with clear, measurable KPIs and a detailed software development plan including regular milestones for all development lines: Code Development & Optimization: rewrite, transform or consolidate multiple codes with existing large user communities and high scientific impact into one, potentially new Lighthouse Code. Consolidate, or integrate multiple high-impact codes to improve performance, usability, and sustainability within the HPC ecosystem. Feature Enhancement: Implement new functionalities in an existing Lighthouse Code to extend its capabilities and improve usability. Architecture Adaptation: Port Lighthouse Codes to new HPC architectures, including novel accelerator-based platforms. Exascale/ AI Readiness: Implement post-exascale/ Advance AI capabilities, improving scalability and efficiency.

Additional requirements include: Consortia should include a balanced composition of partners, integrating HPC specialists and domain experts with relevant expertise. Maximize impact through collaboration, establishing strong links with other actions supported under this call. Commitment towards the sustainability of the codes beyond the grant period which should be demonstrated by a letter of commitment from a participating legal entity that will provide stewardship for the Lighthouse Code. The participation of entities in the private sector is strongly encouraged, provided alignment with central business objectives is clearly demonstrated. Proposals should describe in detail how the software development process will be streamlined and managed, including all relevant IT tools e. g. for code and documentation management, test automation, quality assurance, continuous integration, continuous delivery, issue trackers, user feedback and monitoring dashboards. Applicants are encouraged to use best practice and automated workflows where appropriate to reduce administrative overhead and improve continuous reporting effort towards EuroHPC. Proposals should define and describe a mechanism how the specific developments resulting from the proposed work can be identified in the code. While deviations are permissible if adequately justified, proposals should generally allocate at least 12 person months of resources for portfolio activities. The portfolio activities, which refer to collaboration tasks with relevant initiatives under the same call, will be defined after the evaluation and implemented through a dedicated work package or task in the final Grant Agreement. While deviations are permissible if adequately justified, the overall resources allocated to non-technical work, such as project management, coordination, dissemination should generally not exceed 2% of the overall personnel resources. All participants are expected to contribute substantially (at least 5% of the total personnel resources) to the technical work and take responsibility for associated tasks and deliverables.

Admissibility conditions require adherence 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 are those described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes. Participation is limited to legal entities established in eligible countries described in Annex B of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes.

Beneficiaries will be subject to additional obligations regarding open science practices, including coordinated provision of software, algorithms, and relevant information to use and validate applications/tools without undue delay to the wider European HPC user community. Grants awarded under this topic will have to submit the following deliverable(s): data management plan (to be submitted at the beginning, at mid-term and towards the end of the project); communication plan (to be submitted 6 months after the beginning of the grant together with the D&E plan); plan for the dissemination and exploitation of results (to be submitted 6 months after the beginning of the grant, and towards the end of the project).

The Lighthouse Codes for HPC Applications call is a strategic initiative aimed at bolstering Europe's HPC capabilities by fostering the development and enhancement of high-impact, globally competitive HPC codes. It seeks to integrate cutting-edge technologies into production-ready software, thereby driving scientific discovery and cross-sector innovation. The call encourages collaboration among researchers, industry experts, and HPC specialists to promote best practices in software development, optimization, and interoperability. By aligning with key scientific and societal challenges, such as fusion energy, advanced battery technology, AI-driven healthcare, and cybersecurity, the initiative aims to strengthen Europe's technological autonomy and innovation capacity in the exascale and AI era. The call emphasizes the importance of sustainable, scalable, and well-documented codebases, with a focus on community building, training, and long-term code stewardship. Participation from private sector entities is strongly encouraged to ensure alignment with business objectives and to maximize the impact of the developed Lighthouse Codes.

Eligible Applicant Types: The eligible applicant types are legal entities established in eligible countries described in Annex B of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes. The call encourages consortia with a balanced composition of partners, integrating HPC specialists and domain experts. The participation of entities in the private sector is strongly encouraged.

Funding Type: The funding type is a grant, specifically a HORIZON JU Research and Innovation Action (RIA) under the Horizon Europe program. The type of Model Grant Agreement (MGA) is a HORIZON Action Grant Budget-Based [HORIZON-AG].

Consortium Requirement: Consortia are required, and they should include a balanced composition of partners, integrating HPC specialists and domain experts with relevant expertise.

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility): Participation is limited to legal entities established in eligible countries described in Annex B of the Horizon Europe 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.

Target Sector: The target sector is High-Performance Computing (HPC) applications, focusing on the development, consolidation, or expansion of "Lighthouse Codes." These codes aim to address scientific grand challenges in areas such as fusion energy, development of high-capacity/low-cost batteries, AI-driven genomics-based personalized treatments, and AI-driven cybersecurity. The program targets the Digital, Industry and Space sectors.

Mentioned Countries: No specific countries are mentioned, but eligibility is restricted to legal entities established in eligible countries described in Annex B of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes, which includes EU member states and associated countries.

Project Stage: The project stage targets existing or state-of-the-art reimplementation of existing code. The focus is on further development, consolidation, refactoring, redesigning, or rewriting existing applications to create state-of-the-art Lighthouse Codes. The projects should aim to integrate cutting-edge capabilities into production-grade software. Exascale/AI readiness is also a focus, with the implementation of post-exascale/Advanced AI capabilities.

Funding Amount: The total budget for the call is EUR 60,000,000. The indicative grant amounts for the different topics are:
HORIZON-JU-EUROHPC-2026-COE-LH-01-01: EUR 2,000,000 to EUR 4,000,000
HORIZON-JU-EUROHPC-2026-COE-LH-01-02: EUR 1,000,000 to EUR 2,500,000
HORIZON-JU-EUROHPC-2026-COE-LH-01-03: EUR 1,000,000 to EUR 1,500,000

Application Type: The application type is a single-stage open call. The submission session opened on June 10, 2025, and the deadline for submission is January 20, 2026, at 17:00:00 Brussels time.

Nature of Support: Beneficiaries will receive money in the form of a grant to cover eligible costs. The EU-funding rate for eligible costs will be up to 50%. Beneficiaries will also be subject to additional obligations regarding open science practices, including the coordinated provision of software, algorithms, and relevant information to the wider European HPC user community.

Application Stages: The application process is a single-stage process.

Success Rates: The indicative number of grants is 48. Given the budget of EUR 60,000,000, and the grant ranges, the success rate is likely to be between 10 to 39%.

Co-funding Requirement: The EU-funding rate for eligible costs in grants awarded by the JU for this topic will be up to 50% of the eligible costs, implying a co-funding requirement of at least 50% from the applicant or other parties.

The HORIZON-JU-EUROHPC-2026-COE-LH-01 call, under the Horizon Europe program, aims to bolster Europe's leadership in high-performance computing (HPC) by funding projects focused on developing and enhancing "Lighthouse Codes." These codes are intended to be globally competitive HPC applications, software development kits (SDKs), or software libraries that meet specific criteria related to software development practices, user community size, documentation, code stewardship, scalability, adoption potential, and licensing. The call encourages collaboration between researchers, industry, and HPC experts to integrate cutting-edge capabilities into production-grade software, driving innovation and addressing scientific grand challenges. Eligible applicants are legal entities from EU member states and associated countries, and consortia must include a balanced mix of HPC specialists and domain experts. The funding will be provided as grants, covering up to 50% of eligible costs, with projects expected to contribute to open science practices and the sustainability of the developed codes. The call has three specific topics with varying budget ranges, and the application process is a single-stage submission with a deadline of January 20, 2026. The overall goal is to strengthen Europe's technological autonomy and innovation capacity in the exascale and AI era by fostering the development and adoption of high-impact HPC codes.