Next-generation environment perception for real world CCAM operations: Error-free and secure technologies to improve energy-efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and circularity (CCAM Partnership)

The EU funding opportunity under Horizon Europe, specifically Cluster 5, focuses on advancing technologies for Connected, Cooperative, and Automated Mobility (CCAM) through a grant identified as HORIZON-CL5-2026-01-D6-03. The grant promotes the development of next-generation environment perception technologies aimed at improving energy efficiency and robustness in CCAM operations. It targets applicants including research institutions, universities, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and large enterprises, emphasizing collaboration through consortia.

Funding amounts to a maximum of €4 million per project, with an indicative total budget of €8 million for this call and approximately two grants expected. The application process is a single-stage open call, with a submission deadline of January 20, 2026. Projects must demonstrate readiness for validation and real-world application, focusing on the challenges associated with Level 4 automated vehicle services.

Key objectives include developing validated prototypes capable of ensuring safety in complex environments, improving energy efficiency, exploring modular software and hardware solutions, and fostering international partnerships especially with stakeholders from Japan and the United States. Proposals should address societal and ethical considerations and engage with institutional users and citizen-science approaches.

The initiative seeks to enhance the performance and reliability of CCAM systems, supporting sustainability and reducing costs, while aligning with the goals of the European Partnership for CCAM. Proposals should be grounded in the guidelines provided for submission and evaluation, ensuring adherence to financial and operational criteria.

Overall, this grant represents a significant opportunity to contribute to the future of automated mobility, emphasizing research and innovation to facilitate secure and efficient transportation systems.

The EU funding opportunity concerns the Horizon Europe program, specifically Cluster 5, Call 01-2026 (WP 2025), focusing on "Next-generation environment perception for real world CCAM operations: Error-free and secure technologies to improve energy-efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and circularity (CCAM Partnership)" under the topic HORIZON-CL5-2026-01-D6-03. This is a HORIZON Research and Innovation Action (HORIZON-RIA) with a HORIZON Lump Sum Grant [HORIZON-AG-LS] type of Model Grant Agreement (MGA).

The call adopts a single-stage deadline model. The planned opening date is 16 September 2025, and the deadline for submission is 20 January 2026 at 17:00:00 Brussels time.

The expected outcomes of the projects should contribute to:
1. Availability of validated prototypes of next-generation vehicle and infrastructure-based environment perception technologies for robust, reliable and trustworthy CCAM operations to anticipate and avoid foreseeable risks and unexpected safety-critical situations in complex real-world conditions (e.g., at pedestrian crossings, in construction sites, during interactions with emergency vehicles, etc.).
2. Understanding the degree (and limits) to which automated CCAM perception systems can anticipate, process, and respond to on-site ‘early-warnings’ (e.g., street design, sounds, smells and other signals from the environment, weather conditions, intentions of pedestrians, cyclists, and other active mobility users, etc.).
3. Improvement of the energy-efficiency of the sense-think-act systems of CCAM considering the vehicle, the infrastructure, the cloud at-the-edge, while at the same time increasing the performance to guarantee security and error-free reliability; these developments will contribute to the reduction of the potential climate and environmental footprints of CCAM systems.
4. Standardisation and adoption of modular, reusable, and upgradable software and hardware platforms, investigating scalable deployment concepts that lead to cost reduction and improved affordability while adopting a circular, eco-design approach (including efficient materials use, reduced waste, and the repair and reuse of components where feasible).

The scope of this funding opportunity addresses the challenges encountered during the initial deployment of Level 4 automated vehicle services in complex urban settings. These challenges include environmental perception and decision-making, which have led to remote assistance calls, blockages, and accidents, impacting public trust. The increasing computing power demand conflicts with sustainability requirements. The research aims to improve performance, accuracy, reliability, and cyber-security of automated vehicles.

Proposed actions are expected to address the following aspects:
1. Advancements in all steps of the sense-control-act process for both vehicle- and infrastructure-based smart sensor systems and networks, controllers, and actuators to ensure safety and trustworthiness of CCAM, as well as facilitating effective disruption management.
2. Utilisation of digital enabling technologies including, for example: AI at-the-edge, machine learning, data spaces with reference scenarios and suitable software architectures.
3. Adoption of modular, reusable, and open software platforms supporting the environment perception for CCAM while ensuring transparency of operation, verification, and safety assessment to build trust, with respect to authorities, decision makers and the public via direct performance explainability.
4. Energy efficiency, circularity, and eco-design of the environment perception systems by decreasing potential energy and resource consumption in both production and operation as well as facilitating reusability, reparability and upgradability while further enhancing the performance.
5. Reduction of potential costs of environment perception systems through scalability, modularity and standardisation, making technologies financially viable for widespread implementation.
6. Support remote assistance as a stepping-stone towards higher levels of autonomy and vehicle automation in wider Operational Design Domains (ODD).

Solutions are expected to integrate electronic hardware architectures and software stacks in a co-design approach. It is strongly encouraged that solutions use building blocks and tools from projects of the Software-Defined Vehicle of the Future (SDVoF) initiative under the Chips Joint Undertaking, e.g., on the hardware abstraction layer and SDV middleware and API framework. Results from projects funded under HORIZON-CL5-2024-D6-01-04 and complementarities with projects funded under Horizon Europe Cluster 4 “Digital Industry and Space” should also be considered.

Proposals should foresee exchanges with other relevant EU or national projects for coordinated validation, transport systems integration and large-scale piloting. Collaboration should also be sought with projects funded under HORIZON-CL5-2024-D6-01-01 and other directly relevant call topics.

Proposals should consider societal, ethical, socio-economical and/ or legal aspects as far as feasible in the requirements of the technical solutions to be developed, involving the engagement of institutional users as well as citizen-science approaches, e.g., in collaboration with projects CulturalRoad and Diversify – CCAM.

International cooperation is highly relevant, considering the lessons learned in this area (for example, from robo-taxi and freight transport trials in the US and China). Activities should foster links between the European ecosystem and relevant stakeholders around the world, in particular with Japan and the United States.

Projects resulting from this topic will be expected to report on results to the European Partnership ‘Connected, Cooperative and Automated Mobility’ (CCAM) in support of the monitoring of its KPIs and are expected to apply the European Common Evaluation Methodology (EU-CEM) for CCAM.

The budget for the topic HORIZON-CL5-2026-01-D6-03 is 8,000,000 EUR, and the indicative number of grants is around 2, with contributions of around 4,000,000 EUR.

General conditions include admissibility conditions, eligible countries, financial and operational capacity and exclusion, evaluation and award criteria, submission and evaluation processes, indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement, and legal and financial set-up of the grants.

Specific conditions include application and evaluation forms and model grant agreement (MGA). Application form templates are available in the Submission System, including a standard application form (HE RIA, IA) and a standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA). Guidance is provided through the HE Programme Guide and a Lump Sum MGA. Call-specific instructions include a detailed budget table (HE LS) and guidance on lump sums. Additional documents include the HE Main Work Programme 2025, the HE Programme Guide, the HE Framework Programme 2021/695, the EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509, and various guidelines and rules for legal entity validation, grant agreements, and the Funding & Tenders Portal.

This funding opportunity aims to address the challenges in deploying Level 4 automated vehicle services by focusing on improving the environment perception and decision-making capabilities of CCAM systems. It seeks to enhance the safety, trustworthiness, energy efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of these systems through research and innovation actions. The projects are expected to deliver validated prototypes, promote standardization, and foster international cooperation, ultimately contributing to the widespread implementation of reliable and sustainable automated mobility solutions. The funding is provided as a lump sum, and applicants should consult the provided guidelines and templates for preparing their proposals.

Eligible Applicant Types: The eligible applicant types are not explicitly stated in the provided text. However, given that it is a Horizon Europe call, eligible applicants typically include universities, research institutes, SMEs, large enterprises, and other organizations capable of conducting research and innovation activities. The call also mentions engagement of institutional users, suggesting that government or public sector organizations could be eligible.

Funding Type: The funding type is primarily a grant, specifically a HORIZON Research and Innovation Action (RIA) or Innovation Action (IA) or Coordination and Support Actions (CSA) under the Horizon Europe Programme. Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum.

Consortium Requirement: The text does not explicitly state whether a consortium is required, but it encourages collaboration with other EU or national projects and international cooperation, suggesting that consortia are preferred or potentially required. The Partner Search option also indicates that collaboration is expected.

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility): The geographic eligibility includes EU member states and associated countries as described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes. The text also 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 program targets the Connected, Cooperative and Automated Mobility (CCAM) sector, with a focus on next-generation environment perception technologies, AI, machine learning, data spaces, smart sensor systems, electronic hardware architectures, and software stacks. It also aims to improve energy efficiency, cost-effectiveness, circularity, and cybersecurity within this sector.

Mentioned Countries: The United States, China, and Japan are explicitly mentioned as countries with relevant lessons learned in robo-taxi and freight transport trials.

Project Stage: The expected maturity of the project is at the validation and demonstration stage, with an emphasis on validated prototypes and real-world applications. The call also supports research and innovation actions.

Funding Amount: The funding amounts vary depending on the specific topic within the call, ranging from €1,500,000 to €30,000,000. The indicative number of grants also varies, from 1 to 3, depending on the topic. For the specific topic HORIZON-CL5-2026-01-D6-03, the budget is 8,000,000 EUR and the indicative number of grants is around 2.

Application Type: The application type is an open call with a single-stage submission process.

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

Application Stages: The application process consists of a single stage.

Success Rates: The success rates are not explicitly mentioned, but the indicative number of grants for each topic provides some insight into the potential success rate.

Co-funding Requirement: The text does not explicitly mention a co-funding requirement.

Summary:

This Horizon Europe Cluster 5 call focuses on advancing Connected, Cooperative, and Automated Mobility (CCAM) technologies, specifically targeting next-generation environment perception for real-world operations. The call aims to address challenges in deploying Level 4 automated vehicle services, such as issues with environmental perception, decision-making, energy efficiency, and cybersecurity. The call encourages projects that integrate electronic hardware and software, utilize AI and machine learning, adopt modular and reusable software platforms, and consider societal, ethical, and legal aspects. International cooperation, particularly with the US, China, and Japan, is highly encouraged. The funding is provided as a lump sum grant, and the application process involves a single-stage submission. The call is structured around several specific topics, each with its own budget and indicative number of grants, ranging from research and innovation actions to coordination and support actions. The overall goal is to improve the performance, accuracy, reliability, and trustworthiness of CCAM systems while reducing their environmental footprint and costs.