Pre-Normative Research on hydrogen odorisation: enhancing safety and detection along the hydrogen value chain

HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2026-05-02 is a funding opportunity under the Horizon Europe program aimed at conducting pre-normative research on hydrogen odorization for safety and detection in hydrogen value chains. The call encourages proposals focusing on the development of standard safety measures as the EU transitions from natural gas to hydrogen. The overarching goals include generating experimental data on odorization techniques, ensuring effective leak detection, and establishing safety standards for hydrogen infrastructure.

Eligible applicants must form a consortium consisting of at least three independent legal entities from different EU Member States or Associated Countries. Participation from research organizations, universities, regulatory bodies, and gas distributors is particularly encouraged. The application process is a single-stage electronic submission set to open on 10 February 2026 with a deadline of 15 April 2026.

Funding will be provided as a fixed lump sum grant of approximately €3 million for this topic, part of a total budget of €105 million allocated for the broader 2026 call. Proposals should demonstrate credible project planning and resource allocation. The specific focus areas of research include the stability and compatibility of new odorants, methods for odorant development and characterization, and creating effective detection and de-odorization strategies.

Subcontracting is only allowed within EU Member States and Associated Countries. Although co-funding is not mandatory, it may enhance proposals by demonstrating stakeholder commitment. The expected project outcomes include harmonized safety standards, standard methods for odorization, and comprehensive assessments of odorant performance in real-world environments.

The call seeks innovative solutions for ensuring hydrogen is odorized effectively, mirroring the safety practices associated with natural gas, thereby fostering public acceptance of hydrogen as a safe energy carrier by 2030. Proposals will be evaluated based on criteria such as excellence, implementation quality, and potential impact. Collaboration with ongoing projects and initiatives to maximize synergies is strongly encouraged.

This is a call for proposals under the Horizon Europe program, specifically the Clean Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (JU), focusing on pre-normative research related to hydrogen odorization. The call, titled "Pre-Normative Research on hydrogen odorisation: enhancing safety and detection along the hydrogen value chain" and identified as HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2026-05-02, aims to develop risk mitigation strategies for the transition from natural gas to 100% hydrogen, particularly in hard-to-abate industries, by focusing on the odorization of hydrogen for safety purposes.

The expected outcomes of the projects funded under this call include:

Data on various odorants or chemical families of odorants provided to regulatory bodies to ensure safety and performance standards for hydrogen gas grids and appliances across the EU. This includes data on the tolerance of materials used in contact with odorants and their degradation products.
Harmonized standards and guidelines to reduce over-conservatism and ensure consistent safety measures.
Standard methods for odorization and deodorization of hydrogen.

The projects are expected to contribute to the Clean Hydrogen JU Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) objectives, specifically:

Ensuring that hydrogen safety is understood and holistically implemented by 2030, with odorization being one of the applied safety measures.
Enhancing public awareness of odorized hydrogen and promoting the widespread acceptance of hydrogen as an energy carrier in the EU by 2030, targeting non-experts in particular.

The scope of the call includes several key research areas:

Pipeline Component Tolerance: Assessing the tolerance of pipeline components to hydrogen and the odorants themselves.
Pre-Normative Research (PNR): Supporting the development of regulations, codes, and standards (RCS) through open communication and knowledge transfer.
Odorant Detectability: Ensuring the warning scent of an odorant is detectable at very low concentrations, specifically at 20% of the lower flammability limit in air (0.8% hydrogen in air).
Odorant Development and Characterization: Encouraging the development and characterization of new odorants, including:
Chemical characterization using techniques like GC-MS/MS, NMR, and elemental analysis.
Analytical methods to quantify the lowest detectable concentrations (ppb/ppt levels) and control fraud.
Stability tests and characterization of degradation products.
In-silico toxicity assessments.
Absorption/permeation tests in hydrogen for different polymers.
Impact assessment on end-users’ systems (e.g., fuel cells, combustion).
Real-World Testing: Testing odorants in close-to-real-world environments to ensure material compatibility.
Safety Assessments: Ensuring odorants and their degradation products do not enhance hydrogen embrittlement or corrosion.
De-odorization Strategies: Developing validated strategies for removing odorant molecules for sensitive appliances, meeting ISO 14687 purity requirements.
Distribution Network Modeling: Studying the quality of hydrogen-odorant mixtures as they move through transmission and distribution networks, including modeling and simulating flow under different conditions.

The call encourages the involvement of formal standardization bodies and the participation of gas distributors and regulatory institutions. Proposals should also focus on disseminating results through workshops and creating synergies with projects like EURAMET's Met4H2 and HyQualNet.

The call specifies several conditions and requirements:

Admissibility: Proposals must adhere to page limits and layout guidelines as described in Annex A and E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes and Part B of the Application Form. The page limit for Innovation Actions is 70 pages.
Eligible Countries: As described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes. Some non-EU/non-Associated Countries have specific provisions for funding participation.
Other Eligibility Conditions: As described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes.
Maximum Contribution: There is no maximum Clean Hydrogen JU contribution specified for this particular topic.
Membership: There is no membership requirement for this particular topic.
Financial and Operational Capacity and Exclusion: As described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes.
Evaluation and Award: The award criteria, scoring, and thresholds are described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes. The submission and evaluation processes are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual.
Indicative Timeline: The indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement is described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes.
STEP (Sovereignty) Seal: This seal is not applicable to this topic.
Legal and Financial Set-up: Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum, as defined in the Decision of 7 July 2021. Subcontracting is subject to the condition that work must be performed in EU Member States and Associated Countries. Beneficiaries must inform the granting authority if results could contribute to European or international standards up to 4 years after the action's end.

The call specifies that this year’s proposals will take the form of lump sums as defined in the Decision of 7 July 2021.

Application form templates and evaluation form templates are available in the Submission System.

The total budget for the HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2026 call is 105,000,000 EUR. The call follows a single-stage submission process, with the opening date planned for 10 February 2026 and a deadline of 15 April 2026. The indicative number of grants and contributions for each topic are specified in the budget overview. The contribution for this topic, HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2026-05-02, is around 3,000,000 EUR and the indicative number of grants is 1.

The call provides links to various guidance documents, model grant agreements, work programmes, and FAQs. It also offers contact information for support services such as the Research Enquiry Service, National Contact Points, Enterprise Europe Network, IT Helpdesk, European IPR Helpdesk, and CEN-CENELEC Research Helpdesk and ETSI Research Helpdesk.

In summary, this funding opportunity seeks to enhance the safety of hydrogen energy systems by developing and standardizing odorization techniques. It encourages research into new odorants, their characteristics, and their compatibility with hydrogen infrastructure, while also promoting collaboration and knowledge sharing among stakeholders to establish robust regulatory frameworks. The funding is provided as a lump sum, and projects must adhere to specific eligibility and operational conditions.

Eligible Applicant Types: The call is open to a range of entities including but not limited to research organizations, industry stakeholders, gas distributors, regulatory institutions, and formal standardization bodies. The involvement of industrial stakeholders and end-users such as public authorities is particularly encouraged. Membership to Hydrogen Europe or Hydrogen Europe Research is an additional eligibility criterion for some topics, ensuring that at least one partner in the consortium is a member.

Funding Type: The funding type is a grant, specifically a HORIZON JU Research and Innovation Action (HORIZON-JU-RIA) and HORIZON JU Innovation Actions (HORIZON-JU-IA) and HORIZON JU Coordination and Support Actions (HORIZON-JU-CSA). The eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum contribution.

Consortium Requirement: The opportunity requires a consortium of multiple applicants. The involvement of formal standardisation bodies as part of the consortia is encouraged. Participation of gas distributors and regulatory institutions is also encouraged. For some topics, one partner in the consortium must be a member of either Hydrogen Europe or Hydrogen Europe Research.

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 target sector is primarily energy, specifically clean hydrogen, with a focus on safety, standards, and regulatory frameworks. It also touches upon pre-normative research, materials science, chemical engineering, analytical chemistry, and environmental science.

Mentioned Countries: The opportunity is focused on the European Union and its associated countries.

Project Stage: The project stage is focused on pre-normative research, development, validation, and demonstration. The call targets actions performed at high Technology Readiness Level (TRL), including demonstration in real operational environments.

Funding Amount: The budget for the topic HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2026-05-02 is around 3,000,000 EUR. The total budget for the call HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2026 is 105,000,000 EUR. Other topics in the call have varying contribution amounts, ranging from around 1,500,000 EUR to around 17,000,000 EUR.

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 is a single-stage process.

Success Rates: The indicative number of grants is one for the topic HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2026-05-02. The number of grants for other topics in the call varies, but is generally one per topic.

Co-funding Requirement: For the Hydrogen Valleys topics a large amount of co-investment/co-funding of project participants/beneficiaries including national and regional programmes is expected.

The HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2026-05-02 call, titled "Pre-Normative Research on hydrogen odorisation: enhancing safety and detection along the hydrogen value chain," is part of the Horizon Europe program and aims to address the safety challenges associated with the transition from natural gas to 100% hydrogen in the European Union. The call specifically targets the development and standardization of hydrogen odorization techniques to ensure public safety and acceptance of hydrogen as an energy carrier.

The core objective is to develop data and methods for odorizing hydrogen to facilitate leak detection, mirroring the safety practices currently in place for natural gas. This involves identifying suitable odorants that are non-toxic, environmentally benign, and easily detectable by smell, even at low concentrations. The research should also address potential issues such as odorant degradation, material compatibility, and the development of de-odorization strategies for sensitive applications.

Eligible applicants include a consortium of stakeholders, with a strong emphasis on involving formal standardization bodies, gas distributors, regulatory institutions, and industrial partners. The projects are expected to generate experimental data, harmonize standards, and develop guidelines to ensure consistent safety measures across the EU. The funding will be provided as a lump sum, and projects should align with the Clean Hydrogen JU Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) objectives, contributing to enhanced public awareness and acceptance of hydrogen as a safe and reliable energy source by 2030. The call encourages collaboration with existing projects and initiatives, such as EURAMET, Met4H2, and HyQualNet, to maximize synergies and avoid duplication of effort.