Public datasets of technologies along the hydrogen value chain for life cycle (sustainability) assessment

The EU funding opportunity HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2026-05-01, under the Horizon Europe framework, targets the creation of public datasets for technologies along the hydrogen value chain to enhance life cycle sustainability assessments. The initiative is categorized as a Coordination and Support Action, providing a lump sum grant of €2.5 million intended for a single grant award. The open call is scheduled to begin on February 10, 2026, with a submission deadline of April 15, 2026.

Eligible applicants must form a consortium of at least three independent legal entities from different countries, including at least one from an EU Member State. The consortium should incorporate expertise from research organizations, universities, Fuel Cells and Hydrogen companies, and relevant consulting entities. Letters of support from original equipment manufacturers are essential for the proposal submission.

The primary objective is to develop at least 20 high-quality, open-access life cycle inventory datasets relevant to fuel cell and hydrogen technologies. This will facilitate accurate evaluations through life cycle assessments, life cycle costing, and sustainability assessments. The funding supports projects that focus on emerging technologies, enhance the availability of quality data, and address critical aspects like environmental impact, circular economy principles, and materials' lifecycle processes.

The funding will promote the European Union's strategic objectives of establishing a sustainable hydrogen economy and achieving climate neutrality. Projects must deliver datasets that are standardized, following FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) principles, and should be compatible for publication on the Life Cycle Data Network managed by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre.

Overall, this call represents a strategic step towards bolstering the hydrogen sector in Europe, fostering collaboration between academia and industry, and enhancing the credibility and market viability of hydrogen technologies.

The EU funding opportunity HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2026-05-01, titled "Public datasets of technologies along the hydrogen value chain for life cycle (sustainability) assessment," is a call for proposals under the Horizon Europe program, specifically targeting the Clean Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (JU). This call seeks to address the critical need for high-quality, open-access Life Cycle Inventories (LCIs) to accurately measure the sustainability of Fuel Cell and Hydrogen (FCH) systems, which is essential for the transition to a hydrogen economy. The action type is a HORIZON JU Coordination and Support Action (HORIZON-JU-CSA), and the grant agreement will be a HORIZON Lump Sum Grant [HORIZON-AG-LS]. The call follows a single-stage submission process, with a planned opening date of 10 February 2026 and a deadline of 15 April 2026, 17:00:00 Brussels time. The total budget allocated to this topic within the HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2026 call is 105,000,000 EUR, and this specific topic has a contribution amount of around 2,500,000 EUR, with an indicative number of 1 grant to be awarded.

The primary goal of this funding opportunity is to enhance the sustainability assessment of FCH products by developing and applying high-quality, open-access datasets (LCIs) across the hydrogen value chain. The expected outcomes include:

Enhanced applicability of life cycle approaches: By increasing the availability and quality of public data, the project aims to improve the robustness and applicability of life cycle assessment (LCA), life cycle costing (LCC), social life cycle assessment (S-LCA), and life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) methods specific to FCH product systems.

Enhanced reporting of life cycle profiles: The project will facilitate better reporting of the life cycle profiles of FCH products by applying the newly developed public inventories along the hydrogen value chain.

Strengthening the focus on sustainability and circular economy: The call aims to reinforce the emphasis on environmental and broader sustainability considerations within the transition to a circular economy.

Strengthening the European FCH value chain: By promoting life cycle thinking in the FCH sector, the project seeks to strengthen the European value chain, reinforce the EU's leadership position, and accelerate the adoption of sustainable FCH products in the mass market.

Enabling sustainable investment identification: The project aims to enable the use of robust life cycle approaches for identifying FCH products as sustainable investments.

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

Development of life cycle thinking tools: The project should contribute to the inventory component of life cycle thinking tools, addressing the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. The inventory building should focus on the environmental dimension while exploring opportunities for economic and social aspects. The application of datasets for testing purposes should increase the availability of life cycle indicators for FCH-relevant products.

Development of ecodesign guidelines: The datasets developed will facilitate the LCSA studies required for creating ecodesign guidelines for FCH technologies, contributing to the achievement of key performance indicators (KPIs) related to the number of ecodesign guidelines for FCH technologies.

The scope of the project involves:

Development of at least 20 high-quality, open-access, and freely accessible datasets (LCIs) for key FCH-relevant products and technologies across the hydrogen value chain.

Illustration of the usefulness of LCIs through their application in life cycle (sustainability) assessment studies.

Addressing materials, components, equipment, and technologies relevant to the hydrogen value chain, involving different technology readiness levels (TRLs), including emerging technologies, and enabling the assessment of a complete FCH system.

Coverage of at least one entire FCH product system, assessed using both existing and newly built LCIs.

Addressing current data gaps related to critical raw materials, hydrogen losses, recycling, and end-of-life processes.

Focusing on the environmental dimension of inventory building, while exploring opportunities for economic and social dimensions.

The funded project should include:

Review of foreground datasets from previous FCH-relevant projects and scientific literature.

Building open-access, high-quality inventories respecting FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) data principles, assessing data quality considering technology, time, and region, and involving industry actors for new dataset generation.

Documentation on standardized data structures and modeling principles for the resultant database, as well as specific details for each dataset.

Application of the developed datasets in life cycle (sustainability) assessment studies for testing purposes.

The expected consortium should consist of experts in LCA/LCSA of FCH product systems and FCH companies relevant to data acquisition. Letters of support from OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) should be provided at the proposal stage. The datasets developed for environmental LCA should be ready for publication in the hydrogen node of the Life Cycle Data Network (LCDN), managed by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC). Cooperation with the JRC and the European Hydrogen Sustainability and Circularity Panel (EHS&CP) should be foreseen, along with synergy with initiatives such as the IEA Hydrogen TCP Task 50.

The proposal page limit for Innovation Actions is 70 pages, as described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System. Eligible countries are described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes. There is an additional eligibility criterion to limit the Clean Hydrogen JU requested contribution for actions performed at high TRL level.

Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum as defined in the Decision of 7 July 2021. Subcontracting work may only be performed in target countries, which are all Member States of the European Union and all Associated Countries. Beneficiaries must inform the granting authority if the results could reasonably be expected to contribute to European or international standards, up to 4 years after the end of the action.

The application form templates and evaluation form templates are available in the Submission System. Guidance documents include the HE Programme Guide, Model Grant Agreements (MGA), Lump Sum MGA, Call-specific instructions, Detailed budget table (HE LS), Clean Hydrogen JU Annual Work Programme 2026 (AWP 2026), Clean Hydrogen JU Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA), Lump Sums Guidance, FAQ on Call HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2026, and additional documents such as the HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027 and the EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509.

This funding opportunity aims to create a foundation of reliable, accessible data that will enable more accurate and comprehensive sustainability assessments of hydrogen technologies. By addressing the current data gap and promoting collaboration between research institutions and industry, this initiative will contribute to the development of a sustainable hydrogen economy in Europe.

Eligible Applicant Types: The eligible applicant types are not explicitly stated, but the call targets experts in LCA/LCSA of FCH product systems and FCH companies relevant to data acquisition. The expected consortium should involve these experts. Letters of support from OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) should be made available at the proposal stage. Therefore, eligible applicants could include research institutes, universities, SMEs, large enterprises, and other organizations with expertise in the relevant fields.

Funding Type: The funding type is a grant, specifically a HORIZON JU Coordination and Support Action (HORIZON-JU-CSA) with a HORIZON Lump Sum Grant [HORIZON-AG-LS] mechanism.

Consortium Requirement: A consortium is required, as the call specifies that "The expected consortium should involve experts in the field of LCA/LCSA of FCH product systems and FCH companies relevant to data acquisition."

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. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide.

Target Sector: The target sector is cleantech, specifically focusing on fuel cells and hydrogen (FCH) technologies and their sustainability assessment. The program targets the entire hydrogen value chain.

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

Project Stage: The project stage is primarily focused on development and application, specifically the development of high-quality datasets (Life Cycle Inventories or LCIs) and their application in life cycle assessment studies. The addressed materials, components, equipment, and technologies should be relevant to the hydrogen value chain, involve different technology readiness levels (thus including emerging technologies), and enable the assessment of a complete FCH system.

Funding Amount: The budget for the topic HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2026-05-01 is part of a larger call with a total budget of EUR 105,000,000. The individual contribution for this specific topic is around EUR 2,500,000, and it is expected that only one grant will be awarded for this topic.

Application Type: The application type is a single-stage call, as indicated by "Deadline model: single-stage."

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 success rates cannot be determined from the provided text.

Co-funding Requirement: The text mentions that for some topics, there is an expectation to leverage co-funding as commitment from stakeholders, especially for actions performed at high TRL level. However, it is not explicitly stated whether co-funding is mandatory for this specific topic.

Summary: This funding opportunity, under the Horizon Europe program and the Clean Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (JU), aims to enhance the sustainability assessment of Fuel Cells and Hydrogen (FCH) technologies. It addresses the critical need for high-quality, open-access Life Cycle Inventories (LCIs) to improve the accuracy, reproducibility, and consistency of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Life Cycle Costing (LCC), Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA), and Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) studies. The core objective is to develop at least 20 new, high-quality, and publicly accessible datasets for key FCH products and technologies across the hydrogen value chain. Projects should review existing data, build new inventories following FAIR data principles, and apply these datasets in life cycle assessment studies. The expected consortium should include LCA/LCSA experts and FCH companies, with letters of support from OEMs. The resulting datasets should be published in the Life Cycle Data Network (LCDN). This initiative seeks to strengthen the European FCH value chain, promote sustainable investment, and support the development of ecodesign guidelines for FCH technologies. The funding will be provided as a lump sum grant, and subcontracting must be performed in EU Member States or Associated Countries.