R&I in Support of the Clean Industrial Deal: Decarbonisation of energy intensive industries (IA) (Processes4Planet and Clean Steel partnerships)

The grant opportunity is part of the Horizon Europe initiative, specifically titled "R&I in Support of the Clean Industrial Deal: Decarbonisation of energy intensive industries (IA) (Processes4Planet and Clean Steel partnerships)", with the reference number HORIZON-CID-2026-01-01. This call is set to open on December 18, 2025, and will close on September 15, 2026. It aims to secure a total budget of €125 million, with an expected funding range of €15 million to €25 million for each of the anticipated eight projects.

Eligible applicants include a wide variety of organizations, emphasizing the inclusion of large enterprises, SMEs, research institutions, universities, startups, and public research organizations. However, the awarded consortia should preferably be small, manageable, and largely industry-driven, emphasizing industrial leadership and market readiness.

The call is designed to focus on three main areas: carbon cycle management (including carbon capture, utilization, and storage), clean energy usage in production (like electrification and renewable energy integration), and circularity/resource efficiency (such as improving material and water efficiency). Advanced technologies that show a potential 30% improvement over existing solutions are highly encouraged.

Funding will be provided through a grant model that offers direct financial support from the European Commission. Projects must demonstrate readiness for market deployment and include detailed business plans and market strategies—including identification of public and private partners—ensuring alignment with the overall goal of promoting innovative technologies for decarbonizing industrial processes.

The application process is a single-stage submission via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal, and no expression of interest phase is required. It is important for applicants to provide a thorough justification for their technology choices, business plans, and these must demonstrate feasibility, market readiness, and plan for post-project implementation.

Overall, the initiative seeks to drive significant advancements in the decarbonization of energy-intensive industries in the EU, promoting competitiveness and sustainability while aiming for timely compliance with climate neutrality objectives. The call encourages synergies between projects, emphasizing collaboration with existing related initiatives and partnerships within Europe.

This is a Horizon Europe call under the R&I in Support of the Clean Industrial Deal (HORIZON-CID-2026-01), focusing on the decarbonization of energy-intensive industries through Innovation Actions (IA) and co-programmed by the Processes4Planet and Clean Steel partnerships. The call aims to secure the EU as an attractive location for manufacturing, including for energy-intensive industries, and to promote clean tech and new circular business models in order to meet Europe’s ambitious decarbonisation and climate neutrality targets. It focuses primarily on the competitive decarbonisation of EU industry and on the production of clean technologies in the EU.

The expected outcomes of the proposals are to accelerate the use of innovative technologies to decarbonize industrial processes, bring to the market more cost-effective clean products, create new innovative first-of-a-kind operational demonstrators, optimize newly installed industrial decarbonization solutions in Europe, and demonstrate the market readiness of the envisaged future clean products and their innovative processes via a credible business plan and an exploitation strategy for industrialization, including market-tested use cases.

The scope of the call includes three technology areas within energy-intensive industries:

1. Managing of carbon cycle (CCU and/or CCUS): further optimization and demonstration of solutions for the capture, utilization or storage of CO2 and/or CO from installations of the energy intensive industries, with significant reduction of energy input (per ton of CO2/CO) related to capture rate and purity compared to current available technologies (target figure 30% reduction), and potential of commercialization of the decarbonized products with respect to LCA (compared to state of the art), market size, and cost.

2. Clean energy usage in production (electrification of the processes, decarbonated production, integration of alternative clean energy carriers – e.g. hydrogen – and technologies, on-site renewable energy storage solutions, usage and upgrade of waste heat): supporting major improvements of clean energy usage in the energy intensive industries until 2035.

3. Circularity and resource efficiency (material, energy, water) of production processes: improvement by 30% until 2035 compared to current industrial value, with technological solutions which are commercially viable; and significant reduction of the overall raw material consumption, energy input, freshwater intake, impact on ecosystems and emissions, through circular value networks that convert industrial side-streams and/or end-of-use waste to new feedstock for which no low-CO2-technologies currently exist. Solutions must have an overall positive LCA and remain commercially viable under the expected regulatory and framework conditions at the end of the project.

Proposals should explicitly select one main area but can also address in an integrated way a combination of these three areas within an industrial sector, provided that it is innovative and can lead to low carbon solutions. The choice of the specific technologies addressed in the proposal is left to the project applicants who should include a thorough justification of the choices both in technological and business terms. Use of advanced, and safe and sustainable materials and processes could be also addressed as part of the selected proposals.

Proposals are expected to demonstrate an adequate integration of relevant technologies in support of the Clean Industrial Deal, show industrial leadership in the deployment after the project, and include a sound and convincing business plan and market-readiness strategy. They should also include a clear go/no go moment ahead of the contracting and demonstration phase.

The call encourages synergies and coordination with similar funded projects under the topics HORIZON-CID-2026-01-02: R&I in Support of the Clean Industrial Deal: Clean Technologies for Climate Action and HORIZON- HORIZON-CID-2027-01-02: R&I in Support of the Clean Industrial Deal: Clean Technologies for Climate Action, as well as with related projects funded under the Processess4Planet, and Clean Steel and other European Partnerships.

The admissibility conditions include a proposal page limit, which is exceptionally extended to a total maximum of 60 pages in part B of the General Annexes to accommodate the inclusion of a business plan and market-readiness strategy. Eligible countries are described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes, and specific provisions exist for non-EU/non-Associated Countries. If projects use satellite-based earth observation, positioning, navigation and/or related timing data and services, beneficiaries must make use of Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS.

Financial and operational capacity and exclusion are described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes. The evaluation and 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. The indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement is described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes. The legal and financial set-up of the grants is described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes.

Application form templates are available in the Submission System, and standard evaluation form templates will be used with necessary adaptations. Guidance is provided in the HE Programme Guide, and Model Grant Agreements (MGA) are available. Call-specific instructions and information on financial support to third parties and clinical studies are also provided.

Additional documents include the HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027, EIC Work Programme 2026, ERC Work Programme 2026, HE Framework Programme 2021/695, HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764, EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509, Decision authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme, Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment, EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement, Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual, Funding & Tenders Portal Terms and Conditions, and Funding & Tenders Portal Privacy Statement.

The budget overview indicates that for HORIZON-CID-2026-01-01, 125,000,000 EUR is allocated, with contributions ranging from 15,000,000 to 25,000,000 EUR, and an indicative number of 8 grants. For HORIZON-CID-2026-01-02, 150,000,000 EUR is allocated, with contributions ranging from 15,000,000 to 25,000,000 EUR, and an indicative number of 8 grants. The opening date is planned for 18 December 2025, and the deadline is 15 September 2026.

Partner search announcements can be viewed and edited by LEARs, Account Administrators, or self-registrants. The submission system is planned to be opened on the date stated on the topic header.

Support is available through the Online Manual, Horizon Europe Programme Guide, Funding & Tenders Portal FAQ, Research Enquiry Service, National Contact Points (NCPs), Enterprise Europe Network, IT Helpdesk, European IPR Helpdesk, CEN-CENELEC Research Helpdesk, ETSI Research Helpdesk, and the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for their recruitment.

In summary, this Horizon Europe call aims to foster innovation and deployment of clean technologies in energy-intensive industries to support the Clean Industrial Deal and achieve EU's decarbonization targets. It focuses on carbon cycle management, clean energy usage, and circularity/resource efficiency, encouraging industry-driven consortia to develop and demonstrate market-ready solutions with clear business plans and exploitation strategies. The call provides substantial funding and support resources to facilitate the transition towards a competitive, sustainable, and resilient European industry.

Eligible Applicant Types: The call targets a wide range of applicants, including industry, SMEs, and research organizations. The consortium should be industry-driven, with a manageable number of participants. The participation of SMEs is encouraged. While not explicitly stated, universities, research institutes, and large enterprises are likely eligible, provided they contribute to the industry-driven focus.

Funding Type: The funding type is a grant, specifically a HORIZON Innovation Action (HORIZON-IA). The Model Grant Agreement (MGA) is a HORIZON Action Grant Budget-Based [HORIZON-AG].

Consortium Requirement: A consortium is required. The call emphasizes that the consortium should be industry-driven and composed of a preferably small and manageable number of participants.

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility): The primary geographic eligibility is for entities located in the EU. However, the text 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. Applicants should refer to the Horizon Europe Programme Guide for details.

Target Sector: The program targets the following sectors: energy-intensive industries, clean tech, manufacturing, circular economy, climate, environment, and research and innovation. The focus is on decarbonization and promoting clean technologies.

Mentioned Countries: The opportunity explicitly mentions the EU and non-EU/non-Associated Countries.

Project Stage: The expected maturity of the project is demonstration and validation. The call aims to create new innovative first-of-a-kind operational demonstrators and/or optimize newly installed industrial decarbonization solutions in Europe. Projects should demonstrate market readiness via a credible business plan and exploitation strategy.

Funding Amount: The funding range is €15 million to €25 million per project. The total budget for HORIZON-CID-2026-01-01 is €125 million, with an indicative number of 8 grants. The total budget for HORIZON-CID-2026-01-02 is €150 million, also with an indicative number of 8 grants.

Application Type: The application type is a single-stage open call. The planned opening date is 18 December 2025, and the deadline is 15 September 2026.

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

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

Success Rates: The success rate can be estimated based on the number of grants and the overall interest in Horizon Europe calls. Given the competitive nature of Horizon Europe, the success rate is likely to be below 10%.

Co-funding Requirement: The information does not explicitly state whether co-funding is required.

Summary:

This Horizon Europe call, part of the R&I in Support of the Clean Industrial Deal (HORIZON-CID-2026-01), aims to accelerate the decarbonization of energy-intensive industries within the EU. The call is structured around two topics: HORIZON-CID-2026-01-01 with a budget of 125 million EUR and HORIZON-CID-2026-01-02 with a budget of 150 million EUR, each expected to fund approximately 8 projects. The call encourages projects that demonstrate innovative technologies for decarbonizing industrial processes, promoting clean products, and enhancing the competitiveness and sustainability of EU industries.

The scope of the call focuses on three key technology areas: managing the carbon cycle (CCU/CCUS), clean energy usage in production, and circularity and resource efficiency. Projects should select one main area but can integrate multiple areas if it leads to innovative, low-carbon solutions. The call emphasizes the importance of industrial leadership, market readiness, and a clear business plan for the deployment of the proposed technologies. Consortia should be industry-driven, with a manageable number of participants, and the participation of SMEs is encouraged.

Applicants are expected to demonstrate the integration of relevant technologies, show industrial leadership in deployment, and include a clear go/no-go moment ahead of the demonstration phase. Synergies with other related projects and European partnerships are also encouraged. The call is open to entities located in the EU and potentially to those in non-EU/non-Associated Countries that have specific provisions for funding participation in Horizon Europe projects. The application process is a single-stage process with a deadline of 15 September 2026. Successful projects will receive grants ranging from 15 million EUR to 25 million EUR.