RFCS-2026-Steel-Big Tickets under the Clean Industrial Deal

RFCS-2026-Steel-Big Tickets under the Clean Industrial Deal is a single-stage RFCS call managed by the REA funding pilot or demonstration projects in steel recycling to support decarbonisation and the Clean Steel Partnership objectives. The topic funds projects reaching TRL 7–8 with scope including metal and mineral recovery, residue valorisation, scrap detection and separation, slag applications, secondary carbon carriers and digital circularity solutions. The Clean Industrial Deal topic has an indicative budget of €50 million, typical EU contributions of €5–€25 millionper project and a funding rate of 50 percent, with project durations typically 36–54 months. Eligible applicants are legal entities and natural persons established in EU Member States or RFCS-associated countries submitting consortia with at least two independent beneficiaries from different eligible countries, with electronic submission via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal before 6 May 2026 17:00 Brussels time.

RFCS-2026-Steel-Big Tickets — Clean Industrial Deal (RFCS-2026-BT-Steel-CID)

What it funds

Pilot or demonstration projects applying innovative recycling technologies for the steel sector to improve circularity and reduce CO2 (expected TRL 7-8 at project end). Topics include metal/mineral recovery from residues, residue valorisation for low-carbon routes, scrap detection/separation with digital/AI, recycling at steel plants, secondary carbon carriers, slag use, digital tracking of secondary raw materials, scrap upcycling, repurposing coking infrastructure for bio-based carbon carriers, dynamic environmental impact analysis, and related system/optimisation work. Projects must quantify ETS-relative improvements and include an exploitation/industrial integration strategy.

Expected outcomes and impact

Outcomes: demonstrable CO2 and environmental reductions, validated technical and economic feasibility at scale, health and safety evidence where relevant, a scalable deployment plan with business case, and broad dissemination/skills creation. Impact: contributes to the European Green Deal, Clean Industrial Deal and competitiveness/autonomy of EU steel industry.

Who can apply

Consortia of legal entities (minimum two independent beneficiaries from two different eligible countries). Eligible participants include private and public bodies, SMEs, research organisations, universities and natural persons where applicable; affiliated entities, associated partners and subcontractors may participate under the rules in the call document. Projects must be led by a coordinator registered in the Participant Register and follow RFCS eligibility, financial and ethical rules.

Project type and TRL target:Pilot or demonstration actions aiming to reach TRL 7–8 by project end.

Budget and grant sizes

Call-level funding: €75 000 000 total (€50 000 000 allocated to the Clean Industrial Deal topic). Indicative EU grant request per project typically expected between €5 million and €25 million; funding rate 50% (budget-based mixed actual cost grant). Projects must include detailed budgets using the RFCS templates.

1. 1Total call budget: €75,000,000; CID topic budget: €50,000,000
2. 2Indicative grant request per project: ~€5–€25 million
3. 3Funding rate: 50% (see call for details and eligible cost rules)

Eligibility and administrative highlights

Proposals must be submitted via the Funding & Tenders Portal using RFCS Project Grant templates (Part A online; Part B PDF + mandatory detailed budget table). Maximum Part B length 70 pages. Projects typically 36–54 months; consortium must demonstrate financial and operational capacity; certain certificates (CFS) apply above thresholds. Admissibility and eligibility rules, procurement/subcontracting limits, ethics and data requirements are detailed in the call document ¹.

Footnotes

1. 1Call document, templates and detailed rules: RFCS-2026-Steel-Big Tickets call page and call documents available on the Funding & Tenders Portal RFCS-2026-BT-Steel Call Document.

RFCS-2026-Steel-Big Tickets under the Clean Industrial Deal — Call RFCS-2026-BT-Steel-CID

Call overview and purpose

Call identifier RFCS-2026-BT-Steel (topic RFCS-2026). Programme: Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS). Type of action: RFCS Project Grants (RFCS-PJG). Type of model grant agreement: RFCS Action Grant Budget-Based [RFCS-AG]. Opening date 17 February 2026. Single-stage electronic submission only via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal. Deadline 06 May 2026 17:00 Brussels time. This RFCS Big Tickets call under the Clean Industrial Deal focuses on recycling technologies and pilot or demonstration projects to progress low-carbon, circular, and resource-efficient steel production. Applicants are expected to achieve TRL 7-8 by project end, quantify CO2 and environmental gains, demonstrate technical and economic feasibility at suitable scale, address health and safety where relevant, and propose scalable deployment supported by a viable business case. Projects normally 36–54 months; exceptions possible with justification.

Available budget and indicative grant sizes:Total call budget €75,000,000. Topic RFCS-2026 (Clean Industrial Deal) €50,000,000. Indicative project-level EU contribution estimated typically between €5 million and €25 million per project, but other amounts may be requested and considered. Funding rate: 50% (budget-based mixed actual cost grant with unit-cost/flat-rate elements).

Detailed topic scope, objectives and expected results

Objective: Recycling technologies for the steel sector. Proposals must cover at least one of the listed aspects and must be pilot or demonstration projects (Articles 15 and 16 of Council Decision 2008/376/EC). Projects must be consistent with the memorandum of understanding for the European Partnership on Clean Steel and the Clean Industrial Deal objectives.

1. 1Technologies for metal or mineral recovery from pyrometallurgical, leaching or electrochemical processes, including recovery of critical raw materials from iron and steelmaking residues.
2. 2Residue valorisation in low-carbon production routes.
3. 3Scrap detection, separation and management technologies and approaches combined with digitalisation and AI techniques.
4. 4Recycling at steel production facilities: rethinking recycling processes for new low-carbon installations.
5. 5Technologies and approaches for secondary carbon carriers in iron and steelmaking processes.
6. 6Applications of slags from BF-BOF, LF and DR-EAF/ESF.
7. 7Dynamic environmental impact analysis, simulation and optimisation of by-product pre-treatment evaluation, digital tracking of secondary raw materials and new management systems for circularity performance.
8. 8Use of raw materials with low iron content in smelting processes.
9. 9Scrap upcycling through adaptation of efficient know-how-based metallurgy and downstream processes and products.
10. 10Repurposing of existing coking plant infrastructure at steel facilities for processing bio-based secondary carbon carriers (pyrolysis processes to produce biochar and a H2-rich syngas).

Project type and TRL: Pilot or demonstration projects only. Proposals must deliver TRL 7–8 by project end. Proposals must include exploitation strategy with industrial integration and preliminary economic viability assessment, and must quantify targeted improvements relative to existing installations or the relevant ETS benchmark via energy system and material balance assessments (including emissions).

Eligibility and consortium rules

Eligible participants: legal entities carrying out RTD activities or substantially contributing to such activities, established in eligible countries (EU Member States including OCTs and non-EU countries associated to RFCS). Natural persons are eligible. International organisations are not eligible as beneficiaries. EU bodies (except JRC where applicable) cannot be beneficiaries. Participants must be registered in the Participant Register and validated.

Eligible applicant types:Eligible applicant types include: SMEs, large enterprises (industrial companies), universities, research organisations and institutes, public bodies, non-profit research centres, consortiums of industrial and research partners. Natural persons (individual researchers) may participate. Associated partners, subcontractors and third parties providing in-kind contributions may also participate in specific roles. EU bodies (except where explicitly allowed) and international organisations are not eligible as beneficiaries for RFCS grants.

Consortium requirement:Consortium required: minimum two independent beneficiaries from two different eligible countries. Independent means no direct or indirect control relationship between the partners. The coordinator must be a beneficiary. Mono-beneficiary projects are not the default for Big Tickets calls; the call requires a consortium of at least two independent applicants.

Geographic eligibility (beneficiary scope):Geographic scope: Eligible countries are EU Member States (including OCTs) and non-EU countries associated to RFCS. Activities must take place in eligible countries. Participants from third countries not associated to the RFCS may participate as associated partners without funding only if their participation is in the EU interest (and subject to restrictions).

Financial, operational and administrative rules

Form of grant and funding: Budget-based mixed actual cost grant. Funding rate 50% of eligible costs. Grant excludes profit; for for-profit organisations any profit must be declared and will be deducted. Indirect costs reimbursed as flat rate 35% of eligible personnel costs (category A, excluding volunteers, if any). VAT: non-deductible VAT eligible except when paid by public bodies acting as public authority (not eligible).

Budget categories and typical eligible costs:Budget categories: A Personnel costs (employees, natural persons under direct contract, seconded persons, SME owner/natural person unit cost option); B Subcontracting costs; C Purchase costs (C.2 Equipment, C.3 Other goods, works and services including raw materials, consumables, energy, transport, maintenance, IT services, analysis and tests, dedicated workshops, protection of knowledge); E Indirect costs (flat-rate 35% of personnel). Equipment costs normally eligible as depreciation; specific calls may allow full capitalised cost for listed equipment (call document specifies options).

Form templates: Application must be submitted using the Portal Submission System forms only. Part A is entered online (administrative data and summarised budget). Part B (technical description) must be downloaded from the Submission System, completed and re-uploaded as PDF. A detailed budget table (Annex 1 to Part B) using the RFCS template is mandatory. Page limit: Part B maximum 70 pages; minimum font Arial 9, A4, margins >=15mm. CVs not applicable; list of previous key projects for last 4 years mandatory. All mandatory annexes (detailed budget table, list of previous projects, other call-specific annexes) must be uploaded; extraneous documents will not be evaluated. The Portal Online Manual and templates must be followed. The amounts in the online summarised budget must match the detailed budget table; in case of discrepancy online amounts prevail.

Financial and operational capacity checks:Financial capacity: Beneficiaries must demonstrate stable and sufficient resources. Financial capacity checks are normally carried out on beneficiaries except public bodies and where individual requested grant <= €60,000. Documents for checks (balance sheet, P&L, audit report) must be uploaded in the Participant Register during grant preparation. Measures for insufficient capacity may include requests for additional information, enhanced financial responsibility (joint and several liability), prefinancing guarantees, staged prefinancing or refusal. Operational capacity: Assessed via project proposal (team competence, prior projects, resources).

Evaluation, award criteria and process

Evaluation process: Single-stage submission; one-step evaluation by evaluation committee assisted by external experts. Formal admissibility and eligibility checks first, then evaluation against award criteria. Hearing step: applicants are invited to a physical hearing in Brussels during central evaluation week; details at RFCS Big Tickets Info Day. Reserve list may be created. Invitation to grant preparation is not a commitment to fund until legal and financial checks are completed.

Award criteria and thresholds:Three award criteria: Excellence (5 points), Impact (5 points) and Quality and efficiency of the implementation (5 points) — total maximum 15 points. Minimum per-criterion thresholds: 3/5 each. Overall pass threshold 10/15. Evaluation includes assessment of operational capacity and cost-effectiveness. Ties are broken by Impact score, then Excellence, then Quality and Efficiency; if still equal, prioritisation by private for-profit participation percentage or budget share to private for-profit organisations.

Application and submission

Submission: Electronic only via EU Funding & Tenders Portal Submission System. Two-step process: register organisation and obtain PIC, then prepare and submit proposal. Application comprises Part A (online) and Part B (PDF uploaded) plus mandatory annexes. Confirmations needed at submission: mandate to act for all applicants, declaration of correctness and eligibility, and acceptance of Portal Terms & Conditions. Deadlines: proposals must be uploaded and submitted before the call deadline; system confirmation email is issued on successful submission. If missing, contact IT Helpdesk immediately and file a complaint with evidence. Upload documents into correct slots and respect page limits (Part B max 70 pages).

Application process stages and timeline:Single-stage submission, followed by evaluation (May–July 2026), evaluation results (Sep–Oct 2026), grant preparation and signature (Oct–Dec 2026). Applicants invited for hearing during central evaluation week. Grant preparation includes validation of legal entities, financial capacity checks and potential adaptations to proposal. Awarding authority reserves right not to award all funds or to redistribute budgets between topics.

Project implementation and contractual provisions

Mandatory deliverables include communication & dissemination plan, comprehensive project overview by month 6 and a public publishable report at project end. Project starting date and duration fixed in Grant Agreement data sheet. Standard deliverables, reporting, record-keeping, IP and ethics rules are governed by the RFCS Model Grant Agreement (MGA) and call document. Projects must respect highest ethical standards and applicable laws. Recruitment and working conditions for researchers must follow specific rules in Annex 5 when applicable.

Payments, reporting and certificates:Reporting: continuous reporting via Portal Continuous Reporting tool and periodic reporting via Portal (technical reports and financial statements). Payments: prefinancing (typically float ~20% of maximum grant amount, unless otherwise specified), interim payments (if applicable) and final payment. Prefinancing guarantees may be required and must be provided during grant preparation. Certificate thresholds: certificate on financial statements (CFS) required at beneficiary level where requested EU contribution to costs reaches the threshold indicated in the Data Sheet (default: €325,000 for RFCS CFS threshold at final payment if applicable). Late payment interest rate ECB + 3.5%.

Risk management, ethics, security and IP

Risk management and mitigation must be integrated into the project proposal and work plan. Projects with ethical issues must undergo ethics review and obtain necessary authorisations. Classified information must be handled per Decision 2015/444 and may require specific deliverable submission procedures and authorisations. IPR: background and results management, protection and exploitation strategy must be addressed. Granting authority obtains a royalty-free, non-exclusive, irrevocable licence to use non-sensitive materials, deliverables and project information for communication, policy and dissemination purposes.

Eligibility constraints, exclusions and other important rules

Exclusion grounds: entities subject to EU exclusion decisions or listed exclusion situations (bankruptcy, grave professional misconduct, fraud, corruption, money-laundering, human trafficking, serious irregularities, etc.) cannot participate. Entities covered by EU restrictive measures are not eligible. Double funding is prohibited. Financial support to third parties is not allowed. Subcontracting should be limited and justified; subcontracts beyond 30% of total eligible costs must be justified in the application. Associated partners may participate without EU funding only if participation is in EU interest. Affiliated entities may participate but must be validated; affiliated entities may be made jointly and severally liable if required in data sheet.

Project duration and TRL expectations:Typical project duration 36–54 months. Proposals expected to achieve TRL 7–8 by project end (system prototype demonstration in operational environment to system complete and qualified). See Annex 1 of call document for TRL definitions.

What to include in the application (structure and templates)

Applications must follow the RFCS Application Form structure (Part A and Part B). Part B must follow the RFCS Standard template and include detailed work plan and budget (detailed budget table template mandatory). Part B recommended structure: Project summary/Abstract; 1. Excellence — objectives, ambition, state of the art, methodology, TRL start/end; 2. Impact — pathways to impact, quantified CO2 and environmental gains, exploitation and dissemination plan, communication measures, IP management and business case; 3. Quality and efficiency of implementation — work packages (including WP1 project management), tasks, deliverables, milestones, Gantt/timeline, person-months, staff effort tables, subcontracting justification, equipment list (depreciation vs full-cost justification if applicable), risk management; 4. Other — ethics, security, gender, data management; 5. Declarations; Annexes: detailed budget table (mandatory), list of previous projects (last 4 years), other call-specific annexes as required. Part B page limit: 70 pages maximum.

1. 1Part A (online): administrative forms, beneficiaries, PICs, summary budget (entered directly in Portal).
2. 2Part B (PDF): Technical description using RFCS Part B template — maximum 70 pages.
3. 3Annex 1 to Part B: Detailed budget table (RFCS Excel template) — mandatory.
4. 4Annex 4 to Part B: List of previous projects (last 4 years) — template included in Part B.
5. 5Any other mandatory annexes specified in call document (consortium agreement if available, declarations, prefinancing guarantee during grant preparation if required).

Assessment and selection — evaluation details

Evaluation includes admissibility, eligibility, operational capacity checks and assessment against the award criteria. Evaluation includes a Hearing: applicants must be available to present their proposal in Brussels during central evaluation week. Applicants failing to meet individual thresholds (3/5 per criterion and 10/15 overall) will be rejected. The ranking list may be adapted to ensure a balanced portfolio across topics. Applicants will receive formal evaluation result letters and can complain if they detect a procedural flaw within the deadlines specified.

Success rates and competition:No explicit historical success rate provided in call materials. Selection is competitive within the budget envelopes (€50M for Clean Industrial Deal topic). Indicative number of grants not specified; applicants should expect moderate to high competition given the significant funding per project and strategic importance.

Risks, common pitfalls and compliance checks

Common issues that lead to rejection or reductions: missing mandatory annexes or incorrect submission format; exceeding Part B page limit; inconsistent budgets between online Part A and detailed budget table; inadequate exploitation strategy or insufficient quantification of CO2 and ETS benchmark improvements; weak TRL demonstration plans (failure to justify TRL 7–8 target); insufficient operational/financial capacity evidence; undeclared double funding; subcontracting not justified or excessive without justification; ethics or security non-compliance; and failure to provide requested certificates or prefinancing guarantees during grant preparation.

Contact and support:For help: REA-RFCS@ec.europa.eu (non-IT questions). IT Helpdesk via Portal (technical submission issues). Consult the Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual, call document, Model Grant Agreement RFCS, Application Form templates, Detailed Budget Table RFCS, and RFCS Decision 2008/376 and EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509 for legal and financial rules. Topic Q&A on the Portal will be used for call updates.

Categorisation answers (structured)

Below are structured answers to the specific categorisation questions based on the call documents and topic text.

1. 1Eligible Applicant Types: startups (as SMEs), SME, large enterprise, university, research institute, nonprofit, public bodies (government), affiliated entities, associated partners (no funding), subcontractors, natural persons (individuals) are eligible; international organisations not eligible as beneficiaries; EU bodies (except JRC where applicable) not eligible.
2. 2Funding Type: primary mechanism is grant (RFCS Action Grant — budget-based mixed actual costs with unit cost/flat-rate elements).
3. 3Consortium Requirement: consortium required — minimum two independent beneficiaries from two different eligible countries (single/coordinator only not sufficient for this topic).
4. 4Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility): EU Member States (including OCTs) and non-EU countries associated to the RFCS (list of participating countries in section 6 of call document). Activities must take place in eligible countries.
5. 5Target Sector: steel industry; thematic sectors include environment, climate, energy/low-carbon industrial processes, circular economy, manufacturing, materials processing, ICT/AI (digital tracking, simulation), innovation and industrial competitiveness.
6. 6Mentioned Countries: EU (Member States) explicitly; associated non-EU countries to RFCS (not individually enumerated in the topic summary but referenced as 'eligible countries'). Region: European Union / RFCS participating countries. (No specific single Member State was singled out in the topic text.)
7. 7Project Stage: expected maturity TRL 7–8 by project end (pilot demonstration stage; pre-commercial demonstration; validation in operational environment).
8. 8Funding Amount: call budget €50,000,000 for the Clean Industrial Deal topic; indicative project-level request typically €5 million to €25 million; total call budget €75,000,000 (including other topic RFCS-2026-BT-Steel-SMAP €25,000,000).
9. 9Application Type: open single-stage competitive call (open call) with electronic submission via Funding & Tenders Portal; one-stage evaluation with hearing; applicants must use Part A/Part B templates from Submission System.
10. 10Nature of Support: money (EU grant funding) plus non-monetary requirements (technical assistance during grant preparation, mandatory reporting and dissemination, access to EU networks and visibility).
11. 11Application Stages: 1 (single-stage submission) plus evaluation process that includes a hearing and then grant preparation stage before signature — operationally this involves submission -> evaluation -> hearing -> invitation to grant preparation -> legal/financial checks -> grant signature (so practically 2 to 3 administrative stages including grant preparation).
12. 12Success Rates: not specified in call documents. Expected to be competitive; success depends on meeting thresholds and ranking within budget envelope. No explicit historical success rate provided.
13. 13Co-funding Requirement: co-funding (own resources, third party contributions) is expected — EU contribution typically covers up to 50% of eligible costs; projects should ensure balanced budgets and may include own resources, other resources and in-kind contributions (in-kind are cost-neutral and cannot be declared as costs).
14. 14Templates: Application forms provided in Portal. Required templates include: Part A (online administrative form), Part B (technical description template PDF downloaded from Submission System), Detailed Budget Table RFCS (Excel template mandatory, annex 1 to Part B), list of previous projects template (Part B annex). Structure for Part B: Cover page, Project summary, 1. Excellence (objectives & methodology), 2. Impact (pathways, dissemination, exploitation, communication, IP management, quantified CO2 and environmental impacts), 3. Quality and efficiency of implementation (work plan, WPs, WP1 management, staff effort tables, subcontracting table, equipment justification, timetable, risk management, partner roles and capacities), 4. Other (ethics, security), 5. Declarations, Annexes (detailed budget table, list of previous projects), with strict page, font and layout rules (max 70 pages, Arial >=9).

All applicants must read and follow the Call Document (Call: RFCS-2026-BT-Steel — RFCS-2026-Steel-Big Tickets), the RFCS Model Grant Agreement and the Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual. The call document contains detailed sections on admissibility, eligibility, financial and operational capacity, exclusions, evaluation and award, award criteria and thresholds, legal and financial set-up, reporting and payment rules, certificates, recoveries, record-keeping and audits. The detailed budget table template must be used (Excel template provided by RFCS). Applicants must ensure the online summarised budget (Part A) matches the detailed budget table amounts; in case of discrepancies the online amounts prevail.

The coordinator and all beneficiaries must register in the Participant Register and validate their legal status before signing a grant. Associated partners may participate without funding only if their participation is in the EU interest. Subcontracting must be justified and awarded using usual purchasing practices ensuring best value for money and avoidance of conflicts of interest. Financial guarantees or staged prefinancing may be required if financial capacity checks indicate the need. CFS and other audit certificates may be requested in line with the thresholds in the Data Sheet and Article 24 of the MGA.

Mandatory compliance and checks:Applicants must comply with ethical, security and data protection rules, avoid double funding, and ensure applications are complete, correctly formatted and submitted before the deadline. The evaluators will disregard excess pages and will not evaluate documents uploaded in incorrect slots. The Grant Agreement will impose reporting, dissemination, IP, and record-keeping obligations for a period indicated in the Data Sheet (typically 5 years after final payment; exceptions for small grants). Applicants must include a realistic exploitation strategy and a preliminary economic viability assessment, and provide quantified energy system and material balances including emissions to substantiate targeted improvements versus existing installations or relevant ETS benchmark.

For call-specific questions contact REA-RFCS@ec.europa.eu. For technical submission problems contact the IT Helpdesk via the Portal. Consult the call documentation and templates on the Funding & Tenders Portal before preparing the application.

Reference and source documents:Call Document RFCS-2026-BT-Steel: V2.0 – 16.02.2026; RFCS Model Grant Agreement; Application Form RFCS templates (Part A and Part B); Detailed Budget Table RFCS template; Council Decision 2008/376/EC; EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509; RFCS Decision and other reference documents available on the Funding & Tenders Portal Call document RFCS-2026-BT-Steel RFCS Detailed budget table template.

The information above reproduces the relevant details presented in the call topic and call document. Applicants must consult the official call documentation and templates published on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal and use the forms provided inside the Submission System. All legal, financial and procedural requirements are set out in the call document and RFCS Model Grant Agreement and must be followed precisely. The EU Funding & Tenders Portal contains the latest topic updates, Q&A and the Online Manual — consult these resources throughout proposal preparation and before submission.

This summary is a structured extraction and does not replace the call document. Applicants remain responsible for checking the official call documentation for full legal and procedural requirements. The call document contains the definitive conditions, eligibility lists, annexes, templates and legal references and should be the primary source for preparing the proposal Call document RFCS-2026-BT-Steel ¹.

Footnotes

1. 1Official call document and annexes are published on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal — applicants must consult the call document (RFCS-2026-BT-Steel) and the RFCS Model Grant Agreement templates available on the Portal before preparing and submitting proposals.

RFCS-2026-Steel-Big Tickets under the Clean Industrial Deal

Overview

This call for proposals under the Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS) programme targets recycling technologies in the steel sector to support full decarbonisation, aligning with the European Green Deal and Clean Industrial Deal. It funds pilot or demonstration projects achieving TRL 7-8, focusing on innovative technologies for CO2 reduction, resource efficiency, and circular economy practices.

The call is part of the RFCS-2026-BT-Steel programme, managed by the European Research Executive Agency (REA). It contributes to the European Partnership on Clean Steel under Horizon Europe.

Key Dates and Budget

Opening Date:17 February 2026

Deadline:6 May 2026, 17:00 Brussels time (single-stage submission)

Budget:€50 million total for RFCS-2026. EU contribution estimated at €5-€25 millionper project. Funding rate: 50% of eligible costs.

Objectives and Scope

Proposals must address recycling technologies, covering at least one of the following: metal/mineral recovery from processes including critical raw materials from residues; residue valorisation in low-carbon routes; scrap detection/separation with digitalisation/AI; rethinking recycling for low-carbon installations; secondary carbon carriers; slag applications from BF-BOF, LF, DR-EAF/ESF; dynamic environmental impact analysis and circularity systems; low-iron raw materials in smelting; scrap upcycling; repurposing coking infrastructure for bio-based carriers.

Projects must be pilot or demonstration (per Articles 15/16 of Council Decision 2008/376/EC), reach TRL 7-8, align with Clean Steel Partnership objectives, include exploitation strategy with economic viability assessment, and quantify improvements via energy/material balances against ETS benchmarks.

Expected Outcomes and Impacts

• Quantify CO2 reductions and environmental benefits in steel sector.
• Demonstrate technical/economic feasibility of novel technologies matching current product quality on suitable scale.
• Show health/safety benefits where relevant.
• Provide scalable deployment plan with viable business case.
• Disseminate results and support skills/jobs.

Broader impacts: Advance European Green Deal decarbonisation goals for steel; support Clean Industrial Deal; enhance steel sector innovation/competitiveness for EU industrial base/autonomy.

Eligibility and Who Can Apply

Legal entities (public/private) established in EU Member States (incl. OCTs) or RFCS-associated countries, carrying out R&D or contributing substantially. Minimum consortium: 2 independent applicants from 2 different eligible countries. Natural persons eligible. EU bodies (except JRC) ineligible. International organisations ineligible.

• Proposals must comply with ethics, financial/operational capacity, exclusion criteria (detailed in call document sections 5-7).
• Projects: 36-54 months duration (extensions possible). Activities in eligible countries.
• Consistency with Clean Steel MoU required.

Evaluation and Award Criteria

Single-stage evaluation with hearing step. Priority to highest Impact scores, then Excellence, Implementation. Balanced portfolio across topics possible.

Financial and Implementation Details

• Budget categories: Personnel (A), Subcontracting (B), Equipment (C.2, depreciation or full for listed), Other goods/works/services (C.3: raw materials, consumables, energy, etc.), Indirect (E: 35% of A).
• No financial support to third parties. VAT eligible if non-deductible.
• Reporting: Continuous via Portal; periodic technical/financial reports. Payments: prefinancing, interim, balance.
• Consortium agreement required.

Application Process

Electronic submission via EU Funding & Tenders Portal. Part A (admin/budget online); Part B (technical, max 70 pages); annexes (detailed budget table, previous projects list). Register in Participant Register first.

Contact: REA-RFCS@ec.europa.eu. Full details at EU Funding Portal. Call document: Call Fiche.

Additional Considerations

Proposals must demonstrate complementarity with other EU/national programmes. Exploitation plan essential for industrial integration. Targeted improvements must be quantified. Partner search available on Portal.

Footnotes

1. 1Source: Official EU Funding & Tenders Portal topic page and call fiche. Budget from 2026 work programme.