SNS experimental infrastructure

The opportunity, HORIZON-JU-SNS-2026-STREAM-C-01, relates to a grant under the Horizon Europe program, specifically aimed at developing a 6G experimental infrastructure. The total available funding is €8 million, and the call targets research and innovation actions related to 6G technology. Eligible applicants include research organizations, higher education institutions, private research entities, small and medium enterprises, and large companies, with a specific requirement for significant European participation.

The funding structure is a grant classified under the HORIZON JU Research and Innovation Action framework. It allows for consortia that integrate various stakeholders and emphasizes collaboration across multiple organizations for effective project execution. The funding explicitly supports projects focused on validation, demonstration, and experimentation of 6G technologies.

Geographically, the opportunity primarily targets EU entities while allowing for international collaboration, particularly with India. Specific restrictions apply to legal entities from Russia, Belarus, and non-government-controlled areas of Ukraine.

Financial support mechanisms include grants up to €50,000 for SMEs and academic institutions under a framework designed to integrate their technologies into the broader project. Up to 20% of the project budget is set aside for these financing efforts.

The project will assess technologies across several critical domains related to 6G, including AI-driven architecture, innovative signal processing, optical networking, and network security, among others. An open-access model allows experimenters to utilize facilities without direct funding but permits them to integrate their technologies into the infrastructure.

The timeline for this grant opens on January 29, 2026, and closes April 29, 2026. Project evaluations will occur in June 2026, with grant agreements finalized between August and November 2026, and project initiation set for January 2027.

Overall, this funding opportunity is set within a competitive landscape, emphasizing the importance of proven impact in the development and operation of 5G/6G technologies. The initiative aims to foster collaboration among various European players, facilitating the engagement of SMEs and ensuring a pan-European approach towards the advancement of 6G technology.

This is a call for proposals for the HORIZON-JU-SNS-2026-STREAM-C-01 topic, which falls under the Horizon Europe program and the HORIZON-JU-SNS-2026 call. It is a HORIZON JU Research and Innovation Action (RIA) with a HORIZON Action Grant Budget-Based [HORIZON-AG] type of Model Grant Agreement (MGA). The deadline model is single-stage. The planned opening date is 29 January 2026, and the deadline date is 29 April 2026 at 17:00:00 Brussels time. The budget for this topic is 8,000,000 EUR, and the indicative number of grants is 1.

The expected outcome of this call is the availability of an evolvable experimental infrastructure representative of a 6G system for the Phase 3 of the SNS JU Programme, enabling the 6G community to conduct experiments. Another expected outcome is the validation of key 6G technologies with demonstrated performance characteristics through experiments using the experimental infrastructure. This reference platform will be used to demonstrate 6G technologies developed by SNS Stream B projects. Proponents should select a clear and limited number of technologies from Stream B projects. The platform will provide standardized and supported methods for affordable-cost integration of new technologies in the end-to-end environment, following a common SNS approach to KPI measurement and data definition-storage-exposition. This SNS reference platform can be offered to other communities for broader collaboration and technology diffusion (e.g. 3GPP, AI RAN Alliance, ESA, ETSI and others).

The call targets:
Validation of new 6G network technologies in E2E setups potentially covering the European ecosystem. This project will further support Stream D projects that focus on supporting trials for validation of vertical use cases, integrating, testing, and benchmarking connectivity technologies for future Stream D vertical evaluations.
Validation capabilities covering the 6 technological areas identified for SNS technological developments:
AI Driven architecture, programmability, and control
Radio and signal processing, new waveforms and spectrum, ISAC capabilities
Optical networking, flexible and green high capacity transport and backhaul
Ubiquitous computing, edge cloud continuum service and management
Security for network and services, security as a service
NTN, technologies for TN/NTN unification
Experiments with network technologies following two schemes:
On demand, any topic and time experimentation, mainly from the SNS community
Specific technologies open to the community. The platform will be open for experimenters outside of the consortium but with no budget for them. Proponents are requested to detail their plan for engaging such experimenters.
Integration and validation of Stream B technologies from previous SNS calls to keep them as part of the new infrastructure until the end of SNS JU.
Provision to SNS participants of a framework to mature their new technologies for exploitation, accelerating potential start-ups by leveraging testing and experimentation tools and expertise from project partners.
Alignment with standards development by ensuring the platform follows standards evolutions and ensuring impactful contributions to international standardization.

Proposals should include a significant representation of European players with strong demonstrated impact at development and operation of 5G/6G experimental platforms and tools, with strong potential for reutilization of existing and open-source platforms and solutions. Proposals should also demonstrate the validity of the platform and related technology developments/validation in industrial context, towards maximised industrial take up.

The objective of this call is detailed in the "Specific Challenges and Objectives" section for Stream C-01 in the Work Programme, available under ‘Topic Conditions and Documents - Additional Documents’.

The scope of the project involves leveraging existing SNS JU Stream C and D project results, as well as results from European National Initiatives, aggregating testbed sites that can offer combined capabilities across Europe. The project should focus on integration, evaluation, and validation beyond PoC of Stream B type of technologies for 6G KPIs and KVIs in a system context. The project should not engage in activities of interconnecting or federation, as these issues have been addressed in previous projects. The core activity is to run experiments, with some activities to maintain and expand the tool offered to the community.

The scope focuses on:
Accommodating a wide range of technologies towards 6G like RIS, ISAC/JCAS, NTN/5G, security, privacy, core evolution, AI, RAN evolution, network disaggregation, and any other relevant 6G subject as part of E2E setups for experimentation, covering the 6 technological areas mentioned in the expected outcome.
Hosting advanced pilot “6G” use-cases not feasible during implementation lifecycle of ongoing Stream D projects due to the lack of maturity of the technology.
Offering a well-defined catalogue of experimentation and KPI reporting tools that ensure repeatability, high level of automation, and comparison of results that provide valuable feedback to the developers and experimenters on potential shortcomings of the current prototype to facilitate technology maturation based on the experimental results.
Offering users a low-barrier entry to an experimental facility enabling SNS-JU technologies, to run experiments.
Providing trial facilities to enable hands on experience for engineers as part of their continuous learning and education.
Integrating contributions from participants to expand the capabilities of the platforms with new features and capabilities.
Ensuring security provisions for remote connectivity to the infrastructure for the experimenters.
Providing plans on how to address the requirements for reusability and evolvability of the experimental platform over the lifetime of the SNS JU Programme.

Efforts are centralized around integration of technologies and execution of experimentation. Additional development will be strictly limited to maintenance and minimal integration effort of new technologies and prototypes, as the integration effort will be pushed on the experimenters. Platform upgrades and activities related to the integration of new technologies are also in scope as long as the running of experiments remains the core activity.

The platform will be open to any participant interested in running an experiment. There is no funding offered to the experimenters, who will propose to join according to their interest. The project will, however, include FSTP (Financial Support to Third Parties) to developers from current running SNS JU projects as a support to integrate their technologies into the platform. SNS projects in Phase 3 are expected to include integration and experimentation resources with the new infrastructure in their Grant Agreements. For SME and academia, the project will allocate up to 20% of the proposal budget on the FSTP mechanism in the form of up to 50 K EUR grants to support the integration efforts of key technologies developed in previous SNS JU calls until Call 2025. Solutions from SNS JU Call 2027 projects are not eligible for FSTP and should include the effort to integrate into their project, as explained in the legal and financial set-up of the Grant Agreements.

Experimenters get full insight from the results to improve their solution. If an experimenter wishes so, they can also leave a version of the technology solution inside the platform for their own use or for reference/use of the SNS community. This is a way to showcase the experimenter technology, but also for them to run additional trials without needing to visit the platform (remote connectivity). Leaving the technology is an in-kind contribution on loan preferably for the remainder of the project transforming the platform to be a showroom for these 6G candidate technologies.

The proposal page limit is 70 pages for RIAs and IAs submitted under Stream B and C.

Entities that are assessed as high-risk suppliers of mobile network communication equipment are not eligible to participate. Legal entities established in Russia, Belarus, or in non-government-controlled territories of Ukraine are also not eligible to participate.

At least half of the budget should be implemented by the SNS JU member (other than the Union) and their constituent or affiliated entities. Applicants will be invited to fill a mandatory table of compliance at proposal stage in the Application Form Technical Description (Part B).

Provision of a gender equality plan for public bodies, research organisations or higher education establishments applies as per Part B of the General Annexes to the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2026-2027.

When two RIA proposals are equally ranked, the level of SME participation will be taken as the next criterion to sort out the ties and if still un-conclusive, the level of IKOP will be considered as appropriate.

Participants of selected projects will be requested to cooperate in the SNS JU Programme for topics of common interests by signing a written agreement. AI/ML training data sets, which will be created and used in the context of the selected projects, have to be made available through a common repository that will be openly accessed and may be used by other SNS projects over the programme lifecycle.

Up to 20% of the budget of proposals submitted under this topic will be reserved for Third Party Financing for SMEs and academia. The maximum amount to be granted to each third party is of 50 K EUR for Grants to support: executing technological validation experiments, validation of new 6G network technologies in E2E setups, and the integration efforts of key technologies developed in previous SNS JU Calls.

A call-specific application form will be used in this topic and will be available in the Submission System.

This funding opportunity aims to establish a cutting-edge experimental infrastructure for 6G technology development within the SNS JU program. The goal is to create a platform where researchers and innovators, particularly SMEs and academia, can validate their 6G technologies, conduct experiments, and contribute to the standardization of 6G networks. The project emphasizes the integration of existing European initiatives and the involvement of European players to ensure maximum impact and industrial uptake of 6G technologies. A significant portion of the budget is dedicated to financial support for third parties, enabling SMEs and academia to integrate their technologies into the platform. The platform will be open to experimenters, providing them with valuable insights and a showroom for their technologies.

Eligible Applicant Types: The eligible applicant types include European players, SMEs, and academia. The call emphasizes the need for a significant representation of European players with a strong demonstrated impact on the development and operation of 5G/6G experimental platforms and tools. The call also mentions that up to 20% of the proposal budget will be reserved for Third Party Financing for SMEs and academia. Public bodies, research organisations or higher education establishments (including private research organisations and higher education establishments) are also eligible.

Funding Type: The funding type is primarily a grant, specifically a HORIZON JU Research and Innovation Action (HORIZON-JU-RIA). The call also includes Financial Support to Third Parties (FSTP) in the form of grants, with a maximum amount of 50 K EUR to be granted to each third party.

Consortium Requirement: The opportunity requires a consortium of multiple applicants. The call specifies that proposals should include a significant representation of European players, implying the need for a collaborative effort.

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility): The geographic eligibility is primarily focused on European entities. The call emphasizes the representation of European players and leveraging European National Initiatives. While not explicitly excluding other regions, the focus is clearly on European participation and benefit. Legal entities established in Russia, Belarus, or in non-government-controlled territories of Ukraine are not eligible to participate in any capacity.

Target Sector: The target sector is ICT, specifically focusing on 6G network technologies, experimental infrastructure, and related technological developments. The call targets the validation of new 6G network technologies, AI Driven architecture, programmability and control, Radio and signal processing, new waveforms and spectrum, ISAC capabilities, Optical networking, flexible and green high capacity transport and backhaul, Ubiquitous computing, edge cloud continuum service and management, Security for network and services, security as a service and NTN, technologies for TN/NTN unification.

Mentioned Countries: Russia, Belarus, Ukraine. The call explicitly mentions that legal entities established in Russia, Belarus, or in non-government-controlled territories of Ukraine are not eligible to participate.

Project Stage: The project stage is focused on validation, demonstration, and integration beyond Proof of Concept (PoC). The call emphasizes the integration, evaluation, and validation of Stream B type of technologies for 6G KPIs and KVIs in a system context. It also aims to provide a framework to mature new technologies for exploitation, accelerating potential start-ups.

Funding Amount: The funding amount is variable. The main call budget is EUR 8,000,000. Additionally, up to 20% of the budget can be allocated to Financial Support to Third Parties (FSTP), with individual grants up to EUR 50,000.

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 grants. Additionally, the opportunity provides non-monetary services through access to an experimental facility, testing and experimentation tools, and expertise from project partners.

Application Stages: The application process involves a single stage.

Success Rates: The success rates are not explicitly mentioned, but the indicative number of grants for HORIZON-JU-SNS-2026-STREAM-C-01 is 1.

Co-funding Requirement: Co-funding requirements are not explicitly stated, but it is mentioned that at least half of the budget should be implemented by the SNS JU member (other than the Union) and their constituent or affiliated entities, which may imply a form of co-funding or resource allocation.

Summary: This opportunity, HORIZON-JU-SNS-2026-STREAM-C-01, is a call for proposals under the Horizon Europe program, specifically targeting Research and Innovation Actions (RIA) related to 6G experimental infrastructure. The goal is to create an evolvable experimental infrastructure that represents a 6G system, enabling the 6G community to conduct experiments and validate key technologies. The selected project will receive approximately EUR 8,000,000 in funding, with a single-stage application deadline of April 29, 2026. The call encourages participation from European players, particularly SMEs and academia, and provides financial support to third parties (FSTP) for integrating their technologies into the platform. The project should leverage existing 5G/6G experimental platforms and solutions, focusing on integrating, evaluating, and validating technologies beyond the proof-of-concept stage. The resulting platform will be open to experimenters, providing them with tools, facilities, and expertise to mature their technologies and contribute to 6G standardization efforts. The call aims to foster collaboration, technology diffusion, and the development of innovative 6G solutions within the European ecosystem.