Understanding and overcoming barriers to the scale-up of innovations supporting EU Missions
Overview
The grant will open for submissions on December 9, 2025, and close on March 31, 2026. It is structured as a single-stage application process under the HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions (RIA) category, with a total budget of €2 million allocated for this topic. The expected EU contribution per successful project is also approximately €2 million, with only one project anticipated to be funded.
Eligible applicants include research-led interdisciplinary consortia, which may consist of universities, research organizations, and other public or private entities meeting eligibility criteria outlined in the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes. Individual applicants cannot submit proposals independently and must collaborate within a consortium.
The scope of the project involves research aimed at increasing understanding and facilitating the scaling and deployment of innovations by exploring risk perception and risk management strategies among stakeholders. The research should incorporate elements from social sciences, humanities, and innovation studies, assessing behavioral changes and systemic barriers to promote effective solutions.
The application process is open to participants from EU Member States and Associated Countries, with possible provisions for non-EU/non-Associated Countries to engage if they have secured funding for their participants. The call is highly competitive, expected to have a success rate below 10%, given that only one project will be funded out of potentially many applications.
Applications should demonstrate thorough knowledge of risk dynamics and stakeholder engagement, and explicitly focus on producing insights relevant to all five EU Missions. The outcome of this grant is intended to provide actionable recommendations that can inform policy and improve innovation strategies across Europe.
Support resources, including the Online Manual and Horizon Europe Programme Guide, are available for applicants to navigate the submission process. The general conditions for admissibility and eligibility, evaluation criteria, and other guidelines are detailed in associated documents of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes.
Detail
The expected outcome is to increase awareness among mission stakeholder communities regarding the diversity of risk perception and risk management strategies related to technological and non-technological innovations. It also aims to enable European, national, regional, and philanthropic funders to better address barriers to achieving mission objectives by strengthening stakeholder groups’ specific risk management strategies, ultimately improving the understanding and removal of barriers to scaling up innovative solutions relevant to EU Missions.
Proposals should create a better understanding of socio-technical barriers based on investigations of risk perception and risk management related to technological and non-technological innovations. This includes risk perception and risk management in regulatory and governance bodies, and the identification of socio-technical path dependencies in the context of missions. The proposals should include:
Exemplary assessment of stakeholders perception of the social, economic, and environmental effects of innovations in missions settings.
Exemplary assessment of examples of behavioural and systemic change as a result of shifting patterns of thought of risk and risk management and action, and experiment with new ways to drive transformation.
Analyses of the role of experimentation (including by ‘culturally aware and emotional nudging’) to change risk perception and management as means of knowledge production and communication.
Projects should feed their insights to other EU mission projects, including those working on the topic “Advancing lead markets and proof-of-concept for deep tech solutions contributing to EU Missions.”
The call is a single-stage submission process, opening on December 9, 2025, and closing on March 31, 2026, at 17:00:00 Brussels time. The budget for HORIZON-MISS-2026-07-CROSS-02 is 2,000,000 EUR, with an indicative grant amount of around 2,000,000 EUR, and an expected number of 1 grant.
General conditions for admissibility include adhering to the proposal page limits and layout described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes and Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System. Eligible countries are described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes, with specific provisions for non-EU/non-Associated Countries outlined in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide. 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 (other data and services may additionally be used). Financial and operational capacity and exclusion criteria are detailed in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes. Evaluation and award criteria, scoring, and thresholds are described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes. 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. Legal and financial set-up of the grants are described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes. Specific conditions are described in the specific topic of the Work Programme.
Application forms are available in the Submission System, with a standard application form (HE RIA, IA) to be used. Guidance is provided in the HE Programme Guide. The Model Grant Agreement (MGA) is the HE MGA. Additional documents include the HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 1. General Introduction, HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 12. Missions, HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 14. General Annexes, HE Programme Guide, HE Framework Programme 2021/695, HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764, EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509, 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.
There are also two partner search announcements available for this topic. LEARs, Account Administrators, and self-registrants can publish partner requests for open and forthcoming topics, as well as any user having an active public Person profile.
To start the submission process, applicants must access the Electronic Submission Service via the submission button, selecting the appropriate type of action and model grant agreement. Existing draft proposals can be accessed by logging into the Funding & Tenders Portal and selecting the My Proposals page.
Support resources include 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, the European Charter for Researchers, and Partner Search tools.
In summary, this Horizon Europe call seeks to fund research projects that will investigate and address the barriers hindering the scaling up of innovative solutions relevant to the EU Missions. It emphasizes the importance of understanding risk perception and management strategies among diverse stakeholders and encourages interdisciplinary consortia to explore socio-technical, economic, cultural, and regulatory challenges. The ultimate goal is to facilitate the wider deployment of effective technologies and innovations to achieve the objectives of the EU Missions. The call is structured as a Research and Innovation Action (RIA) with a budget of 2 million EUR and a single-stage submission deadline of March 31, 2026.
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Breakdown
Funding Type: Grant. The call falls under Horizon Europe and uses HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions (HORIZON-RIA), HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions (HORIZON-CSA) and HORIZON Innovation Actions (HORIZON-IA). The Type of MGA is HORIZON Action Grant Budget-Based [HORIZON-AG].
Consortium Requirement: Consortium. The call specifically invites research-led interdisciplinary consortia.
Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility): The call is part of the Horizon Europe program. Eligible countries are described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes. 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 call targets multiple sectors related to the five EU Missions. These missions are supported by innovative technologies and non-technological innovations. The call focuses on identifying and addressing socio-technical, economic, cultural, and regulatory challenges. It integrates insights from Social Sciences and Humanities. The call also mentions deep tech solutions.
Mentioned Countries: The call mentions non-EU and non-Associated Countries.
Project Stage: The call focuses on scaling and deployment of innovative technologies and non-technological innovations. It also mentions advancing lead markets and proof-of-concept for deep tech solutions. Therefore, the project stage is primarily focused on validation, demonstration, and scale-up.
Funding Amount: The budget overview provides the following information:
HORIZON-MISS-2026-07-CROSS-01 - HORIZON-CSA: €1,000,000 (indicative grant amount around €1,000,000, 1 grant)
HORIZON-MISS-2026-07-CROSS-02 - HORIZON-RIA: €2,000,000 (indicative grant amount around €2,000,000, 1 grant)
HORIZON-MISS-2026-07-CROSS-03 - HORIZON-IA: €8,000,000 (indicative grant amount around €4,000,000, 2 grants)
Application Type: Open call. The submission session is now available for HORIZON-MISS-2026-07-CROSS-01, HORIZON-MISS-2026-07-CROSS-02, HORIZON-MISS-2026-07-CROSS-03
Nature of Support: Money. The funding is provided through grants.
Application Stages: Single-stage.
Success Rates: Not specified. The indicative number of grants is provided for each topic, but the expected number of applications is not.
Co-funding Requirement: Not specified.
Summary: This Horizon Europe call (HORIZON-MISS-2026-07-CROSS) aims to identify and address barriers preventing the scaling and deployment of innovative technologies and non-technological innovations supporting the five EU Missions. It seeks to understand how risk perception and risk management strategies of diverse stakeholders affect the scalability of innovations. The call encourages research-led interdisciplinary consortia to investigate socio-technical, economic, cultural, and regulatory barriers. Projects should cover all five EU Missions and create a better understanding of socio-technical barriers based on investigations of risk perception and risk management. The call includes three specific topics: Coordination and Support Actions (CSA) with a budget of €1,000,000, Research and Innovation Actions (RIA) with a budget of €2,000,000, and Innovation Actions (IA) with a budget of €8,000,000. The application process is single-stage, with a deadline of March 31, 2026. The call is open for submission, and applicants can find guidance and support through the Funding & Tenders Portal, Horizon Europe Programme Guide, and National Contact Points. The call requires applicants to form a consortium and submit their proposals electronically through the Funding & Tenders Portal. The overall goal is to improve the understanding and removal of barriers to scaling up innovative solutions relevant to EU Missions.
Short Summary
Impact The funding aims to understand and overcome barriers to the scale-up of innovations supporting the five EU Missions, enhancing the deployment of effective technologies and innovations. | Impact | The funding aims to understand and overcome barriers to the scale-up of innovations supporting the five EU Missions, enhancing the deployment of effective technologies and innovations. |
Applicant Research-led interdisciplinary consortia with expertise in socio-technical, economic, cultural, and regulatory aspects are needed to execute the project. | Applicant | Research-led interdisciplinary consortia with expertise in socio-technical, economic, cultural, and regulatory aspects are needed to execute the project. |
Developments The activities will focus on addressing systemic barriers preventing the scaling of technological and non-technological innovations across the five EU Missions. | Developments | The activities will focus on addressing systemic barriers preventing the scaling of technological and non-technological innovations across the five EU Missions. |
Applicant Type This funding is designed for research-led interdisciplinary consortia, including research organizations, universities, and other eligible entities. | Applicant Type | This funding is designed for research-led interdisciplinary consortia, including research organizations, universities, and other eligible entities. |
Consortium A consortium of multiple applicants is required for this funding opportunity. | Consortium | A consortium of multiple applicants is required for this funding opportunity. |
Funding Amount The total budget for this specific topic is €2,000,000, with an expected EU contribution of around €2,000,000 per project. | Funding Amount | The total budget for this specific topic is €2,000,000, with an expected EU contribution of around €2,000,000 per project. |
Countries The funding is open to applicants from EU Member States and Associated Countries, with specific provisions for non-EU/non-Associated Countries. | Countries | The funding is open to applicants from EU Member States and Associated Countries, with specific provisions for non-EU/non-Associated Countries. |
Industry This funding targets multiple sectors aligned with the five EU Missions, including climate change, cancer research, ocean restoration, smart cities, and sustainable soil management. | Industry | This funding targets multiple sectors aligned with the five EU Missions, including climate change, cancer research, ocean restoration, smart cities, and sustainable soil management. |
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