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Grant Analysis

Purpose & Target

This grant aims to develop novel AI-enabled Cloud and Edge management solutions for the 'Cognitive Computing Continuum'. It seeks to foster strategic industrial cooperation and enable seamless, trustworthy integration across diverse computing environments, from core cloud to edge to IoT, specifically to empower the next generation of AI and generative AI applications. - Target recipient type: Legal entities engaged in research and innovation. - Target recipient size: Not specified in the grant materials. - SECTOR-SPECIFIC: This grant is primarily focused on the digital sector (AI, Data, Robotics, Cloud, Edge computing) but its applications are expected to span multiple sectors including manufacturing, healthcare, robotics, transportation, and smart cities. - Geographic scope: EU Member States, Iceland, Norway, Canada, Israel, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Switzerland, United Kingdom. - Key filtering criteria: Proposals must focus on research and innovation in AI/generative AI, cloud-to-edge continuum, distributed computing, and strategic international cooperation. - Grant frequency: This is an annual call as part of the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2025.

Financial Structure

The total budget allocated for this topic is €30,000,000 for the year 2025.
Approximately 4 grants are expected to be funded under this topic.
The minimum grant contribution per project is €6,000,000.
The maximum grant contribution per project is €8,000,000.
The currency for all financial amounts is EUR.
The legal and financial set-up of the grants, including eligible and ineligible costs, co-financing requirements, and payment schedules, are described in Annex G of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes (specific details are not provided in this topic description).
The funding type is 'Research and Innovation Action' (RIA), which typically involves a high funding rate for research activities.

Eligibility Requirements

Organization Type and Location

Eligible legal entities must be established in:
- EU Member States: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden.
- Associated Countries: Iceland, Norway, Canada, Israel, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Switzerland, United Kingdom.
Exclusion Criteria for Strategic Autonomy:
- Entities directly or indirectly controlled by a non-eligible country or non-eligible country entity may not participate unless they can provide guarantees, positively assessed by their eligible country of establishment, demonstrating their participation will not negatively impact the Union's strategic assets, interests, autonomy, or security.
- Entities assessed as high-risk suppliers of mobile network communication equipment (or entities fully/partially owned or controlled by such suppliers) are explicitly excluded and cannot submit guarantees.

Capacity Requirements

Applicants must possess the necessary financial and operational capacity to carry out the proposed project. Specific details are described in Annex C of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes (details not provided in the topic description).

Intellectual Property (IP) Control

For any entity allowed to participate under the strategic autonomy exception, guarantees must ensure that ownership of the intellectual property arising from, and the results of, the action remain with the recipient during and after completion of the action. This IP must not be subject to control or restrictions by non-eligible countries/entities, nor exported or accessed from outside eligible countries without the approval of the eligible country of establishment.

Application Process

Application Timeline

The submission session for this call opened on 2025-06-10.
The final deadline for submitting proposals is 2025-10-02 00:00:00+00.
The application process follows a single-stage submission model.

Required Documentation and Submission Process

Applicants must use the specific application form templates available in the Funding & Tenders Portal Submission System. Standard application forms for 'HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions' (RIA) will be utilized.
Proposals must adhere to the specified page limits and layout described in Part B of the Application Form.
Applications must be submitted electronically through the Funding & Tenders Portal.

Available Application Support

Various support resources are available to applicants, including:
- The 'Online Manual' for guidance on procedures from proposal submission to grant management.
- The 'Horizon Europe Programme Guide' for detailed information on the program's structure, budget, and priorities.
- 'Funding & Tenders Portal FAQ' for common questions.
- The 'Research Enquiry Service' for general queries about European research.
- 'National Contact Points' (NCPs) offering practical information and assistance in participating countries.
- The 'Enterprise Europe Network' (EEN) for advice to businesses, particularly SMEs.
- The 'IT Helpdesk' for technical assistance with the portal.
- The 'European IPR Helpdesk' for intellectual property issues.
- 'CEN-CENELEC Research Helpdesk' and 'ETSI Research Helpdesk' for standardisation advice.
- A 'Partner Search' tool is available to help find suitable collaborating organizations.

Post-Award Requirements

Awarded projects are expected to share communicable results with the broader European R&D community, primarily through the AI-on-demand platform, and other relevant digital resource platforms as needed. This fosters knowledge sharing and enhances the European AI, Data, and Robotics ecosystem.

Evaluation Criteria

General Evaluation Framework

The specific award criteria, scoring thresholds, and detailed evaluation processes are described in Annex D and Annex F of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual. These documents will be used with necessary adaptations for this call.

Expected Outcomes and Impact

Proposals will be evaluated based on their expected contribution to the following outcomes:
- Development of novel AI-enabled Cloud and Edge management solutions specifically tailored for AI workloads across the cognitive cloud-edge-IoT continuum.
- Promotion of strategic industrial cooperation across the Cloud-Edge-IoT cognitive computing continuum to support future hyper-distributed AI applications.
- Achievement of seamless and trustworthy integration and interoperability across diverse computing and data environments (core cloud, edge, IoT, and different technology stacks).
- Enhancement of openness and open strategic autonomy within the evolving data and AI-economies across the computing continuum, validated through key business and societal sectors.
- Guaranteeing a minimum level of interoperability and portability, thereby facilitating European access to foreign markets.

Research and Innovation Quality

Proposals must address one or more of the following research areas, demonstrating innovative approaches:
- Development of novel mechanisms for efficient AI workflow development, deployment, and operation across heterogeneous and distributed infrastructures (Edge to Cloud to HPC continuum). This includes optimizing training times, model accuracy, and data management while factoring in performance metrics like memory usage, energy efficiency, application processing, data transfer latency, and network overheads, and catering for explainability of applied cognitive optimizations.
- Creation of decentralized and federated computing continuum tools and mechanisms to enable distributed AI architectures, including scheduling, orchestration, and placement. These should leverage wide-ranging Edge computing environments and consider data security and privacy.
- Development of cloud and edge processing tools and techniques to reduce AI processing power usage and emissions across the cognitive computing continuum, relying on hardware efficiency (e.g., special-purpose accelerators, heterogeneous hardware) and energy optimization techniques.

Compliance & Special Requirements

Regulatory and General Compliance

All projects must adhere to general conditions, admissibility criteria, and regulatory frameworks as detailed in the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes (Annex A, B, C, F, G).
Compliance with data security and privacy aspects is crucial when developing tools and mechanisms for distributed AI architectures.

Strategic Autonomy and Security

This grant is designed with a strong emphasis on safeguarding the European Union's strategic assets, interests, autonomy, and security.
A key objective is to avoid technological dependency on non-EU sources, requiring careful assessment of potential vulnerabilities and high-risk dependencies.
Entities from eligible countries that are directly or indirectly controlled by non-eligible countries face strict scrutiny and must provide robust guarantees to ensure their participation aligns with the Union's strategic interests, including maintaining control over project results and intellectual property within eligible territories.

Partnership and Synergies

This topic is implemented as part of the co-programmed European Partnership on AI, Data, and Robotics.
Projects are strongly encouraged to develop synergies and establish connections with activities and outcomes of the Digital Europe Programme (DEP).
Synergies with existing or emerging 'Important Projects of Common European Interest' (IPCEI) initiatives, such as IPCEI-CIS, are also expected.

Technical and Environmental Focus

There is a significant emphasis on developing solutions that optimize energy use and reduce emissions across the cognitive computing continuum, by leveraging hardware efficiency and energy optimization techniques.
The vision is to create a secure and trusted AI ecosystem where data and computing power can be accessed on-demand, agilely, and situation-aware, without compromising security and trust.

Grant Details