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Grant Analysis

Purpose & Target

The core objective of this grant is to significantly advance research and innovation in Air Traffic Management (ATM) by increasing automation assistance for pilots, particularly focusing on single pilot operations (SiPO).
The target recipients are organizations capable of conducting Research and Innovation Actions (RIA) in advanced aviation technologies.
This grant is SECTOR-SPECIFIC to the aviation and air traffic management industries.
The geographic scope includes EU Member States and Associated Countries.
This opportunity is part of a bi-annual work programme, indicating a recurring grant frequency within the broader Digital European Sky program.

Financial Structure

Funding is provided as a lump sum, as defined in the Decision of 7 July 2021 regarding lump sum contributions under Horizon Europe.
The total budget allocated for the group of topics under the WA5 umbrella (which includes this specific grant) is EUR 30,000,000 for 2025.
For a single grant under this topic (HORIZON-SESAR-2025-DES-IR-02-WA5-1), the expected contribution ranges from a minimum of EUR 3,000,000 to a maximum of EUR 6,000,000.
A funding rate of 70% applies to all beneficiaries, regardless of their legal status.
The currency for all financial amounts is EUR.
Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum, meaning a fixed amount for the entire project, requiring detailed justification of resources ex-ante rather than detailed reporting of actual costs ex-post.
No explicit co-financing or matching fund requirements are stated beyond the 70% funding rate, implying the remaining 30% of eligible costs are to be covered by the beneficiary.

Eligibility Requirements

General

Applicants must comply with the general admissibility and eligible country conditions described in Annex A and Annex B of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes.
Proposals are subject to restrictions for the protection of European communication networks.

Organizational Type

No specific types (e.g., SME, startup) are explicitly defined; however, this is a 'Research and Innovation Action' (RIA), typically open to research organizations, universities, and companies (including SMEs and larger enterprises) capable of conducting R&I.

Geographic Location

Organizations from EU Member States and Associated Countries are eligible to receive funding. This includes:
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.

Partnership

A collaboration agreement is required. This is especially pertinent as the grants awarded under this topic will be linked to actions from previous calls (HORIZON-SESAR-2022-DES-IR-01, HORIZON-SESAR-2022-DES-ER-01).

Technical Capacity

Applicants must demonstrate capability to conduct advanced research in areas such as avionics, flight management systems, surveillance, autonomous navigation, human-machine interface (HMI) design, and artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm development relevant to ATM.

Financial Capacity

Organizations must meet the financial and operational capacity requirements detailed in Annex C of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes.

Application Process

Application Deadline

The submission deadline is 2025-09-16 00:00:00+0000.

Submission Process

The application process is single-stage.
Proposals must be submitted via the online Submission System.
For enquiries, it is strongly recommended to submit questions to [email protected] at least 2 weeks before the deadline to ensure a timely response.

Required Documentation

Applicants must complete and submit:
The Standard application form (Part A).
The SESAR 3 application form (Part B) - this is a specific form for this call and is available in the Submission System.
A detailed budget table, aligned with the requirements for Lump Sum grants.

Project Duration

The maximum project duration is 36 months.

Reporting and Monitoring

Beneficiaries are required to make proactive efforts to share all relevant results, royalty-free and in a timely manner, with other grants awarded under the same call.
A collaboration agreement is necessary, facilitating mutual access to background and results of ongoing and closed linked actions (specifically HORIZON-SESAR-2022-DES-IR-01 and HORIZON-SESAR-2022-DES-ER-01), if required for project implementation or exploitation.
Standard evaluation forms will be used for monitoring and evaluation, with adaptations based on the specific award criteria.

Evaluation Criteria

Main Criteria and Weighting

Excellence: 40% weighting. This assesses the quality of the proposed research, methodology, and innovation.
Impact: 40% weighting. This assesses the potential of the project to contribute to the grant's objectives and broader societal, economic, and environmental benefits.
Implementation: 20% weighting. This assesses the quality and efficiency of the project plan, management, and resource allocation.

Scoring and Thresholds

Proposals must attain a specific threshold to be considered for funding.
Grants will be awarded not only strictly based on ranking but also to ensure a balanced portfolio across topics within the same work area, provided the application meets the threshold.

Specific Considerations

The relevance of the proposed work for Air Traffic Management (ATM) is a key factor.
Proposals should demonstrate how the technology will support pilots in carrying out their tasks, showing an increase in human capabilities during complex scenarios or a reduction in workload in standard tasks.
Research regarding AI-based tools must address methods and approaches that lead to safe human-AI teaming and certifiability of future applications.

Compliance & Special Requirements

Regulatory Compliance

Applicants must adhere to the regulatory compliance described in Annexes A, B, C, F, and G of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes.
Compliance with Council Regulation (EU) 2021/2085 is required.
The call is subject to specific restrictions for the protection of European communication networks.

Intellectual Property (IP) Policies

Beneficiaries must ensure all relevant results generated are available for reuse under fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory conditions through a well-defined mechanism using a trusted repository.
If the exploitation of results is related to standardisation, beneficiaries must grant a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to these results.
For projects working on linked actions, beneficiaries must ensure mutual access to the background and results of ongoing and closed linked actions, when necessary for implementation or exploitation.

Ethical and Cross-Cutting Considerations

The integration of a gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) into Research & Innovation content is not a mandatory requirement for this specific topic.
Proposals should address the methods and approaches that will lead to safe human-AI teaming and the certifiability of future applications, implicitly covering ethical aspects of AI deployment.

Strategic Linkages and Knowledge Sharing

Grants awarded under this topic are explicitly linked to previous actions: HORIZON-SESAR-2022-DES-IR-01 and HORIZON-SESAR-2022-DES-ER-01. This requires active collaboration and information exchange.
Beneficiaries must acknowledge and outline their efforts to meet these dissemination and exploitation obligations in their proposal and grant agreement.

Grant Details