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Grant Analysis

Purpose & Target

The core objective of this grant is to establish and validate an evolvable 6G Telco Cloud and service provision experimental infrastructure. This infrastructure will serve as a platform for developing, integrating, and demonstrating cutting-edge 6G technologies, focusing on aspects like deterministic networking, AI/Compute/Security as a service, and integration into telco systems. - Explicitly targeting legal entities of various sizes, with a strong emphasis on European players, involved in telecommunications research and innovation. - This grant is SECTOR-SPECIFIC, focusing on 6G communication technologies, cloud infrastructure, and related services. - Geographic scope requires participation from entities established in European Union Member States, Associated Countries, OECD, and Mercosur countries. - Key filtering criteria include a strong focus on 6G research, telco cloud solutions, open-source principles, and the development of experimental infrastructure. Applicants should be committed to contributing to standardisation and open-source activities. - This is a recurring grant opportunity as part of the broader Horizon Europe Smart Networks and Services (SNS) program.

Financial Structure

The total funding available for this specific grant (HORIZON-JU-SNS-2025-01-STREAM-C-01) is 15,000,000.
The grant expects to fund one project for this topic, with a minimum and maximum contribution per grant set at 15,000,000.
The funding is provided as a 'HORIZON Action Grant Budget-Based', indicating a reimbursement of eligible costs.
General rules regarding financial and operational capacity, as well as exclusion criteria, are described in Annex C of the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2023-2025.
The legal and financial setup of the grants follows General Annex G of the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2023-2025.
Cost-sharing: At least half of the budget for the project should be implemented by an SNS Joint Undertaking (JU) member (other than the Union) and their constituent or affiliated entities.
Indirect cost policies: Not specified in this document, but typically covered by Horizon Europe rules (e.g., flat rate on direct costs).

Eligibility Requirements

Organizational Type & Legal Status

Open to legal entities (e.g., businesses, research organisations, universities, public bodies) established in eligible countries.

Geographic Location

Organizations must be established in one of the following:
European Union Member States.
Associated Countries to Horizon Europe (list not specified in this document, but typically includes countries like Norway, Iceland, UK, Israel, Switzerland, Turkey).
OECD countries (list not specified).
Mercosur countries (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay).
Exclusions:
Legal entities established in Russia, Belarus, or non-government controlled territories of Ukraine are not eligible.
Entities directly or indirectly controlled by a non-eligible country or entity may not participate unless guarantees are provided by their eligible country of establishment (EU Member State or Associated Country) to ensure no negative impact on the Union's strategic interests, assets, autonomy, or security.
Entities assessed as high-risk suppliers of mobile network communication equipment (or entities fully or partially owned/controlled by them) are not eligible.
Legal entities established outside Russia but whose proprietary rights are directly or indirectly owned for more than 50% by legal persons established in Russia are not eligible.

Consortium Requirements

Proposals are expected to involve multiple participants forming a consortium, as indicated by the requirement for a 'collaboration agreement' and the expectation 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'.

Technical & Capacity Requirements

Applicants must possess the technical expertise and capacity to develop and operate complex 6G telco cloud and service provision experimental infrastructure.
A mandatory table of compliance must be filled at the proposal stage (Part B of the Application Form Technical Description).

Gender Equality

Public bodies, research organizations, or higher education establishments (including private ones) must have a Gender Equality Plan in place, as per Horizon Europe General Annexes.
Proposals should address the gender dimension in research and innovation content where relevant, especially if research results are expected to differ for different gender populations of users.

Application Process

Application Deadlines & Submission

The submission session became available on 22 May 2025.
The application deadline is 18 September 2025, 00:00:00 UTC.
The application process is single-stage.
Proposals must be submitted electronically via the Funding & Tenders Portal's Electronic Submission Service.

Required Documentation & Materials

A call-specific application form will be used, available directly within the Submission System.
Applicants must complete and submit a mandatory table of compliance as part of the proposal (Part B of the Application Form Technical Description).
The limit for a full proposal is 70 pages for Research and Innovation Actions (RIAs) submitted under Stream C.

Post-Award Requirements & Obligations

Collaboration Agreement: Participants of selected projects will be required to cooperate on topics of common interest within the SNS Programme by signing a formal 'collaboration agreement'.
Open Data for AI/ML: AI/ML training datasets created and used within selected projects under Stream B and C must be made available through a common, open repository. This repository will be openly accessible and usable by other SNS projects throughout the programme lifecycle.

Application Assistance & Resources

Online Manual: Provides guidance on procedures from proposal submission to grant management.
Horizon Europe Programme Guide: Offers detailed guidance on the structure, budget, and political priorities of Horizon Europe.
Funding & Tenders Portal FAQ: Answers common questions on submission, evaluation, and grant management.
Research Enquiry Service: For general questions about European research.
National Contact Points (NCPs): Provide guidance, practical information, and assistance on participating in Horizon Europe.
Enterprise Europe Network: Offers advice to businesses, especially SMEs, including guidance on EU research funding.
IT Helpdesk: For technical issues with the Funding & Tenders Portal.
European IPR Helpdesk: Assistance with intellectual property issues.
CEN-CENELEC and ETSI Research Helpdesk: Advice on standardisation in project proposals.
Partner Search: Tools available to help find partner organizations for proposals.

Evaluation Criteria

General Award Criteria

Proposals will be evaluated based on the standard award criteria outlined in Annex D of the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2023-2025 (Excellence, Impact, Quality and Efficiency of the Implementation).

Specific Impact Sub-criteria

Contribution to overall SME objective: Proposals will be assessed on how they contribute to the objectives concerning Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs).
Contribution to IKOP objectives: Proposals' contribution to Intellectual Property and Knowledge Ownership Protection objectives will be evaluated.
Expected Outcomes: Evaluation will consider the proposal's ability to achieve:
Availability of an evolvable 6G telco cloud and service provision experimental infrastructure.
Validation and demonstration of 6G telco cloud and architecture, 6G technologies for service provision, and systems as part of a representative end-to-end infrastructure.
Demonstrating the feasibility of 6G Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) such as capacity, ubiquity, speed, latency, reliability, density of users, location accuracy, energy efficiency, security, service creation time, and network management CAPEX/OPEX.
Enabling innovative 6G research across various technical areas (e.g., RAN architectures, network orchestration models, Massive MIMO).
Integration of full value chain experiments (IoT/devices, connectivity, service delivery).
Efficient support for 6G distributed services, service migration, and intelligent orchestration.
Demonstration of key societal requirements and objectives like energy reduction, sustainability, social inclusivity, safety, security, trust, and resilience.
Market Uptake Potential: Proposals should include a significant representation of European players with a strong demonstrated impact at the standardisation level, active contribution to relevant open-source activities, and a strong potential for monetizing the produced solutions.

Tie-breaking Criteria (for equally ranked proposals)

If two proposals are equally ranked after initial evaluation, the following criteria will be applied in order:
1st: Coverage criterion (as per General Annex F).
2nd: Excellence criterion (as per General Annex F).
3rd: Generic Impact criterion (as per General Annex F).
4th: Level of SME participation (if still inconclusive).
5th: Level of IKOP (Intellectual Property and Knowledge Ownership Protection) contribution (if still inconclusive).
If still inconclusive, the general procedure outlined in General Annex F will resume.

Compliance & Special Requirements

Regulatory Compliance & Restrictions

Proposals must comply with the admissibility conditions outlined in General Annex A of the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2023-2025, with specific page limits.
Strict restrictions on participation apply in accordance with Article 22(5) of the Horizon Europe Regulation to safeguard the Union's strategic assets, interests, autonomy, and security. This includes specific exclusions for entities controlled by non-eligible countries or high-risk suppliers of mobile network communication equipment.

Data Protection & Security

Measures must be in place to prevent access by non-eligible countries or entities to sensitive information related to the action.
Where appropriate, employees or other persons involved in the action may require a national security clearance issued by an eligible country.
Security is a key performance indicator (KPI) to be demonstrated for 6G solutions.

Intellectual Property (IP) Policies

Ownership of intellectual property (IP) arising from, and the results of, the action must remain within the recipient during and after completion of the action.
IP must not be subject to control or restrictions by non-eligible countries or entities, and access to it from outside eligible countries is prohibited without the approval of the country of establishment.
Contribution to 'IKOP' (Intellectual Property and Knowledge Ownership Protection) objectives is an evaluation sub-criterion.

Technical Specifications & Openness

The project should develop an open, disaggregated, versatile, and unified end-to-end platform supporting dynamic provision and management of services over multiple interconnected 6G sites in multiple European countries.
Strong emphasis on open-source principles, leveraging and influencing existing open-source efforts (e.g., GSMA Open Gateway, TIP OpenRAN, Sylva, Anuket, Open Nebula, CAMARA, ETSI, Nephio, CNCF, LFN).
The platform must support open framework principles (legal and technical, like open APIs) to enable future vertical projects to access and use it.
Facilities should allow the evaluation of competing technologies where appropriate.
Focus on Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous Development (CD), and validation capabilities for the telco cloud, including disaggregated scenarios (Open architectures), end-to-end virtualisation, network slicing, and softwarization.
Scope includes innovative research in various technical areas, such as 6G Radio Access Network (RAN) architectures, network orchestration models, Massive MIMO, ultra-high-bandwidth, and low-latency wireless communications with tightly coupled edge computing.
Development of a Service Platform and Telco Edge Cloud (Far Edge and Near Edge integration).
Solutions should efficiently support AI native solutions and demonstrate efficient, cloud-native management.
Projects must provide 6G telco cloud solutions that are efficient and sustainable, notably in terms of energy management and carbon impact.

Sustainability & Societal Impact

Key societal requirements and objectives to be addressed include energy reduction, sustainability, social inclusivity, safety, security, trust, and resilience.
Project performance will be assessed against 6G KPIs and Sustainability targets (KVIs).

Strategic Alignment & Collaboration

Proposals should take advantage of and extend results from past and ongoing European Initiatives (e.g., IPCEI-CIS, Cluster 4 activities on advanced computing) and develop synergies with other European and national projects.
Stakeholders should commit to easy replication of results in other locations/countries for future trials (e.g., Stream D projects or HE Cluster 4 activities).
The target experimental infrastructure must be open and accessible for a long enough period to allow for easy handover between SNS phases and reuse for subsequent phases under fair and reasonable conditions.

Grant Details