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Grant Analysis

Purpose & Target

Single, clear statement of grant's core objective: To develop and demonstrate AI-powered impact simulations, particularly for the Destination Earth initiative, to support informed decision-making in complex Earth systems.
Explicit identification of target recipient type and size: Organizations with strong research and innovation capabilities, including universities, research organizations, and companies (including SMEs and larger enterprises).
MUST state if grant is 'SECTOR-SPECIFIC' or 'SECTOR-AGNOSTIC': SECTOR-SPECIFIC (focus on AI, Digital Technologies, Environmental Science, Climate Modelling, Research Infrastructures).
Geographic scope and any location requirements: Organizations from EU Member States and countries associated with Horizon Europe, with provisions for other non-EU/non-associated countries.
Key filtering criteria for initial grant screening: Focus on AI, digital twins, Earth system science, climate/weather prediction, and collaboration with Destination Earth.
Grant frequency and program context: This is a specific topic within the recurring Horizon Europe Work Programme, under Research Infrastructures 2025.

Financial Structure

Funding Model: Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum contribution (HORIZON-AG-LS).
Total Topic Budget: The total budget allocated for this topic is EUR 30,000,000 for 2025, expected to fund 4 grants.
Grant Range per Project: Individual grants are expected to range from EUR 7,000,000 to EUR 10,000,000.
Eligible Costs (for lump sum calculation): Must be an approximation of beneficiaries' actual costs. Categories include: personnel costs (employees, direct contract, seconded, SME owners/natural persons), subcontracting costs, purchase costs (travel, subsistence, equipment, other goods/works/services), and other specific cost categories (e.g., financial support to third parties, internally invoiced goods/services, transnational/virtual access to research infrastructures, PCP/PPI procurement costs).
Ineligible Costs: Must exclude costs that are ineligible under Horizon Europe rules.
Indirect Costs: Calculated by applying a 25% flat rate to the direct cost categories that qualify under Horizon Europe rules.
Payment Mechanism: Payments depend on the proper implementation of the corresponding work packages as outlined in Annex 1 of the grant agreement. Payments do not depend on the actual costs incurred by beneficiaries.
Mutual Insurance Mechanism: Between 5% and 8% of the total lump sum is retained as a contribution to the Mutual Insurance Mechanism.
Co-financing: The total estimated costs of the action in the proposal must be greater than the estimated Union contributions, ensuring compliance with the co-financing principle.
Reimbursement Rate: The lump sum calculation includes the reimbursement rate set out in Horizon Europe rules (typically 100.0% for Research and Innovation Actions).

Eligibility Requirements

General Conditions

Proposal page limit and layout: Must adhere to the guidelines described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes.
Eligible Countries: Organizations established in EU Member States and countries associated with Horizon Europe. Provisions may also exist for participants from non-EU/non-associated countries as per Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Horizon Europe Programme Guide. This includes, but is not limited to: Albania, Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kosovo, Latvia, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Republic of Serbia, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Vatican City, Vietnam.
Financial and operational capacity: Applicants must demonstrate sufficient financial and operational capacity as described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes.
Funding Model: The grant will take the form of a lump sum contribution as defined in the Decision of 7 July 2021 authorising its use under Horizon Europe.
Consortium Requirement: This grant requires a consortium for application, typical for Research and Innovation Actions (RIA) in Horizon Europe.

Technical & Thematic Requirements

European Communication Networks: Projects are subject to restrictions for the protection of European communication networks.
Destination Earth Initiative (DestinE): If projects make use of weather and/or climate predictions or related data/services, beneficiaries must use the European Commission's DestinE initiative and engage with its community.
Earth Observation/Positioning Data: If projects use satellite-based earth observation, positioning, navigation, and/or related timing data/services, beneficiaries must use Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS.

Application Process

Submission Deadline: The deadline for submitting proposals is 2025-09-18 00:00:00+0000.
Submission Procedure: This is a single-stage submission process.
Submission Platform: Proposals must be submitted via the Electronic Submission Service available on the Funding & Tenders Portal.
Required Documentation: Applicants must use the standard application form (HE RIA, IA) available in the Submission System.
Supporting Materials: Detailed budget table (HE LS) and other call-specific instructions are available.

Evaluation & Grant Agreement

Review Process: Proposals will be evaluated by external independent experts according to standard Horizon Europe procedures.
Grant Agreement: The indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement signing is described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes.

Post-Award & Reporting

Project Planning: Detailed activities and resources must be described per work package for the lump sum breakdown.
Progress Tracking: Checks, reviews, and audits will focus on the technical implementation of the action and the fulfillment of conditions for releasing lump sum contributions per work package.
Reporting Obligations: Conditions for payment are tied to the completion of work packages; no reporting on actual costs incurred.

Application Assistance & Resources

Guidance Documents: Comprehensive guidance is available through the Horizon Europe Programme Guide, Online Manual, and Funding & Tenders Portal FAQ.
Contact Points: Support is provided by National Contact Points (NCPs) in EU and associated countries, the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) for SMEs, the Funding & Tenders Portal IT Helpdesk for technical issues, and the European IPR Helpdesk for intellectual property matters.
Partner Search: A partner search tool is available on the Funding & Tenders Portal to help find suitable collaborators for consortium formation.

Evaluation Criteria

Standard Horizon Europe Evaluation

Award criteria, scoring, and thresholds are described in Annex D of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes.
Proposals will be evaluated by external independent experts based on three core criteria:
- Excellence: Quality of research and innovation, methodology, and interdisciplinary aspects.
- Impact: Potential for significant scientific, societal, and economic benefits, and contribution to EU policies and objectives.
- Quality and Efficiency of the Implementation: Soundness of the work plan, proposed resources, management structure, and risk management.

Specific Project Quality & Financial Aspects

Innovative Use of AI: Proposals must demonstrate innovative application of AI, aligning with initiatives like GenAI4EU and the Apply AI strategy.
Novel Interfaces: Development of user-friendly interfaces that translate non-technical requirements into concrete scenario assessments.
Best Practices: Potential to establish new best practices and guidelines for impact assessment in digital twin simulations and AI-powered analysis.
Efficient Data Management: Ability to ensure efficient selection of data and modeling resources.
Transparency: Clear demonstration of transparency in decision-making processes enabled by AI.
AI Trustworthiness: Demonstration of trustworthiness and reliability in AI usage, accompanied by clear and open communication of AI's use and impact to users.
Financial Assessment: Experts with financial expertise will assess the proposed lump sum budget's accuracy based on relevant benchmarks (e.g., market prices, statistical data, historical data). They will verify that proposed resources and the lump sum breakdown are appropriate for achieving planned activities and outputs.

Compliance & Special Requirements

Regulatory Compliance

European Communication Networks: Projects are subject to restrictions for the protection of European communication networks.
Data Protection and Privacy: Adherence to relevant data protection and privacy regulations (implicit for EU-funded projects).
Ethical Standards: Compliance with ethical standards and research integrity principles.
Legal Framework: Adherence to Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 2018/1046 (Financial Regulation) and EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509.

Technical & Operational Requirements

AI Trustworthiness: Proposals must demonstrate trustworthiness and reliability in the use of AI and practice clear and open communication of AI use and impact to users.
Robust Development Framework: Investment in the design of a robust development framework and pre-operational infrastructure for advanced AI/ML tools, ensuring quality, reliability, transparency, and verifiability of methods and outcomes.
Collaboration: Proposals must show a clear and credible pathway for collaboration with implementing entities of the Destination Earth initiative (e.g., European Space Agency (ESA), European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT)) and other key organizations (e.g., Mercator Ocean).
Interactivity: Solutions should demonstrate how compute capabilities and data on Research Infrastructures (RIs) can be made directly usable to users through interactivity with digital twins, adapting to changing data and on-demand visualization capabilities.

Financial & Accountability Specifics

Lump Sum Conditions: Payments are made upon successful completion of work packages, not based on incurred costs. Beneficiaries must follow their own accounting practices for budget preparation.
Risk Management: While financial ex-post audits on incurred costs are removed, technical checks, reviews, or audits will verify compliance with work package conditions. Undue payments can be recovered if conditions are not met.

Strategic & Innovation Opportunities

GenAI4EU Alignment: The call falls under the GenAI4EU initiative, emphasizing boosting startups and innovation in trustworthy AI.
Leadership Maintenance: Projects should exploit rapid advances in modeling, observations, digital technologies, and ML/AI to maintain European leadership in these fields.
User Focus: Solutions need to demonstrate a sustainable setup answering day-to-day challenges, suitable for continuous long-term research, and cover at least three distinct user groups and their impact assessments.
Synergies: Proposals should leverage opportunities and developments from existing Horizon Europe research actions, emerging ICT infrastructures (e.g., EuroHPC, AI-on-Demand platform), and HPC Centers of Competence and Excellence.

Grant Details