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Grant Analysis

Purpose & Target

Single, clear statement of grant's core objective: This grant aims to develop advanced AI-assisted methods and tools for engineering automation, including generative AI, to enhance efficiency and optimize resource utilization in software engineering tasks.
Explicit identification of target recipient type and size: The grant targets consortia of legal entities, regardless of size, with a focus on innovation and technological development.
MUST state if grant is 'SECTOR-SPECIFIC' or 'SECTOR-AGNOSTIC': This grant is SECTOR-SPECIFIC, primarily focusing on software-defined vehicles, with potential for broader application in medical/pharmaceutical and digital industries through proof-of-concept studies.
Geographic scope and any location requirements: The grant is open to entities established in EU Member States, Horizon Europe Associated Countries, and a specific list of low- and middle-income countries for funding eligibility. Participation from other countries is possible, but typically without direct EU funding.
Key filtering criteria for initial grant screening:
Focus on AI-assisted methods and tools for engineering automation.
Application to software engineering, particularly for software-defined vehicles.
Requirement for a consortium of independent legal entities from different eligible countries.
Classification as an Innovation Action (IA) under Horizon Europe.
Grant frequency and program context: This is a specific topic within the HORIZON-JU-CHIPS-2025-IA-two-stage call, part of the multi-annual Horizon Europe programme, indicating recurring opportunities in related areas in future years.

Financial Structure

Funding Type: This is an Innovation Action (IA) grant.
Budget Range: The minimum contribution per project is EUR 1,000,000, and the maximum contribution per project is EUR 20,000,000.
Total Topic Budget: The total budget allocated for this specific topic (HORIZON-JU-CHIPS-2025-IA-two-stage-FT2) is EUR 20,000,000.
Funding Rate: Innovation Actions typically receive 70% of eligible costs. Non-profit legal entities may receive up to 100% funding.
Eligible Costs:
Actual costs for: personnel, subcontracting, purchase of goods/services, and costs of providing financial support to third parties (if allowed by specific call conditions).
Unit costs for: SME owners/natural persons not receiving a salary, personnel costs calculated by usual accounting practices, internally invoiced goods/services, and specific unit costs.
Flat-rate for indirect costs: 25% of total eligible direct costs (excluding subcontracting, financial support to third parties, and any unit/lump sums already including indirect costs).
Ineligible Costs: Double funding from other EU budget sources for the same costs is strictly prohibited, except for EU Synergy grants under specific conditions.
Matching Fund/Co-financing: Applicants are generally expected to cover the remaining percentage of eligible costs not covered by the grant (e.g., 30% for a 70% funding rate, unless a non-profit organization).
Payment Schedule & Mechanism:
Normally, a pre-financing (float) payment of 160% of the average EU funding per reporting period is provided at the start of the project.
An amount ranging from 5% to 8% of the maximum grant is deducted from the pre-financing payment and transferred to a mutual insurance mechanism.
Interim payments are linked to periodic reports submitted during the project duration.
The final grant amount is calculated after the submission of a final report, with potential recoveries if prior payments exceed the final entitlement.
Financial Reporting: Periodic and final financial reporting is required as specified in the grant agreement.
Audit Requirements: A certificate on the financial statements may be required depending on the grant amount and type of beneficiary.
No-profit Rule: The grant should not generate a profit (surplus of revenues + EU grant over costs). This is checked at the end of the project.

Eligibility Requirements

Organizational Type & Legal Status

Any legal entity, regardless of its place of establishment, is eligible to participate.
Entities without legal personality may participate if their representatives can undertake legal obligations and offer financial guarantees equivalent to legal persons.
Beneficiaries and affiliated entities must register in the Participant Register (PIC) before submitting their application.
EU bodies, including the Joint Research Centre (JRC), may be part of the consortium.
Associations and interest groupings may participate as 'sole beneficiaries' or 'beneficiaries without legal personality'; however, individual members implementing the action should also participate as beneficiaries or affiliated entities.

Geographic Location

Eligible for funding if established in one of the following countries:
EU Member States: AT, BE, BG, HR, CY, CZ, DK, EE, FI, FR, DE, GR, HU, IE, IT, LV, LT, LU, MT, NL, PL, PT, RO, SK, SI, ES, SE.
Horizon Europe Associated Countries: AL, BA, GE, IS, IL, MD, ME, MK, NZ, NO, RS, TR, UA, UK.
Low- and middle-income countries listed in the Horizon Europe General Annexes (those also present in the specified dictionary of country values): AF, DZ, AO, AR, BY, BR, EG, IN, MY, MX, SG, KR, SA, AE.
Legal entities established in countries not listed above may be eligible for funding if explicitly provided for in specific call/topic conditions or if their participation is deemed essential by the granting authority.

Consortium Composition

The grant requires a consortium.
Must include, as beneficiaries, three legal entities independent from each other.
Each of these three entities must be established in a different country, specifically:
At least one independent legal entity established in an EU Member State.
At least two other independent legal entities, each established in different EU Member States or Associated Countries.
Affiliated entities do not count towards the minimum eligibility criteria for consortium composition.

Financial & Operational Capacity

Applicants must possess stable and sufficient financial resources to successfully implement projects and contribute their share.
Financial capacity checks are typically performed for the coordinator if the requested grant amount is EUR 500,000 or greater (exemptions for public bodies and low-value grants apply).
Applicants must demonstrate know-how, qualifications, and resources to implement their tasks, assessed during the evaluation of 'Quality and efficiency of the implementation'. Public bodies, Member State organizations, and international organizations are exempt from operational capacity checks.

Exclusion Criteria & Restrictions

Entities subject to EU restrictive measures are not eligible to participate in any capacity.
Legal entities established in Russia, Belarus, or non-government controlled territories of Ukraine are not eligible (exceptions possible on a case-by-case basis).
Hungarian public interest trusts established under Act IX of 2021 and any entity they maintain are not eligible for funding as of December 16, 2022.
For Innovation Actions (IA), legal entities established in China are not eligible to participate in any capacity (beneficiaries, affiliated entities, associated partners, third parties, subcontractors, recipients of financial support to third parties), with exceptions possible for justified reasons.
Entities assessed as 'high-risk suppliers' of mobile network communication equipment (and any entities they own or control) are not eligible to participate in actions concerning the evolution of European communication networks (e.g., 5G, post-5G technologies).

Application Process

Submission Method: Applications must be submitted exclusively electronically via the Funding & Tenders Portal electronic submission system. Paper submissions are not accepted.
Application Forms: Applicants must use the forms provided within the electronic submission system; external templates are for information only. The structure and presentation must conform to these forms.
Completeness: All parts, mandatory Annexes, and supporting documents must be included in the application.
Readability: Applications must be readable, accessible, and printable.
Coordinator Responsibility: The coordinator must confirm that they have the mandate to act for all applicants and that the information provided is correct and complete, and that all participants meet EU funding conditions. Each participant must sign a declaration of honour before the grant agreement is signed.
Language: Applications can be submitted in any official EU language, but using English is strongly advised for efficiency.

Application Deadlines

This is a two-stage submission procedure.
First Stage Deadline: 2025-04-29T00:00:00+02:00.
Second Stage Deadline: 2025-09-17T00:00:00+02:00.
Applications must be submitted before the official deadline. Late submissions or issues due to last-minute submission are at the applicant's own risk.

Required Documentation & Materials

Part A: To be filled in directly online, comprising administrative information about applicant organizations, a summarized budget, and call-specific questions.
Part B: A technical description of the project, to be downloaded as a template, completed, and uploaded as a PDF file.
Annexes and Supporting Documents: Must be uploaded as PDF files (or other system-allowed formats).
Exploitation and Dissemination Plan: A plan for exploitation and dissemination of results, including communication activities, is generally required for the full application. It is not required for the first stage of two-stage procedures.

Page Limits

First-stage application limit: 10 pages.
Full application limit (for Innovation Actions): 45 pages (unless lump-sum funding is specified, in which case it would be 50 pages).
Pages exceeding these limits will be automatically made invisible and will not be considered during evaluation.

Evaluation & Selection Timeline

Information on the outcome of the first stage evaluation: Approximately 3 months from the first stage submission deadline.
Information on the outcome of the second stage evaluation: Approximately 5 months from the second stage submission deadline.
Indicative date for the signing of grant agreements: Approximately 8 months from the second stage submission deadline.
An invitation to the grant preparation stage does not constitute a formal commitment to funding; legal checks are still required.

Post-Award Requirements

Project Duration: The project starting date and duration are fixed in the grant agreement. Extensions are possible only exceptionally, for duly justified reasons, and with the granting authority's agreement.
Milestones and Deliverables: Key milestones and deliverables will be managed through the Portal's grant management system and specified in the grant agreement.
Reporting Obligations: Periodic and final reports are required according to the payment schedule.
Consortium Agreement: For multi-beneficiary grants, a written consortium agreement is mandatory to ensure smooth implementation and address unforeseen circumstances.
No Double Funding: Strict prohibition against receiving double funding from the EU budget for the same costs (exceptions apply for EU Synergy grants).
Cost Separation: If combining with EU operating grants, cost items must be clearly separated in accounting and not declared twice.

Evaluation Criteria

Two-Stage Evaluation Process This grant uses a two-stage submission and evaluation procedure. First Stage Evaluation

Only the 'Excellence' and 'Impact' criteria are evaluated at this stage.
The threshold for each individual criterion is 4 out of 5.
The overall threshold, applying to the sum of the two individual scores, will be set to ensure that the total requested budget of proposals admitted to Stage 2 is approximately three times (and not less than two and a half times) the available budget. This threshold is normally expected to be 8 or 8.5.

Excellence (First Stage)

Clarity and pertinence of the project's objectives.
Ambition of the proposed work and its extent beyond the current state-of-the-art.
Soundness of the overall methodology.
Appropriate consideration of the gender dimension within research and innovation content.
Quality of open science practices, including the sharing and management of research outputs, and engagement with citizens/civil society.

Impact (First Stage)

Credibility of the pathways designed to achieve the expected outcomes and impacts specified in the work programme.
The likely scale and significance of the contributions expected from the project.

Second Stage Evaluation (Full Application)

All three criteria: 'Excellence', 'Impact', and 'Quality and efficiency of the implementation' are evaluated.
The threshold for each individual criterion is 3 out of 5.
The overall threshold, applying to the sum of the three individual scores, is 10.
For Innovation Actions, the score for 'Impact' will be given a weight of 1.5.

Excellence (Second Stage)

Clarity and pertinence of the project's objectives, and the extent to which the proposed work is ambitious and goes beyond the state-of-the-art.
Soundness of the proposed methodology, including underlying concepts, models, assumptions, inter-disciplinary approaches, appropriate consideration of gender dimension in research and innovation content, and quality of open science practices (sharing/management of research outputs, engagement of citizens/civil society).

Impact (Second Stage)

Credibility of the pathways to achieve the expected outcomes and impacts specified in the work programme.
Suitability and quality of measures to maximize expected outcomes and impacts, as outlined in the dissemination and exploitation plan (including communication activities).
Likely scale and significance of the contributions from the project.

Quality and efficiency of the implementation (Second Stage)

Quality and effectiveness of the work plan and assessment of risks.
Appropriateness of the effort assigned to work packages and overall resources.
Capacity and role of each participant, and the extent to which the consortium collectively possesses the necessary expertise.

Tie-Breaking Procedure (for equally scored proposals)

Proposals addressing aspects of the call not covered by higher-ranked proposals receive highest priority.
Prioritization is then based on the 'Excellence' score, followed by 'Impact' (for Innovation Actions, 'Impact' score first, then 'Excellence').
If still tied, gender balance among researchers named in the proposal is considered.
Further prioritization may consider geographical diversity (number of Member States/Associated Countries represented).
Finally, other factors related to call objectives (e.g., synergy, SME involvement) may be used.

Compliance & Special Requirements

Regulatory Compliance

Projects must adhere to ethical principles and comply with all applicable EU, international, and national laws.
Projects must exclusively focus on civil applications and must not involve human cloning for reproductive purposes, modification of human genetic heritage (except for cancer treatment of gonads), or creation of human embryos solely for research/stem cell procurement.
Compliance with EU policy interests and priorities (e.g., environment, social, security, industrial policy) is mandatory.

Data Protection & Privacy

The collection, use, and processing of personal data related to the application and subsequent grant management must comply with Regulation 2018/1725.

Ethical Standards & Requirements

An ethics self-assessment must be completed as part of the application.
Projects with identified ethics issues will undergo an ethics review and may be subject to specific ethics requirements and deliverables in the grant agreement.

Security Requirements

Projects involving classified and/or sensitive information will undergo a security appraisal and may be subject to specific security rules, including a Security Section annexed to the grant agreement.
Information classified as TRES SECRET UE/EU TOP SECRET (or equivalent) cannot be funded.
Handling classified information (CONFIDENTIEL UE/EU CONFIDENTIAL or above) typically requires a Facility Security Clearance (FSC) for premises and Personnel Security Clearance (PSC) for individuals.
Subcontracting tasks involving EU classified information requires prior written approval from the European Commission.
Beneficiaries must ensure that their projects are not affected by national/third-country security requirements that could impede implementation or grant award.

Intellectual Property Policies

Provisions concerning Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), background, results, access rights, and rights of use are defined in the grant agreement.
In cases of public emergency, beneficiaries may be required to grant non-exclusive licenses to their results for a limited period, under fair and reasonable conditions, to legal entities needing them to address the emergency.
The granting authority retains the right to object to transfers of ownership or exclusive licensing of results for up to four years after the action ends.

Open Science & Dissemination

Beneficiaries must provide access (digital or physical) to data or other results necessary to validate scientific publications, safeguarding legitimate interests.
In a public emergency, beneficiaries may be required to immediately deposit research output in a repository and provide open access (CC BY license, CC 0, or equivalent), or grant non-exclusive licenses under fair/reasonable conditions if open access impacts legitimate interests.
Beneficiaries must inform the granting authority if project results could contribute to European or international standards (up to four years after the action).
Standard obligations for communication, dissemination, open science practices, and visibility apply.

Gender Equality

Beneficiaries must take measures to promote equal opportunities and, where applicable, align with their gender equality plan, aiming for gender balance at all personnel levels.
Public bodies, research organizations, and higher education establishments (from Member States and Associated Countries) must have a Gender Equality Plan (GEP) to be eligible for funding.

Risk Management

Project risk assessment is a key component of the evaluation process, particularly concerning the quality and efficiency of implementation.

Partnership Specifics

A written consortium agreement is required for all multi-beneficiary grants to govern cooperation and potential redistribution of EU funding.
Associated partners do not receive EU funding and do not sign the grant agreement.
Subcontracting should constitute a limited part of the project and must be performed by third parties, not beneficiaries or affiliated entities.

Grant Details