Grants8 logo Grants8
Login Create account

Grant Details

Grant Analysis

Purpose & Target

The core objective of this grant is to develop an open-access information tool for the standardisation landscape. This tool will help all research and innovation (R&I) actors identify existing standards, integrate them into their projects, and avoid duplicated efforts. - Target recipient: Experts representing industry, academia, and standard development organisations (SDOs). - SECTOR-SPECIFIC: Focused on standardisation, digital technologies, and industrial innovation, with cross-cutting themes of AI and human-centric approaches. - Geographic scope: EU Member States and countries associated with Horizon Europe. - Key filtering criteria: Proposals must focus on creating a tool for standardisation landscape analysis and include collaboration between diverse stakeholders. - Grant frequency: This is part of the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2025, indicating it is a recurring program.

Financial Structure

  • Funding mechanism: The grant will take the form of a lump sum contribution, simplifying financial management by focusing on technical performance and output.
  • Budget range: The total budget for this specific topic is 1,000,000.0 EUR.
  • Minimum grant amount: 1,000,000.0 EUR per grant.
  • Maximum grant amount: 1,000,000.0 EUR per grant.
  • Currency: EUR.
  • Funding rate: The lump sum will cover 100.0% of the agreed upon estimated eligible costs for each properly implemented work package. The Horizon Europe 25% flat rate for indirect costs is included in the lump sum calculation.
  • Eligible costs for lump sum calculation: Based on estimated direct and indirect costs that would be eligible under an actual costs grant. This includes:
    • Personnel costs (employees, natural persons under direct contract, seconded persons, SME owners/natural person beneficiaries).
    • Subcontracting costs.
    • Purchase costs (travel, subsistence, equipment, other goods, works, services).
    • Other cost categories (financial support to third parties, internally invoiced goods/services, access to research infrastructure, PCP/PPI procurement, Euratom Cofund staff mobility, ERC additional funding).
  • Ineligible costs: Costs that are not eligible under standard Horizon Europe rules must be excluded from the lump sum calculation.
  • Co-financing: Applicants must demonstrate that the total estimated costs of their action are greater than the estimated Union contributions, adhering to the co-financing principle.
  • Payment schedule: Payments are made upon the proper implementation of corresponding work packages, as defined in the grant agreement. Lump sum contributions for unfulfilled work packages are not paid but can be in subsequent periods if conditions are met.
  • Financial reporting: Significantly simplified; no report of actual costs is required. Checks will focus on technical implementation and fulfillment of work package conditions.

Eligibility Requirements

Organization Type
  • Eligible organization types: Organizations representing industry, academia, and standard development organisations (SDOs).
  • This implies broad eligibility including:
    • 'UNIVERSITY'
    • 'ENTERPRISE' (e.g., companies, SMEs, startups)
    • 'OTHER' (specifically for Standard Development Organizations, research institutes, and potentially social economy actors).
Geographic Location
  • Eligible countries: As defined in Annex B of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes. This typically includes:
    • All 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'.
    • Countries associated with Horizon Europe (not explicitly listed here, but implied by Horizon Europe program rules).
Partnership/Consortium Requirements
  • The project should be carried out by experts representing different stakeholders covering industry, academia, and standard development organisations. This strongly suggests a consortium is required for the application.
Qualifications and Expertise
  • Applicants must possess expertise in standardisation and the Research & Innovation (R&I) ecosystem.
  • The team should demonstrate capacity for technical development of an information tool.
Exclusion Criteria
  • Financial and operational capacity and exclusion criteria are described in Annex C of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes. Applicants must meet these general Horizon Europe requirements to be eligible.

Application Process

Application Deadlines and Submission
  • Application deadline: 2025-09-23 00:00:00+0000.
  • Submission procedure: Single-stage submission.
  • Submission platform: Applications must be submitted via the European Commission's Funding & Tenders Portal online Submission System.
Required Documentation and Materials
  • Application form templates: The specific application form for Coordination and Support Actions (HE CSA) is available in the Submission System.
  • Part B of the Application Form: Must adhere to specified page limits and layout.
  • Detailed budget table: A specific template for Horizon Europe Lump Sum (HE LS) must be used to propose the detailed estimated budget per work package and per beneficiary.
Evaluation and Grant Agreement Timeline
  • Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement is described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes (not explicitly provided in this document).
Support and Guidance
  • A wide range of support is available, including:
    • Online Manual: Comprehensive guide on submission and grant management.
    • Horizon Europe Programme Guide: Detailed guidance on structure, budget, and political priorities.
    • Funding & Tenders Portal FAQ: Answers to common questions.
    • Research Enquiry Service: For general questions about European research.
    • National Contact Points (NCPs): Guidance and assistance in EU and non-EU countries.
    • Enterprise Europe Network (EEN): Advice for businesses, especially SMEs, on EU research funding.
    • IT Helpdesk: For technical issues with the Portal.
    • European IPR Helpdesk: Assistance on intellectual property issues.
    • CEN-CENELEC Research Helpdesk and ETSI Research Helpdesk: Advice on standardisation in project proposals.
    • European Charter for Researchers and Code of Conduct: Principles for researchers, employers, and funders.
    • Partner Search: Tools to help find partner organisations for proposals.
Implementation and Reporting Obligations
  • Project implementation: Based on clear work packages with defined activities and expected outputs.
  • Reporting: Primarily focused on the technical implementation of work packages. Payments are tied to the successful completion of these work packages.
  • Post-award requirements: Compliance checks will verify the fulfillment of work package conditions, ethical aspects, research integrity, dissemination, exploitation of results, and intellectual property management.

Evaluation Criteria

Evaluation of proposals will follow the standard Horizon Europe procedures, assessed by external independent experts. The scoring factors will cover three main criteria: Excellence
  • Clarity and pertinence of the project's objectives.
  • Soundness of the proposed methodology, including the approach to developing the standardisation tool and keeping it up-to-date.
  • Novelty and innovation of the approach to standardisation landscape analysis.
  • Consideration of interdisciplinary aspects and the integration of diverse perspectives (technical, social, economic).
Impact
  • Credibility of the pathways to achieve significant scientific, societal, and economic impacts.
  • Contribution to improving valorisation mechanisms for R&I results and ensuring market relevance.
  • Expected positive effects on the efficiency, safety, and quality of work, potentially increasing productivity and addressing skill gaps.
  • Contribution to open strategic autonomy in digital and industrial technologies.
  • Effectiveness of proposed dissemination, exploitation, and communication activities for the tool.
  • Alignment with key EU policies and initiatives such as the European Green Deal, Digital Decade, New Industrial Strategy for Europe, and the EU standardisation strategy.
Quality and Efficiency of the Implementation
  • Coherence and effectiveness of the overall work plan, including the breakdown into work packages and activities.
  • Appropriateness of the resources (personnel, equipment, budget) allocated to the activities.
  • Competence and complementarity of the consortium members, ensuring representation from industry, academia, and standard development organisations.
  • Adequacy of management structures and procedures to ensure successful project execution.
  • Quality of the risk management strategy for project implementation.

Compliance & Special Requirements

Regulatory Compliance
  • Projects must adhere to general Horizon Europe regulatory compliance requirements, including those for eligible countries (Annex B), financial and operational capacity (Annex C), and legal/financial setup of grants (Annex G).
  • Alignment with specific EU legal frameworks and strategies is crucial, such as the AI Act and Data Act, EU Standardisation Strategy, European Green Deal, and Digital Decade.
Data Protection and Ethical Standards
  • Strong emphasis on trustworthy, safe, reliable, human-centric, and free from gender, racial, and other social biases by design in technology development, particularly AI.
  • Projects must ensure privacy, ethics, and inclusiveness in the development of virtual worlds and digital environments.
  • AI systems must be 'compliant by design' with the AI Act, addressing challenges such as accuracy, robustness, transparency, efficiency, and eliminating biases.
Intellectual Property Policies
  • Management of intellectual property (IP) is a key aspect of post-award compliance checks.
Risk Management and Security
  • While not explicitly detailed, implicit in the 'Quality and Efficiency of the Implementation' evaluation criterion, projects are expected to have sound risk management practices.
  • Technical solutions should foster trust and security, e.g., using blockchain for identity/transaction tracking and AI to counter biases.
Unique Aspects and Strategic Opportunities
  • Lump sum funding model: This grant uses a lump sum approach, which simplifies financial reporting and emphasizes the scientific and technical performance of the project over detailed cost tracking.
  • Strategic role of standardisation: The grant highlights the pivotal role of standards for the Single Market, safety, functionality, interoperability, and global market access.
  • Open-access tool: The objective is to develop a comprehensive open-access information tool, contributing to broader knowledge valorisation.
Cross-Cutting Considerations
  • Human-centric innovation: Focus on digital and industrial technologies that drive human-centric approaches.
  • Inclusivity and diversity: Projects should aim for inclusive, gender-equal, trustworthy AI and digital environments, addressing biases and respecting individual differences.
  • European values: Solutions should align with European values, promoting an ethical approach to technology development.
  • Social economy actors and local grassroots initiatives: Participation from these entities is encouraged in co-creating new forms of working and collaboration.
  • Knowledge valorisation: A key objective is to improve mechanisms for ensuring market relevance and scalability of research and innovation results through standardisation.

Grant Details

standardisation standardization tool development landscape analysis research and innovation r&i industry digital technologies human-centric innovation artificial intelligence ai data act trustworthy ai ethical ai sustainability circular economy green deal digital decade industrial strategy economic security eu values collaboration academia universities sdo standard development organizations interoperability knowledge valorisation open access lump sum funding consortium europe innovation ecosystem
Standardisation landscape analyses tool (CSA)
HORIZON-CL4-INDUSTRY-2025-01-HUMAN-61
Horizon Europe
UNIVERSITY ENTERPRISE OTHER
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
TECHNOLOGY OTHER
DEVELOPMENT
OTHER
SDG5 SDG8 SDG9 SDG10 SDG11 SDG12 SDG13 SDG16
CAPACITY_BUILDING RESEARCH_DEVELOPMENT NETWORKING RESOURCES
1000000.00
1000000.00
1000000.00
EUR
100.00
Sept. 23, 2025, midnight
None