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Grant Analysis

Purpose & Target

Core objective: Develop digital solutions, tools, and building blocks to enhance autonomy, sustainability, and efficiency for space transportation systems, particularly focusing on low to mid Technology Readiness Level (TRL) innovations.
Target recipients: Industry, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), and research institutions.
SECTOR-SPECIFIC: Space and related digital technologies.
Geographic scope: Legal entities established in EU Member States, Norway, Iceland, Canada, New Zealand, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
Key filtering criteria: Focus on space transportation systems, digital enablers, and low to mid TRL innovations. Projects must promote cooperation and utilize European technologies to strengthen competitiveness and non-dependence.
Grant frequency: Part of the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2025.

Financial Structure

Funding amounts: Per grant, minimum EUR 1,000,000, maximum EUR 3,000,000.
Total budget for this specific topic: EUR 3,000,000.
Grant type: Lump Sum contribution. This means eligible costs will take the form of a pre-agreed lump sum.
Eligible costs: Applicants propose a lump sum based on their estimated direct and indirect costs. Covered cost categories may include:
- Personnel costs (employees, direct contractors, 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, transnational/virtual access to research infrastructure, PCP/PPI procurement, Euratom Cofund staff mobility, ERC additional funding).
Ineligible costs: Costs that would be ineligible under standard Horizon Europe rules should not be included in the lump sum calculation.
Indirect costs: Calculated by applying a 25% flat rate to the direct cost categories that qualify for indirect costs under Horizon Europe rules.
Payment mechanism: Payments are made if the corresponding work packages have been properly implemented. Payments do not depend on actual costs incurred.
Pre-financing: Will follow standard Horizon Europe rules.
Mutual Insurance Mechanism: Between 5% and 8% of the total lump sum is retained as a contribution to this mechanism.
Financial reporting: Beneficiaries have no obligation to report actual costs incurred. Focus is on technical implementation and work package fulfilment.
Co-financing: The total estimated costs of the action must be greater than the estimated Union contributions.
Revenue: Any revenue generated by the action will be included as part of the estimated budget and taken into account when calculating the maximum grant amount.

Eligibility Requirements

Organizational Type and Status

Eligible organizations: Legal entities including industry, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), and research institutions.
Specific legal entities: Must be established in one of the eligible countries.
Exclusions: Entities directly or indirectly controlled by a non-eligible country or entity are ineligible, unless they can provide guarantees, positively assessed by their eligible country of establishment, that their participation will not negatively impact the Union's strategic assets, interests, autonomy, or security.

Geographic Location

Countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom.

Technical and Project Requirements

Project focus: Maturation of eco-design software tools for in-orbit reconfigurability and disruptive/game-changing digitalization technologies related to space transportation.
Technology Readiness Level (TRL): Focus on low to mid TRL building blocks.
Synergy: Projects should explore synergies and be complementary to existing H2020 and Horizon Europe funded projects, national activities, and European Space Agency (ESA) activities.
European non-dependence: Must make use of existing European technologies and/or building blocks at component level to contribute to European non-dependence and strengthen competitiveness. This must be clearly presented in the proposal.
Satellite Data Use: If projects use satellite-based Earth observation, positioning, navigation, or related timing data/services, beneficiaries must use Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS. Other data/services may be used additionally.

Compliance and Capacity

Financial and operational capacity: Must meet criteria described in Annex C of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes.
Exclusion criteria: Must not fall under exclusion criteria described in Annex C of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes.

Application Process

Application forms: The standard application form for Research and Innovation Actions (HE RIA, IA) is available in the Submission System.
Submission format: Proposals must be submitted through the Electronic Submission Service.
Pre-application requirements: A compulsory questionnaire regarding the declaration of ownership and control must be completed by all project participants. The coordinator is responsible for assembling all declarations into a single file and uploading it to the portal submission system.
Supporting materials: Applicants can find guidance through the Lump Sum Model Grant Agreement (MGA), Detailed budget table (HE LS), guidance on lump sums, and draft guidance for participation in restricted calls.

Timeline and Deadlines

Planned opening date: 2025-05-22.
Submission deadline: 2025-09-25 00:00:00+0000.
The submission session for this topic is now available.
Evaluation and grant agreement timeline: An indicative timeline for these processes is described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes.

Support and Guidance

Various resources are available to assist applicants, including the Online Manual, Horizon Europe Programme Guide, Funding & Tenders Portal FAQ, Research Enquiry Service, National Contact Points (NCPs), Enterprise Europe Network (EEN), IT Helpdesk, European IPR Helpdesk, CEN-CENELEC and ETSI Research Helpdesks, and the European Charter for Researchers and Code of Conduct for their recruitment.
A Partner Search facility is available to help find partner organizations for proposals.

Evaluation Criteria

General Award Criteria

Award criteria, scoring, and thresholds are described in Annex D of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes.
Proposals are evaluated by external independent experts based on three main aspects: Excellence, Expected Impact, and Quality and Efficiency of the Implementation.

Financial Evaluation

Experts with financial expertise will check the budget estimate on the basis of relevant benchmarks (e.g., market prices, statistical data, historical data).
Assessment includes whether proposed resources and the distribution of lump sum shares enable the achievement of proposed activities and expected outputs.
Verification that proposals include a declaration by beneficiaries stating they have used their own accounting practices for budget preparation.

Project Quality and Innovation

Focus on maturation of low to mid Technology Readiness Level (TRL) building blocks for key technologies.
Proposals are expected to promote cooperation between different actors (industry, SMEs, and research institutions).
Assessment of the potential to quickly turn technological innovation into commercial use in space.
Projects should clearly demonstrate how they build on existing European technologies and/or building blocks to foster European non-dependence and competitiveness.
Proposed activities must be complementary to existing H2020 and Horizon Europe funded projects, national activities, and those funded by the European Space Agency (ESA).

Impact Expectations

Expected outcomes include: improved space transportation systems and launcher sustainability, reduced costs and operational constraints, enhanced system monitoring and autonomy.
Contribution to technology developments for New Space Transportation Solutions, including software and digital tools.
Development of models for mission, system design, and optimization, able to integrate life cycle analysis, engineering, and environmental models.
Overall contribution to developing and deploying global space-based services, applications, and data, and fostering the EU's space sector competitiveness.

Cross-Cutting Themes

Gender Dimension: The integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content should be addressed only if relevant to the objectives of the research effort.

Compliance & Special Requirements

Regulatory Compliance

Admissibility conditions, eligible countries, financial and operational capacity, exclusion criteria, evaluation procedures, and the legal and financial setup of grants are governed by the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes (Annex A, B, C, D, F, G).
Compliance with key EU regulations including Regulation (EU) 2021/695 (Horizon Europe), Council Regulation (Euratom) 2021/765, and Financial Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 2018/1046 is required.

Strategic Autonomy and Security

Participation is restricted to legal entities from specified eligible countries (EU Member States, Norway, Iceland, Canada, New Zealand, Switzerland, United Kingdom) to safeguard the Union’s strategic assets, interests, autonomy, or security.
Entities from eligible countries that are directly or indirectly controlled by a non-eligible country or entity may be prohibited from participating unless they provide robust guarantees. These guarantees must demonstrate that their participation will not negatively impact the Union's strategic interests. This includes ensuring:
- Control over the applicant legal entity does not restrict its ability to carry out the action or deliver results.
- Access to sensitive information related to the action by non-eligible countries/entities is prevented (employees/persons involved may require national security clearance).
- Ownership of intellectual property (IP) and results arising from the action remains within the recipient, free from control/restrictions by non-eligible countries/entities, and is not exported without the approval of the eligible country of establishment.

Data and Technology Usage

Projects that use satellite-based Earth observation, positioning, navigation, or related timing data and services must make use of Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS. Other data and services may be used in addition.

Financial Compliance (Lump Sum specific)

Since eligible costs are in the form of a lump sum, financial checks, reviews, or audits will primarily focus on the technical implementation of the action and the fulfilment of conditions for releasing lump sum contributions per work package.
Compliance with other aspects of the grant agreement such as ethics, research integrity, dissemination, exploitation of results, management of intellectual property, and gender equality will also be verified.
If controls reveal that work package conditions were not met, resulting in an undue payment, the granting authority is entitled to recover the amount of the grant.

Reporting and Monitoring

Projects resulting from this topic are expected to report on results to the co-programmed European Partnership on ‘Globally Competitive Space Systems’ (GCSS) to support the monitoring of its Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

Cross-Cutting Considerations

The integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content should be addressed only if relevant in relation to the objectives of the research effort.

Grant Details