Collaboration platform for the European connected and autonomous vehicle of the future

1. GRANT PURPOSE AND TARGET

• Core Objective: To reinforce the competitiveness and innovation leadership of the European automotive sector by creating a collaboration platform. This platform will support the European Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Alliance (ECAVA) in developing digital technologies for the connected and autonomous vehicles of the future.
• Funding Organization: European Commission (Digital Europe Programme).
• Target Recipients: The grant targets legal entities, both public and private. This includes a representative set of members from the automotive and motor vehicle industry (OEMs and suppliers), industry associations, collaborative partnerships (like ECLIPSE SDV, AUTOSAR, COVESA), and organizations with specific expertise in areas like testing and simulation.
• Sector Focus: SECTOR-SPECIFIC, with a clear focus on the automotive industry and its digital transformation, including artificial intelligence, software, and autonomous driving technologies.
• Geographic Scope: Applicants must be established in EU Member States, EEA countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway), or Switzerland. All project activities and any subcontracted work must also be performed within these eligible countries.
• Key Filtering Criteria:
  • Project Scale: The indicative project budget is EUR 3,500,000 with a project duration of 36 months.
  • Project Focus: The project must focus on creating a coordination and collaboration platform, not on individual product development. It aims to support technologies moving towards integration into series production.
  • Consortium: A consortium is mandatory, requiring a minimum of 3 independent organizations from 3 different eligible countries.

4. FINANCIAL STRUCTURE

• Funding Range: The expected project budget is EUR 3,500,000. While proposals requesting different amounts are not precluded, this is the indicative amount per project. Minimum and maximum amounts are not strictly defined.

• Co-financing:
  The grant reimburses 50% of the total eligible costs. Applicants must co-finance the remaining 50% from other sources.

• Eligible Costs: Costs must be actually incurred during the project, necessary for its implementation, and recorded in the beneficiary's accounts. Eligible cost categories include:

  • Personnel costs: Costs for staff employed and assigned to the action.
  • Subcontracting costs: Must be justified, awarded based on best value for money, and performed in eligible countries.
  • Purchase costs: Travel and subsistence, other goods/services, and equipment costs. For this topic, only depreciation costs for equipment are eligible.
  • Indirect costs: A flat rate of 7% of the total eligible direct costs is applied to cover overheads. Direct costs for subcontracting are excluded from the base for this calculation in some programmes, but the Digital MGA does not specify this exclusion for the 7% rate.

• Ineligible Costs: In addition to standard ineligible costs (e.g., debt charges, interest owed, provisions for losses, currency exchange losses), this grant explicitly does not allow financial support to third parties.

• Payment & Reporting:

  • Prefinancing: A pre-financing payment is typically made after the grant agreement is signed (indicatively 80% of the maximum grant amount).
  • Interim & Final Payments: Payments are made based on accepted periodic reports. The final grant amount is calculated at the project's end.
  • Certificate on Financial Statements (CFS): An audit certificate is required at the end of the project for any beneficiary requesting a total EU contribution of EUR 325,000 or more.

2. ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

• Formal Criteria:

  • Consortium Composition: Proposals must be submitted by a consortium of at least 3 independent legal entities from at least 3 different eligible countries. Affiliated entities do not count towards this minimum.
  • Eligible Countries: Applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must be legal entities established in an EU Member State, an EEA country (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway), or Switzerland.

• Organizational Status:

  • Applicants must be legal entities (e.g., companies, research organizations, public bodies, associations). This includes a wide range of organizations from large OEMs to SMEs, industry associations, and research/technology organizations.
  • Public bodies are eligible.
  • Ownership Control: Entities must not be directly or indirectly controlled by entities from non-eligible countries. An exception can be made if a guarantee is provided and approved by the granting authority. All participants, including associated partners and subcontractors, must submit an ownership control declaration.

• Technical Expertise:

  • Applicants must demonstrate the necessary know-how, qualifications, and resources to implement the project. This is assessed under the 'Implementation' award criterion.
  • Capacity will be evaluated based on the profiles of the staff, the description of consortium participants, and a list of key previous projects from the last 4 years.
  • Expertise is required in automotive digital transformation, software-defined vehicles (SDV), AI, autonomous driving, and coordinating large-scale industrial collaborations.

• Exclusion Criteria:

  • High-Risk Suppliers: Entities assessed as high-risk suppliers of mobile network communication equipment (and any entities they own or control) are explicitly not eligible to participate in any capacity.
  • Financial Support to Third Parties: This activity is not allowed under this grant.
  • Applicants subject to an EU exclusion decision are barred from participation.

5. APPLICATION PRACTICAL INFORMATION

• Deadlines:

  • Call Opening: 4 November 2025
  • Submission Deadline: 3 March 2026, 17:00:00 CET (Brussels time)
  • Evaluation Period: March - April 2026
  • Results Notification: June 2026
  • Grant Agreement Signature: September 2026

• Required Documents:

  • Application Form Part A: Administrative information filled in online.
  • Application Form Part B: Technical description of the project (PDF format, 70-page limit).
  • Annexes to Part B:
    • A list of key previous projects from the last 4 years.
    • Ownership control declarations for all participants, including beneficiaries, affiliated entities, associated partners, and any subcontractors.

• Application Process:

  • Submission is entirely electronic via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal.
  • The process is a single-stage submission, followed by a one-step evaluation.

• Support: The grant provides direct financial support covering 50% of eligible project costs. The project itself is designed to create a support structure for the European automotive ecosystem, including a collaboration platform, strategic roadmap, and coordination of joint developments.

• Post-Award Obligations:

  • Project Duration: The expected project duration is 36 months.
  • Reporting: Continuous reporting on deliverables and milestones, supplemented by periodic reports for payments.
  • IPR: Beneficiaries must adhere to specific IPR obligations, including exploitation of results within eligible countries and limitations on transfers/licensing.
  • Communication: A communication and dissemination plan is required. All outputs must acknowledge EU funding with the EU emblem and a specific funding statement and disclaimer.
  • Record-keeping: All records and supporting documents must be kept for 5 years after the final payment.

3. EVALUATION CRITERIA

Proposals are evaluated against three main criteria, with a minimum pass score of 3 out of 5 for each, and an overall pass score of 10 out of 15.

• Scoring Factors:

  • Relevance: 5 points (minimum pass score: 3)
  • Implementation: 5 points (minimum pass score: 3)
  • Impact: 5 points (minimum pass score: 3)
  • Overall Threshold: 10 points

• Innovation & Impact (Criterion 3: Impact):

  • Achieving Outcomes: The extent to which the project will achieve the expected outcomes, such as creating a strategic roadmap, defining architectures, nurturing an ecosystem, and establishing a sustainable governance structure.
  • Dissemination & Competitiveness: The quality of plans to disseminate and communicate project results, and the extent to which the project strengthens European competitiveness and benefits society.
  • Environmental Contribution: How the project addresses environmental sustainability and contributes to the European Green Deal goals.

• Project Quality (Criterion 2: Implementation):

  • Maturity & Soundness: The readiness of the project to start and the soundness of the implementation plan, including the work package structure, quality assurance, monitoring, and risk management.
  • Efficiency: The cost-effectiveness of the project and the quality of the financial management arrangements.
  • Consortium Capacity: The capability of the consortium as a whole to carry out the proposed work, based on the participants' expertise, complementarity, management structures, and decision-making mechanisms.

• Strategic Fit (Criterion 1: Relevance):

  • Alignment: How well the project aligns with the objectives and activities of the call, including supporting the European Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Alliance (ECAVA).
  • Policy Contribution: The project's contribution to long-term EU policies and strategies in the automotive sector.
  • Supply Chain Reinforcement: The extent to which the project will reinforce and secure the digital technology supply chain in the EU.

6. COMPLIANCE AND SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

• Regulatory Compliance:

  • Ethics: Proposals must adhere to the highest ethical standards and will undergo an ethics review.
  • Data Protection: All activities must comply with the GDPR (Regulation 2016/679).

• IP Policy:

  • Ownership: Beneficiaries own the results they generate.
  • Exploitation: Beneficiaries have an obligation for first exploitation of results within the eligible countries.
  • Transfers & Licensing: There are limitations on the transfer of ownership and the granting of licenses for project results.
  • EU Rights: The EU retains a royalty-free, non-exclusive, irrevocable, worldwide license to use the results for communication and policy purposes.

• Unique Aspects:

  • Security Restrictions: The topic is subject to security restrictions under Article 12(6) of the Digital Europe Regulation. Projects involving EU classified information will undergo a security scrutiny process.
  • Ownership Control: A mandatory check is performed to ensure participants are not controlled from outside the eligible countries. Ownership control declarations are required from all entities involved, including subcontractors.
  • Geographic Restrictions: All project activities and any subcontracted work must be physically carried out in the eligible countries (EU Member States, EEA, Switzerland).
  • Consortium Agreement: Beneficiaries must have a signed consortium agreement in place to govern their internal arrangements.

• Industry-Specific Rules:

  • The project is expected to coordinate and align with existing industry initiatives and standardization bodies such as AUTOSAR, COVESA, Eclipse SDV, and others. It should also contribute to relevant standardization activities at an international level.