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Grant Analysis

Purpose & Target

Core objective: Develop and demonstrate digital solutions for autonomy in space transportation systems, including design and simulation tools, to enhance European competitiveness and reduce strategic dependencies.
Target recipients: Legal entities including companies (start-ups, SMEs, mid-caps, larger companies), universities, research and technology organizations, non-profit organizations, and public entities.
SECTOR-SPECIFIC: Space, Digital, Deep Tech innovation, Transportation.
Geographic scope: EU Member States, Norway, Iceland, Canada, New Zealand, Switzerland, United Kingdom.
Key filtering criteria: Focus on Mid to High Technology Readiness Level (TRL) developments, digital and autonomy solutions for space transportation, and demonstration (on-ground or in-orbit). Eligibility is restricted to entities established in specific countries, with additional scrutiny for those controlled by non-eligible entities.
Grant frequency: This is part of the Horizon Europe 2025 Work Programme, suggesting potential annual calls but not explicitly recurring for this exact topic.

Financial Structure

Funding type: Lump sum contribution.
Budget range per grant: Minimum of €4,000,000 and maximum of €7,000,000.
Total budget for this topic: €7,000,000 (for 2 expected grants).
Currency: EUR.
Eligible costs: The lump sum is an approximation of underlying actual costs and covers categories that would be eligible for a standard actual costs grant. These include:
- Personnel costs (employees, direct contractors, seconded persons, SME owners, natural person beneficiaries).
- Subcontracting costs.
- Purchase costs (e.g., travel, subsistence, equipment, other goods, works, and services).
- Other cost categories (e.g., 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 are generally ineligible under Horizon Europe rules.
Indirect cost policy: A flat rate of 25% for indirect costs is applied to qualifying direct cost categories and is included in the calculation of the lump sum contribution.
Payment schedule: Lump sum contributions are paid per work package upon proper implementation of the work package's conditions as specified in the grant agreement. Pre-financing follows standard Horizon Europe rules.
Financial reporting: Beneficiaries are generally not required to report actual costs incurred. Focus is on technical implementation and fulfillment of work package conditions.
Audit requirements: Financial ex-post audits are not typically conducted. Checks, reviews, and audits primarily focus on the technical implementation, fulfillment of work package conditions, ethics, and intellectual property management.
Financial guarantees: Between 5% and 8% of the total lump sum is retained as a contribution to the Mutual Insurance Mechanism.

Eligibility Requirements

Organizational Type and Legal Status

Eligible legal entities must be established in one of the following countries:
- EU Member States (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden)
- Norway
- Iceland
- Canada
- New Zealand
- Switzerland
- United Kingdom
Eligible organization types include: 'Companies' (encompassing start-ups, SMEs, mid-caps, and larger companies), 'Universities', 'Research and Technology Organizations', 'Non-profit organizations', and 'Public entities'.
Legal entities established in an eligible country but directly or indirectly controlled by a non-eligible country or entity may not participate, unless they provide guarantees positively assessed by their eligible country of establishment. These guarantees must demonstrate that their participation will not negatively impact the Union's strategic assets, interests, autonomy, or security.
Such guarantees must specifically confirm that:
- Control over the applicant entity does not restrict its ability to carry out the action or deliver results.
- No restrictions are imposed concerning its infrastructure, facilities, assets, resources, intellectual property, or know-how needed for the action.
- Its capabilities and standards necessary for the action are not undermined.
- Access by a non-eligible country or entity to sensitive information related to the action is prevented.
- Employees or other persons involved in the action have a national security clearance issued by an eligible country, where appropriate.
- Ownership of intellectual property (IP) and results from the action remain within the recipient, are not subject to control or restrictions by non-eligible countries/entities, and are not exported outside eligible countries or accessed from outside without approval.

Project Specific Requirements

Proposals are expected to promote cooperation between different actors (industry, SMEs, and research institutions), indicating a consortium or collaborative approach is highly preferred.
If projects utilize satellite-based earth observation, positioning, navigation, and/or related timing data and services, beneficiaries must make use of Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS (other data and services may be used additionally).
Projects should explore synergies and be complementary to existing funded actions (H2020, Horizon Europe, national activities, European Space Agency (ESA) activities).
Projects are expected to make use of existing European technologies and/or building blocks at the component level to contribute to European non-dependence and strengthen competitiveness.

Application Process

Application Timeline and Deadlines

Planned Opening Date for submission: 2025-05-22.
Application Deadline: 2025-09-25 00:00:00+0000.
Submission Procedure: Single-stage.
The indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement is detailed in Annex F of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes.

Required Documentation and Materials

Application form template: The specific application form for this call is available in the Submission System (Standard application form for HE Innovation Actions).
Declaration of ownership and control questionnaire: This is a compulsory questionnaire that must be filled out by all project participants. The coordinator is responsible for assembling all declarations and uploading them as a single file into the portal submission system.
Detailed budget table: Applicants must prepare their estimated budget using the relevant 'Detailed budget table (HE LS)' template, providing a breakdown of direct and indirect costs per work package and beneficiary.

Submission Format and Platform

Applications must be submitted electronically via the European Commission's 'Funding & Tenders Portal'.
Access to the submission service requires authentication (e.g., EU Login account).
Draft proposals can be accessed and managed via the 'My Proposals' page in the 'My Area' section of the portal.

Evaluation and Award Process

Proposals are evaluated by external independent experts according to standard Horizon Europe procedures.
Evaluation criteria include 'Excellence', 'Impact', and 'Quality and Efficiency of the Implementation'.
The award criteria, scoring, and thresholds are detailed in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes.
Eligible proposals that exceed all evaluation thresholds will be awarded a STEP Seal.

Project Implementation and Reporting

Grant funding is provided in the form of lump sum contributions, managed according to a specific decision authorizing their use under Horizon Europe.
Projects are expected to report on results to the 'European Partnership on Globally Competitive Space Systems' (GCSS) to support the monitoring of its Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Monitoring and checks during implementation will focus on the technical progress, fulfillment of work package conditions, ethical compliance, research integrity, dissemination, exploitation of results, management of intellectual property, and gender equality.

Evaluation Criteria

General Award Criteria

Proposals are evaluated based on 'Excellence', 'Impact', and 'Quality and Efficiency of the Implementation'.
Only proposals that exceed all evaluation thresholds will be awarded a Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP) Seal.

Excellence

Clarity and relevance of the proposed digital solutions for autonomy in space transportation systems, including design and simulation tools.
Focus on 'Mid to High TRL' (Technology Readiness Level) developments.
Soundness of the research and innovation methodology, including the approach to advanced technologies and digital sensors (e.g., smart avionics, health monitoring systems, smart sensors, structural health monitoring).
Adequacy of the proposed on-ground or in-orbit demonstration focusing on software and digital tools.
Scientific and technological quality of any proposed AI-algorithms for data management.

Impact

Potential contribution to identifying and locating structural damage remotely within space transportation systems.
Potential contribution to autonomous thermo-mechanical monitoring to predict and prevent failures.
Contribution to the development and deployment of global space-based services, applications, and data.
Expected fostering of the EU's space sector competitiveness.
Reduction of strategic dependencies from outside the EU for components and equipment for the EU Space Programme and other European space applications.
Capacity to quickly turn technological innovation into commercial use in space.
Alignment with the expected impacts of the 'Open strategic autonomy in developing, deploying and using global space-based infrastructures, services, applications and data' destination and the 'Globally Competitive Space Systems' (GCSS) Partnership.

Quality and Efficiency of the Implementation

Appropriateness of the proposed cooperation structure among different actors (industry, SMEs, research institutions).
Clarity and completeness of the proposal's presentation regarding the use of existing European technologies and/or building blocks to strengthen competitiveness and non-dependence.
Quality of the detailed budget estimate for the lump sum contribution, including breakdown per work package and per beneficiary, ensuring it reflects actual estimated eligible costs.
Feasibility of the proposed activities and their correlation with the allocated resources.
Soundness of the 'Declaration of ownership and control' questionnaire, particularly concerning entities with potential non-eligible country influence.

Cross-cutting Themes

Consideration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in the research and innovation content, only if relevant to the objectives of the research effort.

Compliance & Special Requirements

Regulatory Compliance

Projects must comply with the general conditions, admissibility rules, eligible country requirements, financial and operational capacity standards, and exclusion criteria outlined in the relevant Annexes of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes.
Adherence to the EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509 is mandatory.
Any project utilizing satellite-based earth observation, positioning, navigation, and/or related timing data and services must make use of Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS.

Ethical Standards

Compliance with ethical standards and research integrity will be part of the checks conducted during the project's implementation.

Intellectual Property (IP) Policies

Ownership of IP generated from the project must remain with the recipient throughout and after the project's completion.
This IP must not be subject to control or restrictions by non-eligible countries or entities.
Access to the IP from outside eligible countries is prohibited without prior approval from the eligible country where the legal entity is established.

Risk Management and Security

For entities established in eligible countries but controlled by non-eligible countries/entities, stringent guarantees are required to ensure their participation does not compromise the Union's strategic interests or security. This includes preventing access to sensitive information by non-eligible entities and, where appropriate, ensuring national security clearance for personnel involved.

Unique Aspects and Strategic Opportunities

This grant topic is aligned with the 'Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform' (STEP) and specifically targets Space technologies under the 'digital technologies' and 'deep tech innovation' sectors.
A core objective is to reduce strategic dependencies on non-EU sources for critical components and equipment vital for the EU Space Programme and other European space applications.
Successful proposals that meet all evaluation thresholds will be awarded a 'STEP Seal'. This seal simplifies access to other EU funding (e.g., Cohesion policy funds without additional selection procedures) and enhances project visibility on the STEP Portal and InvestEU Portal, potentially attracting further public and private funding.
The project is expected to contribute to the co-programmed 'European Partnership on Globally Competitive Space Systems' (GCSS), emphasizing collaborative efforts within the European space sector.

Cross-cutting Considerations

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

Grant Details