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Grant Analysis

Purpose & Target

• Primary objective: Support the development and industrial uptake of Innovative Advanced Materials (IAMs) for monitoring, smart maintenance, and repair strategies in the construction sector. • Target recipients: Research organizations, universities, and industrial partners forming consortia. • SECTOR-SPECIFIC: Construction sector. • Geographic scope: EU Member States and Associated Countries. • Key filtering criteria: Focus on advanced materials, construction application, product monitoring, smart maintenance, repair strategies, and Research and Innovation Actions (RIA) framework. • Grant frequency: Part of the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2025, indicating a structured, recurring program context.

Financial Structure

• Funding type: Lump sum contribution. • Total budget for this topic: EUR 30,000,000. • Number of grants expected: 5. • Minimum grant amount per project: EUR 6,000,000. • Maximum grant amount per project: EUR 6,000,000. • Currency: EUR. • Eligible costs: Defined broadly to cover personnel, subcontracting, purchase costs (travel, equipment, goods, services), and other specified cost categories (e.g., financial support to third parties, internally invoiced goods/services, transnational/virtual access to research infrastructure). • Ineligible costs: Must exclude costs ineligible under standard Horizon Europe rules. • Indirect costs: Calculated by applying a flat rate of 25% to direct cost categories that qualify. • Co-financing: Required; the total estimated costs of the action must be greater than the estimated Union contribution. • Payment mechanism: Lump sum contributions are paid per work package upon proper implementation and fulfillment of specified conditions. Payments do not depend on actual costs incurred. • Financial guarantees: Pre-financing follows standard Horizon Europe rules; 5-8% of the total lump sum is retained as a contribution to the Mutual Insurance Mechanism. • Reporting: Beneficiaries have no obligation to document costs incurred; financial checks are minimized, focusing instead on technical implementation and achievement of work package conditions.

Eligibility Requirements

Organizational Type and Structure

Eligible entities: Legal entities, including research organizations, universities, and industrial partners.
Consortium requirement: Yes, applications must be submitted by consortia.
JRC participation: The Joint Research Centre (JRC) may participate as a consortium member.

Geographic Requirements

Eligible countries: As described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes (typically EU Member States and Associated Countries).
Non-EU/non-Associated countries: May be eligible if specific provisions are made.
Exclusion: Legal entities established in China are not eligible to participate in Innovation Actions (IA) in any capacity (Note: This grant is a Research and Innovation Action (RIA), but this general restriction applies within the broader program).

Financial and Operational Capacity

Financial and operational capacity: Must meet criteria as described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes.

Specific Requirements

Blind evaluation: For the first-stage proposal, applicants must not disclose organization names, acronyms, logos, or names of personnel in the abstract and Part B of their application.

Application Process

Submission Process

Application model: Two-stage submission process.
Submission platform: Electronic Submission Service accessed via the Funding & Tenders Portal.
Planned opening date: 2025-05-22.
Stage 1 deadline: 2025-09-23.
Stage 2 deadline: 2026-04-14.

Required Documentation

Application form templates: Standard application form (HE RIA IA Stage 1 BLIND) for the first stage, and Standard application form (HE RIA IA Stage 1) for the second stage.
Detailed budget table: The HE LS (Lump Sum) template must be used to propose the lump sum amount.
Business case: A comprehensive business case is required as part of the proposal.
Exploitation strategy: A credible exploitation strategy is required as part of the proposal.

Evaluation Process

Evaluation: Proposals are evaluated by external independent experts.
First stage evaluation: Utilizes a blind evaluation pilot, meaning identifying organizational or personnel information must be absent from specific parts of the proposal.

Support and Guidance

Available guidance: Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes, Horizon Europe Programme Guide, Online Manual, Funding & Tenders Portal FAQ, Research Enquiry Service, National Contact Points (NCPs), Enterprise Europe Network (EEN), IT Helpdesk, European IPR Helpdesk, and European Standards Organisations' Research Helpdesks (CEN-CENELEC and ETSI).

Post-Award Requirements

Grant agreement: The final lump sum contribution will be specified as the maximum grant amount in the grant agreement.
Monitoring: Checks, reviews, and audits will primarily focus on the technical implementation of the action and the fulfillment of conditions for releasing lump sum contributions per work package.

Evaluation Criteria

Overarching Criteria

Excellence: Quality of the proposed research and innovation activities.
Impact: Potential of the project to contribute to the expected outcomes and broader societal/economic benefits.
Quality and Efficiency of the Implementation: Soundness of the project plan, management, and resource allocation.

Specific Scoring Factors (under 'Impact')

Business case: Demonstration of enhanced market opportunities for participants and deployment in the EU in the short to medium term.
Exploitation strategy: Identification of obstacles, requirements, and necessary actions for reaching higher Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) and future full-scale deployment in the EU (for TRLs 6 and 7).
Market analysis: Description of targeted market(s), estimated market size (EU and global), and user/customer needs.
Cost-effectiveness: Demonstration that proposed solutions will match market and user needs in a cost-effective manner.
Competitive advantage: Description of expected market position and competitive advantage.

Technical/Scientific Factors (under 'Excellence' & 'Quality')

Innovation: Development of new/improved IAMs, integration of new digital tools (e.g., common data spaces, digital twins, industrial virtual worlds), and novel design/synthesis/characterization/fabrication tools.
Multidisciplinary approach: Research activities must address at least two of the following: accelerating performance evaluation, enhancing sensor capabilities, developing self-repairing/healing materials, creating AI-based models for maintenance/repair, producing/sharing knowledge on multi-scale/multi-physics phenomena, or developing IAMs for modular off-site processing/3D printing.
Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD): Integration and proof of concept of the SSbD framework during IAMs development, including assessment of safety, sustainability, and circularity across the entire innovation cycle.
Data practices: Contribution to the availability of FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) data and methods.
Standardisation: Building on existing standards or contributing to standardisation of relevant technologies (sensing, self-repairing/healing).
Interoperability: Addressing interoperability for data sharing.

Cross-Cutting Themes

Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH): Appropriate expertise in SSH, particularly regarding user acceptance of innovative construction materials for housing and strategies for maximized user experience and comfort.

Compliance & Special Requirements

Regulatory Compliance

Applicable regulations: Compliance with the EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509 and various Annexes (A, B, C, D, F, G) of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes.

Ethical and Environmental Standards

Ethical standards: Adherence to principles of research integrity.
Environmental compliance: Integration and assessment of the Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) framework throughout the innovation cycle.

Data and Technology

Data standards: Compliance with FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) data principles is expected.
Digital technologies: Proposals should leverage new digital technologies and data-driven approaches.
Interoperability: Addressing interoperability for data sharing is required.

Special Programmatic Aspects

Co-programmed Partnership: This topic implements the co-programmed European Partnership Innovative Advanced Materials for the EU (IAM4EU).
Coordination: Projects are expected to develop synergies with the IAM4EU stakeholder community and actively contribute to the partnership's objectives. Adequate resources for coordination with IAM4EU should be foreseen.
JRC collaboration: Projects could consider voluntary contributions of data, indicators, and knowledge to relevant Joint Research Centre (JRC) platforms (INCITE and EIGL).
International cooperation: Encouraged, particularly with Japan.

Unique Challenges/Considerations

Performance evaluation: Proposals need to develop strategies to accelerate the typically time-consuming performance evaluation step for new materials.
Sustainability focus: Emphasis on extending material lifetime, improving recyclability and circularity, and reducing raw material consumption in the construction sector.
User acceptance: Requirement for Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) expertise to address user acceptance of innovative construction materials, including perception analysis and optimization strategies for user experience and comfort.

Grant Details