| Topic | HORIZON-CID-2027-01-01 |
|---|---|
| Status | Forthcoming |
| Call | HORIZON-CID-2027-01 — R&I in Support of the Clean Industrial Deal |
| Type of action | Innovation Actions |
| Opening | 12 January 2027 |
| Deadline | 15 September 2027 |
| Budget | EUR 15 million to EUR 25 million per project · 8 projects expected · EUR 125 million in total |
| TRL at the end | TRL 7–8 |
| Part B page limit | 40 pages (standard application form; check your call) |
| Template | Work Programme 2026–2027 application form |
Expected outcomes
Projects should contribute to all of the expected outcomes. The topic says: “Proposals are expected to contribute to all the following expected outcomes:”
- EO1 Accelerate the use of innovative technologies to decarbonise industrial processes and bring to the market more cost-effective clean products to strengthen the competitiveness, sustainability (including biodiversity), and resilience of EU industries.
- EO2 Create new innovative first-of-a-kind operational demonstrators and/or optimise newly installed industrial decarbonisation solutions in Europe.
- EO3 Demonstrate the market readiness of the envisaged future clean products and their innovative processes via a credible business plan and an exploitation strategy for industrialisation, including market-tested use cases.
What evaluators will look for in this topic
Expected outcomes
- Projects should contribute to all of the expected outcomes.
- For each outcome (EO1 to EO3), name who will use or adopt your results (a specific group, not “industry” or “society”), how they get them, and the indicator that shows the change, with baseline, target and date.
- Use the topic's own words for each outcome, so the evaluator can tick it off.
What the scope asks for
Evaluators check the proposal against these sentences of the scope. Answer each one visibly, in the call's own words.
- “Solutions must have an overall positive LCA and remain commercially viable under the expected regulatory and framework conditions at the end of the project.”
- “Proposals should explicitly select one main area but can also address in an integrated way a combination of these three areas within an industrial sector, provided that it is innovative and can lead to low carbon solutions, including for example bio-based solutions as a decarbonisation lever for hard-to-abate sectors.”
- “The choice of the specific technologies addressed in the proposal is left to the project applicants who should include a thorough justification of the choices both in technological and business terms.”
- “Proposals are expected to:. demonstrate an adequate integration of relevant technologies in support of the Clean Industrial Deal.”
- “The use of relevant results of R&I projects previously or ongoing funded at EU, national or regional level is encouraged. show industrial leadership in the deployment after the project.”
- “To ensure market readiness and effective collaboration amongst relevant stakeholders, the consortium should be industry driven and composed of a preferably small and manageable number of participants, and its size should be justified.”
- “The participation of SMEs is encouraged.”
- “The draft dissemination, exploitation and communication plan is expected to include a sound and convincing business plan and market-readiness strategy (cf. intro).”
- “These should address how to prepare and support the deployment of the proposed tech solution across relevant EU industrial sectors, and/or how to ensure a high potential for market uptake through further private/public investment (including relevant EU deployment programmes, such as the Innovation Fund).”
- “They should include a comprehensive analysis of the critical barriers (technological and non-technological) for the successful market deployment and the corresponding plan to tackle them before 2030.”
- “Proposals are expected to include a clear go/no go moment ahead of the contracting and demonstration phase.”
- “Before this go/no-go moment, the project is expected to deliver detailed engineering plans, a techno-economic assessment, all needed permits for the demonstrator, a complete business plan and market-readiness strategy, identifying clearly the industrial partner(s) that will lead the deployment.”
Conditions that shape the proposal
- Part B, sections 1–3: 40 pages (standard application form). Text beyond the limit is not read; tables and figures count.
- TRL: the topic expects TRL 7–8 by the end of the project. State where you start and the evidence for it.
- Innovation action: evaluators expect a plausible path to commercialisation and named first users or customers.
- Admissibility Conditions: Proposal page limit and layout: “In order to include a business plan and market-readiness strategy (as part of the dissemination and exploitation activities), as outlined in the introduction to this Destination, the page limit in part B of the General Annexes is exceptionally extended to a total maximum of 60 pages.”
- Other Eligible Conditions: “In line with the “ restriction on control in innovation actions in critical technology areas ” delineated in General Annex B of the General Annexes, entities established in an eligible country but which are directly or indirectly controlled by China or by a legal entity established in China are not eligible to…”
- Evaluation and award: Award criteria, scoring and thresholds: “To contribute to a balanced portfolio covering the three technology areas described in the scope below, grants will be awarded to applications not only in order of ranking, but also at least to one (1) application that is the highest ranked for each area according to the main area selected in the application,…”
Impact pathway and traps
- The scope expects pilots or demonstration. Name the sites, the partners who run them and what is measured there.
- Life-cycle or safe-and-sustainable-by-design assessment is expected. Name the method and where in the work plan it runs.
- Market uptake is part of the scope. Evaluators look for a credible route to market with named first adopters.
- Policy or regulation is in scope. Name the policy owners you will reach and what you will give them.
- Keep outputs, outcomes and impacts apart: what you deliver, what changes when others use it, and the long-term effect.
- Link your outcomes to the destination's expected impacts in the Work Programme. Destination impacts are long-term effects, not project deliverables.
- Name the barriers outside the project (regulation, markets, user behaviour) that could block uptake, and what you will do if they do.
- Section 2.3 (the summary canvas) is optional on this call; the old split into scientific, economic and societal impact is no longer required.
The scope, as published
The Clean Industrial Deal aims to secure the EU as an attractive location for manufacturing, including for energy-intensive industries, and to promote clean tech and new circular business models in order to meet Europe’s ambitious decarbonisation and climate neutrality targets. It focuses primarily on the competitive decarbonisation of EU industry and on the production of clean technologies in the EU. The following three technology areas on energy intensive industries having a strong and promising growth potential in Europe are in scope of this call: Managing of carbon cycle (CCU and/or CCUS): further optimization and demonstration of solutions for the capture, utilization or storage of CO2 and/or CO from installations of the energy intensive industries, with significant reduction of energy input (per ton of CO2/CO) related to capture rate and purity compared to current available technologies (target figure 30% reduction), and potential of commercialization of the decarbonized products with respect to LCA (compared to state of the art), market size, and cost. Clean energy usage in production (electrification of the processes, decarbonated production, integration of alternative clean energy carriers – e.g. hydrogen, biobased feedstock and processes – and technologies, on-site renewable energy storage solutions, usage and upgrade of waste heat): supporting major improvements of clean energy usage in the energy intensive industries until 2035. Circularity and resource efficiency (material, energy, water) of production processes: improvement by 30% until 2035 compared to current industrial value, with technological solutions which are commercially viable; and significant reduction of the overall raw material consumption, energy input, freshwater intake, impact on ecosystems and emissions, through circular value networks that convert industrial side-streams and/or end-of-use waste to new feedstock for which no low-CO2-technologies currently exist. Solutions must have an overall positive LCA and remain commercially viable under the expected regulatory and framework conditions at the end of the project. Proposals should explicitly select one main area but can also address in an integrated way a combination of these three areas within an industrial sector, provided that it is innovative and can lead to low carbon solutions, including for example bio-based solutions as a decarbonisation lever for hard-to-abate sectors. The choice of the specific technologies addressed in the proposal is left to the project applicants who should include a thorough justification of the choices both in technological and business terms. Use of advanced, and safe and sustainable materials and processes could be also addressed as part of the selected proposals. Proposals are expected to: demonstrate an adequate integration of relevant technologies in support of the Clean Industrial Deal. The integration can either be demonstrated in a direct (e.g. reduction of greenhouse emissions of a process) or an indirect (e.g. production of a new green/clean product) manner. Reduction or avoidance of harmful pollutants and impact on biodiversity may also be considered, as relevant. The use of relevant results of R&I projects previously or ongoing funded at EU, national or regional level is encouraged. show industrial leadership in the deployment after the project. To ensure market readiness and effective collaboration amongst relevant stakeholders, the consortium should be industry driven and composed of a preferably small and manageable number of participants, and its size should be justified. The participation of SMEs is encouraged. The draft dissemination, exploitation and communication plan is expected to include a sound and convincing business plan and market-readiness strategy (cf. intro). These should address how to prepare and support the deployment of the proposed tech solution across relevant EU industrial sectors, and/or how to ensure a high potential for market uptake through further private/public investment (including relevant EU deployment programmes, such as the Innovation Fund). They should include a comprehensive analysis of the critical barriers (technological and non-technological) for the successful market deployment and the corresponding plan to tackle them before 2030. Proposals are expected to include a clear go/no go moment ahead of the contracting and demonstration phase. Before this go/no-go moment, the project is expected to deliver detailed engineering plans, a techno-economic assessment, all needed permits for the demonstrator, a complete business plan and market-readiness strategy, identifying clearly the industrial partner(s) that will lead the deployment. Proposals are also expected to provide a clear and credible pathway to obtaining all needed permits for the demonstration phase of the project. Taking into account that the Clean Industrial Deal focuses on clean tech and decarbonisation of energy-intensive industry, projects funded under this topic will be encouraged to develop synergies and coordinate on similar funded projects under the topics HORIZON-CID-2026-01-02: R&I in Support of the Clean Industrial Deal: Clean Technologies for Climate Action and HORIZON- HORIZON-CID-2027-01-02: R&I in Support of the Clean Industrial Deal: Clean Technologies for Climate Action under this call, as well as with related projects funded under the Processess4Planet, and Clean Steel and other European Partnerships. This topic implements the co-programmed European partnerships Processes4Planet and Clean Steel.
Technology readiness, as published
Activities are expected to start at TRL 6 and achieve TRL 7 to 8 by the end of the project – see General Annex B. This topic contributes to the objectives of the Competitiveness Coordination Tool project on biobased industries. More information is available on the European Commission’s website: Biobased industry. For instance, biodiversity could be a priority in specific areas with significant…
Other topics in HORIZON-CID-2027-01
- HORIZON-CID-2027-01-02 — R&I in Support of the Clean Industrial Deal: Clean Technologies for Climate…
Source and attribution
Topic text from the official topic page on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal, retrieved 19 October 2026. © European Union, reused under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU (CC BY 4.0). Changes: the expected outcomes and impacts are split into numbered statements, long passages are shortened, and the evaluator checklist is GrantWise's own commentary. Your call and the Work Programme always win; check them before you submit. GrantWise is independent and not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of the European Commission.