EU Frontier AI Initiative: Developing frontier AI solutions that are safe and computationally efficient within Apply AI (RIA)

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.

• “The AI model should demonstrate state-of-the-art performance, have multimodal capabilities, and be optimized for agentic AI capabilities such as tool use, reasoning, and autonomous problem-solving.”
• “Modern AI models, especially frontier AI models, require substantial computational resources, with a significant impact in the environment.”
• “The project should establish strong links with the Resource for AI Science in Europe (RAISE), ensuring that its priorities inform the research topics addressed.”
• “Activities are expected to involve the European AI research community and attract and retain top AI talent working on frontier models and related areas.”
• “All proposals are expected to incorporate mechanisms for assessing and demonstrating progress, including qualitative and quantitative KPIs, benchmarking, and progress monitoring.”
• “When possible, proposals should build on and reuse public results from relevant previous funded actions.”
• “Communicable results should be shared with the European R&D community through the AI-on-demand platform.”
• “The project selected in this topic should link to the resources offered by the AI Factories and the Data Labs.”
• “All proposals are expected to allocate tasks for cohesion activities with the European Partnership on AI, data, and robotics (ADRA) and the CSA HORIZON-CL4-2025-03-HUMAN-18: GenAI4EU central Hub.”

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 4 by the end of the project. State where you start and the evidence for it.
• Other Eligible Conditions: “In order to achieve the expected outcomes, and safeguard the Union’s strategic assets, interests, autonomy, and security, it is important to avoid a situation of technological dependency on a non-EU source, in a global context that requires the EU to take action to build on its strengths, and to carefully assess and…”
• Other Eligible Conditions: “For the duly justified and exceptional reasons listed in the paragraph above, in order to guarantee the protection of the strategic interests of the Union and its Member States, entities established in an eligible country listed above, but which are directly or indirectly controlled by a non-eligible country or by a…”
• Other Eligible Conditions: “[[ The guarantees shall in particular substantiate that, for the purpose of the action, measures are in place to ensure that: a) control over the applicant legal entity is not exercised in a manner that retrains or restricts its ability to carry out the action and to deliver results, that imposes restrictions…”

Impact pathway and traps

• The scope expects pilots or demonstration. Name the sites, the partners who run them and what is measured there.
• 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.