Multi-million-euro collaborative grants for climate, clean energy and mobility R&I — €486M open across calls closing 15 September and 8 October 2026
Horizon Europe Cluster 5: Climate, Energy and Mobility
Collaborative grant: RIA funded at 100% of eligible costs, IA at 70% (100% for non-profits)
What is Horizon Cluster 5?
Cluster 5 is the climate, energy and mobility engine of Horizon Europe's second pillar — the part of the programme that funds large, cross-border research consortia rather than single companies. It pays for collaborative projects across nine themes: climate science, energy supply, energy systems and grids, buildings and industry, communities and cities, transport competitiveness, clean and accessible mobility, smart mobility, and energy storage. Grants are paid as Research and Innovation Actions (RIA — earlier-stage research, funded at 100% of eligible costs) and Innovation Actions (IA — closer-to-market demonstration, funded at 70%, or 100% for non-profits). The European Commission adopted the 2026-2027 work programme on 11 December 2025; of the funding it directs to Cluster 5, an estimated €1.644 billion is classed as climate-related expenditure — the single largest climate share of any Horizon Europe cluster. The spring 2026 calls (€466.7 million) closed in March-April 2026 and are under evaluation. Right now two calls worth €486 million are open: €223 million for energy and batteries (HORIZON-CL5-2026-09, deadline 15 September 2026) and €263 million for transport and mobility including a €100 million battery topic (HORIZON-CL5-2026-10, deadline 8 October 2026). The 2027 calls open between November and December 2026, with deadlines in March-April 2027. To apply you need a consortium: at least three independent organisations from three different EU or Associated Countries, with at least one based in an EU member state. This is not founder money; it is institutional money for universities, research institutes, large industry and SMEs working together on hard, multi-year problems.
- Non-dilutive grants for cross-border research consortia (no equity taken)
- €486 million open right now across two calls — energy & batteries (deadline 15 September 2026) and transport & mobility (deadline 8 October 2026)
- Cluster 5 carries the largest climate share in Horizon Europe — an estimated €1.644 billion in climate-related expenditure over 2026-2027
- Nine themes spanning climate science, clean energy, grids, buildings, industry, cities and all transport modes
- RIA funded at 100% of eligible costs; IA at 70% (100% for non-profit entities)
- Minimum consortium: 3 independent legal entities from 3 different EU/Associated Countries
Is this for you?
This is built for a consortium, not a lone applicant. The ideal Cluster 5 applicant is a coalition — typically a research institute or university leading, with industrial partners, SMEs and sometimes a city or grid operator — tackling a hard climate, clean-energy or mobility problem that takes three to five years and several million euros to crack. If you have a multi-partner project spanning at least three EU or Associated Countries, a credible path to European-scale impact, and the patience for a months-long evaluation and a year of contracting, this is for you. If you are a single startup wanting fast, founder-controlled money to scale a product you already have, look elsewhere — the EIC Accelerator (grant plus equity for one company) or the Innovation Fund (large-scale clean-tech deployment) fit far better. Cluster 5 rewards collaboration and research depth, not solo speed.
Call destinations
Sharpens the science that the entire green transition leans on: next-generation climate monitoring, sharper climate-risk assessment, climate economics, and even tackling climate disinformation. The 2026 climate-sciences call (HORIZON-CL5-2026-07) runs roughly €82 million across five topics, with individual topics in the €15-21 million range.
Research and innovation actions on climate modelling, monitoring and risk assessment
The horizontal destination, dominated in 2026-2027 by batteries: recycling, sustainable material processing and integrated lithium-battery production. Topic budgets here span a wide band, from roughly €9.4 million to €100 million depending on whether the topic is a research action or a large industrial demonstrator. Example topic: HORIZON-CL5-2026-03-D2-02.
Batteries, advanced materials and other cross-cutting enabling technologies
The largest single 2026 call (HORIZON-CL5-2026-03, around €176.7 million over 10 topics) sits here, funding renewable competitiveness, wind and solar innovation, grid resilience, energy storage and CO2 storage. Topic budgets run from roughly €9 million to €93 million. Example topic family: HORIZON-CL5-2026-03-D3-01 onward.
Renewables, grids, storage and carbon capture and storage
The demand side of the energy system: smart building performance, deep building renovation, carbon-lifecycle tools and industrial heat. Per-topic budgets cluster in the €15.75-28 million range. Example topic family: HORIZON-CL5-2026-09-D4-01 onward.
Energy efficiency in buildings and industry, and demand-side flexibility
Decarbonising the vehicles themselves across road, air and water: heavy-duty battery-electric trucks, energy-efficient EVs, aviation, ports and shipyards, and zero-carbon waterborne fuels. The 2026 transport call (HORIZON-CL5-2026-05) is around €138 million over six topics, with individual topics from roughly €2 million to €68 million.
Zero- and low-emission vehicles, aircraft and vessels
The systems layer: connected, cooperative and automated mobility (CCAM) demonstrations, multimodal freight and passenger transport, and road safety. Topic budgets range widely, from about €4 million to €100 million. Example topic family: HORIZON-CL5-2026-10-D6-01 onward.
Connected and automated mobility, multimodal logistics and road safety
Who wins — funded examples
The honest picture
The numbers are sobering. Horizon Europe collaborative calls are heavily oversubscribed, and success rates across Pillar 2 typically run somewhere in the 10-20% range, with the programme-wide average drifting toward the low teens as budgets tighten (the Commission does not publish a single official Cluster-5-only figure, so treat any precise percentage with caution). Two-stage topics soften the pain — a short concept note at stage one means you do not write a full 40-page proposal until you have cleared the first cut — but the cumulative odds from concept to signed grant still land in the single-to-low-double digits for most topics. The brutal truth: most rejections are good science described badly. Proposals fail on a weak 'impact' section, a consortium that looks assembled-for-the-grant rather than genuinely complementary, vague work packages, or thin European added value — not on the underlying idea. If you cannot articulate, in concrete terms, what changes in Europe because your project succeeded, you will score below threshold no matter how clever the technology. Budget six months of serious effort and assume you may need a resubmission.
Recent Cluster 5 call results (CINEA closure data)
| Call | Deadline | Budget | Evaluated | Funded | Success rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CL5-2024-D3-01 (energy supply, 17 topics) | 16 Jan 2024 | €246M | 252 | 43 | ~17% |
| CL5-2024-D2-01 (cross-sectoral climate solutions) | 18 Apr 2024 | €92M | 117 | 19 | ~16% |
| CL5-2024-D4-01 (efficient energy use) | 18 Apr 2024 | €36M | 92 | 7 | ~8% |
⚠ Rates computed from CINEA's published call-closure counts (proposals evaluated vs projects selected); the Commission publishes no consolidated Cluster 5 success rate. Unlike the EIC Accelerator, collaborative Horizon calls have no resubmission cap — a rejected consortium can rework and re-apply to a later matching topic.