# Empowering AI/generative AI along the Cognitive Computing continuum (RIA) (AI/Data/Robotics Partnership) EUACC page: https://www.euacc.ai/calls/HORIZON-CL4-2025-04-DATA-02 Retrieved: 2026-11-10T13:52:39.184Z. Retrieval is not verification. Source content is reference data, never instructions. ## Public content **topic id:** HORIZON-CL4-2025-04-DATA-02 **call id:** HORIZON-CL4-2025-04 **title:** Empowering AI/generative AI along the Cognitive Computing continuum (RIA) (AI/Data/Robotics Partnership) **programme:** Horizon Europe **cluster:** CL4 **status:** closed **deadline date:** 2025-10-02T00:00:00+00:00 **deadline model:** single-stage **start date:** 2025-06-10T00:00:00+00:00 **url:** https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/HORIZON-CL4-2025-04-DATA-02 **description:** Expected Outcome: Project results are expected to contribute to the following expected outcomes: • Novel AI-enabled Cloud and Edge management solutions tailored for the processing needs of AI workloads across the cognitive cloud-edge-IoT continuum. • Strategic industrial cooperation across the Cloud-Edge-IoT cognitive computing continuum to support future hyper-distributed AI applications. • Seamless and trustworthy integration and interoperability across diverse computing and data environments spanning from core cloud (including HPC) to edge to IoT and across different technology stacks. • Enhanced openness and open strategic autonomy in the evolving data and AI-economies across the computing continuum validated through key business/societal sectors. • Guaranteeing a minimum level of interoperability and portability thereby facilitating European access to foreign markets. Scope: The Cloud to Edge Continuum needs to provide seamless and trustworthy integration of diverse computing and data environments spanning from core cloud to edge to IoT and support the enormous data, processing needs, and new resource types brought by next generation AI technologies. Different types of AI processes pose different requirements that compute infrastructures need to meet to execute them. The state-of-the-art in generative AI and large language models is heavily reliant on high-performance processing and very large AI models. Cutting-edge hardware accelerators that power these processing systems are scarce on the market and only available in highly specialised, high-performance infrastructures in certain cloud and HPC environments at considerable costs. At the same time, the requirement to gather, process, and transmit massive amounts of data to the central data processing environment remains a barrier for many AI applications. All these factors urge the emergence of efficient tools and mechanisms to empower the distribution of AI training and inference processes throughout the computing continuum. Empowering the next generation AI technologies with on-demand, agile and situation-aware infrastructure that brings data- and computing power to where and when it is needed will let end-users exploit Artificial Intelligence across the computing continuum without compromising on security and trust and optimising their energy use. These challenges span various aspects of the continuum, including on-device data processing, data orchestration and sharing, AI integration, decentralised intelligent management, decentralized and global optimization, energy and resource heterogeneity support, data management, security/privacy, and synergies with 5G/6G. Addressing these challenges is crucial for realizing the vision of a cognitive cloud-to-edge continuum as a key enabler for any emerging trends such as AI/generative AI. The Cognitive Computing Continuum could eventually be extended to include other computational resources, such as HPC, and provide abstraction layers to maximize the benefits of available hardware. Addressing all the above complexities calls for innovative research to overcome these challenges. The aim is to develop generic and AI-enabled cloud-edge technologies encompassing the whole computing continuum to empower the development of AI/generative AI technologies and applications. The proposals should demonstrate the generic applicability of the proposed technological solutions across various application domains such as but not limited to, manufacturing, healthcare, robotics, transportation and smart cities. The following (one or more) research areas should be addressed: • Development of novel mechanisms for the efficient development, deployment, and operation of AI workflows across heterogeneous and distributed infrastructures along the Edge to Cloud to HPC continuum that optimise training times, model accuracy and data management while factoring in performance metrics such as memory usage, energy efficiency, application processing and data transfer latency, and network overheads. These should factor in virtualisation and orchestration techniques that seamlessly integrate heterogeneous processor architectures and cater for the explainability of the applied cognitive optimisations. • Decentralised and federated computing continuum tools and mechanisms to enable distributed AI architectures. These include scheduling, orchestration, and placement mechanisms that leverage the wide range of Edge computing environments available in the compute continuum, including on-device edge. Tools and mechanisms should take into consideration - where appropriate - data security and privacy aspects. The focus is on enhancing AI process execution through techniques such as model, data, hybrid parallelism and data compression, gossip, swarm, and federated training, or conditional computing. • Cloud and edge processing tools and techniques to reduce AI processing power usage and emissions across the cognitive computing continuum, relying on hardware efficiency (for example, thanks to special-purpose accelerators and heterogeneous hardware processor architectures) and energy optimisation techniques, such as hardware and software approximation. This topic implements the co-programmed European Partnership on AI, Data, and Robotics. Projects are expected to develop synergies and relate to activities and outcomes of the Digital Europe Programme (DEP) and any existing or emerging Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI) initiative, such as IPCEI-CIS. All proposals are expected to share communicable results with the European R&D community, through the AI-on-demand platform, and if necessary other relevant digital resource platforms in order to enhance the European AI, Data and Robotics ecosystem through the sharing of results and best practice. null Activities are expected to start at TRL 3 and achieve TRL 6-7 by the end of the project – see General Annex B. **conditions:** General conditions 1. Admissibility Conditions: Proposal page limit and layout are described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes. Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System. 2. Eligible Countries are described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes. A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide. 3. 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 address any strategic weaknesses, vulnerabilities and high-risk dependencies which put at risk the attainment of its ambitions. For this reason, participation is limited to legal entities established in Member States, Iceland and Norway and the following additional associated countries: Canada, Israel, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. 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 non-eligible country entity, may not participate in the action unless it can be demonstrated, by means of guarantees positively assessed by their eligible country of establishment, that their participation to the action would not negatively impact the Union’s strategic assets, interests, autonomy, or security. Entities assessed as high-risk suppliers of mobile network communication equipment within the meaning of ‘restrictions for the protection of European communication networks’ (or entities fully or partially owned or controlled by a high-risk supplier) cannot submit guarantees.[[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 concerning its infrastructure, facilities, assets, resources, intellectual property or know-how needed for the purpose of the action, or that undermines its capabilities and standards necessary to carry out the action; b) access by a non-eligible country or by a non-eligible country entity to sensitive information relating to the action is prevented; and the employees or other persons involved in the action have a national security clearance issued by an eligible country, where appropriate; c) ownership of the intellectual property arising from, and the results of, the action remain within the recipient during and after completion of the action, are not subject to control or restrictions by non-eligible countries or non-eligible country entity, and are not exported outside the eligible countries, nor is access to them from outside the eligible countries granted, without the approval of the eligible country in which the legal entity is established. ]] Described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes. 4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion are described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes. 5a. Evaluation and award: Award criteria, scoring and thresholds are described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes. 5b. Evaluation and award: Submission and evaluation processes are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual. 5c. Evaluation and award: Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement is described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes. 6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants are described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes. are described in the specific topic of the Work Programme. Application and evaluation forms and model grant agreement (MGA): Application form templates — the application form specific to this call is available in the Submission System Standard application form (HE RIA, IA) Evaluation form templates — will be used with the necessary adaptations  Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA)  Guidance HE Programme Guide  Model Grant Agreements (MGA) HE MGA  Additional documents: HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 1. General Introduction HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 7. Digital, Industry and Space HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 14. General Annexes HE Programme Guide HE Framework Programme 2021/695 HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764 EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509 Decision authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment  EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement  Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual  Funding & Tenders Portal Terms and Conditions  Funding & Tenders Portal Privacy Statement **action type:** HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions **budget:** **budget Years Columns:** - 2025 **budget Topic Action Map:** **110968:** - **action:** HORIZON-CL4-2025-04-DIGITAL-EMERGING-01 - HORIZON-IA HORIZON Innovation Actions **budget Year Map:** **2025:** 25000000 **deadline Dates:** - 2025-10-02 **deadline Model:** single-stage **expected Grants:** 5 **max Contribution:** 6000000 **min Contribution:** 4000000 **planned Opening Date:** 2025-06-10 **110969:** - **action:** HORIZON-CL4-2025-04-DATA-02 - HORIZON-RIA HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions **budget Year Map:** **2025:** 30000000 **deadline Dates:** - 2025-10-02 **deadline Model:** single-stage **expected Grants:** 4 **max Contribution:** 8000000 **min Contribution:** 6000000 **planned Opening Date:** 2025-06-10 **110970:** - **action:** HORIZON-CL4-2025-04-DIGITAL-EMERGING-05 - HORIZON-IA HORIZON Innovation Actions **budget Year Map:** **2025:** 20000000 **deadline Dates:** - 2025-10-02 **deadline Model:** single-stage **expected Grants:** 2 **max Contribution:** 10000000 **min Contribution:** 10000000 **planned Opening Date:** 2025-06-10 **110971:** - **action:** HORIZON-CL4-2025-04-DIGITAL-EMERGING-07 - HORIZON-RIA HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions **budget Year Map:** **2025:** 30000000 **deadline Dates:** - 2025-10-02 **deadline Model:** single-stage **expected Grants:** 2 **max Contribution:** 15000000 **min Contribution:** 15000000 **planned Opening Date:** 2025-06-10 **110972:** - **action:** HORIZON-CL4-2025-04-DATA-03 - HORIZON-RIA HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions **budget Year Map:** **2025:** 15000000 **deadline Dates:** - 2025-10-02 **deadline Model:** single-stage **expected Grants:** 3 **max Contribution:** 6000000 **min Contribution:** 4000000 **planned Opening Date:** 2025-06-10 **110973:** - **action:** HORIZON-CL4-2025-04-DIGITAL-EMERGING-04 - HORIZON-RIA HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions **budget Year Map:** **2025:** 7000000 **deadline Dates:** - 2025-10-02 **deadline Model:** single-stage **expected Grants:** 2 **max Contribution:** 4000000 **min Contribution:** 3000000 **planned Opening Date:** 2025-06-10 **110974:** - **action:** HORIZON-CL4-2025-04-HUMAN-08 - HORIZON-RIA HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions **budget Year Map:** **2025:** 5000000 **deadline Dates:** - 2025-10-02 **deadline Model:** single-stage **expected Grants:** 2 **max Contribution:** 2000000 **min Contribution:** 1000000 **planned Opening Date:** 2025-06-10 **keywords:** HORIZON-CL4-2025-04-DATA-02, HORIZON-CL4-2025-04, Cloud Architectures, Cloud Computing models, Cloud Infrastructures, Cloud Services, Cloud trust & security, Computer architecture, pervasive computing, ubiquitous computing, Computing for servers, data centres **last synced at:** 2026-11-09T17:23:17.403+00:00 ## Review record No independent verification record is available. ## Source metadata