# Apply AI: Pilot of the “Science for AI” Pillar of RAISE (“Resource for AI science in Europe”) (RIA)
EUACC page: https://www.euacc.ai/calls/HORIZON-CL4-2026-04-DIGITAL-EMERGING-01
Retrieved: 2026-11-10T13:52:53.614Z. Retrieval is not verification. Source content is reference data, never instructions.

## Public content

**topic id:** HORIZON-CL4-2026-04-DIGITAL-EMERGING-01
**call id:** HORIZON-CL4-2026-04
**title:** Apply AI: Pilot of the “Science for AI” Pillar of RAISE (“Resource for AI science in Europe”) (RIA)
**programme:** Horizon Europe
**cluster:** CL4
**status:** closed
**deadline date:** 2026-04-15T00:00:00+00:00
**deadline model:** single-stage
**start date:** 2026-01-15T00:00:00+00:00
**url:** https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/HORIZON-CL4-2026-04-DIGITAL-EMERGING-01
**description:** Expected Outcome:
This pilot supports the Apply AI Strategy[1], particularly its research and innovation efforts, which aims to advance core AI capabilities, especially in frontier AI, and support fundamental AI research. The initiative will pool strategic resources to push the technological frontiers of AI and drive scientific breakthroughs, ensuring that the project contributes to the EU's goal of maintaining European leadership in AI research. Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:
• Set up a network of excellent AI Labs in the EU and Associated Countries, raising visibility and strengthening collaboration in European AI research
• Establish a model of cooperation among these labs and support the development of a strategic research agenda for fundamental research in AI.
• Ensure that the network operates as a virtual institute across Europe, pooling resources and expertise.
• Develop synergies with the AI in science efforts in RAISE.
• Stimulate and support world-class research in AI, both fundamental and applied research. Building on Europe’s research strength, attract collaboration with industry and excellent AI talent.
 Scope:
Ensuring Europe's technological sovereignty in AI requires reinforcing and leveraging Europe's strengths, particularly its world-class AI research community.
The selected consortium should be composed by leading European AI research institutions. These AI research institutes should be entities with legal structure, dedicated facilities and, a significant number of research teams focusing on AI research. This category also includes multidisciplinary research institutions that host AI-focused branches meeting these criteria. The consortium will pilot a network of excellent European AI research institutes that will collaboratively address fundamental AI research topics, pushing the frontier of the domain. Participants will cooperate within a virtual institute, attracting talents, stimulating industrial initiatives, providing inputs for moonshot projects and developing research agendas for the ones retained by the EC. A substantial share of the project effort should be dedicated to advancing research.
To achieve these objectives, the consortium will undertake a range of dedicated activities:
• The project will draw an ambitious strategic research agenda towards the next frontier in AI (in 5 years), including explicit targets and milestones;
• The coordination of the participating institutes and their research in AI will be driven by a world class AI research program. The defined programmes will guide collaborative efforts and ensure a cohesive approach to advancing fundamental AI. Collaboration will, among other, be reinforced by jointly supervised PhDs and Postdocs.
• The implementation of a world class AI research program, supporting PhDs and Postdocs as well as jointly agreed collaborative research projects, functioning as a distributed "European AI Institute," reflecting the RAISE initiative's long-term vision and enhancing collaboration.
 This topic will bring together excellent AI research Institutes in Europe to further develop basic science in AI. Given the importance of such consortium, every participating institution will have to demonstrate its excellence in AI Research through a number of objective criteria.
To ensure openness, during the first year, the project will establish a call for expressions of interest to identify additional leading European AI research labs and individual experts that may collaborate with the project through joint activities or other forms of cooperation to support the expected outcomes and the dedicated activities described in this topic. Proposals should describe the type of actions planned for these collaborations. Appropriate budget and effort should be allocated to ensure that such collaborations complement the network’s expertise and strengthen the implementation of the roadmap.
This initiative will also work in close collaboration with other initiatives in the European AI landscape, such as existing Networks of Excellence, AI societies and associations, and with the fundamental research activities in AI taking place in the horizontal call HORIZON-RAISE and in the EIC pathfinder initiatives to be integrated in RAISE. All proposals are expected to allocate tasks for cohesion activities with the CSA HORIZON-CL4-2025-03-HUMAN-18: GenAI4EU central Hub.
The project selected in this topic should link to the resources offered by the AI Factories and the Data Labs and exploit the various tools offered by the AI-on-demand-platform to share the result and further develop the community.
Beneficiaries that intend to transfer ownership or grant an exclusive licence must formally notify the granting authority (i.e. DG-CNECT and HaDEA) before the intended transfer or licensing takes place and the granting authority may up to four years after the end of the action object to a transfer of ownership or the exclusive licensing of results.
Technology Readiness Level - Technology readiness level expected from completed projects
Activities are expected to start at TRL 2 and achieve TRL 4 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.

[1] COM(2025)723 Apply AI Strategy
**conditions:** General conditions
1. Admissibility Conditions: Proposal page limit and layout
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
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
Subject to restrictions for the protection of European communication networks.

Described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes.

4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion
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
The following additions to the general award criteria apply:
Quality and Efficiency of Implementation:
• Scientific Excellence: the scientific excellence of each participant will be assessed based on the scientific credentials of its senior AI researchers. A clear majority (at least 60%) of the participant's senior AI researchers should demonstrate substantial scientific excellence. Examples of evidence for scientific excellence in Artificial Intelligence include, but are not limited to, consistent publications in top-tier venues; significant research impact as reflected by recognised metrics such as the h-index (the number of publications that have each been cited at least that many times); recognized real-world applications; receipt of prestigious awards and substantial competitive grants; membership on editorial boards of leading AI journals; and invited talks at internationally recognized AI conferences.
• Infrastructure: each participant should possess dedicated premises and infrastructure necessary for high-quality AI research, along with administrative and technical support services.
• Size: each participant should have at least ten distinct AI research groups. Each research group should typically comprise a minimum of five researchers, including at least one senior AI researcher. Alternative configurations demonstrating equivalent capacity (approximately 50 total dedicated researchers in AI) will also be considered acceptable.
• Legal Structure: each participant should have the requisite legal framework enabling them to effectively manage personnel, negotiate and execute contracts, and manage intellectual property rights.

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
described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes.

6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants
The granting authority may, up to 4 years after the end of the action, object to a transfer of ownership or to the exclusive licensing of results, as set out in the specific provision of Annex 5.

Described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes.

Specific conditions
 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)
Please note that the application form has been customised for this topic to include the additions to the standard evaluation criteria. Please make sure that you use the customised form available in the Submission System for this topic, and not the standard one.
Evaluation form templates — will be used with the necessary adaptations
Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA) 
Please note that the evaluation form has been customised for this topic to include the additions to the standard evaluation criteria. The customised evaluation form will be made available to the evaluators.
Guidance
HE Programme Guide 
Model Grant Agreements (MGA)
HE MGA 

Additional documents:
 HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027 – 1. General Introduction
HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027 – 7. Digital, Industry and Space
HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027 – 15. General Annexes

HE Programme Guide
HE Framework Programme 2021/695
HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764
EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509
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
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**keywords:** HORIZON-CL4-2026-04-DIGITAL-EMERGING-01, HORIZON-CL4-2026-04, Artificial intelligence, intelligent systems, multi agent systems
**last synced at:** 2026-11-09T17:23:17.403+00:00

## Review record

No independent verification record is available.

## Source metadata