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Topic-specific project grants
Next general-entry rounds open in February 2027. The November 2026 partnership continuation is restricted.Up to €15M per project for collaborative agri-food, bioeconomy, biodiversity and circular-economy research
AI-generated cover illustration. Programme details are sourced separately below.
Recorded editorial check · 23 days ago (4 Oct 2026)
Cluster 6 supports collaborative research on environment, biodiversity, circularity, food systems and bio-based technologies. Technology companies can contribute sensing, geospatial data, AI, monitoring and circular-process expertise when it meets a specific topic and its end-user requirements. This is a broader programme, so it remains outside the default technology-only catalogue. The 26 November 2026 Agriculture of Data deadline is a continuation for the incumbent partnership coordinator, with possible additional partners; it is not a standalone startup call. The next general-entry two-stage rounds are scheduled to open on 4 February 2027, with first-stage submissions due on 8 April 2027.
A technology must solve the specific environmental or sector problem described in the topic.
Companies join as partners all the time — but coordinating a Cluster 6 project is heavy administration. First-timers usually slot into a consortium led by an experienced university or research organisation rather than coordinate themselves.
Cluster 6 contains seven thematic destinations. Applicants select a specific topic and its consortium, end-user and technology-readiness conditions. The remaining 26 November 2026 Agriculture of Data deadline is restricted to the incumbent partnership coordinator, with possible additional partners. The next general-entry two-stage rounds open 4 February 2027, with first-stage proposals due 8 April 2027. Other 2027 calls have different opening dates and deadlines.
Funds research and innovation that understands, protects and restores biodiversity — from species decline to ecosystem-service valuation — and brings nature into economic decision-making.
RIA/IA consortium grants; all 2026 deadlines closed (17 Sep single-stage, 23 Sep two-stage second stage). Next openings under the 2027 work programme, opening from February 2027.
Backs the transformation of the food chain from farm to fork: sustainable primary production, healthier diets, food safety, and fairness for producers and consumers.
RIA/IA consortium grants; all 2026 deadlines closed (14 Apr single-stage, 15 Sep two-stage second stage). Next openings under the 2027 work programme.
Funds circular and bio-based value chains — turning biological resources and waste streams into materials, chemicals and products that replace fossil inputs.
RIA/IA consortium grants; all 2026 deadlines closed (17 Sep single-stage, 23 Sep two-stage second stage). Next openings under the 2027 work programme, opening from February 2027.
Targets pollution at source — soil, water and air — with monitoring, prevention and remediation technologies aligned to the EU zero-pollution ambition.
RIA/IA consortium grants; all 2026 deadlines closed (17 Sep single-stage, 29 Sep two-stage second stage). Next openings under the 2027 work programme, opening from February 2027.
Funds climate solutions grounded in natural systems: land use, oceans and freshwater as carbon sinks and climate buffers.
2026 round closed 14 Apr 2026 — next openings per the 2027 work-programme cycle
Strengthens the places people live — rural competitiveness, coastal resilience, local services and community-led innovation.
2026 round closed 14 Apr 2026; e.g. rural competitiveness topics under HORIZON-CL6-2026-02-COMMUNITIES
The Green Deal's data layer: environmental observation, digital twins, and governance tools that make the other destinations' work usable by policy and industry.
The 26 November 2026 Agriculture of Data deadline is restricted to the incumbent partnership coordinator; additional partners may be included. The next general-entry two-stage calls open 4 February 2027 and close for stage 1 on 8 April 2027. Governance single-stage closes 11 May; other single-stage calls close 22 or 23 September 2027.
This describes the stated cohort and evaluation stage, rather than the outcome of a future application.
| Call cycle | Proposals | Funded | EU money awarded | Success rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 calls (deadline spring 2023) | 568 | 135 | 897M | 23.8% |
| 2024 calls (deadline Feb 2024) | 733 | 91 | 501M | 12.4% |
| 2025 calls (deadline Sep 2025) | 1,406 | 117 | 742.5M | 8.3% |
Budgets, not quality, set the pass mark: the 2024 cycle had 396M less money and 165 more proposals than 2023, and the success rate halved. For 2025: 1,406 proposals competed for a 948.9M budget; REA selected 117 projects for 742.5M in EU grants (announced 6 July 2026), an 8.3% success rate.
Standard Cluster 6 actions (Research and Innovation Actions and Innovation Actions) need a consortium of at least three independent legal entities: one established in an EU member state, plus two others each in a different member state or associated country. Affiliated entities do not sign the grant agreement and do not count towards this minimum — a common modelling error in corporate groups. Only Coordination and Support Actions and programme co-fund actions may be submitted by a single entity.
The 2026–2027 General Annexes list the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Canada, New Zealand and South Korea among countries associated to Horizon Europe, so their entities count towards the three-country minimum and receive funding. The UK is associated to the entire programme except the EIC Fund (equity), which is irrelevant to Cluster 6. Entities from countries still negotiating association are treated as associated only if the agreement applies by grant signature — a real risk for project planning.
Many Cluster 6 topics carry the multi-actor approach as a formal eligibility condition: the proposal must demonstrate genuine co-creation with the end-users of results — farmers, foresters, fishers, aquaculture producers, advisors, food and bioeconomy businesses, civil society — from idea development through dissemination, including 'practice abstracts'. A consortium of universities with a token stakeholder board fails this test and is ineligible, regardless of scientific quality.
Chinese universities administered by or under the supervision of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) are ineligible for any action under the 2026–2027 Cluster 6 work programme. Certain flagged topics go further, excluding Chinese entities in any capacity — as beneficiaries, affiliated entities, associated partners, subcontractors or in-kind contributors — with exceptions only case-by-case. Check each topic page before adding a Chinese partner.
Where the coordinator's requested grant is €500,000 or more, the Commission checks financial capacity during grant preparation, using the balance sheet, profit-and-loss account and indicators including dependency on EU funding. Public bodies and grants under €60,000 are exempt. An unsatisfactory result can mean pre-financing in instalments, no pre-financing, joint and several liability of affiliated entities, forced replacement of the entity — or rejection of the entire proposal at the last hurdle.
Public bodies, research organisations and higher-education establishments from member states or associated countries must have a published Gender Equality Plan (with dedicated resources, monitoring and training) in place at grant signature — an eligibility condition, not a recommendation. Separately, several 2026 two-stage Cluster 6 topics use blind first-stage evaluation: disclosing your organisation's name or identity in the abstract or Part B breaches the submission conditions.
HORIZON-CL6-2026-04-GOVERNANCE-01 must be submitted by the coordinator funded under HORIZON-CL6-2024-GOVERNANCE-02-01. Additional partners are possible, but a new startup cannot independently submit this partnership continuation.
Your project should sit at TRL 2–6 when you apply. The eligible band is highlighted below.
Cluster 6 pays grants — no repayment, no dilution. Research and Innovation Actions (RIA — earlier-stage research, typically ending around TRL 4-5, technology readiness level) reimburse 100% of eligible costs. Innovation Actions (IA — demonstrations and pilots, ending TRL 6-8) reimburse 70% for for-profit companies and 100% for non-profits. Everyone then adds a flat 25% of direct costs for overheads. For an SME in an RIA, that is effectively 125% of your direct project costs covered.
This is top-down funding. The 2026-2027 work programme (adopted 11 December 2025) prescribes topics across seven destinations — biodiversity, food systems, circular bioeconomy, zero pollution, climate, rural/coastal communities, and governance — each with a fixed budget of roughly €10-18M funding two to three projects. A brilliant proposal outside the topic text is rejected regardless of quality; one 2026 topic even states that developing technologies above TRL 4 is out of scope.
Many 2026-27 topics use lump-sum grants (authorised by the Commission Decision of 7 July 2021): the total is fixed per work package at grant signature, and you are paid as work packages are completed and accepted — no timesheets, no cost statements, no financial audit of actual costs. It shifts the negotiation to the budget table in your proposal, so get the work-package pricing right before you submit.
The 26 November 2026 Agriculture of Data deadline is restricted to the incumbent partnership coordinator; additional partners may be included. The next general-entry two-stage calls open 4 February 2027 and close for stage 1 on 8 April 2027. Governance single-stage closes 11 May; other single-stage calls close 22 or 23 September 2027.
The continuation envelope is €60M across 2026–2027 (€23M from 2026 and €37M from 2027), with 30% co-funding for the additional activities. This is a partnership allocation, not an individual technology-company grant.
Identify a specific Cluster 6 topic in the Work Programme on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal, then assemble an eligible consortium — for most Research and Innovation Actions (RIA) and Innovation Actions (IA) that means at least three independent legal entities from three different EU Member States or Associated Countries. No one evaluates this stage; the Commission only checks eligibility later. Partner-finding and scoping is where most of the calendar goes.
The coordinator submits electronically through the Portal before the call deadline: Part A (structured administrative forms, partners, budget) plus Part B (the technical narrative, capped at roughly 45 pages for RIA/IA, covering Excellence, Impact and Implementation). Two-stage topics require a short first-stage proposal (around 10 pages, Excellence and Impact only) before a full second-stage submission. There is a single hard deadline with no second chances.
At least three independent external experts appointed by the granting authority (the Research Executive Agency, REA) score the proposal against three weighted criteria, followed by a consensus meeting and panel ranking. Proposals must clear per-criterion and overall thresholds to be fundable; ranked lists then run down until the topic budget is exhausted. Cluster 6 is highly oversubscribed, so a passing score does not guarantee funding.
Successful coordinators are invited to grant agreement preparation, where REA validates each partner's legal and financial status (via the Participant Register / PIC) and finalises budget, work packages and start date. The signed grant agreement is the binding contract; the Commission targets roughly 8 months from call deadline to signature (time-to-grant).
Soundness, ambition and credibility of the proposed research/innovation: clarity of objectives, how far it goes beyond the state of the art, and the quality of the methodology, including interdisciplinarity and open-science practice where relevant.
Credible pathway to the topic's expected outcomes and wider scientific, economic, environmental and societal impacts, plus a convincing plan to disseminate, exploit and communicate results. Weighted 1.5 for Innovation Actions, reflecting their market focus.
Whether the work plan, resources and consortium can actually deliver: coherence of work packages and milestones, appropriateness of effort and budget, and the capacity and complementarity of the partners.
Current schedules, multi-actor conditions and topic-specific eligibility, including the restricted Agriculture of Data continuation.
Call calendar and post-submission milestones; distinguish open submission systems from restricted partnership eligibility.
The Commission's plain-language rulebook for the whole programme — who can apply, how proposals are structured and how they are judged.
The live portal page for the first 2026 Cluster 6 call — topic list, status, submission system and partner search in one place.
The exact template your proposal must follow, for both Research and Innovation Actions (RIA) and Innovation Actions (IA).
The actual form evaluators fill in when scoring your proposal — the closest thing to seeing the exam paper in advance.
The mandatory Excel annex for lump-sum topics — cost estimates per beneficiary and per work package, with filling instructions built in.
Article-by-article commentary on the grant agreement you will sign if funded — the authority on what costs are eligible.
The Commission's participant guide to lump-sum grants — how they are proposed, evaluated, managed and paid.
The step-by-step operating manual for the portal itself — registration, roles, submission and grant management.
The Commission's searchable database of official answers on proposals, evaluation, lump sums and grant rules.
Agriculture of Data: existing coordinator submits; additional partners may be included. Not a general-entry deadline.
Two-stage calls and the governance single-stage call.
2027-01 and 2027-02 two-stage calls; new applicants enter here.
2027-01 and 2027-02 single-stage calls.
Includes selected digital/data technology topics.
Only applicants successful at stage 1.
Only applicants successful at stage 1.
Check the exact topic in the submission portal.
All deadlines are 17:00 Brussels local time; amendments can change dates.
Cluster 6 grants are managed by the European Research Executive Agency (REA), the Commission's grant-management arm. You get a project officer who monitors delivery through periodic technical and financial reports and project reviews — there is no EIC-style Business Acceleration Services package, no coaching, no investor matchmaking. The network you build is the consortium itself.
The consortium signs one grant agreement with the Commission. Pre-financing lands after signature, further instalments follow accepted periodic reports, and the balance comes at the end. The coordinator receives every payment and redistributes it under the consortium agreement — which is why that document, signed before the grant, is worth negotiating carefully.
If your topic is lump-sum (a large share of 2026-27 topics are), payment is triggered by completed and accepted work packages — no cost statements and no ex-post financial audits of actual costs. Actual-cost projects still face full financial reporting and the possibility of audit years after the project ends.
Horizon Europe grants carry open-science obligations — open access to peer-reviewed publications and a data management plan — plus a plan for exploiting and disseminating results that the project officer tracks in every reporting period. Your intellectual property stays yours, but sitting on results is not an option.
Cluster 6 projects are collaborative by design: the standard Horizon Europe minimum is three independent legal entities from three different EU or associated countries, and in practice winning consortia run far larger. Universities and research and technology organisations (RTOs) usually coordinate, because they have grant offices that can absorb the paperwork; companies typically join as partners supplying technology, demonstration sites or routes to market. Many Cluster 6 topics also use the 'multi-actor approach', which obliges consortia to include practitioners — farmers, foresters, advisers, food businesses — as genuine partners, not just survey subjects. The fastest way in for a startup is to be the exploitation partner an academic coordinator is missing: use the Funding & Tenders Portal partner search against a specific topic identifier, and watch the calendar — consortia for the 2027 calls will begin assembling around the info days expected in early 2027.
Every EU and associated country runs National Contact Points (NCPs) — government-funded advisers for each Horizon Europe cluster. They will, at no cost, tell you whether your idea fits a Cluster 6 topic, review draft proposals, explain budget and eligibility rules, and circulate partner-search requests through their European network. The directory on the Funding & Tenders Portal lets you filter by country and by 'Cluster 6' to find the right person. For a first-time applicant this is the single highest-value free resource in the system; consultants charge thousands of euros for what an NCP does gratis.
The 26 November 2026 Agriculture of Data deadline is restricted to the incumbent partnership coordinator; additional partners may be included. The next general-entry two-stage calls open 4 February 2027 and close for stage 1 on 8 April 2027. Governance single-stage closes 11 May; other single-stage calls close 22 or 23 September 2027.
Horizon Europe works to published service standards: applicants are normally informed of evaluation results within five months of the call deadline, and successful consortia sign grant agreements within eight months of it. For the September 2026 Cluster 6 cut-offs, that points to results in early 2027 and signed grants by roughly mid-2027. Two-stage applicants should note the clock restarts at each stage — first-stage filers in April 2026 learned their fate before the September second-stage deadline. Budget your runway accordingly: no money moves until the grant agreement is signed.
Live from the EU Funding & Tenders Portal.
Mobilises 86 partners from 29 countries to shift Europe from linear food chains to circular food systems within planetary boundaries.
Builds the evidence base and policy recommendations to unlock the cross-sectoral potential of the European bioeconomy.
Funds the National Contact Point network that gives applicants free, country-level help with Cluster 6 proposals.
Shows regional bioeconomy clusters in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe can drive bio-based innovation and resilient local economies.
Pilots circular solutions — regenerative agriculture, local food systems, reusable packaging — in cities and regions.
No. Standard Cluster 6 calls require a consortium of at least three independent legal entities, each established in a different EU Member State or associated country, with at least one in an EU Member State. Single companies should look at the EIC Accelerator instead.
Your topic states the expected EU contribution for the full consortium and the applicable action type. RIA/IA/CSA and partnership COFUND actions do not have one universal rate. Check both the specific conditions and the current General Annexes, including the lump-sum or actual-cost model.
The 26 November 2026 Agriculture of Data deadline is restricted to the incumbent partnership coordinator; additional partners may be included. The next general-entry two-stage calls open 4 February 2027 and close for stage 1 on 8 April 2027. Governance single-stage closes 11 May; other single-stage calls close 22 or 23 September 2027.
Most topics are Research and Innovation Actions targeting roughly TRL 2-6 — from a validated concept to a system demonstrated in a relevant environment. Innovation Actions push closer to market, while Coordination and Support Actions fund networking rather than new research.
Use the current amended work programme, not an earlier draft. It provides 2027 call calendars, topic budgets and conditions. Proposal length and lump-sum requirements must be checked in the selected topic and submission template.
No. Horizon Europe grants are non-dilutive and non-repayable. You keep your equity, and intellectual property is governed by the consortium agreement, not the EU.
The current work programme separates annual budgets, calls and other actions. Use its budget tables for the chosen scope; an annual call total is not the full two-year programme budget or a company grant. For example, the Agriculture of Data continuation allocates €60M across 2026–2027.
Expect evaluation results within roughly five months of the deadline and grant agreement signature within about five to eight months, after which the first pre-financing payment is released.
Only the incumbent partnership coordinator submits the continuation proposal. Additional partners may be included by the consortium. A public portal deadline alone does not make it a standalone startup funding competition.
Official-source review of current calls, decision facts, selected topic budgets, application artefacts and access restrictions. Existing rich material is preserved where not superseded; this is not a full re-verification of every historical statement. Follow-up reconciliation of normalized root metadata and the Cluster 4 hero facts against this scoped research; unsupported generic numeric ranges and totals are intentionally null.
Research updated: 2026-10-12
Official call documents take precedence. A listed reference is not necessarily indexed in full by the AI.
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CollaborativeGrants set by each topic
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GrantTopic-specific project grants
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BlendedGrant below €2.5M + up to €10M equity
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GrantUp to 60% of relevant costs
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Platform / Seal€10M–30M equity per company
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