Challenge-Driven GenAI4EU Booster (RIA) (AI/Data/Robotics Partnership)
Quick Facts
Ready to Apply?
Get a personalized assessment of your eligibility and application strategy
See in 5 min if you're eligible for Challenge-Driven GenAI4EU Booster (RIA) (AI/Data/Robotics Partnership) offering max €85.0M funding💰 Funding Details
Funding Description – Challenge-Driven GenAI4EU Booster (RIA)
What the Grant Finances
1. Core RIA activities of the consortium (max. €85 M per grant)
• Definition, launch and day-to-day management of a 3-stage GenAI challenge in one strategic sector (pick either aerospace, pharma/drug development or telecommunications).
• Technical, legal and business support services for challengers (datasets, sandboxing infrastructure, GPUs/TPUs, cloud credits, mentoring, IP & regulatory coaching, standardisation inputs, ethics & trustworthy-AI compliance).
• Dissemination, communication & sponsorship campaigns (events, press, social media, sector fairs, AI-on-Demand platform, ADRA liaison).
• Monitoring & KPI framework, impact assessment, open-science and FAIR data management, Green-AI measures, gender & diversity actions.
• Consortium administration, governance bodies, quality assurance, risk management, independent external evaluators and security clearances where needed.
2. Financial Support to Third Parties (FSTP / cascade funding)
• Stage 1 → €5 M total: micro-grants to all participants (typically to cover compute & travel) and preparatory costs for the 20 best-ranked solutions that advance.
• Stage 2 → €250 k per solution (20 solutions, i.e. €5 M in total) to mature prototypes tackling the sector-specific challenge.
• Stage 3 → €2 M per solution (4 solutions, i.e. €8 M in total) for full-scale pilots and the grand finale; teams join the consortium as new beneficiaries.
*NB: Derogation to Art. 204 FR allows grants >€60 k; you must supply a detailed FSTP scheme in Part B.*
3. Eligible Cost Categories
• Personnel, equipment depreciation (GPUs, edge devices, simulators), consumables, licences, subcontracting (limited), travel, event organisation, communication, and indirect costs (25 % flat-rate).
• All costs must be incurred by legal entities established in EU-27 or the restricted list of associated countries and must relate directly to the action objectives.
Eligibility Snapshot
1. Consortium composition: min. 3 independent entities from 3 different eligible countries; user-industry companies from the chosen sector must be core partners.
2. Country restrictions: only EU-27 + Iceland, Norway, CH, UK, IL, CA, KR, NZ. Entities controlled by non-eligible countries need national guarantees. High-risk 5G suppliers are excluded.
3. Single-sector focus: each proposal may address only one sector.
4. RIA TRL range: typically TRL 2-5 at project start, aiming at TRL 6-7 demonstrators by project end for winning teams.
5. Ethics & security: AI safety, dual-use screening, GDPR, data-sharing agreements, national security clearances where needed.
6. Open science & IP: mandatory DMP, timely publications, results uploaded to AI-on-Demand; IP remains with beneficiaries but exploitation plan required.
Key Funding Facts at a Glance
• Call ID: HORIZON-CL4-2025-03-DIGITAL-EMERGING-09
• Type of action: HORIZON-RIA (Research & Innovation Action)
• Budget ceiling per grant: €85 000 000
• Single-stage submission: opens 10 Jun 2025, deadline 02 Oct 2025 17:00 CET
• Expected EU contribution requested: €30-45 M is realistic (5 M Stage 1 + 8 M Stage 3 + ~17-32 M consortium operations) – justify if higher.
• EU funding rate: 100 % of eligible direct costs + 25 % indirect.
• Award criteria: Excellence (≥4/5), Impact (≥4/5), Quality & Efficiency (≥3/5); overall threshold 12/15.
• Portfolio balance rule: at least one funded project per sector.
---
📊 At a Glance
🇪🇺 Strategic Advantages
EU-Wide Advantages and Opportunities
1. Unrivalled Single Market Access
• Immediate reach to 450+ million consumers and 23 million companies via the Digital Single Market.
• The pan-EU challenge format creates an early user-base across multiple Member States, accelerating adoption paths in aerospace, pharma and telecoms supply chains.
• IP generated under Horizon Europe enjoys unitary protection options (e.g. Unitary Patent), reducing fragmentation costs when commercialising GenAI solutions.
2. Cross-Border Collaboration & Knowledge Exchange
• Mandatory multinational consortia foster complementary excellence (e.g. French avionics OEM + German AI lab + Spanish SME incubator).
• Access to EU infrastructures such as EuroHPC supercomputers, Cloud-Edge federations and the AI-on-Demand platform for model training and benchmarking.
• Stage-gated cascade funding enables a pipeline of >20 start-ups per sector, seeding cross-border business partnerships early.
3. Alignment with Flagship EU Policies
• Digital Europe Programme & GenAI4EU initiative: direct contribution to the Apply-AI Strategy targets of 75% AI adoption in enterprises by 2030.
• European Green Deal & Fit-for-55: GenAI-driven design optimisation (lighter airframes, energy-efficient 5G networks, AI-generated low-toxicity molecules) supports decarbonisation KPIs.
• EU Chips Act & Secure Connectivity: telecom use-cases enhance autonomous, resilient network management critical for open strategic autonomy.
4. Regulatory Harmonisation & Trustworthy AI
• Horizon projects automatically integrate the forthcoming EU AI Act compliance toolbox, giving early-mover advantage in "trust-by-design" GenAI.
• Harmonised pharma regulations via EMA’s Accelerating Clinical Trials Initiative allow smoother transition from pre-competitive GenAI molecule generation to clinical phases.
• Aerospace solutions can leverage EASA’s common certification sandbox for AI-based aviation systems.
5. Embedded in a World-Class Innovation Ecosystem
• Direct links to 40+ European Digital Innovation Hubs specialising in AI, data & robotics, providing test-before-invest services across borders.
• Synergies with eight EIT KICs (Health, Manufacturing, Digital, InnoEnergy, etc.) open additional mentorship and market channels.
• Collaboration clause with ADRA ensures visibility at 250+ member organisations and policy makers.
6. Amplified Funding & Investment Synergies
• Combination of €5 M FSTP + €8 M stage-3 budget per proposal crowds-in private capital; historical leverage ratios for cascade schemes are 1:3–1:5.
• Seamless follow-on pathways: EIC Accelerator (up to €17.5 M blended finance), InvestEU thematic windows, ESA Commercialisation Gateway (for aerospace).
• National Recovery & Resilience Plans earmark >€134 B for digital; Horizon funding can act as trigger for co-investment by national innovation agencies.
7. Pan-European Scale & Market Uptake
• Linked actions across the three sectors will produce shared standards, datasets and evaluation protocols, reducing duplication and enabling rapid replication in additional Member States.
• Mandatory dissemination via AI-on-Demand platform makes results discoverable by >30 000 EU researchers & developers.
• Alignment with standardisation bodies (ETSI, CEN/CENELEC, ICH, ASD-STAN) accelerates formal adoption.
8. Strategic Value Compared to National-Level Initiatives
• Risk pooling: EU grant absorbs early-stage technological and market risks unsupportable by single Member States.
• Political neutrality eases data-sharing across borders (essential for robust GenAI training sets).
• Visibility: EU-backed competition brand attracts top talent in a way that dispersed national contests cannot, countering US/Asia brain-drain.
Actionable Recommendations for Applicants
1. Build a consortium spanning at least five countries to maximise evaluation scores on excellence & impact.
2. Secure letters of intent from Clean Aviation JU, IHI, or 6G-IA projects to evidence policy and funding synergies.
3. Allocate ≥3% of budget to standardisation and AI Act conformity assessment tasks to strengthen exploitation credibility.
4. Use the AI-on-Demand platform from month 1 for open-call publicity and for publishing interim benchmarks, fulfilling reuse and dissemination KPIs.
5. Design FSTP agreements so that start-ups retain IP ownership but grant EEA-wide, royalty-free licences to consortium partners for validation phases, ensuring freedom-to-operate across the Single Market.
🏷️ Keywords
Ready to Apply?
Get a personalized assessment of your eligibility and application strategy
See in 5 min if you're eligible for Challenge-Driven GenAI4EU Booster (RIA) (AI/Data/Robotics Partnership) offering max €85.0M funding