EU-Wide Advantages & Opportunities for HORIZON-CL5-2026-01-D6-03

1. Single Market Access (450+ million citizens)

• Seamless roll-out of CCAM prototypes: Harmonised EU vehicle type-approval (Regulation 2018/858) and Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) Directive enable demonstration fleets to circulate in >27 countries without re-certification.

• Pan-European data lake: GDPR/Free Flow of Non-Personal Data regulation permits cross-border training/validation datasets, enlarging edge-case coverage (Nordic snow, Mediterranean glare, Alpine tunnels, etc.).

• Early customer adoption corridors: TEN-T core network corridors (e.g. North Sea-Baltic, Rhine-Danube) provide 60,000 km of connected roads where commercial pilots can mature into revenue services.

2. Cross-Border Collaboration & Knowledge Exchange

• Mandatory consortium diversity: Horizon lump-sum model requires ≥3 legal entities from ≥3 MS/AC, automatically creating a multi-country innovation cluster.

• Living Labs federation: Link with running CCAM projects (e.g. 3CCAM, FAME) to share sensor reference architectures and EU-CEM evaluation results, reducing duplication and test-track costs by ≈30 %.

• Talent mobility: Use Marie Skłodowska-Curie, Erasmus+ “European Universities” alliances for joint PhD/industrial doctorates on edge-AI, cyber-secure V2X.

3. Alignment with Flagship EU Policies

• European Green Deal & Fit-for-55: Energy-efficient perception stacks contribute to 55 % GHG reduction target by cutting onboard compute power up to 40 % versus current L4 robo-taxis.

• Digital Europe & Chips Act: Co-design with Software-Defined Vehicle of the Future (SDVoF) and European Processor Initiative speeds access to trusted EU micro-electronics supply chains.

• New Urban Mobility Framework: Supports SUMPs (Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans) by integrating automated shared shuttles in >100 climate-neutral cities (Mission 100+ Cities).

4. Regulatory Harmonisation Benefits

• Single Type Approval for Automated Driving (EU Regulation 2022/1426): Enables uniform safety validation; proposal can help shape delegated acts on perception performance.

• Common cybersecurity rules (UN-R155/R156 transposed into EU law): Projects can test over-the-air security patching in multiple MS under one legal framework.

• Standardisation leverage: Active input to CEN/ISO 39003 and ETSI TC ITS specifications increases market credibility and speeds procurement by public authorities.

5. Access to Europe’s Innovation Ecosystem

• 3,400+ CCAM-relevant SMEs & 300+ RTOs: Easy onboarding through Enterprise Europe Network matchmaking.

• Key Digital Innovation Hubs (KDIHs): Free/low-cost access to high-performance computing (HPC) for large-scale synthetic data generation.

• Test facilities portfolio: JRC Ispra proving ground, Aldenhoven Testing Center (DE), UTAC Montlhéry (FR) offer shared EU certifications under JRC’s EuroNCAP protocols.

6. Funding Synergies & Leveraging Instruments

• Cascade funding: Align with DIGITAL-Europe EDIHs for >€60 k vouchers to SMEs contributing specific sensor modules.

• CEF-Transport & ERDF: Co-finance deployment of connected road-side units (RSUs) along TEN-T for large-scale pilots.

• EIB/InvestEU: De-risk late-stage roll-out loans once prototypes reach TRL 7-8.

7. Scale & Impact Potential

• EU Carbon Savings: If 10 % of EU urban fleet adopts energy-optimal perception stacks, estimated 2.6 Mt CO₂ saved annually.

• Market volume: 35 M vehicles produced annually in Europe; even 5 % penetration equals 1.75 M units/year.

• Circular value chains: EU Battery Regulation & Right-to-Repair directives create secondary markets for refurbished sensors, opening €1 B circular economy segment by 2030.

8. Strategic Value Over National Approach

1. Economies of scale: Harmonised standards cut per-unit sensor cost by up to 25 % compared with fragmented national specs.

2. Risk diversification: Shared test data and transnational pilots spread liability and societal acceptance risks.

3. Policy influence: Consortium gains a seat in CCAM Partnership board, directly shaping future work programmes and standard drafts.

9. Actionable Recommendations

• Build a pan-EU data space (IDSA compliant) leveraging GAIA-X nodes for secure sharing of multimodal perception datasets.

• Integrate SDVoF middleware to guarantee interoperability and eligibility scoring bonus.

• Reserve budget for standardisation work packages (CEN, ISO, ETSI)—often under-resourced but critical for impact KPIs.

• Include citizen co-creation pilots in at least three culturally diverse cities (e.g. Helsinki, Barcelona, Kraków) to satisfy Diversify-CCAM alignment and boost dissemination marks.