EU-Wide Advantages & Strategic Opportunities

HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-TECH-03 – “AI-powered impact simulations in support of the Destination Earth initiative”

1. Overview

This call sits at the intersection of AI, high-performance computing (HPC) and climate-related Digital Twins. Operating at EU level multiplies technical reach, policy relevance and commercial potential far beyond what can be achieved within a single Member State.

2. Single Market Access (450 + million citizens, >23 M SMEs)

• Pan-European adoption of local impact dashboards – once validated in 3+ pilot user groups (mandatory in the topic), solutions can be rolled out to every region and municipality, creating a unified “climate-risk intelligence” market.

• Harmonised public-procurement channels (e.g. EU Public Buyers Community for AI, upcoming Green Public Procurement criteria for digital twins) lower sales friction and shorten time-to-market.

• Ability to pool demand for AI-enabled adaptation services across regions (joint cross-border tenders, Interreg) increases deal size and ROI.

3. Cross-Border Collaboration & Knowledge Exchange

• Mandatory collaboration with ESA, ECMWF, EUMETSAT places beneficiaries in a privileged position within Europe’s most data-rich Earth-observation entities.

• Access to EuroHPC Joint Undertaking machines in multiple countries removes national compute bottlenecks and reduces single-point failure risk.

• Project consortia can integrate at least three distinct user groups (topic requirement) from different Member States, creating living-lab conditions for multilingual GenAI interfaces and best-practice transfer.

• Facilitated mobility through MSCA & COST Actions can embed young researchers directly in partner RIs, accelerating talent circulation.

4. Alignment with Key EU Policies

• European Green Deal & Climate Adaptation Mission – provides political tail-wind and fast regulatory uptake for AI-enhanced risk models.

• Digital Europe & GenAI4EU – direct coherence with the flagship initiative unlocks complementary DEP/DEP-AI resources (e.g. testing facilities, regulatory sandboxes).

• Open Data Policy (EU Open Science Cloud, INSPIRE) – the call’s requirement for repeatability dovetails with existing FAIR-data mandates, simplifying compliance.

• Fits the “Twin Transition” narrative (green + digital), a priority criterion in many national recovery plans (RRF) that can co-finance downstream deployment.

5. Regulatory Harmonisation & Standards Leadership

• Development under the forthcoming AI Act in a cross-border context positions the consortium as first movers in trustworthy, high-risk AI for environmental modelling.

• Opportunity to shape CEN/CENELEC pre-standardisation on Digital Twin interoperability and AI governance; early compliance becomes a competitive edge on global markets.

• Common GDPR and upcoming Data Act frameworks reduce legal uncertainty for cross-border data fusion and synthetic data generation.

6. Access to Europe’s Innovation Ecosystem

• Direct pipelines to HPC Centres of Excellence (ESiWACE, ChEESE), AI-on-Demand Platform, and Copernicus DIAS nodes accelerate TRL maturation.

• Collaboration with EIT Climate-KIC and EIC scaling programmes offers business-acceleration pathways once RIA results reach market readiness.

• Synergy with Regional Innovation Valleys facilitates spill-over into less-developed regions, enhancing cohesion scoring in project evaluation.

7. Funding Synergies & Leverage

• Combine the lump-sum RIA with:

- Digital Europe DEP-AI Testing & Experimentation Facilities (TEFs) for large-scale pilots.

- EuroHPC access calls for free compute hours.

- LIFE & Interreg for post-project deployment of climate-services.

- ERDF Smart Specialisation funds to co-invest in regional twin nodes.

• Alignment with CEF Digital can finance cross-border data connectivity required for real-time streaming into twins.

8. EU-Scale Deployment & Impact

• A pan-European architecture enables federated execution of impact simulations, keeping data in-situ at national RIs while sharing AI models—fully in line with the data-gravity challenge in DestinE.

• Multi-lingual, GenAI-driven interfaces support policy makers in all 24 EU official languages, maximising societal uptake.

• Aggregated, comparable impact metrics strengthen EU-wide evidence-based legislation (e.g. Nature Restoration Law, Soil Monitoring Directive).

• Scalable to other EU Digital Twins (Ocean, Forests, Energy), ensuring longevity beyond the initial 36-48 month RIA.

9. Strategic Take-Aways for Applicants

1. Build a geographically balanced consortium (minimum 3 MS/AC; aim for 6-8) that mirrors key climatic zones to validate transferability.

2. Anchor use-cases in EU policy milestones (Fit-for-55, EU Soil Mission) to boost excellence & impact scores.

3. Plan for standardisation deliverables (CEN workshop agreements, ISO liaison) to demonstrate leadership in regulatory harmonisation.

4. Map complementary funding early (DEP, EuroHPC, regional RRF) and reference them in the work plan to show a credible scalability pathway.

5. Emphasise open, trustworthy AI (conformance with AI Act, Ethics Guidelines) to mitigate evaluator concerns and align with GenAI4EU ethos.

Bottom line: Leveraging the integrated EU market, common regulatory framework and unparalleled research infrastructure landscape transforms this call into a springboard for Europe-wide leadership in AI-driven climate intelligence—an advantage no single-country project can match.