EU-Wide Advantages & Opportunities of the SNS Trials & Pilots with Verticals Call (HORIZON-JU-SNS-2025-02-STREAM-D-01)

1. Single Market Access

• Deployments validated under the grant can immediately address a seamless market of 450+ million consumers and 24 million enterprises, avoiding costly country-by-country certification thanks to EU harmonised spectrum and CE-marking rules.

• Vertical focus (manufacturing, media, transport, emergency, health) matches the five largest pan-European B2B markets, enabling consortia to roll-out solutions simultaneously in multiple Member States and tap into EU-wide industrial value chains (e.g. automotive corridor from DE–FR–IT, media clusters in SE–FI–EE, medical device leaders in IE–DK-NL).

2. Cross-Border Collaboration & Knowledge Exchange

• The call explicitly rewards end-to-end pilots; using multi-country testbeds (e.g. 5GTNC Norway–Sweden, 6G-BRICKS Italy–Spain) allows partners to showcase roaming, network-slicing and cross-domain orchestration in real production settings.

• Mandatory SME involvement and the 50 % JU-member budget rule trigger balanced consortia mixing EU vendors, start-ups and academic labs—accelerating technology transfer and SME internationalisation.

• Collaboration agreements foreseen in the MGA ensure systematic sharing of KPIs/KVIs, open-source modules and AI/ML datasets across all SNS projects, multiplying learning effects.

3. Alignment with Flagship EU Policies

• Digital Decade 2030 & Digital Compass: contributes directly to EU target of having >10,000 climate-neutral edge nodes and gigabit connectivity for all businesses by 2030.

• European Green Deal & Circular Economy: proposals must quantify environmental KPIs (energy per bit, CO₂ per delivered service), feeding into the Climate Neutral & Smart Cities mission and Taxonomy reporting.

• EU Cybersecurity Strategy & NIS2: projects tackling secure public/private 6G networks anticipate forthcoming EU certification schemes (EUCS), giving participants first-mover compliance advantages.

• Chips Act & IPCEI-CIS: leveraging national 6G platforms and semiconductor pilot lines fosters EU technological sovereignty and reduces dependency on high-risk suppliers restricted by the call.

4. Regulatory Harmonisation Benefits

• 3GPP, ETSI and CEN-CENELEC engagement is an explicit outcome; EU-level validation of KVIs shapes global Release 20+ specifications while ensuring EU priorities (energy, privacy-by-design) are embedded.

• Common GDPR and Data Act frameworks simplify cross-border data federation prototypes (edge/cloud continuum), avoiding divergent national rules seen in non-EU markets.

• Public-private network integration pilots profit from the soon-harmonised private 5G/6G spectrum bands (n77/n78/n79), easing factory-wide deployments across Member States.

5. Access to Europe’s Innovation Ecosystem

• Direct links to 30+ existing SNS Phase 1 & 2 platforms (e.g., 6G-Xplore, Hexa-X-II) and 70 % of EU 6G academic research capacity offer ready-made labs, saving set-up costs and shortening time-to-pilot.

• Vertical partners can plug into EIT KICs (Manufacturing, Health, Urban Mobility, Digital) for extra mentoring, test users and market channels.

• The requirement to contribute open-source code widens visibility through Eclipse SDV, Linux Foundation Europe, GAIA-X, stimulating community uptake beyond the consortium.

6. Funding Synergies & Leverage

• Horizon Europe grants cover up to 70 % of eligible costs (100 % for non-profit), which can be blended with:

- Digital Europe Programme (DEP) €1.3 bn for 5G/edge deployment and specialised skills academies.

- Connecting Europe Facility 2 (CEF-2) corridors for 5G-enabled Cooperative Connected Automated Mobility (CCAM).

- European Investment Bank (EIB) Venture Debt & InvestEU guarantees for scale-up phase.

- European Regional Development / Just Transition Funds for regional 6G test sites and SME vouchers.

• Such stacking allows full TRL journey—from lab (SNS) → pilot (DEP/CEF) → commercial scale (InvestEU)—all within a coherent EU toolbox.

7. Scale & Impact Potential

• Balanced-portfolio rule ensures at least one funded project per vertical, maximising societal coverage and creating a reference blueprint for each sector EU-wide.

• EU-level benchmark repository for KPIs/KVIs becomes de-facto standard, giving funded consortia outsized influence in global 6G indicator setting.

• Endorsement by an EU Joint Undertaking accelerates market trust, easing procurement in pan-European industrial groups and public administrations.

• Results feed directly into upcoming EU 6G Strategic Deployment Agenda (planned 2026), positioning beneficiaries for future public funding waves (>€1 bn).

8. Strategic Value of Operating at EU Scale

• Only an EU-wide framework can provide the diversity of radio environments (Nordic rural, Alpine cross-border tunnels, dense Mediterranean ports) required for credible 6G validation—impossible to replicate within a single Member State.

• Centralised ethics, security and sustainability reviews lower compliance overhead and strengthen public acceptance compared with fragmented national pilots.

• Participation restrictions (Art 22(5)) foster a trusted European supply chain—projects become showcases for sovereignty, enhancing export prospects to other like-minded regions.

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Actionable Take-Aways for Applicants

1. Build consortia spanning at least 3–4 Member/Associated States to demonstrate genuine single-market relevance and qualify for top scores on impact.

2. Reference specific EU policy KPIs (e.g., Digital Decade 1 Gbps connectivity target, Fit-for-55 emission cuts) to evidence alignment.

3. Map planned pilots onto DEP or CEF-2 infrastructure corridors to show a clear post-grant scaling path and unlock co-funding.

4. Engage an SME as work-package leader and quantify its forecast revenue growth to maximise the SME sub-criterion.

5. Pre-commit contributions to ETSI ISGs or 3GPP RAN/SA Working Groups to underline standardisation leverage.