EU commits €307.3M to AI, data, and open digital technologies
The European Commission has opened two new Horizon Europe calls under the Digital, Industry and Space cluster, totaling €307.3 million. The funding targets trustworthy AI services, open internet technologies, strategic autonomy, and materials with advanced sensing.
Projects can be led by businesses, public administrations, research bodies, and other entities from EU Member States and partner countries. If you build, ship, or scale digital products in Europe, this is a clear window to fund ambitious work with real impact.
Funding at a glance
- €221.8M for trustworthy AI services, innovative data services, and EU strategic autonomy. Scope includes actions supporting the Apply AI Strategy, robotics, quantum technologies, photonics, and virtual worlds.
- €40M+ for the Open Internet Stack Initiative to develop both end-user applications and core stack technologies, strengthening European sovereign digital commons.
- €85.5M for open strategic autonomy in digital and emerging technologies and raw materials. Focus areas: next-gen AI agents, robotics for industrial and service use, and new materials with enhanced sensing.
Why this matters for engineers and product teams
This is funding to build audited, production-grade AI and data systems that meet EU expectations for safety, privacy, and transparency. It also pushes open, sovereign infrastructure to reduce lock-in and improve interoperability across the stack.
If you work on agents, robotics, data platforms, or low-level protocols, your roadmap likely overlaps with these topics. The calls favor consortia that can prototype, validate with users, and show credible paths to adoption across Europe.
Where to focus
- Trustworthy AI services: auditability, evaluators, safety tooling, data governance, privacy-by-design, and human oversight.
- AI agents: tool use, orchestration, policy compliance, secure connectors, and guardrails for enterprise workflows.
- Robotics (industrial and service): interoperability, simulation, perception, edge compute, and verifiable safety.
- Quantum and photonics: compute, sensing, and communications that integrate with existing digital infrastructure.
- Virtual worlds: interoperable environments, open standards, real-time simulation, and links to industrial twins.
- Open Internet Stack: protocols, identity, privacy tech, peer-to-peer components, and developer-ready SDKs.
- Data services and autonomy: federated data spaces, access control, provenance, and cross-border interoperability.
- New materials with sensing: embedded sensing for edge devices and robotics, with clear paths to manufacturing.
How to prepare a competitive proposal
- Form a balanced consortium (industry + SMEs + research + public sector) with clear roles and a single narrative.
- Map work packages to measurable outcomes: TRLs, testbeds, reference implementations, and open benchmarks.
- Plan for standards and compliance: security, privacy, ethics, and trustworthy AI requirements from day one.
- Open where it counts: contribute specs, reference code, and documentation that others can adopt and extend.
- Prove impact: user pilots, integration plans, cost models, and credible go-to-market or policy adoption paths.
- Manage data well: DMPs, access control, lineage, and reproducibility baked into your architecture.
Check the official details and submit through the EU Funding & Tenders Portal. Deadlines, eligibility, and topic texts are updated there.
Upskill your team to move faster
If your proposal depends on AI agents, prompt workflows, or automation, level up your team before you build. Explore role-based learning paths here: AI courses by job.
Your membership also unlocks:
