Chips JU Opens €65 Million in New Digital Europe Calls as Europe Lines Up Five Joint Defence Projects
06 July 2026 · Strategic Funding Partners
<span style="color:#787774">Published 06 July 2026 · SFP Pulse · Weekly Research</span>
> Chips JU launches €120M in new semiconductor calls on 7 July while the Commission proposes five joint defence megaprojects.
Mid-summer is usually a thin week for EU funding, but this one bucks the trend. The Chips Joint Undertaking is opening six new Digital Europe calls tomorrow, worth €120 million in total, the Commission has tabled five European Defence Projects of Common Interest, and a long-signalled Horizon Europe biodiversity mega-call has moved into comitology. Alongside these, teams across Europe are scrambling to lock in consortium partners ahead of the September Horizon deadlines, and SFP Proposal Builder is the fast way to move from partner scouting to a submission-ready proposal.
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Chips JU launches six new Digital Europe calls with €120 million, opening 7 July
The Chips Joint Undertaking is Europe's flagship vehicle for building sovereign capacity in semiconductor design, pilot manufacturing and skills. Set up under the Chips Act, it pools EU, Member State and industry funding to close the gap between research and industrial-scale chip production, with a strong focus on strategic autonomy in an area dominated globally by Asia and the US.
On 7 July 2026, Chips JU launches six new call topics under the Digital Europe Programme with an overall budget of €120 million. The topics are structured as Simple Grants and Coordination and Support Actions, covering AI compute infrastructure, semiconductor design enablement, pilot lines and competence-centre activities across the European semiconductor value chain. The calls close on 23 or 24 September 2026.
Coming just as the Commission's broader Chips Act rollout gathers momentum, this package is one of the most concrete signals yet that Europe intends to keep pace on advanced chip design and manufacturing capacity. It also arrives when many teams are already thinking hard about defence, AI and dual-use hardware, all of which lean heavily on European semiconductor capability.
Research organisations, universities, RTOs, design houses and semiconductor SMEs are the natural applicants, particularly those already active in Chips JU pilot lines, EDIH networks, or the competence-centre ecosystem. Consortia looking to link chip design work into AI, quantum, automotive or defence use cases should look closely at the topic scopes.
> 🔬 Programme: Digital Europe · Chips Joint Undertaking > > Budget: €120 million across six topics > > Deadline: 23-24 September 2026 > > Opens: Tuesday 7 July 2026 > > Instruments: Simple Grants, Coordination and Support Actions
> Source: NCP Flanders
Commission proposes five European Defence Projects of Common Interest
European Defence Projects of Common Interest (EDPCIs) are a new instrument through which the Commission pulls together Member States around large, flagship defence-industrial projects, a step up from smaller EDF calls, aimed at closing the capability gaps identified in the Strategic Compass and the ReArm Europe plan.
On 3 July 2026, following its earlier call for expressions of interest to Member States, the Commission proposed the first five EDPCIs. They span drones and counter-drone systems, maritime and seabed defence, space, air and missile defence, and Eastern-Flank security. Each is intended as a multi-country, multi-year build-up of shared European capability, with joint procurement, standardisation and industrial ramp-up baked in.
For defence-adjacent research organisations, tech SMEs and prime contractors, EDPCIs matter because they set the pattern for how large-scale EU defence investment will be structured in the years ahead. They also intersect directly with the EIC's newly opened defence and dual-use windows: the €100 million EIC STEP Defence Scale Up call announced last week is still open until 28 October 2026, so startups and scaleups now have multiple, complementary EU vehicles to plug into.
Prime contractors, defence SMEs, universities and RTOs working on drones, maritime systems, space, missile defence, cybersecurity and dual-use technologies should be reading these five project scopes closely, and starting the conversation with national ministries and industrial partners now.
> 🛡️ Proposed: Friday 3 July 2026 > > Projects: 5 (drones and counter-drone · maritime and seabed · space · air and missile defence · Eastern-Flank security) > > Framework: Strategic Compass, ReArm Europe > > Linked funding: EIC STEP Defence Scale Up (€100M, deadline 28 October 2026)
> Source: European Commission, DG DEFIS
Horizon Europe Work Programme amendment tables a €229 million biodiversity mega-call
The Horizon Europe Work Programme 2026-2027 is the two-year plan setting out every call across the Framework Programme. Amendments to it are how new priorities are folded in mid-cycle. This one, listed as comitology document D114172/03, is going through the standard EU procedure ahead of formal adoption. For readers less familiar with the term, comitology is the structured route through which national governments scrutinise and sign off on the Commission's implementing measures before they take effect.
The draft amendment adds a dedicated biodiversity and Nature mega-call worth approximately €229 million across 11 topics, plus a set of Bridging Actions worth roughly €193 million across 14 topics. Formal Member State consultation is expected in mid-July, with adoption pencilled in for around late September 2026. Call deadlines are expected in 2027, giving consortia real lead time to prepare.
This is a substantial injection of biodiversity funding into an already strong Cluster 6 pipeline, and it lands as the Nature Restoration Regulation moves into implementation. For any organisation working on biodiversity, ecosystems, restoration ecology, sustainable agriculture and land use, or nature-based solutions, this is one of the most important development signals of the year.
Universities, research institutes, environmental NGOs, protected-area managers, regional authorities and Cluster 6 active consortia should start scoping partnerships and pilot sites now. 2027 sounds far off, but strong biodiversity consortia typically take a year or more to build.
> 🌱 Programme: Horizon Europe Work Programme 2026-2027 (amendment) > > Comitology reference: Document D114172/03 > > Biodiversity mega-call: ~€229 million across 11 topics > > Bridging Actions: ~€193 million across 14 topics > > Expected adoption: September 2026 > > Deadlines: 2027
> Source: NetworkNature
Mandatory two-factor authentication on the Funding and Tenders Portal completes rollout
The EU Funding and Tenders Portal is the single point of access for every proposal submission, grant management action and expert-role activity across EU R&I funding, from Horizon Europe through Digital Europe, LIFE, CEF and beyond. Every user needs an EU Login account to access it.
On 29 June 2026 the Portal confirmed that the phased transition to mandatory two-factor authentication (2FA) has now concluded. Every user, including LEARs, legal and financial signatories, coordinator and participant contacts, task managers and experts, must have at least one 2FA method registered (Security Key, Trusted Platform, or the EU Login Mobile App) to retain access. SMS-based authentication has been phased out.
This is an operational change that materially affects everyone submitting to EU calls. Anyone who tries to log in without 2FA set up will be locked out, and the September deadlines are only weeks away, so this is the moment to check that every named contact on your consortium can still access the portal.
Every organisation with active or upcoming EU proposals, including LEARs, financial signatories, coordinator contacts and evaluators, should confirm 2FA is set up on all relevant accounts today.
> 🔐 Change: Mandatory 2-factor authentication on EU Login > > Effective: End of June 2026 (rollout now complete) > > Affects: All Funding and Tenders Portal users > > Supported methods: Security Key, Trusted Platform, EU Login Mobile App > > Phased out: SMS authentication
> Source: EU Funding and Tenders Portal
Horizon Europe Model Grant Agreement updated for dual-use: check Annex 5 before your next submission
The General Model Grant Agreement (MGA) is the standard contract that governs every Horizon Europe and Euratom grant, from budget rules through to ethics obligations. When it changes, the change flows through to every new grant signed after the update.
The latest version (v1.2, entry dated 1 June 2026) introduces changes to Annex 5 to accommodate calls allowing for dual-use activities, specifically in the ethics section. The update follows the EIC's June opening to defence and dual-use technologies and lands just as the Commission tables its first five European Defence Projects of Common Interest (above).
For consortia scoping defence-adjacent or dual-use proposals, the revised ethics provisions set out how dual-use activities are handled contractually, and are worth reading before finalising an ethics self-assessment rather than after.
Anyone preparing proposals under the EIC dual-use windows, Cluster 3, or upcoming defence-linked calls should review the revised Annex 5 alongside their ethics planning.
> 📜 Document: Horizon Europe General Model Grant Agreement > > Version: v1.2 · entry dated 1 June 2026 > > What changed: Annex 5 ethics provisions for calls allowing dual-use activities > > Relevant to: EIC dual-use windows, Cluster 3, defence-adjacent proposals
> Source: EU Funding and Tenders Portal
EuroHPC publishes AI Gigafactories info-session materials for prospective consortia
AI Gigafactories are the EU's planned large-scale facilities for developing and training next-generation AI models, each designed around more than 100,000 advanced AI processors, with power capacity, supply chains and energy efficiency built in from the start. They sit under the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking as the flagship of the InvestAI push.
EuroHPC JU has now published info-session materials for prospective consortia ahead of the initiative's rollout. Interest is already exceptional: the informal call for expressions of interest attracted 76 submissions representing more than €230 billion in proposed investment, and the timing of the official call rests with the EuroHPC Governing Board.
For organisations weighing participation, the materials are the clearest guide yet to how selection will be structured and what consortia will need to demonstrate.
Data-centre operators, HPC centres, AI-infrastructure investors, energy providers and Member State bodies considering a Gigafactory bid should work through the materials and the FAQ now, before the formal call lands.
> 🖥️ Programme: EuroHPC JU · InvestAI > > Scale: 100,000+ advanced AI processors per facility > > Interest so far: 76 expressions of interest, €230bn+ in proposed investment > > Status: Info-session materials published; official call timing with the EuroHPC Governing Board
> Source: EuroHPC Joint Undertaking
If you want a focused, strategically aligned shortlist of the most relevant calls for your organisation, SFP Analysis maps the EU funding landscape against your business strategy.
Featured Calls
These are the most popular calls on Discovery this week. Get in touch if you'd like to find out whether you could be a fit.
> 🧬 HORIZON-MISS-2026-02-CANCER-01 · Virtual Human Twin (VHT) models for cancer research > > Budget: €35M | Deadline: 15 September 2026 > > Programme: Horizon Europe (Mission Cancer) | Status: Open > > Thematic Areas: Health, digital health, cancer research, virtual human twins, AI and ML in medicine > > Fit signal: Well suited to major cancer research centres, digital-health consortia and clinical-data infrastructures able to build integrative VHT models, ideally combining cancer biology expertise with computational modelling, medical imaging and AI. Around 4 grants of €8 to 9 million each.
> 🎨 HORIZON-MISS-2026-01-CLIMA-05 · Protecting cultural heritage from climate-change impacts > > Budget: €21M | Deadline: 23 September 2026 > > Programme: Horizon Europe (Mission Adaptation to Climate Change) | Status: Open > > Thematic Areas: Cultural heritage, climate adaptation, cultural tourism, sustainable materials, resilience > > Fit signal: A strong fit for heritage sites, museums, universities and regional authorities managing climate-vulnerable cultural assets, alongside conservation scientists, adaptation modellers and cultural-tourism organisations. Around 3 grants of €7 million.
> 🛡️ HORIZON-CL3-2026-02-CS-ECCC-01 · Security in software and hardware development and assessment > > Budget: €20M | Deadline: 15 September 2026 > > Programme: Horizon Europe Cluster 3 · ECCC | Status: Open > > Thematic Areas: Cybersecurity, secure software and hardware, assurance, certification > > Fit signal: Ideal for cybersecurity RTOs, semiconductor and embedded-systems groups, and universities with strong secure-development labs, particularly those already engaged with the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre (ECCC) and national coordination centres. Around 5 grants of €3 to 4 million.
Interested in pursuing any of these calls? Request a free concept note to find out how your organisation fits and what a winning proposal could look like.
New & Open Calls This Week
18 new calls have been added since the last SFP Pulse edition, most from a Chips Joint Undertaking package that opened today. New and open are effectively the same list this week: all 14 Chips JU topics below opened Tuesday 7 July, alongside the IHI and Culture and Society calls added since 30 June. Highlights below, with the full set on Discovery.
Chips JU: Digital Europe (highlights, opened today):
DIGITAL-JU-CHIPS-2026-AI-GFP ⇢ AI compute evaluation and deployment platform for EU infrastructure<br/>Budget: €70M | Deadline: 23 September 2026
DIGITAL-JU-CHIPS-2026-SKILLS-SCD-CSA ⇢ Stimulation of Chip Design<br/>Budget: €15M | Deadline: 24 September 2026
DIGITAL-JU-CHIPS-2026-AI1-SG ⇢ AI chip demonstrators for EU compute infrastructure<br/>Budget: €10M | Deadline: 23 September 2026
DIGITAL-JU-CHIPS-2026-SKILLS-HOE-SG ⇢ Skills Hubs of Excellence<br/>Budget: €10M | Deadline: 24 September 2026
Two more Digital Europe Chips JU calls are open too: Pilot Federation and the EU-Japan semiconductor collaboration.
Chips JU: Horizon Europe (highlights, opened today):
HORIZON-JU-CHIPS-2026-2-RIA ⇢ RIA Resilience call reinforcing Europe's strength in 6G radio communication systems<br/>Budget: €20M | Deadline: 16 September 2026
HORIZON-JU-CHIPS-2026-FT1-IA ⇢ IA Resilience call reinforcing Europe's strength in power electronics<br/>Budget: €20M | Deadline: 16 September 2026
HORIZON-JU-CHIPS-2026-FT2-IA ⇢ IA Resilience call reinforcing Europe's strength in photonics<br/>Budget: €20M | Deadline: 16 September 2026
HORIZON-JU-CHIPS-2026-FT3-IA ⇢ IA Resilience call reinforcing Europe's strength in health<br/>Budget: €20M | Deadline: 16 September 2026
Four more Horizon Europe Chips JU calls are open too, covering supply-chain resilience, the software-defined vehicle platform, Digital Partnership/TTC cooperation and the Chips JU impact-monitoring framework.
Innovative Health Initiative 2026 Round 13 (highlights, all closing 8 October):
HORIZON-JU-IHI-2026-13-TWO-STAGE-01 ⇢ IHI European HealthCare Incubator Network<br/>Budget: part of ~€53.2M Round 13 envelope | Deadline: 8 October 2026
HORIZON-JU-IHI-2026-13-TWO-STAGE-02 ⇢ AI Foundation Toxicology Model to support waiving a second species in drug-safety studies<br/>Budget: part of ~€53.2M Round 13 envelope | Deadline: 8 October 2026
HORIZON-JU-IHI-2026-13-TWO-STAGE-03 ⇢ Decode the immunoscience of age-related diseases<br/>Budget: part of ~€53.2M Round 13 envelope | Deadline: 8 October 2026
Culture and Society:
PPPA-2026-YOUTH-SOCIAL-MEDIA-DESIGN ⇢ Youth-driven social media design (forthcoming, opens 30 July)<br/>Budget: €1.48M | Deadline: 6 October 2026
New and open calls were combined this week given the volume from the Chips JU package, so there is no separate Calls Opening This Week list.
Seeing something worth pursuing? Request a free concept note to find out how your organisation fits and what a winning proposal could look like, or sign up to Discovery to see the full set of calls and get alerts as new ones go live.
Closing Soon
A wider mix this week, spanning our readers' most-clicked flagships alongside topical picks across Cluster 4, Health, Oceans, Climate and Cyber Security. Deadlines are close, but there's still time to shape a strong proposal if you move now.
SOCPL-2026-SOC-DIALOG ⇢ Support for social dialogue, the tightest deadline in this list<br/>Thursday 23 July 2026
ERC-2026-ADG ⇢ ERC Advanced Grants, up to €2.5M for established research leaders<br/>Thursday 27 August 2026
ERC-2026-PLUS ⇢ ERC Plus top-up grants for existing ERC grantees, any career stage<br/>Wednesday 2 September 2026
LIFE-2026-STRAT-NAT-SNAP-TWO-STAGE ⇢ LIFE Strategic Nature Projects, large multi-year restoration and Natura 2000 programmes<br/>Thursday 3 September 2026
HORIZON-CL4-2026-SPACE-03-11 ⇢ Cluster 4 Space, reinforcing EU autonomous access to space through EU-based spaceports (€22.6M)<br/>Thursday 3 September 2026
HORIZON-MSCA-2026-PF-01-01 ⇢ MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2026, two-year fellowships in any discipline<br/>Wednesday 9 September 2026
HORIZON-CL3-2026-02-CS-ECCC-02 ⇢ Cyber Security, SecureAI on the security, privacy and robustness of AI models and systems (€21.2M)<br/>Tuesday 15 September 2026
HORIZON-MISS-2026-02-CANCER-03 ⇢ Health, pragmatic clinical trials to optimise immunotherapy for refractory cancers (€22.2M)<br/>Tuesday 15 September 2026
LIFE-2026-SAP-CLIMA-CCM ⇢ Climate, LIFE Climate Change Mitigation Standard Action Projects (€28M)<br/>Tuesday 22 September 2026
HORIZON-MISS-2026-03-OCEAN-02 ⇢ Oceans, addressing aquatic pollution and biodiversity loss through nature-positive solutions from source to sea (€31M)<br/>Wednesday 23 September 2026
These deadlines are approaching, but there's still enough runway to prepare a competitive proposal. Proposal Builder gives you senior co-authoring and expert EU funding support through to submission.
Open Consultations
Four consultations shaping future EU funding rules close this month. If your organisation has a stake, this is the window to be heard.
European Partnerships as Joint Undertakings (Single Basic Act) ⇢ Call for evidence on the common legal framework for future Joint Undertakings under FP10<br/>Closes: Tuesday 14 July 2026
European Ocean Act ⇢ Public consultation on the EU's flagship ocean legislation, adoption expected end-2026<br/>Closes: Thursday 16 July 2026
EMFAF simplification ⇢ Call for evidence on simplifying the EU's fisheries and aquaculture fund<br/>Closes: Tuesday 21 July 2026
AI Act: high-risk classification guidelines ⇢ Targeted consultation on the draft guidelines for classifying high-risk AI systems<br/>Closes: Thursday 23 July 2026
Upcoming Events
Upcoming events relevant to EU funding and innovation.
Innovation Fund IF26 Heat Auction, public consultation and stakeholder workshop ⇢ Hybrid workshop closing the consultation on the upcoming Industrial Heat Auction<br/>Date: Tuesday 07 July 2026 | Location: Brussels and Online
Implementation Dialogue, Attracting and Retaining Research Talent in Europe ⇢ Commissioner Zaharieva hosts a public debate on research careers and European talent policy, 11:30 CEST<br/>Date: Friday 10 July 2026 | Location: Brussels
AI Act workshop, external evaluators of GPAI models with systemic risk ⇢ DG CNECT workshop for prospective evaluators ahead of the 2 August applicability date<br/>Date: Wednesday 15 July 2026 | Location: Online
Horizon Europe WIDERA Hop-on Facility introductory webinar ⇢ General introduction for Widening-country partners joining existing Horizon Europe projects<br/>Date: Monday 20 July 2026 | Location: Online
Stay Ahead
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