Strategic Funding Partners

EU funding budgets: where the money is going, and what is still in play

26 October 2026 · Strategic Funding Partners

Published 26 October 2026 · SFP Pulse · Weekly Research

> Billions allocated, health funding adopted and bigger budgets still being negotiated: where EU funding is going, and what applicants can do now.

The theme this week is money: €3.4 billion for selected clean-tech projects, €390 million for LIFE projects and an adopted €680.7 million health programme. Alongside those decisions, Parliament is pressing for changes to next year's EU budget and the programmes that follow. The distinction matters when you're planning: some funding has been allocated, some opportunities need preparation now, and some big numbers remain negotiating ambitions. The debate is also turning to how that ambition gets delivered, a question we explore in Talk of the week.

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If you want a focused, strategically aligned view of the EU funding opportunities that matter for your organisation, SFP Analysis maps the funding landscape against your priorities.

€60,000 to turn a local energy plan into an investment proposal

The European City Facility's eighth call opens on 26 October, offering 62 grants of €60,000 to help local authorities prepare sustainable-energy investment concepts. This round accepts local heating and cooling plans alongside Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans or equivalent plans, giving municipalities another way to demonstrate the planning behind their proposed investment.

The LIFE-funded facility pays for the preparation needed to turn an energy ambition into a credible investment proposition, rather than construction itself. Its €3.72 million round is open to eligible municipalities, local authorities, groupings and local public entities in the EU27, Iceland, Ukraine, Moldova, Montenegro and North Macedonia.

Applications close on 21 December at 17:00 Brussels time. Start with the eligibility check and applicant guidelines, including the requirements for a qualifying plan, political support and two years of monitoring.

Source: European City Facility.

Up to €1.25 million to build innovation capacity across universities and business

The EIT Higher Education Initiative opened its 2026 call on 20 October, with up to €1.25 million per project for work running from May 2027 to October 2028. The estimated €40 million total budget remains subject to the EIT board's November allocation.

This programme is about helping universities become better at teaching, developing and commercialising innovation through closer education, research and business links. The new round emphasises science, technology, engineering and mathematics, deep technology and manufacturing. It offers university leaders and industry partners an opportunity to build institutional capability, rather than simply fund another research project.

A higher education institution must coordinate. The minimum partnership includes three higher education institutions in three eligible countries, including an EU Member State, plus two business, industry or representative partners. Each higher education institution must involve at least two faculties, departments, units or equivalent. Institutions actively funded under Call 2025 cannot apply, although non-funded associated partners can. Read the full conditions before building your consortium; applications close on 13 January 2027 at 17:00 CET, with preparation sessions in November.

Source: EIT Higher Education call document.

EU4Health's €680.7 million programme has been adopted

The Commission adopted the 2026 EU4Health work programme on 19 October, with a maximum EU contribution of €680,684,742. When we covered this on 20 October, the positive opinion from Member States was the headline. We can now confirm that the Commission has formally adopted the work programme.

EU4Health supports more resilient health systems, crisis preparedness, prevention, the health workforce and digital health, including work on cancer and other non-communicable diseases. The adopted programme sets out grant and procurement actions through which health authorities, health organisations, NGOs and relevant suppliers may participate.

Get in touch to explore which forthcoming EU4Health opportunities could fit your organisation and what you can start preparing now. Adoption of the programme does not open every implementing call; check individual notices for eligibility and dates.

Sources: Commission adoption decision and work-programme annex.

Cyber-hub funding requires a successful joint-procurement route

The European Cybersecurity Competence Centre announced up to €10 million for national and cross-border cyber hubs on 20 October. These hubs support the European Cybersecurity Alert System by detecting and analysing threats and sharing intelligence across borders.

For designated hub operators and eligible consortium partners, the important detail is the connection between procurement and funding. Participation in the grant route depends on success in the associated Joint Procurement Action. The grant and expression-of-interest workstreams need to be read together, including the EU-control restrictions under Article 12(5). The 16 March 2027, 17:00 CET deadline is worth planning towards, but the agency's combined headline should not be mistaken for one unrestricted €10 million grant.

Source: ECCC expressions of interest and linked procurement.

Information

Parliament seeks more for research, health and climate in the 2027 budget

Parliament adopted its position on the 2027 annual EU budget on 21 October, proposing €194 billion in commitments and €203.3 billion in payments. Its proposed increases against the Commission draft include €63 million for Horizon Europe, €50 million for EU4Health, €96 million for Erasmus+ and €85 million for LIFE. Commitments authorise spending promises; payments cover cash disbursements.

These are negotiating positions for next year's budget, with first conciliation talks expected on 3 November. Research, health, education and environmental organisations can follow where Parliament wants additional support, but should not build those increases into current grant expectations.

A separate Erasmus+ negotiating mandate adopted on 22 October seeks €47.39 billion for 2028–2034, against the Commission's €40.8 billion proposal. Parliament wants wider access to learning mobility and grants that better reflect living costs. That longer-term programme negotiation is also unfinished, and neither development settles the next research framework's budget.

Sources: European Parliament's 2027 budget position and Erasmus+ mandate.

New preparation material for digital proposals and research commercialisation

On 20 October, HaDEA published recordings of its 14–15 October Horizon Europe Digital, Industry and Space information days. Applicants and research offices can revisit the topics, evaluation and award guidance while developing proposals.

EIC Transition, which supports technology validation and business readiness from research results, also published a letter-of-intent template on 20 October for a spring-2027 call. It asks for genuine customer or user interest and commitments; the signatory cannot receive project funding or become a subcontractor or service provider. Use it to start customer conversations, but check the final adopted 2027 programme before relying on new admissibility requirements.

Sources: HaDEA recordings and EIC Transition resources.

Affected Hungarian institutions regain access, with amendments still needed

The Council decision published on 21 October and updated Commission FAQs confirm that the specified funding measures were lifted from 14 October. Hungarian public-interest trusts established under Act IX of 2021 and entities they maintain can again receive funding, subject to the relevant programme and call conditions.

In ongoing projects, changing an affected partner's role to beneficiary normally requires a consortium-requested amendment agreed with the granting authority. It cannot take effect before 14 October or make earlier completed actions retrospectively fundable. Any redistribution must stay within the existing EU grant ceiling. Coordinators and research offices should discuss the required changes with their granting authority.

Sources: Council Decision (EU) 2026/2324 and Commission FAQ 108159, FAQ 108160, FAQ 108161 and FAQ 108162 FAQs.

Selected and funded

€3.4 billion selected for 77 clean-tech projects, with demand far exceeding funding

The Commission selected 77 projects across 23 EEA countries for €3.4 billion in Innovation Fund support on 19 October. The programme uses EU Emissions Trading System revenue to support innovative low-carbon technologies, helping industrial projects move towards deployment.

Competition was substantial: the December 2025 call received 358 applications requesting €17.5 billion, and a further 84 projects passed evaluation without receiving budget funding. The selected projects now enter grant-agreement preparation, expected to conclude in the first quarter of 2027. Selection is not yet a signed grant.

Industrial developers, manufacturers and decarbonisation investors can examine the selected portfolio and strengthen their evidence on maturity, emissions impact and financing ahead of the next round. Calls are being prepared for early December, including a €1 billion clean-tech manufacturing topic; those future opportunities are not open yet.

Source: European Commission selection announcement.

LIFE puts €390 million behind 135 environmental and climate projects

CINEA announced €390 million in EU support for 135 LIFE projects on 19 October, contributing towards €579 million in total investment. The projects were selected from 1,095 applications under the 2025 call.

LIFE supports practical environmental and climate action. This selection includes 29 nature and biodiversity projects, 36 covering circular economy and quality of life, 26 on climate mitigation and adaptation, and 44 supporting the clean-energy transition. Authorities, environmental organisations, businesses and clean-energy bodies can use the portfolio to explore funded approaches and potential partnership models. These are selection results, rather than a new €390 million competition.

Source: CINEA project announcement.

€80 million for universities to strengthen research and innovation capacity

The Research Executive Agency announced €80 million for 16 European Excellence Initiative projects on 20 October, following 284 applications. Project starts range from September 2026 to January 2027.

Part of Horizon Europe's Widening programme, the initiative supports institutional research capacity, talent, reform, knowledge valorisation and European collaboration. University leaders, research managers and technology-transfer teams, particularly in Widening countries, can examine the funded partnerships for approaches to institutional development. This announcement concerns the results of the 2025 call, not a fresh application window.

Source: Research Executive Agency.

Talk of the week

A €200 billion research programme is a powerful headline. What would it take to turn that ambition into a programme researchers and innovative businesses can actually use?

In their 19 October posts, MEPs Christian Ehler and René Repasi reported a shadow-rapporteur agreement on the next research framework, FP10, and its Specific Programme. Their political agreement backs €200 billion; Ehler also argues for keeping Pillar II within FP10 and expert-driven implementation. They point to a 10 November committee vote, with Council negotiations still ahead. As EU funding commentator Anita Tregner explained on 20 October, this is a milestone on the way to negotiations, not a final settlement.

The responses on Ehler's thread bring the question closer to delivery. YERUN Secretary General Silvia Gómez Recio welcomes a strong, independent framework while stressing that resources and supporting programmes need to follow. Willem Ivo (Pim) de Boer, who works in EU liaison with VU Amsterdam and Aurora, wants the ambition to survive negotiations and research actors and society to help shape programming. Those individual responses add a practical question to the political announcement: what support and working arrangements will make the ambition achievable?

Our take: a bigger research budget would matter, but applicants also need workable rules, clear routes to participation and the capacity to deliver. Keep watching the negotiations while building today's funding plans around adopted programmes and actual call conditions. The proposed €200 billion is not money secured, and it should not yet be doing the heavy lifting in anyone's financial plan.

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