EuroHPC opens €119 million across six quantum calls as new applicant guidance lands

24 August 2026 · Strategic Funding Partners

Published 24 August 2026 · SFP Pulse · Weekly Research

> EuroHPC opens six quantum calls worth €119 million, a new EDIP call requires a Ukrainian partner, and Cluster 3 guidance tightens eligibility checks.

€119 million of new quantum funding opened this month. The change most likely to affect your next application, though, is smaller and much easier to miss.

Three of the developments below are not new money at all. They are new rules about who is allowed to apply, and what you have to do before the EU deadline to stay eligible. A security consortium can be ruled out for the wrong kind of practitioner partner. A defence industry call will not accept a consortium without a Ukrainian member. A CEF Transport application without national endorsement will not be assessed, however strong it is, and several Member State deadlines fall weeks before the EU one.

Summer conversation among applicants kept returning to the same frustration: the cost of writing a full single stage proposal against low success rates. The cheapest way to protect that investment is to test eligibility and consortium fit before the writing starts, which is where Proposal Builder earns its place.

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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.

EuroHPC opens six quantum technology calls worth €119 million

The European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) is the EU body that builds and operates Europe's supercomputing and, increasingly, its quantum computing capacity. It funds hardware, platform technologies and the infrastructure that sits around them, rather than small research projects.

Six Horizon Europe EuroHPC calls opened on Thursday 13 August 2026 with a combined budget of €119 million, all closing on Tuesday 17 November 2026. They cover quantum experimental pilot lines (€15 million), superconducting platform technologies (€20 million), next generation quantum key distribution systems (€24 million), neutral atom platform technologies (€20 million), trapped ion platform technologies (€20 million) and quantum testing infrastructure (€20 million).

This matters because it is the largest coordinated quantum funding package to open since the last Pulse, and because of how it is structured. Each topic currently indicates a single expected project, so this is a set of large capability building awards rather than six broadly accessible grants. Realistic applicants are established quantum consortia, research infrastructures, quantum hardware and communications companies, telecoms operators and national capability programmes. Organisations without an existing European platform or infrastructure position are better served by looking at partner roles than at coordination.

> ⚛️ Programme: Horizon Europe, EuroHPC Joint Undertaking Budget: €119 million across six topics Opened: Thursday 13 August 2026 Deadline: Tuesday 17 November 2026 Focus: Quantum pilot lines, superconducting, neutral atom and trapped ion platforms, QKD systems, quantum testing infrastructure Structure: One project expected per topic

> Source: Euresearch open calls

EDIP opens an industrial reinforcement call that requires a Ukrainian partner

The European Defence Industry Programme (EDIP) funds the expansion of European defence production capacity. Its Ukraine Support Instrument strand is designed to build industrial links between EU producers and Ukrainian industry.

The second EDIP industrial reinforcement call is now open. The topic covering missiles, ammunition and bombs records €180 million with a deadline of Tuesday 13 October 2026. The national contact point notice states that eligible consortia must include at least one legal entity established in Ukraine.

This is a production and capacity call, not a general research and innovation call, and the eligibility conditions are the deciding factor rather than the technical concept. Defence manufacturers, component suppliers and industrial groups considering it should check consortium eligibility, security conditions and the exact relationship between the umbrella call and the topic row in the official call documents before starting partner outreach. The Ukrainian partner requirement is not a preference to be addressed later in the process.

> 🛡️ Programme: European Defence Industry Programme, Ukraine Support Instrument Budget: €180 million recorded for EDF-EDIP-USI-2026-LS-IRA-MAB Deadline: Tuesday 13 October 2026 Eligibility: At least one legal entity established in Ukraine required in the consortium Status: Open, with the full conditions set out in the official call documents

> Source: NCP Flanders

The €1.5 billion Battery Booster Facility is still open, and it is a loan rather than a grant

The Battery Booster Facility is a Commission instrument aimed at electric vehicle battery cell manufacturing in the European Economic Area. It has been open since late July and closes at the end of September, so there is still time to move on it, but not a great deal.

The facility provides up to €1.5 billion in interest free loans. Loans may cover up to 60% of eligible costs, capped at €500 million per project, and applications close on Wednesday 30 September 2026.

The important point is the instrument type. This is debt finance, not grant funding, so the assessment turns on project bankability and the production plan rather than on a research work programme. It is relevant to manufacturers already at or approaching production ramp up, and to their financing teams as much as their funding teams. Companies at pilot or demonstration stage should look at Horizon and Innovation Fund routes instead.

> 🔋 Programme: Battery Booster Facility Budget: Up to €1.5 billion in interest free loans Terms: Up to 60% of eligible costs, capped at €500 million per project Deadline: Wednesday 30 September 2026 Eligibility: Electric vehicle battery cell manufacturing projects in the EEA

> Source: European Commission, DG GROW

New Cluster 3 guidance sets out the practitioner errors that make proposals ineligible

Horizon Europe Cluster 3 covers civil security for society, including cybersecurity, disaster resilience, border management and fighting crime. Many of its topics carry additional eligibility conditions requiring the participation of specified types of practitioner, such as police forces, first responders or public authorities.

NCP Flanders published an infosheet on 18 August covering practitioner participation in Cluster 3 calls. It summarises the additional eligibility conditions, the common errors that render proposals ineligible, and how to avoid them. Cybersecurity topics managed by the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre close on Tuesday 15 September 2026, while the remaining Cluster 3 destinations close on Thursday 5 November 2026.

This is an eligibility check, not a presentational improvement. A proposal that fails the practitioner condition is not scored, however strong the concept. Security consortia should test practitioner composition and the evidence of their active involvement against the destination specific requirement now, while there is still time to add a partner. That applies to research organisations and technology providers who have assumed a letter of support is sufficient.

> 🔍 Programme: Horizon Europe Cluster 3, Civil Security for Society Published: 18 August 2026 Deadlines: ECCC cybersecurity topics Tuesday 15 September 2026, remaining destinations Thursday 5 November 2026 Action: Verify practitioner type, active involvement and supporting evidence against the destination specific condition

> Source: NCP Flanders

CEF Transport applicants must clear national validation before the 6 October deadline

The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) funds transport, energy and digital infrastructure. Unlike most Horizon calls, CEF Transport applications require endorsement from the Member State in which the works or studies take place.

The 2026 CEF Transport package covers eight topics worth around €1.46 billion. All of them opened on 18 June 2026 and all of them close on Tuesday 6 October 2026, but national endorsement and pre-submission deadlines vary by country and fall earlier. Applicants have to follow their Member State process in parallel with the EU deadline, not after it.

This is the kind of process requirement that removes otherwise strong applications. Infrastructure managers, ports, rail operators, municipalities and their consortium partners should confirm their national deadline and the format of the endorsement now. If the national process has already closed, the honest conclusion is to plan for the next round rather than to submit without endorsement.

> 🚆 Programme: Connecting Europe Facility, Transport Package: Eight topics, around €1.46 billion in total EU deadline: Tuesday 6 October 2026 for all eight topics Additional requirement: National endorsement and pre-submission deadlines vary by Member State and fall earlier Action: Confirm the national process and required documentation with your Member State authority

> Source: CINEA, 2026 CEF Transport calls for proposals

In brief

Developments worth knowing about, none of which requires action this week:

A €131.5 million Horizon Europe energy package closes on 1 December 2026. It has been open for a while, but with a December deadline there is still a comfortable window to build a consortium.
Japan became a Horizon Europe Pillar II associated country on 30 July. Japanese organisations can now participate in and lead eligible Pillar II consortia under the association terms. This drew the strongest reaction of any recent development in practitioner discussion, largely because it widens consortium options in digital, industry and climate topics.
The EIC Accelerator and STEP Scale Up opened to defence and dual use technologies on 17 June. Interest is now building among bio based and advanced materials companies, including textiles and battery components. The policy change is confirmed, but no new call has been created by it.
TEF-Health is offering SMEs discounted access to health AI and robotics validation services. This is a Digital Europe funded testing facility, so it is a service access route rather than a grant.
New European Bauhaus: Connect NEB and Co-create NEB offer up to €49,300 per project, closing on Wednesday 30 September 2026. Confirm details on the EIT call page before committing time.
EIT Culture and Creativity: Shape and Scale venture support applications close on Monday 12 October 2026. This is venture support, distinct from Horizon Europe grant funding.
Circular Economy Act evidence reports have been published. Useful policy context, but they do not create a funding route.
The Commission is consulting on a single Do No Significant Harm approach for the next EU budget. DNSH is the environmental safeguard requiring EU funded activities not to cause significant damage to a set of environmental objectives, and each programme currently asks for that evidence in its own format. The concept paper proposes one common approach across the 2028 to 2034 budget. Nothing changes for a proposal being written today, but it is worth responding if you work across several EU funds and rewrite the same argument each time.

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. 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.

> 🌿 LIFE-2026-SAP-NAT-NATURE: Nature and Biodiversity Budget: €166 million total, around 30 grants of €2 million to €13 million | Deadline: Tuesday 22 September 2026 Programme: LIFE Project Grant | Status: Open Summary: Supports practical nature restoration and biodiversity implementation projects on the ground. Fit signal: Public authorities, environmental NGOs, land and water managers, research bodies and delivery partnerships with an existing site, permissions and partner base. The deadline is tight for a standing start, so this suits organisations with a project already scoped.

> 🔐 HORIZON-JU-EUROHPC-2026-NQKD-12-01: Next-Generation QKD Systems Budget: €24 million total, one project expected, contribution range €21 million to €24 million | Deadline: Tuesday 17 November 2026 Programme: Horizon Europe EuroHPC JU Research and Innovation Action | Status: Open (opened 13 August 2026) Summary: Funds the development of next generation quantum key distribution systems. Fit signal: Established quantum communications consortia, telecoms operators, cybersecurity organisations and research infrastructures with existing QKD hardware or network capability.

> 🚌 HORIZON-MISS-2026-04-CIT-01: Energy efficient public transport with shared mobility Budget: €20 million total, two grants expected at around €10 million each | Deadline: Thursday 8 October 2026 Programme: Horizon Europe Mission Innovation Action | Status: Open Summary: Funds integrated public transport and shared mobility solutions that cut energy use in cities. Fit signal: Cities, transport authorities and operators, shared mobility providers and technology suppliers, ideally with a demonstration site and passenger data already available.

> 🏗️ JTM-2026-PSLF-FRAMEWORK-LOANS: Public Sector Loan Facility framework loans Budget: €630 million across the facility, with award sizes varying by programme | Deadline: Tuesday 16 February 2027 Programme: Just Transition Mechanism | Status: Open Summary: Supports public sector investment in the territories most affected by the climate transition. Fit signal: Public authorities and public bodies with a mature investment programme in an eligible just transition territory. The long deadline makes this the most realistic call here for organisations starting from scratch.

> 📡 DIGITAL-2026-BESTUSE-RSF-10-AWARENESS: Situational awareness on information integrity Budget: €6 million total, with individual award sizes set out in the call document | Deadline: Thursday 1 October 2026 Programme: Digital Europe financial support grant | Status: Open Summary: Builds research and monitoring capacity on information integrity and online harms. Fit signal: Media observatories, fact checking networks, research organisations, civil society bodies and public interest technology teams with existing monitoring infrastructure.

New Calls This Week

Nine new calls were added since the last SFP Pulse Edition. Highlights below. Want to browse and track these opportunities (and many more) in one place? Explore them on Discovery, our free personalised dashboard.

EuroHPC quantum technologies (all closing Tuesday 17 November):

HORIZON-JU-EUROHPC-2026-NQKD-12-01 ⇢ Next-Generation QKD Systems Budget: €24 million | Deadline: 17 November 2026

HORIZON-JU-EUROHPC-2026-SPT-10-01 ⇢ Superconducting Platform Technologies Budget: €20 million | Deadline: 17 November 2026

HORIZON-JU-EUROHPC-2026-NAPT-11-01 ⇢ Neutral-Atom Platform Technologies Budget: €20 million | Deadline: 17 November 2026

HORIZON-JU-EUROHPC-2026-TIPT-09-01 ⇢ Trapped-Ion Platform Technologies Budget: €20 million | Deadline: 17 November 2026

HORIZON-JU-EUROHPC-2026-QTI-13-01 ⇢ Quantum-Testing Infrastructure Budget: €20 million | Deadline: 17 November 2026

HORIZON-JU-EUROHPC-2026-QEXP-14-01 ⇢ Quantum Experimental Pilot Lines Budget: €15 million | Deadline: 17 November 2026

Other new calls:

ESF-2027-PEP-ENGAGEMENT ⇢ Structured dialogue with people with lived experience of poverty Budget: €900,000 | Opens: Tuesday 1 September 2026 | Deadline: Thursday 29 October 2026

HORIZON-EIT-2026-PRIZE-WIP-LEADERSHIP ⇢ EIT Women Innovators Prize, Women Leadership Category Budget: €100,000 across three prizes of €20,000 to €50,000 | Opens: Wednesday 2 September 2026 | Deadline: Tuesday 1 December 2026

> One further Digital Europe EuroHPC route closes on 27 August, but it is not open to general competition, so we have left it out of the list above. Check it on Discovery if you believe you are eligible.

Calls Opening This Week

Stay ahead of new opportunities as they open. Sign up to Discovery for real-time alerts and curated recommendations.

The six EuroHPC quantum calls above are the only significant openings this fortnight. Two smaller calls open at the start of September, the ESF structured dialogue call on 1 September and the EIT Women Innovators Prize on 2 September, both listed above. Otherwise the deadlines below are where your attention is best spent.

Calls to Prioritise Now

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.

EDF-2026-LS-DIS-RA-SMERO-NT ⇢ Non-thematic defence research by SMEs and research organisations (€35M) Tuesday 29 September 2026

CEF-E-2026-PCI-PMI-WORKS ⇢ Energy infrastructure works, electricity, gas, smart grids, hydrogen and CO₂ networks (€600M shared programme envelope) Wednesday 30 September 2026

CEF-T-2026-COREGEN-RAIL-WORKS ⇢ Rail works and mixed projects, general envelope (€350M of a €1.46 billion CEF Transport package) Tuesday 6 October 2026

CEF-T-2026-CORECOEN-RAIL-WORKS ⇢ Rail works and mixed projects, cohesion envelope for projects in cohesion countries (€260M) Tuesday 6 October 2026

CEF-DIG-2026-CABLE-REPAIR-CAPACITIES-WORKS ⇢ Submarine cable repair capacities (€40M) Thursday 8 October 2026

EDF-EDIP-USI-2026-LS-IRA-MAB ⇢ Missiles, ammunition and bombs, Ukrainian partner required (€180M) Tuesday 13 October 2026

ERC-2027-STG ⇢ ERC Starting Grant, around 373 grants (€594.1M) Wednesday 14 October 2026

Upcoming Events

Upcoming events relevant to EU funding and innovation.

EIT Culture and Creativity Shape and Scale information session ⇢ Briefing for applicants to the Shape and Scale venture support programme, 11:00 CEST Date: Thursday 27 August 2026 | Location: Online

EuroHPC AI for Science and Collaborative EU Projects access cut-off ⇢ Cut-off for compute access applications under these two EuroHPC calls Date: Monday 31 August 2026 | Location: Online

EIC Accelerator full-proposal batching date ⇢ Cut-off for full proposals to enter this evaluation batch, 17:00 Brussels time Date: Wednesday 2 September 2026 | Location: Online

Cluster 4 and 5 inward brokerage event ⇢ Partner search for Horizon Europe digital, industry, space, climate and energy topics Date: Thursday 3 September 2026 | Location: Online

New European Bauhaus call information session ⇢ Briefing on the Connect NEB and Co-create NEB calls ahead of the 30 September deadline Date: Thursday 3 September 2026 | Location: Online

EuroHPC Regular Access cut-off ⇢ Cut-off for Regular Access compute allocation requests Date: Friday 4 September 2026 | Location: Online

IF26 Hydrogen Auction webinar ⇢ Commission briefing following the close of the auction consultation, 10:30 to 12:00 CEST Date: Tuesday 8 September 2026 | Location: Online

DUT Call 2026 information day ⇢ Briefing on the Driving Urban Transitions call ahead of its autumn opening, 10:00 to 13:00 CEST Date: Wednesday 9 September 2026 | Location: Online

EIC STEP Scale Up batching date ⇢ Cut-off for applications to enter this STEP Scale Up assessment batch Date: Wednesday 9 September 2026 | Location: Online

BiodivFuture information webinar ⇢ Briefing on the forthcoming BiodivFuture call, 13:00 CEST Date: Thursday 10 September 2026 | Location: Online

Stay Ahead

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