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🚨Calling deep tech, dual-use innovators🚨Interested in joining the DIANA programme? We're excited to share that DIANA's latest Challenge Call will open next month. Successful candidates will become part of DIANA’s 2026 cohort of innovators.DIANA formulates ‘Challenges’ based on the priorities of NATO Allied nations, the latest trends in emerging and disruptive technologies, and market potential.Through DIANA’s Challenge Calls, innovators propose technologies that could address these challenges, which they then develop with feedback from end-users and potential buyers as they go through DIANA’s Accelerator Programme.If you're an innovator with a game-changing technology that could help address some of the world’s most complex and profound security challenges, make sure you follow the DIANA website for updates.
2025-05-09 Security Digital, Industry & Space Digital EuropeIn Digital Europe, knowledge of the underlying EU policies and legislations is a key element when drafting a proposal, as they play an important role in the “relevance” evaluation criterion. Also for Horizon Europe Cluster 3 (Cybersecurity) and Cluster 4 (Digital), this knowledge can be handy for applicants. To support applicants with summaries of relevant EU initiatives, DEP4ALL (the NCP Network for the Digital Europe programme) has put together a number of Policy Briefings. These can be found on the Digital Europe Introduction page of the NCP Flanders website. Briefings on the following topics are currently available: AI Innovation Package EU Chips Act Chips for Europe Initiative Cyber Resilience Act EU Cybersecurity Strategy Data Governance Act Digital Decade Policy Programme Digital Education Action Plan Digital Skills Agenda STEP Please not that this list is not exhaustive. Always consult the call information for the specific call topic to see which policies and initiatives have to be taken into account.
2025-05-08 Digital, Industry & Space Climate, Energy, Mobility Agro-Food, EnvironmentThe Clean Industrial Deal is described as "a bold business plan to support the competitiveness and resilience of our industry." It aims to boost production in green industries, with special focus on energy-intensive industries - vital for European material production and decarbonization goals. 6 main elements The Deal presents measures to boost every stage of production, with a focus on energy-intensive industries (steel, metals, and chemicals, ...) and the clean tech sector. Another element of the Deal is circularity. More specically, the Deal will be about: Affordable Energy: Making energy more accessible and affordable through improved grid connections, renewable power, and efficient usage Lead Markets: Supporting clean tech development and deployment with 40% domestic production target and public procurement initiatives Finance: Attracting and retaining investments for new industrial plants within Europe Circularity and Materials: Securing raw materials access, reducing foreign dependencies, and increasing circular material use by 25% Global Stage Action: Building reliable partnerships, creating clean trade agreements, and implementing trade defense mechanisms Skills Development: Addressing workforce skill gaps through the Union of Skills initiative Link with Horizon Europe The Clean Industrial Deal is strategically underpinned by Horizon Europe. Notably, the 2025 Work Programmes for Clusters 4 (Digital, Industry and Space), Cluster 5 (Climate, Energy and Mobility) and Cluster 6 (Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture & Environment) feature targeted call topics aligned with the Deal’s objectives. A flagship joint call in the 2026–2027 Work Programme further strengthens this alignment, introducing two non-prescriptive topics (on clean tech and on clean industrial manufacturing) designed to foster cross-sector collaboration. The initiative adopts an industry-led, bottom-up approach focused on value chain integration and deployment readiness. A key priority is the creation of synergies with existing innovation efforts to reinforce industrial ecosystems and accelerate time-to-market for critical technologies. Emphasis is placed on advancing high-impact decarbonization solutions from Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) 7 to 9, thereby building a robust pipeline of market-ready, industry-driven projects.
2025-05-08 Horizon Europe Digital Europe EDFIntroduction Because Europe’s productivity has been lagging behind compared to other major economies over the last 20 years, the European Commission intends to take urgent action to revive Europe’s competitiveness. The aim of the compass is to make business easier and faster and ensure Europe’s prosperity. The compass guides the Commission’s work for the 2024-2029 period on the basis of three pillars: Closing the innovation gap with the EU's main competitors Linking decarbonisation and competitiveness Reducing dependencies and increasing security Main pillars There will be a massive push towards innovation. New measures aimed at taking the lead in strategic tech sectors – such as AI, semiconductor and quantum technologies, advanced materials, biotech, clean energy technologies, robotics, space, connected and autonomous mobility – should enable Europe to strengthen both its technological sovereignty and its competitiveness. These are all topics that (mostly) relate to call topics in the Cluster 4 programme and Digital Europe. As well, in order to decarbonise the economy efficiently, there will be increased focus on a clean industrial deal and industrial decarbonisation, complemented with an affordable energy action plan, an electification action plan and a switch to even more reuse of resources. These topics can be found back in Horizon Europe in Clusters 4 and 5. Finally the compass underlines both trade as a key driver of EU prosperity and the need for the EU to diversify, strengthen and ensure the resilience of its supply chains. The EC aims to sign and implement additional trade agreements as well as clean trade and investment partnerships to help secure the supply of critical raw materials, clean energy, sustainable transport fuels and clean technologies from across the world. Aditionally, there is a need for further cooperation between member states in defence by increasingly resorting to joint procurement and joint research and development, as well as by pooling resources. Why is this interesting for you? The Competitiveness Compass will become a guiding document for the coming decade. This will trickle down in the upcoming Work Programmes of Horizon Europe, Digital Europe and te European Defence Fund (and their follow-up programmes). Rather than remaining reactive, you can take the lead by taking the Compass into account when building or reviewing your own internal roadmaps. Understanding the ongoing work at the policy level is important. It's maybe that little thing that can help you to have an extra tick on the evaluaton scale. Some possibilities: Demonstrating alignment with policy priorities can give proposals a competitive edge Translating policy frameworks into concrete elements rather than simply copying policy language Understanding the growing emphasis on complex, interdisciplinary approaches to technology Preparing for more integrated funding approaches that might span from research to market And clearly, NCP Flanders remains your ideal partner for further news on this topic, as we cover some of the main financing instruments mentioned in the Compass. Further reading This article is very short and vulgarising. If you want to read up on the details and related (policy) documents. Excellent summary in the Explainer of the Competitiveness Compass Full text of the The Competitiveness Compass (COM(2025) 30 final - Brussels, 29.1.2025)
2025-05-06 Digital, Industry & SpaceWith the (draft) work programme for 2025, being officially pre-published it’s time to provide you with a high-level overview of what to find in this 340 pages long document. The submission deadline for all call topics will most likely be October 2nd. The topics are expected to be published on the Funding and Tenders Portal by May 22, when the call topics will open. Info days & brokerage events For more information and an opportunity to ask questions to the responsible units and project officers, we refer you to the public info days (online). Also don’t forget about the brokerage events for helping you find consortia to join or to promote your project idea(s). About the destinations Cluster 4 groups Digital, Industry & Space topics which is quite diverse. Therefore it's subdivided in 6 destinations (~ topic groups, content domeins), of which 2 are more oriented towards industrial topics (1 & 2), 3 are more focussed on digital topics (3,4 & 6) and one is about space topics (5). Of course there are no clear hard boundaries between the domains, so make sure to check everything when looking for interesting call topics. Industry domain Destination 1 - Climate-neutral, circular and digitised industrial value chains Focuses on supporting competitive European industry through the twin green and digital transition. This involves developing new technologies, boosting manufacturing processes for net-zero solutions, and improving productivity. Destination 2 - Raw materials, chemicals and innovative materials Aims to strengthen EU's critical raw materials capacities and develop advanced materials that are safe and sustainable by design. This supports Europe's technological sovereignty and capacity for the twin transitions. Digital domain Destination 3 - Data services and AI Supports the next stage of the data economy, focusing on developing technologies for privacy preservation, data compliance, and secure data exchanges. Aims to rebalance data and computing capacity across the cloud-to-edge continuum. Destination 4 - Digital and emerging technologies Ensures Europe's strategic autonomy in key technologies while preserving an open economy. Focuses on semiconductors, quantum technologies, and other digital capabilities critical for industry transformation. Destination 6 - Human-centric innovation Focuses on transforming user experience through virtual and extended realities for industry, entertainment, public services. It aims to create an R&I ecosystem combining sophisticated VR/XR optics, human-computer interaction, real-time computing, and application research. Space domain Destination 5 - Space-Based Infrastructure Addresses the development, deployment and use of global space-based infrastructure, services, applications and data to support EU's space program components. Different call types You’ll see different types of calls. The main action types mentioned are: RIA (Research and Innovation Actions): Projects aimed at establishing new knowledge, exploring feasibility of new/improved technologies, products, processes, services or solutions IA (Innovation Actions): Projects directly aimed at producing plans/designs for new/altered/improved products, processes or services CSA (Coordination and Support Actions): Actions consisting primarily of accompanying measures like coordination, networking, awareness raising, communication, dissemination, dialogue. Typically only interesting for a very limited number of organisations with a special place in the ecosystem. COFUND (Co-funded Partnership): Actions to establish and implement a joint programme of activities between participating states. Typically only interesting for government agencies. SGA (Specific Grant Agreement): Used in the context of Framework Partnership Agreements to implement specific research activities. You need to be already part of an existing partnership in order to be eligible for this call. On the ecosystems Within Cluster 4, there are some partnerships active that cover a thematic domain. A full list with more details can be found on the NCP Flanders website on the Cluster4 page. Use the partnerships for a fast lane to consortium forming, detailed information and guiding advise. The partnerships covering topics in this 2025 Work Package are: Made in Europe Partnership: A co-programmed partnership focused on manufacturing technologies and processes Processes4Planet Partnership: A co-programmed partnership dealing with process industries and decarbonization Clean Steel Partnership: A co-programmed partnership focused on steel industry decarbonization Textiles for the Future Partnership: A co-programmed partnership focused on textile innovation Innovative Advanced Materials for Europe (IAM4EU): A co-programmed partnership addressing advanced materials development AI, Data and Robotics (ADRA) Partnership: A co-programmed partnership focused on artificial intelligence, data and robotics technologies Chips JU: a co-programmed partnership aimed at strengthening Europe’s semiconductor and microelectronics ecosystem to support digital and industrial transformation Photonics Partnership: A co-programmed partnership focusing on photonic technologies and their applications across various sectors including communications, healthcare, and manufacturing
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The MareGraph project, ‘Towards an Interoperable Marine Knowledge Graph’, obtained funding under the Digital Europe topic ‘OPEN-AI – Public Sector Open Data for AI and Open Data Platform’. The project will increase the semantic, technical, and legal interoperability of three selected high-valued datasets (HVDs) all maintained by the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ), which is one of the four partners of the project. This will allow the onboarding of essential marine datasets in the Common European Data Spaces. As such MareGraph will provide a structural component in the digital transition of the marine landscape. The numerous impacts of the project will benefit our seas globally in old and new ways to come.
