Supporting the delivery of actionable, integrated, and comprehensive local heating and cooling plans

RFCS-2026-Steel-Big Tickets under the steel and metals action plan dual-use

Scope: This award seeks to recognise organisations that have successfully used sport as a powerful tool to promote peace. It honours those that have made significant contributions in bringing together diverse communities, groups, and individuals, transcending differences and fostering dialogue, tolerance, and collaboration beyond divisions. This category celebrates initiatives that leverage sport and physical activity to build relationships founded on mutual respect and cooperation toward shared goals, ultimately contributing to peaceful coexistence at the local, national, or global level.

Expected Outcome: This action will establish a strategic European initiative to develop scalable, modular, and interoperable photonic quantum computing platforms. Proposals for this topic are expected to address and provide credible solutions to at least two major technical roadblocks currently limiting the advancement of photonic quantum computing such as: The lack of deterministic, high-efficiency photonic entanglement and loss-tolerant architectures suitable for fault-tolerant scaling The absence of a standardised, integrated control stack combining photonic hardware, firmware, and system software with reliable benchmarking across platforms Project results are expected to contribute to the following expected outcomes: By 2028, demonstration of a photonic NISQ processor with ≥100 photonic qubits, integrating deterministic single-photon sources, low-loss waveguides, on-chip detectors, and a firmware stack (scheduler, controller, compiler), validated via hardware-agnostic benchmarks and hybrid photonic-HPC applications demonstrating classical-quantum crossover By 2030, delivery of a full-stack, high-connectivity photonic quantum computer, with modular scalability, integrated…

Expected Impact: The action under this topic is expected to achieve the following impacts: Accelerate EU access to more cost-effective interventions in an increasingly ageing population by identifying personalised treatment approaches for elderly-onset immune diseases. Decrease disease risk later in life by defining specific prevention strategies based on ageing biomarkers and risk factors. Halt age-associated disease exacerbation by the identification of predictive and digital biomarkers that can stratify patients for early intervention. Improve quality of life for healthy individuals and patients by preventing further health decline, avoiding escalating care costs, and properly stratifying individuals earlier in the diagnostic pathway. Accelerate adoption of innovative diagnostic, preventative, and therapeutic strategies, strengthening the EU’s position as a healthcare innovator. Evaluate digital biomarker as potential regulatory endpoints in the ultimate goal to develop medicines for ‘healthy ageing’. Integrate fragmented research efforts by bringing together health industry sectors and stakeholders to develop clinical and multi-omics data integration capabilities. Enable new…

Expected Impact: The action under this topic is expected to achieve the following impacts: Faster and more informed decision-making through the use of an AI-driven NAM (AI Foundation Toxicology Model) and increased efficiency through rapid processing of vast amounts of data [1] . Increased consistency and standardisation in a NAM-based approach, specifically an AI model, used by industry in the efficient development, testing and production of safe and effective innovative health technologies, improving industrial competitiveness. Regulatory adoption of a NAM-enabled second species waiver model (AI Foundation Toxicology Model) and weight-of-evidence framework, in line with recommendations and more consistent global decision-making on waiving second species testing. Reduction in animal use, accelerated timelines and lower costs, enhancing the competitiveness of the European health industry through economical and ethical benefits. Improved public health as patients will benefit from safe and effective medicines developed faster using validated NAMs. The action is expected to contribute to the EU Directive (2010/63/EU) [2] on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes and…

Expected Impact: The action under this topic is expected to achieve the following impacts and contribute to the following EU policies/initiatives: deliver innovative, early technology solutions that contribute to addressing strategic unmet public health needs across multiple therapy areas to improve prevention, early diagnosis, and treatment; leverage the unique network and scale of IHI JU members to create a pipeline to support innovative startups in the health industry, fully integrated into European initiatives in support of start-ups and entrepreneurship; drive early cross-sector health R&D and innovation to strengthen the European healthcare industry’s global competitiveness, contributing to the EU Industrial Strategy and Pharmaceutical Strategy objectives; create a sustainable network of European healthcare incubators to guide and support highly talented and innovative early-stage companies; harness digital health and data-sharing technologies (e.g., AI and big data) to enable interoperable health solutions, contributing to the European Health Data Space (EHDS) and improved evidence based care;- the action should generate a portfolio of early‑stage companies that have…

Scope: Provides financial support for the preparation of a proposal for a Strategic Integrated Project (SIP) under the sub-programme Circular Economy and Quality of Life in the areas of Circular Economy, Waste, Water and Air, in order to implement - National or regional Circular Economy Action Plans, National and regional Waste Management Plans, River Basin Management Plans, Air Quality Plans or Noise Action Plans - at large territorial scale - with the involvement of all concerned stakeholders and - including a coordination mechanism for funding supporting complementary measures necessary for the full implementation of the targeted plan or strategy.

Expected Impact: The LIFE operating grants for non-profit making entities aim to strengthen the participation of civil society in the EU policy dialogue, as well as to support implementation and enforcement of Union environmental and climate objectives, including the clean energy transition, by the beneficiaries. Objective: This call for proposals concerns LIFE Specific Operating Grant Agreements (SGA OG) . LIFE Specific Operating Grant Agreements will only be concluded with organisations that have successfully signed a LIFE 2026 Operating Grant Framework Partnership Agreements (FPA OG) . Framework Partnership Agreements (FPAs) under the LIFE Programme are long-term cooperation instruments that serve as umbrella for regular or recurrent grants to non-profit making entities which are involved in the development, implementation and enforcement of EU legislation and policy and which are primarily active in the field of environment or climate action, including energy transition, in line with the objectives of the LIFE Programme. They are a prerequisite for being able to sign annual Specific Operating Grant Agreements (SGAs), but do not create any legitimate expectations or entitlement…

Expected Impact: Applicants are expected to define, calculate, explain and achieve the expected impacts as described in the Award criterion ‘Impact’ (see Call document section 2 and 9 ). Objective: The aim is to facilitate the transition toward a sustainable, circular, energy-efficient and climate-resilient economy, a toxic-free environment and at protecting, restoring and improving the quality of the environment in line with the European Green Deal and recent policy developments. The specific objective is to cover one or more of the topics as fully defined in section 2 of the Call document (under the heading LIFE-2026-SAP-ENV-GOV). Please note that the assessment of the extent to which the project is in line with the specific priorities of the call (part of Award criterion 1) will be done exclusively on the basis of the topics identified and described under section ‘Compliance with LIFE programme objectives and call topic’ of the Standard application form . Please also note that a maximum of two sub-topics shall be selected (e.g: “Activities in support of public administration (…) private sector” and “Behavioural change (…) initiatives”) and only those will be considered in the…

Expected Impact: Applicants are expected to define, calculate, explain and achieve ambitious and credible impacts in terms of conservation benefit, ensuring at the same time long term sustainability and replication (see sections 2 and 9 of the Call document). Objective: To contribute to the protection of nature and biodiversity by: raising awareness of the benefits of nature conservation, supporting compliance assurance, as well as public participation and access to justice (Aarhus Convention) enabling actions for the replication and upscaling of proven solutions Scope: The present Call topic targets Standard Action Projects (SAP) aimed at achieving the objectives of the LIFE Nature and Biodiversity sub-programme by improving governance and information at all levels, as defined in sections 1 and 2 of the Call document. This call topic focuses exclusively on governance and information projects; other projects in line with the objectives of the LIFE Nature and Biodiversity sub-programme but defined in the Call topic LIFE-2026-SAP-NAT-NATURE are excluded.