Full-scale demonstration of heat upgrade solutions in industrial processes

Opened

Programme Category

EU Competitive Programmes

Programme Name

Horizon Europe (2021-2027)

Programme Description

Horizon Europe is the European Union (EU) funding programme for the period 2021 – 2027, which targets the sectors of research and innovation. The programme’s budget is around € 95.5 billion, of which € 5.4 billion is from NextGenerationEU to stimulate recovery and strengthen the EU’s resilience in the future, and € 4.5 billion is additional aid.

Programme Details

Identifier Code

HORIZON-CL5-2026-09-D4-08

Call

Full-scale demonstration of heat upgrade solutions in industrial processes

Summary

This topic aims to satisfy the need for process heat in the more industrial sectors by upgrading excess/waste heat from the process itself, possibly combined with heat recovered in nearby locations or local renewable heat, as a cost-efficient way to improve energy efficiency and reduce the GHG emissions and air pollutants and the use of fossil fuels. Thermal and/or electrical energy storage can be integrated, if it can contribute to better matching heat sources with process needs and/or to offer more flexible electricity consumption from the grid.

The temperature of the heat supplied to the process is not specified, but the proposals will be evaluated on their potential to enable the deployment of heat upgrade solutions in more sector(s) and process(es), where they are not yet state-of-the art.

Detailed Call Description

Projects must address all the following items:

  • Optimise and demonstrate physically within one or more operational industrial site(s), the transformation of process(es) in at least one industrial sector, by recovering excess/waste heat from the process itself, possibly combined with local renewable heat or heat recovered in nearby locations and local thermal and/or electrical energy storage, and by upgrading the heat (e.g. with heat pump) for use in the process(es).
  • Maximise the replicability and deployment of the concept/solution in the EU and Associated Countries’ plants in the same industrial sector. Already before starting the design phase, the needs of most EU and Associated Countries’ factories in the same industrial sector(s) should be surveyed and analysed in order to design a solution that can be adapted to meet most of them.
  • Identify common components, optimise and define a standardised version of them.
  • Develop open technical and economical guidelines and open tools for system design and business case development.
  • In case the targeted industrial sector(s) and process(es) has/have been covered by the actions under the topic LIFE-2024-CET-HEATPUMPS[1], this proposal should build on the results of these actions and if possible, cooperate with them, both for the definition of the solution to demonstrate and the dissemination channels.
  • Disseminate results notably (but not only) to the relevant communities in cluster 4 ‘Digital, Industry and Space’ private-public partnerships and to JRC Sevilla and INCITE for work on BREFs in the context of the IED2.0.

Call Total Budget

€18.000.000

Financing percentage by EU or other bodies / Level of Subsidy or Loan

70%

Expected EU contribution per project: €9.00 million

Thematic Categories

  • Energy
  • Environment and Climate Change
  • Industry
  • Information and Communication Technologies
  • Processing
  • Research, Technological Development and Innovation

Eligibility for Participation

  • Businesses
  • Large Enterprises
  • Legal Entities
  • Other Beneficiaries
  • Private Bodies
  • Researchers/Research Centers/Institutions
  • Services Providers
  • Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)

Eligibility For Participation Notes

If projects use satellite-based earth observation, positioning, navigation and/or related timing data and services, beneficiaries must make use of Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS (other data and services may additionally be used).

A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide.

Call Opening Date

05/05/2026

Call Closing Date

15/09/2026

National Contact Point(s)

Research and Innovation Foundation
Address:
 29a Andrea Michalakopoulou, 1075 Nicosia, P.B. 23422, 1683 Nicosia
Telephone: +357 22205000
Fax: +357 22205001
Email: support@research.org.cy
Website: https://www.research.org.cy/en/

Persons to Contact:

Mr. Christakis Theocharous
Scientific Officer A’
Email: ctheocharous@research.org.cy

Mr. George Christou
Scientific Officer
Email: gchristou@research.org.cy