Support for the implementation of the European Heritage Label

Opened

Code: 38607 | Identifier Code: CREA-CULT-2026-EU-HERITAGE-LABEL | Programme name: 3948 | Sub-program: Culture | Start submission calls: 26/11/2025 | End submission calls: 11/02/2026

The general objective of the call is to continue to support the European Heritage Label network of sites, fostering training, exchanges, collaboration and opportunities among the EHL Stakeholders.

This call will support a single organisation or a consortium of organisations, with a special focus on cultural heritage and capacity building, which are active in the creative and cultural sectors or running capacity-building and promotional work. The selected project is meant to act as a secretariat for the EHL Network. It will be key to accompany the work of the EHL sites and stakeholders and in ensuring the sustainability of the European Heritage Label, as specified below.

The Network, through its secretariat, will support the range of EHL sites and stakeholders and their synergies with bodies active in the field of heritage, cultural and creative sectors together with educational sectors. A strong emphasis will be placed on directing resources towards community-wide actions and site-level projects, in order to generate tangible benefits for citizens while ensuring an efficient and impactful use of funds.

Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters

Opened

Code: 38605 | Identifier Code: ERASMUS-EDU-2026-PEX-EMJM-MOB | Programme name: 2918 | Sub-program: Key Action 2 (KA2) – Cooperation among organisations and institutions | Start submission calls: 26/11/2025 | End submission calls: 12/02/2026

The Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters EMJM supports high-level integrated transnational study programmes at Master level (level 7 of the international standard classification of education ISCED 2011) delivered by an international consortium of higher education institutions (HEIs) from different countries worldwide and, where relevant, other educational and/or non-educational partners with specific expertise and interest in the concerned study areas/professional domains.η εκπαιδευτικούς εταίρους με συγκεκριμένη εμπειρογνωμοσύνη και ενδιαφέρον στους σχετικούς τομείς σπουδών/επαγγελματικούς τομείς.

EIC STEP Scale Up

Opened

Code: 38538 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-EIC-2026-STEP | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: European Innovation Council-EIC (2021-2027) | Start submission calls: 06/11/2025 | End submission calls: 25/11/2026

The EIC STEP Scale Up call presents a unique opportunity for ambitious scale up companies (SMEs and small mid-caps) with game-changing innovations in Europe’s critical technology areas. It offers a powerful combination of financial and strategic support designed to propel your groundbreaking solution to the forefront of these sectors.

Erasmus Mundus Design Measures

Opened

Code: 38536 | Identifier Code: ERASMUS-EDU-2026-EMJM-DESIGN | Programme name: 2918 | Start submission calls: 18/11/2025 | End submission calls: 12/02/2026

To reinforce the integration and international dimension of the European Education Area, Erasmus Mundus Design Measures aim to enhance the capacities of higher education institutions in Europe to modernise and internationalise their curricula by developing new master programmes in partnership with different universities.

European Universities

Opened

Code: 38532 | Identifier Code: ERASMUS-EDU-2026-EUR-UNIV | Programme name: 2918 | Start submission calls: 18/11/2025 | End submission calls: 04/03/2026

European Universities’ main objectives are to further develop institutionalised cooperation, making it systemic, structural and sustainable and to increase quality, performance and international competitiveness of European higher education institutions.

REGIONAL RAIL SERVICES / INNOVATIVE RAIL SERVICES TO REVITALISE CAPILLARY LINES

Opened

Code: 38530 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JU-ER-2025-FA6-01 | Programme name: 24432 | Start submission calls: 30/10/2025 | End submission calls: 11/02/2026

The Flagship Project stemming from this topic shall develop under the following capabilities the enablers and any other which may contribute to deliver the afore-mentioned expected outcome:

• CCS & Operations
• Asset
• Customer service
• Assets Demonstration
• Suitable customer services

SUSTAINABLE COMPETITIVE DIGITAL GREEN RAIL FREIGHT SERVICES

Opened

Code: 38527 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JU-ER-2025-FA5-01 | Programme name: 24432 | Start submission calls: 30/10/2025 | End submission calls: 11/02/2026

The Flagship Project stemming from this topic should develop the following capabilities:

• Capabilities for improving European full digital freight train operations
• Capabilities for increasing automation in shunting operations
• Capabilities for DAC based wagon concepts incl. multi-modal transport applications
• Capabilities for Seamless Freight Corridor
• Capabilities for Seamless Freight Multimodal and Customer

A SUSTAINABLE AND GREEN RAIL SYSTEM

Opened

Code: 38524 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JU-ER-2025-FA4-01 | Programme name: 24432 | Start submission calls: 30/10/2025 | End submission calls: 11/02/2026

The Flagship Project stemming from this topic should develop the following capabilities:

• Alternative energy solutions for the rolling stock
• Holistic approach to energy management in the railway system
• Sustainability and resilience of the rail system to deliver added value on asset management
• Improvement of electro-mechanical components and sub-systems for the rolling stock
• Healthier and safer rail system
• Attractiveness

INTELLIGENT & INTEGRATED ASSET MANAGEMENT

Opened

Code: 38521 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JU-ER-2025-FA3-01 | Programme name: 24432 | Start submission calls: 30/10/2025 | End submission calls: 11/02/2026

The Flagship Project stemming from this topic shall develop under the following capabilities the enablers and any other which may contribute to deliver the aforementioned expected outcome with the associated maturity level foreseen (up to – depending of the Use Case):

• Capability for Information sharing across the supply chain and TMS
• Capability for Unmanned and non-invasive monitoring and inspections
• Capability for Advanced and holistic asset decisions
• Capability for Advanced and holistic design and certification of assets
• Capability for Remotely controlled, unmanned and metadata-assisted interventions

DIGITAL & AUTOMATIC UP TO AUTOMATED TRAIN OPERATIONS

Opened

Code: 38518 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JU-ER-2025-FA2-01 | Programme name: 24432 | Start submission calls: 30/10/2025 | End submission calls: 11/02/2026

The solutions to be delivered by this action are expected to cover a wide range of applications for the next generation Automatic Train Control (ATC) technologies, such as passenger trains for high speed, light rail urban lines, suburban lines, freight trains and regional lines including low density lines as well as including application in more complex situations, such as mixed traffic, power supply transitions and ATP transitions (e.g. ETCS to undefined tracks).

NETWORK MANAGEMENT PLANNING AND CONTROL & MOBILITY MANAGEMENT IN A MULTIMODAL ENVIRONMENT AND DIGITAL ENABLERS

Opened

Code: 38515 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JU-ER-2025-FA1-TT-01 | Programme name: 24432 | Start submission calls: 30/10/2025 | End submission calls: 11/02/2026

Action to be funded under this topic should research, develop, and deliver the following capabilities and/or any other relevant capability to achieve the aforementioned expected outcome, on the basis of the public deliveries of FP1-MOTIONAL (GA: 101101973)^[2]:

WS1

To improve strategic and tactical planning of the rail network developing solutions that enable by 2028:

• Enabler 1: European cross-border scheduling with international train path planning and Improved capacity allocation using rolling planning and TTR [TRL7]
• Enabler 2: Decision support for short term planning [TRL7]
• Enabler 3: Optimization methods for timetabling and railway planning (incl. capacity efficiency and energy saving) [TRL7]
• Enabler 4: Improved rail traffic simulation models for selected Use Cases to forecast punctuality in the network (e.g. simulating proportion primary and secondary delays, simulations drivers vs. ATO over ETCS …). [TRL7]
• Enabler 5: Integration of TMS with a) yard capacity planning and b) station capacity planning [TRL7]
• Enabler 6: New planning and operational processes using feedback loops from ERTMS ATO and C-DAS [TRL7]

Developments on all those enablers should also cover important preparatory works with higher TRL for the future set of demonstration foreseen in the Multi- annual Work programme in view of the evolutions of the solutions.

To increase resilience of a connected ‘real time’ rail network developing solutions that enable by 2028:

• Enabler 7: Real-time connection of rail networks as managed by TMSs and involved actors and Modelling and decision support for cross-border traffic management [TRL7]
• Enabler 8: Integration of TMS with a) yard management system and processes; b) station management system and processes; c) energy management (Electric Traction System); d) real-time crew / rolling stock dispatching [TRL7]
• Enabler 10: Real-time convergence between planning & feedback loop from operations [TRL6]
• Enabler 11: Cooperative planning multi-actors within rail [TRL6]
• Enabler 12: Integration of incident management and customer information, with IM and RU interaction and Decision Support for Disruption management [TRL7]
• Enabler 13: TMS speed regulation of trains, precise routes and target times for ATO and dynamic timetables [TRL7]
• Enabler 14: Automation of very short term train control decisions and Real-time conflict detection & resolution for main line and optimisation [TRL7]

Developments on all those enablers should also cover important preparatory works with higher TRL for the future set of demonstration foreseen in the Multi- annual Work programme in view of the evolutions of the solutions.

To integrate rail traffic within door-to-door mobility developing solutions that enable by 2028:

• Enabler 15: Improved rail integration using B2B intermodal services leveraging existing European standards: cross-operator information sharing on e.g. sales and distribution, traffic information, end-user experience, … [TRL8]
• Enabler 16: This enabler focuses on delivering a smooth, hands-free, and accessible journey for all passengers by integrating smart, user-centric services across the rail network and with other modes of transport. It aims to enhance comfort, autonomy, and inclusivity throughout the entire travel chain. [TRL7]
• Enabler 18: Innovative platform-based passenger guidance solution, measurement and guidance of customer flows to and on the platform [TRL7]
• Enabler 19: Short term demand forecast calculation using run time data (e.g. ticketing data, short term weather forecast, passenger density, ….) [TRL8]
• Enabler 20: Long term demand forecast with focus on data analytics based on a variety of sources (e.g., public events, holiday calendar) and operators’ data (e.g., fare, passenger density data) and historical information for predictive models related to passenger clustering [TRL7]
• Enabler 21: Integrated traffic simulation and demand forecast in a Digital Twin to optimize offer, passenger occupancy, connection time and other service-related elements [TRL7]
• Enabler 22: Disruption management across different mobility modes enabling operators to collaboratively solve the disruption and properly inform passengers [TRL8]

Developments on all those enablers should also cover important preparatory works with higher TRL for the future set of demonstration foreseen in the Multi- annual Work programme in view of the evolutions of the solutions.

WS2

Connectors for Federated Data Spaces, TRL7 by 2028

A need for federated data spaces to make all heterogeneous data available to specialized digital applications in multiple domains while a) allowing incremental extensions and avoiding the rigidity of synchronized and centralized deployment timelines and b) providing data owners with the ability to retain control of their assets.

A federated data space is a distributed secure and reliable data sharing and communication infrastructure enabling data federation, access and processing services through standardized interfaces. Incremental extensions of the federated data space are achieved by new devices and systems using the exposed services to add themselves to the federation as they become available, while data asset protection by their owners is achieved by each participant implementing their own data access policies at the interface between their system and the federated dataspace. Connectors using these interfaces must be developed for existing or legacy/proprietary systems to participate in the federation. The sequence of successive federations must take into account the dependencies identified in Annex B between Destinations.

Common Domain Ontology, building upon S2R works on Conceptual Data Model (CDM) and ERA Ontology, TRL 7 by 2028

For Research & innovation and demonstrations activities (within the action) making use of data models related to the interoperability or safety of the rail system, those data models should be aligned with the ERA Ontology^[4]. This ontology defines the conceptual framework and the specific terms and relationships for the interoperability or safety of the rail system in the EU that shall be used or where relevant extended. This includes the reuse of the ERA ontology with its semantic artifacts (shacl rules, skos ..) and in cases where it is not sufficient, extensions should be proposed to maintain semantic consistency and interoperability across systems. Those extensions proposals should cover the processes to validate extension to the ERA Ontology with compliant datasets and related competency questions and linked SPARQL queries based on interoperability testbed validation tools (Interoperability Test Bed Guides — ITB Guides^[5]). Corresponding documentation should also include any mappings or transformations considered in the Research & Innovation activities and any assumptions made.

High quality data and its accessibility is key to the success of the next generation of railway application and services. Therefore, data does not only need to be of high semantic quality, but also has to be specified by a standardized high-quality syntax.

Digital Twin support, development and execution environment, TRL6 by 2028

As a virtual representation able to imitate the behaviour of a physical system, a Digital Twin is a software implementation of a structural and behavioural model of the represented system. A development environment for Digital Twins shall be composed of standard modelling tools, editors, compilers and debuggers used by specialists to create self-contained, compiled functional mock-up units (FMUs). Searchable libraries of FMUs are also part of the Digital Twin development environment, used to implement higher level FMUs as compositions of submodels through standardized interfaces.

Compiled FMUs are deployed to an interoperable Digital Twin execution environment in which models are initialized with data obtained from the federated dataspace through the dataspace services, and simulations runs are performed to generate the projected behaviour of the imitated physical system.

Cybersecurity, TRL 6 by 2028

Demonstrate Shared Cybersecurity Services for the Rail System allowing stakeholders in all EU-RAIL Destinations to apply Cybersecurity applications to secure their digital assets, data and communication. Added to the Digital Assets and Engineering toolbox and shareable as a service in a cloud environment, the Shared Cybersecurity Services will provide state-of-the-art cybersecurity procedures, methods and applications.

• Coordination with EU-RAIL System Pillar and other Destinations:
  • Align with EU-RAIL System Pillar Cybersecurity specification
  • Feedback to EU-RAIL System Pillar from demonstrator findings (after demonstration)
  • Coordination with relevant other Destinations (presentation, feasibility check, collecting conditions and requirements for use of Shared Cybersecurity Services).
• Creation and set up of the Shared Cybersecurity Services (SCS) demonstrator (TRL 6):
  • Setting up the Shared Cybersecurity Services demonstrator in a cloud environment such as the Rail Data Space based on the EU-RAIL System Pillar Cybersecurity specifications.
  • Testing and demonstrating the SCS demonstrator in combination with data connectors and/or digital twin supplementing with additional applicable standards.
  • Test interfaces, interoperability and operational procedures of the Shared Cybersecurity Services with selected and interested Destinations.

SUPPORT TO THE EUROPEAN FRMCS DEPLOYMENT GROUP

Opened

Code: 38513 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JU-ER-2025-EXPLR-04 | Programme name: 24432 | Start submission calls: 30/10/2025 | End submission calls: 11/02/2026

The coordination and supporting actions of the project stemming from this topic shall deliver the following:

1. Programme Management Office (PMO) Functions
   • Set up and operate a central coordination function to oversee timelines, dependencies, and progress across planning of FRMCS future deployment activities.
2. Capacity Mapping & Planning Analysis
   • Develop and distribute sector-wide surveys (by sending out questionnaires) to gather data on deployment plans, readiness, and capacity. Analyse responses and identify gaps and challenges across Member States and cross-border situations.
3. Independent Cost and Time Driver Study
   • Conduct a study to assess cost structures and investment drivers relevant to FRMCS implementation across different operational contexts (in particular on-board assets).
   • Conduct relevant Cost Business Analyses.. Analyse main factors that determine the required rollout timeline and measures to optimise those.
4. Stakeholder Management
   • Facilitate cooperation among rail and telecom stakeholders, as well as with relevant associations.
5. Communication & Dissemination
   • Support targeted communications for the FRMCS Deployment Group and Organise outreach and engagement with the broader sector to raise awareness and share developments.
6. Deployment Guidelines Toolbox
   • Support the development a non-binding set of practical guidelines and migration scenarios to support railway undertakings and infrastructure managers in their transition to FRMCS.
7. Expertise & Technical Support
   • Provide subject-matter expertise on key domains including, but not exclusive: System authorisation, Cybersecurity, RAMS (Reliability, Availability, Maintainability, and Safety)
8. European Deployment Dashboard
   • Support the establishment and maintenance an online dashboard to: Report on deployment readiness and progress and rack national initiatives and alignment with European goals
9. Knowledge Sharing and Acceleration
   • Gather and share test results, best practices, and lessons learned and promote early implementation and innovation in FRMCS assets.
10. Risk & Deviation Management
    • Support the development of frameworks for identifying, reporting, and mitigating risks and deviations across the deployment chain.
11. Develop market readiness
    • Support the identification of measures needed to be address by the market for ensure a swift FRMCS deployment. This activity should be framed in the context of the anticipated short time frame to conduct the migration from GSM-R to FRMCS that may lead to a high demand on scarce resources in different fields.

EXTENDING THE RAIL NETWORK OF PHDS

Opened

Code: 38509 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JU-ER-2025-EXPLR-03 | Programme name: 24432 | Start submission calls: 30/10/2025 | End submission calls: 11/02/2026

In order to achieve the expected outcomes described above, proposals shall consist of the creation of at least 3 – 5 PhDs positions. It is expected that the PhD programmes stemming from this topic will have the possibility to interact with the Funding Members of the Europe’s Rail JU.

The PhD researchers are expected regularly to liaise with the Europe’s Rail JU and to present their research findings to the Europe’s Rail JU events and submit scientific papers to relevant conferences (e.g. TRA, WCRR, etc. but also non-rail related).

STUDIES ON INNOVATION IN CLIMATE FINANCE FOR RAIL

Opened

Code: 38506 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JU-ER-2025-EXPLR-02 | Programme name: 24432 | Start submission calls: 30/10/2025 | End submission calls: 11/02/2026

The study should aim to provide actionable recommendations to help railways to access the growing pool of climate finance to support their transition to low-carbon, climate-resilient transport system , and can include the following:

• Conducting a comprehensive review of existing green financing instruments and their applicability to the rail sector, identifying key barriers and opportunities for increased uptake.
• Analysing the investment criteria and processes, and identifying strategies for an increased utilization of carbon credits by rail companies, as means to offset emissions, generate revenue, etc. This includes the investigation of innovative approaches to aggregate and scale up smaller rail initiatives, to meet minimum investment thresholds for climate finance. Explore the possibility of innovative financing structures as well that blend public, private and climate-specific funding sources to maximize investment in low-carbon rail infrastructure and operations. The study shall provide actionable and data-driven recommendations for the rail industry, to assist them in their decision making towards identification and implementation of decarbonization strategies capturing sustainable finance opportunities.
• Providing guidelines/recommendations for harmonising processes for monitoring, reporting and evaluation across European rail companies of accurate gas emissions measurements. The aim of these is to enable the progress towards achieving the decarbonization goals, while providing clear, easy to follow instructions regarding: regulatory requirements; access to financing channels; integration of climate-related considerations into corporate strategy and operations.
• Investigating the contribution and opportunities of climate finance instruments in enabling the transition towards rail passenger and freight transport from other less green transport modes, as a key step in achieving the EU green deal objectives. Provide recommendation for bridging the gaps in terms of policies, regulations, and incentives fostering the investments and use of low-carbon transport modes and in particular for rail fostering the market take-up of novel technologies and solutions into the existing European rail network and systems.

Gender dimension

In this topic the integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content is not a mandatory requirement.

Data Space for Manufacturing

Opened

Code: 38508 | Identifier Code: DIGITAL-2026-DSM-AI-09-DS-MANUFACTUR-STEP | Programme name: 15593 | Start submission calls: 04/11/2025 | End submission calls: 03/03/2026

This initiative will support up to three data-collection projects, with around 3 million co-funding from Digital Europe each, focused on manufacturing use cases to unlock advanced AI models, for example, predictive maintenance, process automation, supply chain management, product design and development and sustainability in production, and increase productivity in industrial environments such as purchases, logistics, resource planning and production halls. These projects aim to collect massive, high-quality data from real industrial environments, ensuring proper labelling where relevant, that could be used to train or finetune generative AI models for the manufacturing sector. The data collection has to be relevant for developing AI applications that can significantly benefit major EU manufacturing sectors (such as automotive, chemical, aeronautics and energy-intensive industries). The project proposal has to clearly identify the target sectors, the stakeholders, and have preliminary agreements about the intended data exchange.

STUDIES ON RAIL INDUSTRY 5.0

Opened

Code: 38503 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JU-ER-2025-EXPLR-01 | Programme name: 24432 | Start submission calls: 30/10/2025 | End submission calls: 11/02/2026

European Commission’s Industry 5.0 Award provides a vision of the future of European industry taking into consideration the achievement of ‘societal goals beyond jobs and growth. Industry 5.0 is seen “as transition to a sustainable, people-centric and resilient European industry”^[1].

The expected outcome of this Research and Innovation Action is a study that identifies the key challenges, drivers, and expected measurable outcomes/benefits related to the application of the new concepts introduced by the 5.0 Industry principles to the rail sector.

The study shall provide recommendations for the implementation of Industry 5.0 vision that will lead to a significant improvement of safety, reliability, and efficiency in rail operations.

CAPACITY BUILDING CAP2B

Opened

Code: 38500 | Identifier Code: I3-2026-CAP2B | Programme name: 16401 | Start submission calls: 23/10/2025 | End submission calls: 19/03/2026

General objective

The overall objective of the I3 Strand 2b is to build capacity in less developed regions to develop and strengthen their regional innovation ecosystems and value chains through coordinated and interlinked investments in several regions.

This call for proposals aims to improve the capacity of public authorities and innovation intermediaries (e.g. clusters to support companies in the identification of investment portfolios at an interregional scale

The purpose of this activity is to build capacities for a successful participation in Strand 1 or Strand 2a calls, enhancing interregional cooperation with a view to identifying and sharing good practices, deriving actionable policy recommendations, strengthening institutional capacities, and experimenting new approaches. This will also help public authorities and agencies to design evidence-based and targeted policy interventions in the long-term, including updates to regional Smart Specialisation Strategies and related innovation policy frameworks.

 

Perform EU

Opened

Code: 38496 | Identifier Code: CREA-CULT-2026-PERFORM-EU | Programme name: 3948 | Sub-program: Culture | Start submission calls: 30/10/2025 | End submission calls: 15/01/2026

The specific objective of this action is to test and implement innovative models through changemaker projects, to rethink touring in the performing arts in a more sustainable, inclusive, diverse and balanced way.

This action addresses applicants that are active in the performing arts sector and have a high sectorial, sub-sectorial representativity and geographical coverage.

EIC Accelerator 2026 – Short application

Opened

Code: 38494 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-EIC-2026-ACCELERATOR-01 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: European Innovation Council-EIC (2021-2027) | Start submission calls: 06/11/2025 | End submission calls: 17/12/2025

The EIC Accelerator supports companies (principally SMEs, including start-ups) to scale up high impact innovations with the potential to create new markets or disrupt existing ones. The EIC Accelerator focuses in particular on innovations, building on scientific discovery or technological breakthroughs (‘deep tech’) and where significant funding is needed over a long timeframe before returns can be generated (‘patient capital’).

The EIC Accelerator supports the later stages of technology development as well as scale up. The technology component of your innovation must therefore have been tested and validated in a laboratory or other relevant environment (e.g. at least TRL 5). The EIC Accelerator looks to support companies where the EIC support will act as a catalyst to crowd in other investors necessary for the scale up of the innovation.

 

Large scale not-for-profit European sport event

Opened

Code: 38492 | Identifier Code: ERASMUS-SPORT-2026-LSSNCESE | Programme name: 2918 | Sub-program: Key Action 2 (KA2) – Cooperation among organisations and institutions | Start submission calls: 13/11/2025 | End submission calls: 22/01/2026

This Action aims to support the organisation of sport events with a European dimension in the following fields:

• Volunteering in sport;
• Social inclusion through sport;
• Fight against discrimination in sport, including gender equality;
• Encouraging healthy lifestyles for all: projects under this priority will mainly focus on
  • a)the implementation of the three pillars of the HealthyLifestyle4All initiative,
  • b) the implementation of the Council Recommendation on health-enhancing physical activity and the EU Physical Activity Guidelines,
  • c) the support to the implementation of the European Week of Sport,
  • d) the promotion of sport and physical activity as a tool for health,
  • e) the promotion of all activities encouraging the practice of sport and physical activity,
  • f) promotion of traditional sport and games.