Strengthening of the European Science for Policy Ecosystem

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Code: 37865 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-WIDERA-2025-06-ERA-06 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Widening Participation and Spreading Excellence (2021-2027) | Start submission calls: 15/05/2025 | End submission calls: 18/09/2025

Science for evidence-informed policymaking or Science for Policy (S4P) refers to the use of the best available scientific evidence, knowledge, and expertise to inform policymaking, aiming to achieve better public policies.

By integrating science into policymaking, governments and organisations can make better-informed decisions and develop effective strategies that are grounded in a deeper understanding of complex and interconnected issues.

Programme-level collaboration

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Code: 37862 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-WIDERA-2025-06-ERA-05 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Widening Participation and Spreading Excellence (2021-2027) | Start submission calls: 15/05/2025 | End submission calls: 18/09/2025

Since the introduction of the European Research Area (ERA) in 2000 and starting with Framework Programme 6 and the introduction of the ERA-NET scheme, programme-level collaboration among EU Member States and Associated Countries and their research and innovation funding programmes has become a cornerstone of the ERA.

Hundreds of networks among research funders have been created over time, serving different research needs, but always coordinating public research investments across borders and allowing researchers to apply for calls for transnational research projects funded by the participating states.

Investigating and addressing career barriers faced by underrepresented and marginalised researchers

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Code: 37859 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-WIDERA-2025-06-ERA-04 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Widening Participation and Spreading Excellence (2021-2027) | Start submission calls: 15/05/2025 | End submission calls: 18/09/2025

Researchers from underrepresented groups and marginalised communities – including, e.g., racialised researchers, researchers with disabilities, LGBTIQ or refugee researchers – encounter structural, material, and cultural inequalities.

The challenges and barriers they face include, but are not limited to, more working precarity, higher rates of gender-based violence and harassment, epistemic injustice and lack of recognition, unequal access to resources, mentorship and support networks, and other obstacles stemming from cultural or social stereotypes leading to conscious and unconscious biases. These disparities are furthermore often exacerbated due to the compounded effects of multiple and intersecting discriminations.

Despite increasing efforts, there is still limited understanding of how these intersectional inequalities manifest themselves and how they can be and are being addressed at EU and national level and in research performing organisations and funding organisations.

Research and innovation to provide evidence that support reforms of research assessment

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Code: 37856 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-WIDERA-2025-06-ERA-03 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Widening Participation and Spreading Excellence (2021-2027) | Start submission calls: 15/05/2025 | End submission calls: 18/09/2025

A global movement is underway to significantly enhance the evaluation process for researchers, research projects and research institutions. 

The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), the Leiden Manifesto, the Latin American Forum on Research Assessment (FOLEC-CLACSO), and the Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment and the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) under Action 3 of the European Research Area Policy Agenda 2022-2024 are the main initiatives that strive to shift away from inappropriate reliance on metrics such as the Journal Impact Factor.

Instead, they acknowledge the diverse range of research practices, activities and outputs that go beyond publications.

They aim to reward practices, activities and outputs that contribute to a higher quality and impact of research, while also recognising and mitigating systemic biases, particularly gender biases, within traditional assessment metrics.

Enable sustained coordination and guidance at the European level on institutional non-profit open access publishing

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Code: 37853 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-WIDERA-2025-06-ERA-02 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Widening Participation and Spreading Excellence (2021-2027) | Start submission calls: 15/05/2025 | End submission calls: 18/09/2025

The conclusions on ‘high quality, transparent, open, trustworthy and equitable scholarly publishing’ that the Council of the European Union adopted in May 2023 highlight the importance of equitable scholarly open access publishing models where authors can publish their work irrespective of their institutional affiliation or funding source, with no fees to them or their readers.

EU Member States also called for supporting the development of publishing models led by public research organisations.

In recent years, universities, research institutions and other organisations relevant to research have increasingly engaged in setting up their own open access publishing activities and services. 

Rolling out the ERA Policy Agenda results

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Code: 37848 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-WIDERA-2025-06-ERA-01 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Widening Participation and Spreading Excellence (2021-2027) | Start submission calls: 15/05/2025 | End submission calls: 18/09/2025

This action contributes toward the implementation of the European Research Area (ERA) with targeted interventions in selected policy areas focused on a broad roll-out of the results developed under the first ERA Policy Agenda (2022-2024).

It addresses areas including open science, research assessment, research careers, knowledge valorisation, and research management.

European Researchers’ Night and Researchers at Schools 2026-2027

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Code: 37844 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MSCA-2025-CITIZENS-01-01 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) (2021-2027) | Start submission calls: 17/06/2025 | End submission calls: 22/10/2025

Proposals should cover both the organisation of the European Researchers’ Night and the implementation of the Researchers at Schools initiative.

It supports events that can last up to two days: they can start on Friday and continue the following day. Pre-events, prior to the main event, and related post-events, such as wrap-up meetings or small-scale follow-up events, can also be organised. It is the occasion for a Europe-wide public and media event for the promotion of research careers.

The European Researchers’ Night targets the general public, addressing and attracting people regardless of the level of their scientific background, with a special focus on young people and their families, pupils and students, and notably those who do not have easy access to, and thus are less inclined to engage in STEAM fields (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) or research activities.

The Researchers at Schools initiative brings school classes to research facilities and researchers to schools or other pedagogical and educational centres. This allows researchers to interact with pupils on societal challenges and on the key role of research to address them. Pupils will thus also learn directly about research projects and initiatives related to EU main priorities.

AI-generated digital twins for science

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Code: 37842 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-TECH-04 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Research Infrastructures (2021-2027) | Start submission calls: 06/05/2025 | End submission calls: 18/09/2025

The aim is to use generative artificial intelligence (AI), in line with the GenAI4EU initiative and other key EU initiatives, like the Apply AI strategy, to deliver digital twins of complex real-world systems that advance the state-of-art of European research infrastructures and show transformative potential in their operations.

The solutions should pave the way for new methods to conduct research by the RIs through AI generated and powered digital twins.

They should propose suitable setups for creation of new digital twins or enhancing existing ones, already available within the scientific communities and relevant research infrastructures and for which an existing baseline on generative Artificial Intelligence models exists, the required data fusions, visualisations and execution of the workflows.

The focus is on key impact sectors, such as healthcare (including mental health), transportation, agriculture, environment or manufacturing, or other fields related to the Clean Industrial Deal, in line with the European objectives seeking to leverage AI to address societal challenges, improve public services and drive inclusive economic growth.

The proposed solutions, underpinning the provision of improved and advanced future services, should support RIs in new areas of research and/or a wider community of users, including clearly identified and relevant industrial, scientific or policy users and enhance the potential of the RIs in addressing EU’s policy objectives and socio-economic challenges.

The proposed solutions should, at least in part, be demonstrated in a relevant environment that can lead to sustainable production and include a cost estimate for the operations.

AI-powered impact simulations in support of the Destination Earth initiative

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Code: 37839 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-TECH-03 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Research Infrastructures (2021-2027) | Start submission calls: 06/05/2025 | End submission calls: 18/09/2025

Informed decision-making involves an increasing number of data sources, including high quality data from research infrastructures, and simulations.

While the concept of Digital Twins in Earth Systems promises an increased interactivity for users to run various future impact scenarios, the complexity of such setups is challenging.

Initiatives like Destination Earth (DestinE) have shown to generate massive data amounts that cannot be easily moved and therefore need to be processed on the RIs where they reside.

AI solutions can help with complex data management activities but also benefit from the available data and compute resources, and combine them efficiently with required simulation services.

Implementing research infrastructure technology roadmaps

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Code: 37836 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-TECH-02 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Research Infrastructures (2021-2027) | Start submission calls: 06/05/2025 | End submission calls: 18/09/2025

Research infrastructures require constant technology development to maintain and upgrade their services and to create new ones, to keep pace with the advancements of research and meet the requirements of emerging user communities from academia and innovation ecosystems.

The manufacturing capacity of industry, including SMEs, is often required for this, and the co-creation of technological components is a defining feature of many research infrastructures. In some cases, manufacturing capabilities are lacking inside the EU, putting Europe’s technological sovereignty at stake.

New technologies and solutions for reducing the environmental and climate footprint of research infrastructures

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Code: 37833 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-TECH-01 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Research Infrastructures (2021-2027) | Start submission calls: 06/05/2025 | End submission calls: 18/09/2025

The aim of this topic is to deliver innovative technologies and solutions which generate a step change in reducing the environmental and climate footprint of research infrastructures through the full life cycle of research infrastructures.

Proposals should identify common methodologies, among the concerned research infrastructures, to assess environmental impact and strategies to reduce it, as well as efficiency gains in the broader ecosystem.

Research infrastructure services advancing frontier knowledge (bottom-up)

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Code: 37831 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-SERV-04 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Research Infrastructures (2021-2027) | Start submission calls: 06/05/2025 | End submission calls: 18/09/2025

This topic aims at providing trans-national access (on-site or remote) and/or virtual access to integrated and customised research infrastructure services for curiosity-driven research in wide scientific domains, offered by a wide range of complementary and interdisciplinary top level research infrastructures.

Given the funding rate, the topic also aims at fostering the sustainability of the access scheme.

 

Research infrastructure services advancing frontier knowledge

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Code: 37828 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-SERV-03 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Research Infrastructures (2021-2027) | Start submission calls: 06/05/2025 | End submission calls: 18/09/2025

This topic aims at providing trans-national access (on-site or remote) and/or virtual access to integrated and customised research infrastructure services for curiosity-driven research in wide scientific domains, offered by a wide range of complementary and interdisciplinary top level research infrastructures.

Given the funding rate, the topic also aims at fostering the sustainability of the access scheme. Proposals are expected to address one domain area and must explicitly state which area they address.

Research infrastructure services to enable R&I addressing main challenges and EU priorities

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Code: 37825 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-SERV-02 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Research Infrastructures (2021-2027) | Start submission calls: 06/05/2025 | End submission calls: 18/09/2025

This topic aims at providing trans-national access (on-site or remote) and/or virtual access to integrated and customised research infrastructure services for challenge-driven research and innovation in each of the areas listed below, offered by a wide range of complementary and interdisciplinary top level research infrastructures.

Access also includes ad hoc users’ training and scientific and technical support. Training courses for using the infrastructures may also be supported. Training courses and ad hoc users’ training will prepare the new generations of researchers to properly exploit leading-edge research infrastructures, and should provide them with appropriate skills for data stewardship.

Activities to facilitate and integrate the access procedures, to further develop the remote or virtual provision of services and to improve, customise and harmonise the services the infrastructures will also be supported, including for better serving the needs of open EU industrial research and innovation.

Research infrastructure services to enable R&I addressing main challenges and EU priorities related to the health domain

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Code: 37822 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-SERV-01 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Research Infrastructures (2021-2027) | Start submission calls: 06/05/2025 | End submission calls: 18/09/2025

This topic aims at providing trans-national access (on-site or remote) and/or virtual access to integrated and customised research infrastructures services for challenge-driven research and innovation in each of the areas listed below, all related to the health domain, offered by a wide range of complementary and interdisciplinary top level research infrastructures.

Using Generative AI (GenAI4EU ) for Scientific Research via EOSC

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Code: 37819 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-EOSC-05 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Research Infrastructures (2021-2027) | Start submission calls: 06/05/2025 | End submission calls: 18/09/2025

The scope of this call is to demonstrate and foster the use of Generative AI for Scientific Research, in line with the GenAI4EU initiative and other key EU initiatives, like the Apply AI strategy, throughout the research data lifecycle supported by EOSC.

Generative AI can be used for activities such as writing, data generation and analysis, reporting and many others, for improving productivity. This enables lifting science beyond the human scale by facilitating the deployment and use of smart algorithms, machine learning and AI services onto the Web of FAIR Data. The awareness and readiness of using Generative AI for scientific research must be raised by training activities.

Data stewards, skills and training for Open Science and FAIR practices

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Code: 37817 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-EOSC-04 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Research Infrastructures (2021-2027) | Start submission calls: 06/05/2025 | End submission calls: 18/09/2025

The uptake of Open Science practices and of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) requires dedicated, professional profiles for data curation and data management, as well as equipping researchers with adequate skills and supporting them for the sharing and re-use of FAIR research digital objects.

However, at present, data stewards and related profiles lack well-defined career paths, and data sharing and other open science practices are not fully mainstreamed within the research community and are often not recognised in research assessment practices.

Advancing AI-readiness and Machine-Actionability in the EOSC Ecosystem

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Code: 37814 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-EOSC-03 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Research Infrastructures (2021-2027) | Start submission calls: 06/05/2025 | End submission calls: 18/09/2025

Today, the sustainable FAIRification of data can be a bottleneck towards the goal of a European web of FAIR data and services.

The use of AI/ML can significantly help in the process of FAIRification, data curation and data quality assurance, close to the source of the data. EOSC shall promote actions that give incentives to further advance AI-readiness and Machine-Actionability in the EOSC federation for FAIRification and to support their application.

FAIR Integration for Enhanced Research Data in the EOSC ecosystem and beyond

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Code: 37811 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-EOSC-02 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Research Infrastructures (2021-2027) | Start submission calls: 06/05/2025 | End submission calls: 18/09/2025

The scope of this call topic is centred on advancing the interoperability and integration of research data within the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), in alignment with the broader context of the Common European Data Spaces and cross-sector collaboration.

EOSC Nodes with federating capabilities for the EOSC Federation

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Code: 37808 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-EOSC-01 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Research Infrastructures (2021-2027) | Start submission calls: 06/05/2025 | End submission calls: 18/09/2025

The call aims to further develop the cross-domain EOSC system of systems, building upon the results of the previous INFRAEOSC calls. The focus is on developing and expanding the EOSC federation through a network of nodes as baseline elements of the federation model.

These EOSC nodes will establish a set of essential federating capabilities, compatible with the EOSC EU Node reference architecture, following the EOSC Federation Handbook and EOSC interoperability framework.

They should have a clearly described identity and offer unique value to EOSC users, for example representing a specific thematic domain (e.g. data or computing) or geographical area amongst the Horizon Europe participating and associated countries.