Full-scale demonstration of heat upgrade solutions in industrial processes
Open
Status as published by the data source.
Expected Outcome:
Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:
• Based on the results of the project, at least one industrial sector with a significant heating demand in the EU and Associated Countries develops pathways and business models to measurably increase the recovery and upgrade of locally available heat for covering process needs and significantly or totally phasing out of fossil fuel use, while preserving or enhancing its global competitiveness.
• Measurable improvement of renewable and/or industrial excess/waste heat recovery and upgrade solutions, possibly combined with thermal and/or electrical energy storage, in terms of energy efficiency, flexibility of electrical demand, climate and environment protection, reliability and safety, physical and cyber security, and profitability. Scope:
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.
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. null
Activities are expected to achieve TRL 7-8 by the end of the project – see General Annex B. Activities may start at any TRL.
[1] https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/life-2024-cet-heatpumps
- Status
- Open
- Deadline
- (time not stated)
- Opens
- Published
- Total budget
- €18,000,000
- Grant range
- €9,000,000 – €9,000,000
- Country
- European Union (EU-wide)
- Programme
- Horizon Europe (HORIZON)
- Official page
- Open at the source portal
Other calls under Horizon Europe (HORIZON)
- PV based electrification of the economy: Designing & optimising PV systems supporting industrial electrification and promoting participation in electricity markets (EUPI-PV Partnership)
- Advanced TSO control rooms to enhance grid observability, stability and resilience
- Advanced Distribution Management Systems (ADSM) for more efficient and flexible distribution grids
- Community of practice - Data-Driven Decision-Making in Energy
- Industrial processes and equipment for innovative, reliable and scalable tandem technologies (EUPI-PV Partnership)
- Integrated Approaches for Retrofitting Infrastructures with Innovative Energy Storage Technologies
- Demonstration of hydropower technologies for efficient and forward-looking refurbishment of existing hydropower plants
- Delivery of industrial CCUS clusters – Societal Readiness pilot
All calls under this programme
Similar opportunities
- Demonstration of industrial excess/waste heat conversion to mechanical or electrical power
- Thermal energy optimisation and waste heat recovery of high energy demand IT rooms in buildings or small edge data centres
- Transition to low-temperature heating solutions in multi-apartment buildings
- Supporting the clean energy transition of European industry and businesses
- Innovative applications/integration of geothermal heating and cooling in industry
- Alternative heating systems for efficient, flexible and electrified heat generation in industry
Where this came from
- Source document
- https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/data/topicDetails/horizon-cl5-2026-09-d4-08.json
- Document fingerprint
7fc460b58b3ae435(SHA-256, first 16 hex characters)- Retrieved
- First recorded here
What has changed
- url first recorded as https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/horizon-cl5-2026-09-d4-08 on
- currency first recorded as EUR on
- amount_max first recorded as 9000000.00 on
- amount_min first recorded as 9000000.00 on
- budget_total first recorded as 18000000.00 on
- deadline first recorded as 2026-09-15 on
- opens_on first recorded as 2026-05-05 on
- published_on first recorded as 2025-12-19 on
- status_basis first recorded as source_status on
- status first recorded as open on
- title first recorded as Full-scale demonstration of heat upgrade solutions in industrial processes on
Data source
© European Union, 2026. Source: EU Funding & Tenders Portal. Reused under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU — CC BY 4.0.
Retrieved from the source on .
The source last updated this document on Mon, 04 May 2026 22:01:40 GMT.
Personal data of natural persons has been dissociated by quiescence.eu.
This service is not affiliated with, sponsored or endorsed by the data publishers.