Industrial Readiness for Affordable Ka-band User Terminals

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Expected Impact:

Projects funded under this call are expected to deliver tangible industrial outputs that demonstrably advance the readiness and affordability of future governmental Ka-band user terminals for IRIS2 and GOVSATCOM services. Expected outputs include, for example: qualified production processes, calibrated sub-assemblies, pilot-run units, validated manufacturing equipment chains or manufacturing cost models.
Purely analytical deliverables (studies, design reports) are not sufficient as primary outputs but may complement the above.
Where relevant, outputs shall include documented design assumptions, interface parameters or process specifications enabling adaptation to different terminal configurations with limited re-engineering, so as to support uptake in follow-on integration, pilot deployment and scale-up activities.


Objective:

The aim of this call for proposals is to advance the industrial readiness of European Ka-band user terminal technologies, subsystems and manufacturing processes, with a view to enabling cost-effective production of user terminals for services provided under the Union secure connectivity programme (IRIS²) and GOVSATCOM.
The target reference for this call is the Ka-band user terminal segment of IRIS², operating with non-geostationary satellite constellations in low Earth orbit (LEO) and medium Earth orbit (MEO). Proposed activities shall be relevant across the full Ka-band frequency range, covering both commercial Ka-band (17.7-20.2 GHz downlink, 27.5-30.0 GHz uplink) and military Ka-band (20.2-21.2 GHz downlink, 30.0-31.0 GHz uplink). Proposals should leverage commonality between governmental and commercial terminal variants to maximise production volumes and cost reduction.


Scope:

Submitted proposals shall address a coherent approach to improving the affordability, manufacturability and production readiness of future Ka-band user terminals, with a focus on technologies and subsystems that are sufficiently mature to support near-term industrialisation (at least TRL5 or above at the start of the action) and consistent with production scenarios on the order of 1000 units per month at scale, on a multi-year horizon. All proposed activities must demonstrate a clear and credible link to the cost, manufacturability or deployment readiness of a complete Ka-band user terminal aligned with 5G NR NTN terminal development paths, including where relevant phased array or other advanced antenna subsystem technologies.
These actions shall address one or more of the following:

• Antenna-subsystem industrial readiness, including assembly, calibration and test processes, as the antenna subsystem represents the dominant cost driver in Ka-band terminal production
• Manufacturing processes and equipment enabling improved throughput, repeatability and unit-cost reduction
• Supply-chain measures reducing critical dependencies on non-European sources and strengthening European industrial capability for terminal components
• Modem and baseband industrial readiness for 5G NR NTN compliant solutions, including industrialisation of baseband processing subsystems and migration paths towards volume-production architectures

Status

Closed

Deadline

23 September 2026 (time not stated)

Opens

27 May 2026

Published

27 May 2026

Total budget

€20,000,000

Grant range

€7,000,000 – €20,000,000

Country

European Union (EU-wide)

Programme

Pilot Projects and Preparation Actions (PPPA)

Funder

European Commission

Official page

Open at the source portal

What applying involved

13 steps, all of them taken from this call's own documents.

This call is closed. The steps below show what applying involved, and are kept for reference only.

Understand the call

• Read the call on the source portal and download its documents
• Write the proposal against the award criteria and thresholds standard for this programme

  described in section 9 of the call document — conditions §5b

• Check the grant's legal and financial set-up standard for this programme

  described in section 10 of the call document . Call document and annexes: Call document Application form templates Standard PPPA Application Form - The application form specific to this call is available in the Submission System Standard Detailed Budget Table - The budget table specific to this call is available in the Submission System Declaration of ownership and control Model Grant Agreements (MGA) Lump Sum MGA Additional documents: DECISION of 26.5.2026 authorising the … — conditions §6

• Check the amount you plan to request against the call's range

Check you are eligible

• Confirm your technology readiness level against the range the call states
• Check every partner is established in an eligible country standard for this programme

  described in section 6 of the call document — conditions §2

• Meet the call's other eligibility conditions standard for this programme

  described in section 6 of the call document — conditions §3

• Be able to show financial and operational capacity standard for this programme

  described in section 7 of the call document — conditions §4

Prepare the documents

• Prepare Part B of the Application Form standard for this programme

  Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System. — conditions

• Complete the detailed budget table standard for this programme
• Prepare the declaration of ownership and control standard for this programme

Submit

• Check the submission and evaluation process

  described section 8 of the call document and the Online Manual — conditions §5a

• Submit before the closing date shown above

  The source states the closing day but no closing time — check the portal before the last day. — calls.deadline

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