Excellence Hubs

Open

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Expected Outcome:
Excellence Hubs allow innovation ecosystems in Widening countries and beyond, to team up and create better linkages between academia, business, government and society. This will foster a place-based innovation culture in Widening countries based on a strategic agenda aligned with regional or national smart specialisation strategies, and clearly identified expectations for economic and societal impacts. Projects should contribute to the following outcomes:

• Excellent and sustainable regional R&I ecosystems in Widening countries and beyond in relevant domains of cutting-edge science and innovation;
• Long term joint R&I strategies underpinned by concrete action plans of European relevance;
• Common investment plans for R&I, including infrastructures, leveraging national, regional and European funds as well as private capital in a synergetic manner;
• R&I pilot projects alongside a joint strategy and in line with regional and national strategies, notably regional innovation strategies for smart specialisation (RIS3);
• New competencies and skills for researchers, entrepreneurs and professionals in R&I intensive domains;
• Strengthened linkages between science, businesses and society;
• New business opportunities for SMEs, university spin-offs and start-ups, especially in deep tech areas. Scope:
The projects will foster a regional innovation culture in Widening countries, aligned with regional or national smart specialization strategies. Consortia should seek synergies and avoid overlaps with relevant initiatives such as European Innovation Ecosystems, EIC Pathfinder, the KICs of the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT), in particular the EIT Community Hubs established in Widening countries, the JRC’s ‘Partnerships for Regional Innovation’ and the Widening Dissemination and Exploitation Facility. This action supports the ERA’s third priority of translating R&I results into the economy, aiming to enhance European competitiveness in the global technology race while improving the environment for business R&I investment, technology deployment, and the uptake of research results in society.
The action targets regions as R&I actors, as they are where innovation and industrial ecosystems thrive, strengthening the connective tissue between higher education institutions, businesses, in particular SMEs and start-ups, research centres, and local communities and citizens. Regional ecosystems across the EU can drive new European strategic value chains.
Excellence Hubs are networks of innovation ecosystems in Widening countries, involving larger communities based on the quadruple helix principle. Legal entities form non-Widening countries may join if the consortium demonstrates that this is necessary to achieve the expected impacts.
Projects should include a well-balanced package covering at least the following activities:

• Design and implementation of a cross-border joint R&I strategy aligned with regional smart specialization strategies and European priorities;
• R&I collaboration strengthening academia-business linkages and providing evidence for strategy building and investment. The research component should be developed through joint research projects, closing knowledge gaps and advancing science and technology with market potential. The description of R&I component should include a long-term vision beyond the state of the art of the chosen R&I domain. The R&I component must be presented in a distinct work package in the proposal. The R&I component should be in balance with the other proposed activities and not constitute the dominant part of the project;
• Development of investment plans to implement the strategy, including business models for commercially sustainable products and services, leveraging private investments, as well as possibly national, regional and European funds,;
• If applicable, conceptual design and pre-planning for pilots and demonstrators in line with the strategy, financed by sources other than the Union contribution provided by the Excellence Hub grants. Proposals should outline how other financial resources will be accessed at a later stage;
• Complementary activities to promote knowledge transfer, visibility, mutual learning, skills development, and engagement with local governments and citizens. Secondments and staff exchanges should foster long-term collaboration.Proposals should clearly illustrate the expected impact of the project, including new local and international partnerships, institutional changes, increased R&I intensity and other relevant indicators.
Expected project duration is up to 5 years.

Status

Open

Deadline

4 March 2027 (time not stated)

Opens

2 September 2026

Published

12 December 2025

Total budget

€100,000,000

Grant range

€1,500,000 – €4,500,000

Country

European Union (EU-wide)

Programme

Horizon Europe (HORIZON)

Funder

European Commission

Official page

Open at the source portal

What applying involves

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

Understand the call

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

  The following rules for dealing with ex-aequo applications apply: in the first place, ex-aequo proposals will be prioritised according to geographical diversity criteria, defined as proposals with coordinators established in a Widening country, not otherwise represented as coordinator by a more highly ranked proposal. The method described in Points 1), 2), 3) and 5) of General Annexes Part F (Procedure/Evaluation procedure and ranking) will then be applied to the remaining … — conditions §5a

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

  The funding rate is 70 % of the eligible costs. An explanation should be provided in the proposal on how the remaining 30% will be secured and shared among the beneficiaries. Beneficiaries may provide financial support to third parties. The support to third parties can only be provided in the form of grants and is limited to SMEs and start-up companies.The maximum amount to be granted to each third party is EUR 60 000. described in Annex G of the Work Programme General … — conditions §6

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

Check you are eligible

• Check your country of establishment is eligible

  The source scopes this to one country only. — ai_results.eligibility

• Check every partner is established in an eligible country standard for this programme

  described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes. 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 — conditions §2

• Meet the call's other eligibility conditions

  In order to achieve the expected outcomes, participation as coordinators to the call is limited to legal entities established in Widening countries as defined in the Horizon Europe regulation. Proposals must involve at least two R&I ecosystems from two different Widening countries. Each R&I ecosystem must be entirely based in a single Widening country and must comprise four different categories of actors i.e. a) academic institutions (universities and/or non-university … — conditions §3

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

  described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes — conditions §4

• Check the conditions for financial support to third parties

  Beneficiaries may provide financial support to third parties. — conditions

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

Submit

• Check the submission and evaluation process standard for this programme

  are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual — conditions §5b

• 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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