The first horizontal call in support of the Clean Industrial Deal has just opened with a budget of EUR 540 million. Organised under the Horizon Europe 2026–2027 work programme, the call has two topics:

Decarbonisation of energy-intensive industries

The call is looking for low-carbon solutions which:

• use innovative technologies to decarbonise industrial processes,
• come up with new or improved decarbonisation solutions in Europe, and
• are market-ready.

The solutions must relate to one or more of the following three areas:

• managing the carbon cycle,
• clean energy usage in production,
• circularity and resource efficiency of production processes: solutions must significantly reduce the use of raw materials, energy and freshwater, the impact on ecosystems, and the emissions generated. They must achieve this by means of circular value networks that convert industrial side-streams and/or end-of-use waste to new feedstock.

Clean technologies for climate action

The call is looking for innovative clean tech solutions which:

• significantly increase the circular material use rate,
• significantly reduce the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) delivered to end-users,
• contribute to Europe’s industrial leadership and competitiveness, and
• are close to market-ready.

The solutions must relate to one or more of the following three areas:

• integrated net-zero emissions energy systems,
• enhanced zero-emission power technologies,
• storage technologies, renewable fuels, and carbon capture and utilisation enabling climate neutrality.

Applicants are free to decide on the specific value chain they wish to strengthen in these three areas. Application of advanced innovative materials development, connected process engineering and scale-up, resource efficiency, circularity and recycling may also be addressed as part of the selected value chain.

Plenty more information available on the funding and tenders portal! Deadline: 15 September 2026