Deadline Date: June 16, 2026
The European Commission is advancing efforts to strengthen and streamline its research infrastructure ecosystem by supporting initiatives that improve coordination, accessibility, and policy engagement across large thematic domains.
This initiative focuses on enhancing the policy contribution, impact and visibility of research infrastructures of European interest across national, regional, European and global policy initiatives; improving coordination, complementarities, interoperability, harmonisation, integration and synergies among research infrastructures within and across large thematic domains; developing a European portfolio of research and innovation services supported by common entry points and interoperable catalogues of services; and increasing awareness, findability and accessibility of research infrastructures through simplified and adapted access pathways for researchers, innovators, public authorities, industry, SMEs, startups and new research communities.
The programme aims to equip large thematic clusters of European research infrastructures with both a policy-oriented and a technical framework to better represent their collective interests and enhance collaboration across the research ecosystem. Proposals must clearly identify the ESFRI domain they address and are expected to work closely with other projects funded under the same topic to ensure alignment in policy coordination, interoperability and shared technical developments. By building on previous clustering initiatives supported under Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe, as well as service catalogues and access pathways developed under INFRASERV projects, the programme intends to further strengthen the connectivity and effectiveness of research infrastructures.
Projects supported under this initiative will contribute to strengthening the representation of research infrastructure clusters in major European policy developments and strategic initiatives. This includes ensuring that research infrastructures contribute effectively to policy discussions in areas where scientific infrastructure plays a key role. Collaboration with cross-domain forums such as the ERIC Forum and EIROforum is also expected to reinforce the collective voice of research infrastructures at the European level.
The programme also supports the development and optimisation of catalogues that showcase research infrastructure services of European interest. These catalogues are intended to make services easier to discover and access for a wider range of users, including researchers and innovators from widening countries and candidate countries, industry partners such as SMEs and startups, early-stage researchers and non-expert users. The design of these service platforms should remain flexible in order to respond to future research and innovation needs.
The initiative will also promote the development of indicators that highlight the strategic relevance of research infrastructure services in supporting key European research and innovation priorities and initiatives. These indicators may support coordinated impact assessments and validation mechanisms to demonstrate how research infrastructures contribute to major EU priorities.
The total budget allocated for this call is €40,000,000, with individual projects expected to receive between €4,000,000 and €8,000,000. Participation is open to any legal entity regardless of its country of establishment, including organisations from non-associated third countries and international organisations, provided they meet the conditions set out in the Horizon Europe Regulation. All beneficiaries and affiliated entities must register in the Participant Register to obtain a Participant Identification Code (PIC) and complete the validation process before signing a grant agreement.
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