Deadline Date: February 25, 2026
The FFPlus initiative has opened an important opportunity for SMEs and start-ups across Europe to advance their work in generative artificial intelligence by gaining access to powerful high-performance computing resources.
The programme supports innovation studies designed to help smaller companies overcome technological barriers, accelerate digital transformation, and strengthen their competitiveness. Each selected project will run for a period of ten months, with activities expected to begin on July 1st, 2026.
Funding is allocated according to project size and structure. The main participant may receive up to 200,000 euros, while innovation studies involving supporting organisations may reach a total of 300,000 euros. Supporting participants can receive up to 150,000 euros in this call, with an overall cap of 300,000 euros across all FFPlus innovation studies. At least half of the funding requested must be directed to the main participant unless strong justification is provided for another distribution. Importantly, SMEs cannot participate in both the FFPlus business experiments and the innovation studies; they may only receive funding for one type of action.
This call is centred on enabling SMEs to make full use of advanced computational capabilities. By integrating high-performance computing into research, development and business processes, participating companies can explore solutions that would otherwise be beyond their technical or financial reach. The initiative aims to generate real-world innovation experiments that demonstrate the transformative benefits of HPC adoption for SMEs and start-ups throughout Europe.
Participation follows a structured model in which an SME or start-up serves as the main participant, supported by up to two additional organisations when justified. These supporting participants must have clearly defined roles and may contribute specialised technical or engineering expertise. In total, a consortium may include no more than three partners. Only organisations based in EU Member States, eligible EEA countries or nations associated with the Digital Europe Programme may receive funding, and natural persons are not eligible to apply. Organisations that are already beneficiaries of FFPlus are excluded from participation.
Only engineering and technical activities are eligible for funding within this call. Non-technical tasks such as business consultancy, marketing and administrative work cannot be supported. With a total budget of 4 million euros available, this opportunity offers SMEs substantial support to explore advanced generative AI development, benefit from HPC infrastructure and bring forward ambitious digital innovations that can contribute to Europe’s technological growth.
For more information, visit European Commission.
