How to Find Horizon Europe Calls for Proposals: Complete Guide (2026)

Horizon Europe is the European Union''s flagship research and innovation programme, with a total budget of EUR 95.5 billion for the period 2021–2027. With hundreds of calls published each year across six thematic clusters, knowing where to look — and how to read what you find — is the first step toward a successful application.

All Horizon Europe calls are published on a single official platform: the EU Funding & Tenders Portal. This guide walks through how to find open calls, understand what a call topic contains, and decide whether a call is worth pursuing before you invest months in writing a proposal.

Where to Find Open Calls

The EU Funding & Tenders Portal

The authoritative source for every open, forthcoming, and closed Horizon Europe call is the EU Funding & Tenders Portal. Use the topic search directly:

Search open calls →

The search interface lets you filter by:

Programme: Select "Horizon Europe" to exclude other EU programmes (LIFE, CEF, EIC, etc.)
Status: Filter by Open (accepting submissions now), Forthcoming (published but not yet open), or Closed
Type of Action: RIA (Research and Innovation Action), IA (Innovation Action), CSA (Coordination and Support Action), ERC grants, MSCA, and others
Keyword: Free-text search across topic titles, identifiers, and descriptions
Cluster / Destination: Narrow by thematic area

Tip: bookmark your most-used filter combinations. Registered users can also save searches and receive email alerts when matching calls are published (see the Setting Up Alerts section below).

Horizon Europe Work Programmes

Before calls formally open, the European Commission publishes Work Programme documents that outline all planned topics for a given year. These are the strategic blueprints for each cluster and are available at:

Horizon Europe Work Programmes →

Reading the Work Programme before a call opens gives you a significant head start: you can assess strategic fit, begin forming a consortium, and draft key sections while the call is still in Forthcoming status. Work Programmes are typically adopted several months before the first deadline in a given year.

Anatomy of a Call Topic

Every call topic page on the Portal follows the same structure. Understanding each section prevents costly misreadings.

Topic ID

The topic identifier (e.g., HORIZON-CL4-2026-HUMAN-01-03) is the unique reference you will use in your proposal and all official correspondence. See the next section for a full breakdown of the naming convention.

Type of Action

This defines the nature and scope of the funded activity:

Code	Full Name	Typical Use
RIA	Research and Innovation Action	Primarily research activities, lower TRL
IA	Innovation Action	Closer-to-market, higher TRL, up to 70% funding rate (except non-profits)
CSA	Coordination and Support Action	Networking, studies, policy support — no research
ERC	European Research Council	Individual grants, frontier research
MSCA	Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions	Researcher mobility and training

Budget

The topic page lists an indicative budget, which is the total envelope the Commission intends to allocate across all funded projects under that topic — not the maximum grant per project. Divide the total budget by the expected number of projects to estimate a realistic per-project figure.

Number of Projects Expected

Many topics state how many grants the Commission expects to fund. A topic with EUR 20 million and an expectation of 2 projects implies a per-project budget of approximately EUR 10 million. If only 1–2 projects will be funded, success rates are typically very low (often below 5%), which is an important strategic consideration.

Opening Date and Deadline

Calls have a fixed opening date (when submissions are accepted) and one or more deadlines. Some calls have a single deadline; others have multiple cuts within the same call year (Cut 1, Cut 2). Missing a deadline means waiting until the next cut or the next Work Programme year.

Expected Outcomes

This is one of the most important sections — and one of the most underread. The Expected Outcomes describe, in specific terms, what the Commission wants funded projects to achieve by their end. Your proposal must demonstrate a credible path to all stated outcomes, not just the ones that align with your existing work. Reviewers score proposals against these outcomes explicitly.

Scope

The Scope section elaborates on the research or innovation challenges the Commission wants addressed. It often includes references to existing EU policy documents, previous project results, or technology roadmaps. Reading the cited documents can reveal unstated expectations and help you frame your proposal''s narrative.

Conditions

The Conditions section specifies:

Minimum consortium requirements (typically 3 independent legal entities from 3 different EU Member States or associated countries for RIA/IA)
Specific eligibility restrictions (e.g., certain topics require participation from specific countries or types of organisations)
Maximum grant amount (where specified)
Specific rules (open access mandates, ethical requirements, security classification)

Single-Stage vs Two-Stage Submission

Some calls use a two-stage process to reduce the burden on applicants for oversubscribed topics:

Stage 1: A short outline proposal (typically 5–10 pages), evaluated on Excellence and Impact only. Shortlisted applicants are invited to Stage 2.
Stage 2: The full proposal, evaluated on all three criteria (Excellence, Impact, Quality and Efficiency of Implementation).

Single-stage calls require a full proposal from the outset. Always check the Conditions section to confirm which process applies before you commit to a deadline.

How to Read a Call Topic ID

Horizon Europe topic identifiers follow a consistent naming convention that encodes key information about the call:

HORIZON-CL4-2026-HUMAN-01-03

Segment	Meaning	Example
`HORIZON`	Programme name	Horizon Europe
`CL4`	Cluster number	Cluster 4: Digital, Industry and Space
`2026`	Work Programme year	2026 Work Programme
`HUMAN`	Destination name (abbreviated)	Human-centred and trustworthy AI
`01`	Cut number	First submission window
`03`	Topic number within that cut	Third topic in Cut 1

The Six Thematic Clusters

Code	Cluster Name
CL1	Health
CL2	Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society
CL3	Civil Security for Society
CL4	Digital, Industry and Space
CL5	Climate, Energy and Mobility
CL6	Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment

In addition to the six thematic clusters, Horizon Europe includes the European Research Council (ERC), Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), Research Infrastructures, and the European Innovation Council (EIC) — each with their own identifier conventions.

The Call Lifecycle: From Work Programme to Project Start

Understanding the full timeline helps you plan consortium formation and internal approvals well in advance.

Work Programme adoption — The European Commission formally adopts the Work Programme, publishing all planned topics. This typically happens 6–12 months before the first deadline.
Call opening on the Portal — The call officially opens and the submission system becomes active. Opening typically occurs 3–5 months before the deadline.
Submission deadline — The date and time (always Brussels time, 17:00 CET/CEST) by which proposals must be submitted. Late submissions are not accepted under any circumstances.
Eligibility check — The Commission verifies that submitted proposals meet formal eligibility criteria (1–2 weeks). Proposals that fail are excluded before evaluation.
Expert evaluation — Independent external evaluators score proposals against the three award criteria. This phase typically takes 3–5 months for standard calls.
Evaluation Summary Reports (ESR) — All applicants receive an ESR detailing their scores and reviewer comments, regardless of outcome.
Grant Agreement Preparation (GAP) — Successful consortia negotiate and sign the Grant Agreement with the European Commission (3–6 months). This phase includes ethics reviews, financial capacity checks, and negotiation of the Annex 1 (Description of Action).
Project start — The project officially begins on the start date agreed in the Grant Agreement.

From submission deadline to project start typically takes 12–18 months for standard RIA/IA calls. Plan accordingly when forming your consortium and aligning with institutional calendars.

Single-Stage vs Two-Stage Calls: A Closer Look

Two-stage calls introduce an important strategic calculation: Stage 1 is evaluated only on Excellence and Impact. Implementation details, work packages, and budget breakdowns are not assessed at Stage 1. This means:

Your Stage 1 proposal should focus entirely on the scientific/innovation case and the expected impact — not on project management.
Only 20–30% of Stage 1 proposals typically advance to Stage 2, so treat Stage 1 as a real competition, not a formality.
If you are not invited to Stage 2, you receive an ESR with scores. Use this feedback before resubmitting in a future cut.

For single-stage calls, all three evaluation criteria are assessed simultaneously on the full proposal.

Setting Up Email Alerts on the Portal

The Funding & Tenders Portal allows registered users to save searches and receive email notifications when new calls matching their criteria are published.

To set up alerts:

Log in to the Funding & Tenders Portal with your EU Login account
Run a search with your preferred filters (programme, cluster, keyword)
Click Save search and enable email notifications
Manage your saved searches under My Area → My Subscriptions

You can create multiple saved searches for different clusters or keywords. This is particularly useful for tracking forthcoming calls in your research area before they formally open.

Evaluating Call Fit Before You Start Writing

The single biggest risk in proposal writing is investing 6–8 weeks in a full proposal only to discover — during or after evaluation — that the call scope did not actually match your project. The following checklist helps you make a go/no-go decision early.

1. Eligibility

Does your planned consortium meet the minimum requirements? For most RIA and IA calls:

At least 3 independent legal entities
From at least 3 different EU Member States or associated countries
No single entity may receive more than a certain percentage of the total budget (check the specific call conditions)

Some topics have additional restrictions: specific country eligibility, mandatory involvement of SMEs, or requirements for a particular type of organisation.

2. Technology Readiness Level (TRL)

Horizon Europe calls typically specify an expected entry TRL (the maturity of your technology at the start of the project) and a target TRL at the end. If your technology is at TRL 2 and the call expects TRL 5–7 outcomes, your project is unlikely to succeed.

3. Budget Alignment

Divide the topic''s indicative budget by the number of expected projects to estimate the per-project envelope. Compare this to what your planned scope realistically costs. A grossly underfunded or overfunded proposal relative to the indicative budget is a warning sign for reviewers.

4. Scope Alignment

Read the Expected Outcomes and Scope sections carefully. Your proposal must credibly address all stated outcomes. If your project addresses 3 of 5 outcomes strongly but ignores 2 others, reviewers will score you down on Impact regardless of how strong your scientific case is.

5. Competitive Context

How many projects will be funded? A call funding 10 projects from a EUR 50 million envelope implies roughly EUR 5 million per project and a broader competitive field. A call funding 1–2 projects is far more competitive and typically attracts only the strongest existing consortia. Check historical success rates for similar calls via the CORDIS project database to calibrate your expectations.

Benchmarking Against Funded Projects

One of the most reliable ways to assess call fit is to examine what the Commission has funded in similar calls in the past. Projects funded under the same destination or cluster reveal the preferred scope, consortium compositions, and research approaches that reviewers have rewarded.

CriteriaI benchmarks your proposal objectives against the full database of Horizon Europe and H2020 funded projects — surfacing similar funded work, identifying novelty gaps, and scoring call alignment before you submit. This can save weeks of manual research and help you sharpen your proposal''s positioning.

Conclusion

Finding the right call is as important as writing a strong proposal. A well-written proposal on the wrong call will not be funded; a well-matched proposal with a credible team has a realistic path to success even in a competitive field.

The key steps:

Use the Funding & Tenders Portal as your single source of truth for open and forthcoming calls
Read the Work Programme to understand the strategic context behind each topic before the call opens
Decode the topic ID to orient yourself within the programme structure
Read Expected Outcomes and Scope carefully — these are the evaluation criteria in disguise
Run a go/no-go check on eligibility, TRL fit, budget, and competition before committing to a full proposal
Set up email alerts to track forthcoming calls in your area

Starting early — ideally when a call is still in Forthcoming status — gives you time to form the right consortium, align with the Work Programme narrative, and produce a proposal that addresses every aspect of the call scope.

How to Find and Respond to Horizon Europe Calls for Proposals