AI process industries in HORIZON-CL4-2026-02-DIGITAL-EMERGING-53-two-stage: how to transition from stage 1 to stage 2

11th June 2026 at 11:37 am

The Horizon Europe call HORIZON-CL4-2026-02-DIGITAL-EMERGING-53-two-stage: Innovative AI methods and technologies for the process industries targets a strategic challenge for Europe: how to use advanced AI to make process industries more competitive, sustainable and resilient. With 79 stage-1 proposals submitted under this topic, competition is significant. If your consortium is invited to submit a full proposal, stage 2 is not simply an expansion of the short application. It is the moment to prove that your AI process industries concept can be delivered technically, industrially and credibly within the expected TRL pathway.

What stage 2 must add beyond the short proposal

Being invited to stage 2 is an important signal: evaluators considered the concept relevant to HORIZON-CL4-2026-02-DIGITAL-EMERGING-53-two-stage and strong enough to merit a full proposal. The challenge now is different. The consortium must show that the idea can be translated into a credible industrial project, with a robust methodology, a realistic implementation plan, a convincing validation strategy and a clear exploitation pathway. The proposal should also make clear how users, operators and industrial partners will be involved throughout development, testing and uptake.

The call expects projects to start at TRL 4-5 and reach TRL 6 by the end of the action. This means that the full proposal needs a well-defined demonstration pathway. Applicants should specify the validation environment, the industrial baseline, the technical and operational indicators to be measured, and the evidence demonstrating progress towards TRL 6. Access to relevant industrial data, integration into existing operational and information technology (OT/IT) environments, cybersecurity, reliability and trustworthiness should be addressed as part of the core methodology, not as secondary considerations.

The topic is also linked to the EU Apply AI Strategy and implements the co-programmed European Partnerships Processes4Planet and AI, Data and Robotics. Stage-2 proposals should therefore avoid presenting AI as an isolated technical add-on. The proposal should show how the planned solution contributes to industrial competitiveness, sustainability, digital sovereignty and the deployment of trustworthy AI in strategic European value chains.

Pro Tip: Make the demonstration pathway specific. Define where validation will take place, which baseline will be used, which technical and industrial indicators will be measured, and how the project will provide credible evidence that the solution has reached TRL 6 by the end of the action.

How to sharpen the technical and industrial narrative

The call text explicitly asks for innovative AI-based solutions dedicated to the process industry. This is broader than predictive maintenance or quality control. The European Commission points towards more adaptive and creative AI applications across design, operations and value chains, including support for autonomous operations and faster responses to changing customer needs. A strong stage-2 proposal should therefore answer these questions:

What industrial bottleneck is being solved?
Why does it require advanced AI rather than conventional optimisation?
Which data, models and infrastructure are already available?
How will the solution be validated under realistic process-industry conditions?
How will workers, operators and industrial decision-makers use and trust the system?

For this call topic, the difference between a promising and a fundable proposal will often lie in the specificity of the industrial setting. Generic claims about efficiency, sustainability or competitiveness will not be enough. The proposal should show process knowledge, plant constraints, regulatory and safety awareness, and a convincing route towards exploitation.

Pro Tip: Involve industrial end-users in technical decisions, not only in validation or dissemination. Their role should be visible in requirements, data access, system integration, training and exploitation.

What can and cannot change from stage 1 to stage 2

A common concern after stage-1 success is how much the proposal can be adapted. Horizon Europe allows refinement but not reinvention. The full proposal must remain consistent with the stage-1 outline and must not introduce substantial differences that change the core concept, objectives, methodology or expected impact.

You can usually:

Detail and strengthen the methodology

Add justified technical work packages and milestones

Improve the impact pathway, business case and exploitation strategy

Clarify partner roles and governance

Add missing expertise if it strengthens delivery and does not change the project identity

Make user engagement, training and OT/IT integration more concrete

You should avoid:

Changing the coordinator

Replacing the conceptual basis of the project

Significantly altering the main objectives

Moving to a different expected impact

Changing the core industrial use casent expected impact

In two-stage calls, the Commission screens stage-2 proposals for manifest differences, not only the changes declared by applicants. Any major adaptation should therefore be justified clearly and framed as a necessary strengthening of the original concept.

Pro Tip: Create an internal stage-1-to-stage-2 consistency table. Track every major change, why it was made and how it strengthens the project’s logic.

Looking for stage-2 proposal writing support?

At accelopment, we support consortia in turning competitive stage-1 concepts into full Horizon Europe proposals with clear intervention logic, measurable impact and credible implementation planning. Our experience covers proposal writing, grant preparation, project management, communication, dissemination and exploitation across digitalisation, manufacturing, engineering, energy and health innovation. Relevant examples include Robo-Mate on human-robot interaction in factories, MORE on AI-driven robotisation and process optimisation, SOSLeM on lean manufacturing, PEPPERONI on industrial-scale production processes and AI-Mind on AI-based digital tools.

Dr. Johannes Ripperger
Research & Innovation Manager

Andreia Cruz
Research & Innovation Project Manager