New Horizon Europe funding call “Bridging”: preparing R&I results for future uptake, research and investment

30th June 2026 at 9:41 am

The Horizon Bridging actions 2027 call, included in the draft Horizontal Activities work programme, introduces a new call for the final phase of Horizon Europe. Their purpose is to ease the transition between Horizon Europe 2021-2027 and the next Framework Programme, expected to run from 2028 to 2034. Rather than funding research in isolation, these actions focus on the “innovation to investment journey”: helping promising results, infrastructures, skills and AI-based solutions move closer to deployment, scale-up and strategic use. By doing so, they address a persistent weakness in the European innovation pipeline: promising results from collaborative research often struggle to move beyond project completion. For applicants, this means proposals must demonstrate more than scientific excellence. They need a credible route towards uptake, investment readiness, European competitiveness and policy relevance.

In addition, and as stated in the work programme, the call seeks to address several strategic priorities horizontally, notably in relation to the Apply AI Strategy and the European Strategy on Research and Technology Infrastructures, while also being relevant to sectoral frameworks such as the EU Adaptation Strategy and the EU Ports Strategy.

The Horizon Bridging call has a total budget of ~€193 million and contains 14 call topics, organised in five calls. Within those, 163 projects are expected to be funded.

While the Horizon Bridging actions are grouped under a single horizontal initiative, the portfolio reveals several distinct strategic objectives. A significant share of the budget is dedicated to accelerating the uptake of artificial intelligence in sectors that are considered critical for European competitiveness, including media, mobility and energy systems. At the same time, the programme seeks to strengthen Europe’s innovation ecosystems, support the maturation of promising Horizon Europe results, reinforce research infrastructures and data repositories, and improve climate resilience and preparedness. Together, these topics reflect the European Commission’s increasing emphasis on converting research excellence into tangible economic, societal and strategic value.

Applicants should also note that the funding landscape differs considerably across the five calls. Some topics support a single large-scale flagship project with budgets of up to €20 million, while others are designed to fund multiple smaller actions. The Skills Bridging Action, for example, is expected to support around 130 projects, whereas several AI-related topics foresee only one funded project. This means that proposal strategies, consortium structures and expected impacts will vary substantially between topics. Understanding the underlying policy objective of each call will therefore be just as important as understanding its technical scope.

The tables below summarise the details for each call topic.

HORIZON-BRIDGING-2027-01:

HORIZON-BRIDGING-2027-02:

Proposals are invited against the following Destinations and topic(s):

HORIZON-BRIDGING-2027-03

Proposals are invited against the following Destinations and topic(s):

HORIZON-BRIDGING-2027-04:

Proposals are invited against the following Destinations and topic(s):

HORIZON-BRIDGING-2027-05:

Proposals are invited against the following Destinations and topic(s):

Our track record

If you are preparing a proposal for a 2026 or 2027 deadline, we are ready to support you from strategy to submission. At accelopment, we work closely with consortia across all major Horizon Europe clusters to translate Work Programme texts into competitive, evaluator-ready proposals. Our team of experts supports researchers, companies and institutions throughout the entire funding process – from strategic grant planning, to proposal writing, project management and communication and dissemination. With deep knowledge of Pillar II funding opportunities, we help our partners increase their chances of success in securing European research grants across the different clusters. Having collaborated with over 1,000 institutions in Europe and beyond, we are currently involved in over 30 projects. Our portfolio includes CL1 Health projects (such as ResPECT, EDiHTA, EU PAL-COPD, EXPOSIM and the Cancer Mission project GLIOMATCH), the CL3 Security project CapCell, several CL5 Energy and Mobility projects such as PEPPERONI, ROADVIEW and SOLARX and CL6 Food and Bioeconomy Projects, including DECIDE and PHOTONFOOD.

We look forward to supporting researchers in upcoming calls. Ready to embark on this adventure? Get in touch with our team to discuss how to position your project idea and write a competitive proposal.

Dr. Eva Avilla Royo
Research & Innovation Project Manager

Andreia Cruz
Research & Innovation Project Manager