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Three Horizon Europe AI funding topics under HORIZON-CL4-2027-04 offer opportunities to advance artificial intelligence (AI), accelerate industrial robotics adoption and strengthen international digital cooperation. With a combined indicative budget of EUR 63 million, these topics contribute to the destination Achieving open strategic autonomy in digital and emerging enabling technologies.

The call opens on 17 November 2026, with a submission deadline of 18 March 2027. Research organisations, AI developers, robotics companies and industrial end-users should particularly consider how the different topics support technological development, deployment or international cooperation.

Accelerating challenge-driven AI innovation in strategic sectors

HORIZON-CL4-2027-04-DIGITAL-EMERGING-04 supports AI innovation through competitive challenges addressing real industrial needs. The topic contributes to the EU’s Apply AI Strategy and focuses on three strategic application domains: healthcare, advanced manufacturing and in-vehicle autonomous driving. Each proposal must focus on one of these sectors exclusively. The EC aims to fund one project per sector, subject to proposals meeting evaluation thresholds. Unlike a conventional research project, this topic requires consortia to organise a multi-stage competition through financial support to third parties (FSTP). The competition is open for submissions by a single SME developing an advanced AI solution, or a small consortium led by such an SME. It must follow three stages:

• Stage 1: An open call selects the ten highest-ranked solutions.
• Stage 2: Ten selected teams receive EUR 300,000 each to develop and demonstrate their solutions.
• Stage 3: Four finalists receive EUR 2.25 million each to further advance their technologies and compete in the final challenge.

Industrial end-users must be core consortium partners, helping define challenges, provide relevant data and support the exploitation of successful solutions. Projects should progress from Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 2 to TRL 5.

Pro tip: Build your proposal around a challenging, industry-defined problem rather than a generic AI technology. Define transparent competition criteria, secure access to relevant datasets and demonstrate how industrial partners will support the uptake of winning solutions.

Enabling industrial adoption of AI-driven robotics

HORIZON-CL4-2027-04-DIGITAL-EMERGING-05 addresses the gap between advanced robotics technologies and their integration into industrial operations. The EC expects the development of modular, interoperable frameworks that simplify the deployment of AI-enabled robotic systems, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Proposals must deliver:

• A deployable integration framework, validated through at least three real-world industrial pilots.
• An Integration Kit containing reusable modules, configurations and deployment tools.
• Reusable datasets and benchmarking tasks for robotics and AI development.
• Practical guidance for SMEs, including regulatory compliance and certification pathways.
• Contributions to open standards supporting interoperability and safe deployment.

Projects should also consider energy-efficient AI, robust system architectures and digital twins for testing and validation where relevant. The expected development pathway is from TRL 4 to TRL 7, reflecting the topic’s emphasis on industrial demonstration and market readiness.

Pro tip: Select three industrial pilots that demonstrate the framework’s adaptability across different production environments and company sizes. Clearly quantify reductions in integration effort and improvements in operational performance.

Strengthening international cooperation through AI innovation

HORIZON-CL4-2027-04-DIGITAL-EMERGING-06 supports the adaptation and deployment of European AI technologies in low- and middle-income countries, with a particular focus on African countries. The topic contributes to the EU’s international digital cooperation objectives, including the Global Gateway strategy and AI Continent Action Plan. Rather than developing entirely new AI models, projects should focus on adapting existing European solutions to local needs and demonstrating their effectiveness in operational environments.

Expected activities include:

• Training and optimising AI solutions using locally relevant data.
• Establishing Living Labs within local innovation hubs.
• Involving communities, researchers and entrepreneurs in solution development.
• Validating AI applications in real-life settings.
• Supporting technology transfer and sustainable local innovation ecosystems.

Applications may address healthcare, agriculture, education, environmental sustainability or other societal challenges. Projects should start at TRL 5 and reach TRL 7, demonstrating a credible pathway towards deployment.

Pro tip: Involve local innovation hubs and end-users from the proposal stage. Demonstrate how the solutions respond to local needs, how data will be accessed and governed, and how the resulting technologies can remain operational beyond EU funding.