Lantern Grants

Advanced border surveillance and situational awareness

Funder
European Commission · Horizon Europe
Award amount
Up to €6,000,000
Deadline
November 5, 2026
Eligible countries
European Union, United Kingdom, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, Israel, Global

Summary

Open EU call topic HORIZON-CL3-2026-01-BM-01 · HORIZON Innovation Actions. Part of call HORIZON-CL3-2026-01: Civil Security for Society 2026. Next deadline 2026-11-05. Topic page: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/HORIZON-CL3-2026-01-BM-01

Expected Outcome: Project results are expected to contribute to some or all of the following expected outcomes: - Improved detection, localization, characterization and, when applicable, neutralisation, of unmanned vehicles alone or in swarms, involved in trafficking or smuggling activities across external borders, while complying with legal and ethical guidelines; - Improved border situational awareness, especially in the context of large-scale movements of people across borders, including from potential instrumentalisation of irregular migration, conflicts, social, economic, environmental and climate stress; - Better safeguard and promotion of fundamental rights thanks to enhanced situational awareness; - Reliable, redundant detection and reaction capacities without putting staff and society at risk.

Scope: Capabilities for situational awareness and surveillance of land and sea borders need improvement, in consideration of potential future challenges that may require updated capabilities. These challenges may include potential future large-scale movements of people across external borders, resulting from future attempts to instrumentalisation of irregular migration, but also from conflicts, social, economic, environmental and climate stress in the European neighbourhood; as well as increasing availability and capability of unmanned aerial, surface, and underwater vehicles with increased payload capacity and range that make it easier to transport goods and, possibly, persons, including in connection will illicit or illegal activities such as trafficking of goods and smuggling of people across external EU borders. These challenges will be particularly relevant in…

Summary as listed by the funder. Always read the full announcement for eligibility, limits and how to apply.

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What European Union reviewers look for

  • Most Horizon Europe calls score three criteria (the ERC uses excellence alone). Excellence: clarity and ambition of the objectives, and the soundness of the methodology.
  • Impact: credible pathways to the expected outcomes, and measures to communicate and exploit results.
  • Quality and efficiency of implementation: the work plan, resources and the consortium's capacity.

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