Lantern Grants

Apply AI: Challenge-Driven AI Innovation Booster in Apply AI prioritised sectors (RIA) (Partnership in AI, Data and Robotics)

Funder
European Commission · Horizon Europe
Award amount
Up to €14,000,000
Deadline
March 18, 2027
Eligible countries
European Union, United Kingdom, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, Israel, Global

Summary

Forthcoming EU call topic HORIZON-CL4-2027-04-DIGITAL-EMERGING-04 · HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions. Part of call HORIZON-CL4-2027-04: DIGITAL. Opens 2026-11-17; next deadline 2027-03-18. Topic page: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/HORIZON-CL4-2027-04-DIGITAL-EMERGING-04

Expected Outcome: The Apply AI Strategy[1] proposes a comprehensive set of measures to notably harness the transformative potential of AI. It lays down targeted measures to boost AI use in key strategic sectors of the EU economy including healthcare, mobility and manufacturing for example. With challenges designed to spark breakthroughs in such strategic sectors, the current topic will directly support key activities of the Apply AI Strategy. Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes: - Significant technological progress and innovation in Apply AI Strategy's prioritised sectors driven by challenge-oriented, AI-powered solutions. - Increase competitiveness and visibility of the relevant AI community within key application sectors, and promote collaborative approaches for AI development in these sectors, fostering the ecosystem. - Increase adoption of AI technologies across the following three key application sectors: healthcare, advanced manufacturing (including AI-powered robotics) and in-vehicle autonomous driving.

Scope: The Challenge-Driven AI Innovation Booster aims to drive significant technological progress and innovation in Apply AI prioritised sectors through challenge-oriented, AI-powered solutions. This initiative seeks to boost Europe's developer community and the adoption of powerful, trustworthy AI solutions in three strategic sectors such as: - In healthcare - advanced AI will accelerate diagnostics and treatment plans, enhance robotic surgery, or improve patient care through predictive analytics. - In advanced manufacturing - advanced AI will optimize production…

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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