Energy efficiency and sustainability of AI data processing in Data Centres (IA)
- Funder
- European Commission · Horizon Europe
- Award amount
- €9,000,000 – €10,000,000
- Deadline
- March 18, 2027
- Eligible countries
- European Union, United Kingdom, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, Israel, Global
Summary
Forthcoming EU call topic HORIZON-CL4-2027-04-DATA-09 · HORIZON 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-DATA-09
Expected Outcome: Pilots for new technologies including demonstration sites which contribute to energy-efficient and sustainable AI data processing in data centres, reinforcing EU strategic autonomy and climate goals. Project results are expected to contribute to one or more of the following outcomes: - Demonstrated innovations that substantially improve heat removal from high-power AI chips (e.g. direct on-chip cooling, advanced thermal interface materials, multi-scale thermal management), enabling higher performance without thermal throttling. This should lead to lower cooling energy needs and higher reliability for dense AI workloads. - Prototypes of novel backup power systems (such as graphene-enhanced batteries) that operate with minimal cooling requirements, improving data centre resilience and enabling better use of renewable power. - New methods and frameworks that optimise the entire data centre for energy-efficient AI processing. This includes intelligent workload scheduling and AI model optimisation techniques to reduce energy use (e.g. carbon-aware job scheduling and power capping to cut energy demand and peak temperatures), as well as designs for integrating on-site/off-site renewables and waste-heat reuse.
Outcomes should demonstrate potential for improved power usage effectiveness and utilisation of waste heat in external applications, aligned with European targets for carbon-neutral heating/cooling. Scope: Actions should address one or more of the following development areas: - Direct on-chip cooling and thermal management, including novel and innovative cooling techniques applied at chip and module level (direct liquid cooling, heat…
Summary as listed by the funder. Always read the full announcement for eligibility, limits and how to apply.
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- 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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