Sign in Check my fit
EN
Home / Horizon Europe / HORIZON-CL4-2026-SPACE-03-11

Reinforcing EU autonomous access to space through EU-based spaceports

Open now · HORIZON Innovation Actions · HORIZON-CL4-2026-SPACE-03-11

Next cut-off
16 Sept '26
in 10 days
Per grant
€11M
the call's own average
Grants expected
2
projects that will be funded
Funding rate
70%
the rest is your own money

In context of Horizon Europe

This grant€11M
The track runs to the largest grant in Horizon Europe (€171M). The median across the 482 calls we publish is €5.3M, this one is above it.

What this call funds

Expected Outcome:

Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following outcomes:

  • Reinforcing EU strategic autonomy by reducing non-EU dependencies for accessing space;
  • Providing an EU access to space necessary for EU space missions through state of the art and innovative solutions;
  • Diversifying the access to space providers in the EU;
  • Contributing to expand commercial access to space offers and services in the EU;
  • Reinforcing Access to Space to ensure that Europe maintains and improve autonomous, reliable and cost-effective access to space.

Scope:

The EU needs to improve the resilience of its access to space for the implementation of EU space programme. New entrants will contribute to this endeavour.

Projects are expected to support EU launch service providers to set up launch pad(s) in the EU territory enabling to perform EU launch services.

Projects are expected to contribute to the development of necessary ground facilities to conduct launch services from the EU territory; e.g. launch integration, storage and operation facilities, launch pad and complex, control command facility, payload processing and integration facilities, tracking means, safety means, propellant storage...

EU launch service provider(s) are expected to be part of the project consortium and be the ultimate users of the resulting facilities making use of EU launch vehicles for providing EU launch services.

Proposals under this topic should explore synergies and be complementary to past actions related to ground segment for launch services, in particular the topics: HORIZON-CL4-2023-SPACE-01-23 and HORIZON-CL4-2025-02-SPACE-11.

Trimmed here, the full scope, expected outcomes and award criteria are on the official topic page ↗.

What applying costs you

ItemEstimateNote
Drafting effort6–8 weekssingle submission
Partner search4–8 weeksruns in parallel, and it is the part that slips
Your own money€4.8M30% of project cost, over the project's life
Time to first payment6–9 monthscut-off → evaluation → grant agreement

These are Bemzu's estimates from the call's structure (the number of stages and whether a consortium is required) not figures published by the Commission. Only the co-financing share is read from the call itself.

Where these conditions come from

Two kinds of row. Most are the sentence we read the condition from, quoted out of the call itself. Some say plainly that they are not a quotation but the programme's own rule for this type of action, the EU portal publishes a table of contents where the conditions should be, so for a Research and Innovation Action the rate comes from the rulebook rather than from the fiche.

ConditionQuoted from the call, or the rule behind it
Consortium sizeNot quoted from this call — Innovation Actions under the Horizon Europe rules are at least three independent legal entities from three different Member States or Associated Countries, at least one established in a Member State.
Funding rateNot quoted from this call — Innovation Actions under the Horizon Europe rules are funded at 70% of eligible costs for profit-making organisations, and 100% for non-profit legal entities — the rate shown here is the one that applies to a company.
MaturityTechnology Readiness Level - Technology readiness level expected from completed projects Activities are expected to achieve TRL 8 by the end of the project.

Also open in HE

Become the beneficiary.

Eight questions, no account, nothing sent anywhere. You will know which of the 1526 open calls you can actually enter before you finish your coffee.

Check my fit