Energy efficiency and…, …N-CL4-2027-04-DATA-09

Energy efficiency and sustainability of AI data processing in Data Centres (IA)

Announced, not yet open · HORIZON Innovation Actions · HORIZON-CL4-2027-04-DATA-09

Next cut-off

18 Mar '27

in 193 days

Per grant

€13M

the call's own average

Grants expected

projects that will be funded

Funding rate

70%

the rest is your own money

Expected Outcome:

Pilots for new technologies and a demonstration site 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 (see more details in scope):

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.
As a result of all the above bullet points, an open pilot demonstration site that allows for the testing and integration of the outcomes of these projects and serves as the European reference for showcasing the breakthroughs and cutting-edge technologies for energy-efficient and sustainable data centres developed under this topic. This site should serve as a model for technology uptake for the European data centre industry.

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

What applying costs you

Item	Estimate	Note
Drafting effort	6–8 weeks	single submission
Partner search	4–8 weeks	runs in parallel, and it is the part that slips
Your own money	€5.6M	30% of project cost, over the project's life
Time to first payment	6–9 months	cut-off → evaluation → grant agreement

Item

Estimate

Note

Drafting effort

6–8 weeks

single submission

Partner search

4–8 weeks

runs in parallel, and it is the part that slips

Your own money

€5.6M

30% of project cost, over the project's life

Time to first payment

6–9 months

cut-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.

Condition	Quoted from the call, or the rule behind it
Consortium size	Not 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 rate	Not 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.
Maturity	null Activities are expected to start at TRL 6-7 and achieve TRL 8 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.

Condition

Quoted from the call, or the rule behind it

Consortium size

Not 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 rate

Not 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.

Maturity

null Activities are expected to start at TRL 6-7 and achieve TRL 8 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.

Energy efficiency and sustainability of AI data processing in Data Centres (IA)

In context of Horizon Europe

What this call funds

What applying costs you

Where these conditions come from

Also open in HE

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