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Home / Horizon Europe / HORIZON-CL5-2027-03-D5-04

Demonstration of zero emission coaches and buses in long distance operations (2ZERO Partnership)

Announced, not yet open · HORIZON Innovation Actions · HORIZON-CL5-2027-03-D5-04

Next cut-off
14 Apr '27
in 220 days
Per grant
€14M
the call's own average
Grants expected
1
projects that will be funded
Funding rate
70%
the rest is your own money

In context of Horizon Europe

This grant€14M
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 expected outcomes:

  • Integration of the results of the demonstrations in regular operation of passenger transport operators, in long distance operations. Accelerated replication of this integration, beyond original demo partners, using specific recommendations and sharing of best practices
  • Reliable operation of long distance zero emission buses and coaches in the EU.
  • Improved comfort and inter-modality for long distance people mobility services.
  • Demonstrated innovative zero emission solutions for long distance people mobility in a holistic approach taking net congestions challenges and charging solutions into account.

Scope:

Zero emission buses for urban and sub-urban use are successfully implemented in Europe. This has addressed the need to improve air quality, reduce noise and innovate people mobility. Yet there are limitations due to range, vehicle weight and available charging infrastructure to further extend zero emission vehicles in more energy demanding long-distance (ranging from regional, national to transnational) people mobility that needs to be addressed. There is a need to further develop zero-emission solutions where vehicle weight and energy demand are challenges.

Proposed actions are expected to address all of the following aspects:

  • Develop sustainable and affordable, long-distance zero emission people mobility solutions for different areas and regions with new and viable business cases based on new operation models and smart management of fleets and of coaches and buses.

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€5.8M30% 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.
Maturitynull Activities are expected to achieve TRL 7-8 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.

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