Excellence Hubs, …A-2027-04-WIDENING-01

Excellence Hubs

Open now · HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions · HORIZON-WIDERA-2027-04-WIDENING-01

Next cut-off

04 Mar '27

in 179 days

Per grant

€3.3M

the call's own average

Grants expected

projects that will be funded

Funding rate

70%

the rest is your own money

Expected Outcome:

Excellence Hubs allow innovation ecosystems in Widening countries and beyond, to team up and create better linkages between academia, business, government and society. This will foster a place-based innovation culture in Widening countries based on a strategic agenda aligned with regional or national smart specialisation strategies, and clearly identified expectations for economic and societal impacts. Projects should contribute to the following outcomes:

Excellent and sustainable regional R&I ecosystems in Widening countries and beyond in relevant domains of cutting-edge science and innovation;
Long term joint R&I strategies underpinned by concrete action plans of European relevance;
Common investment plans for R&I, including infrastructures, leveraging national, regional and European funds as well as private capital in a synergetic manner;
R&I pilot projects alongside a joint strategy and in line with regional and national strategies, notably regional innovation strategies for smart specialisation (RIS3);
New competencies and skills for researchers, entrepreneurs and professionals in R&I intensive domains;
Strengthened linkages between science, businesses and society;
New business opportunities for SMEs, university spin-offs and start-ups, especially in deep tech areas.

Scope:

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	€1.4M	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

€1.4M

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 — Coordination and Support Actions under the Horizon Europe rules are at least one legal entity established in a Member State or Associated Country — a consortium is common but not required.
Funding rate	Legal and financial set-up of the grants The funding rate is 70 % of the eligible costs.

Condition

Quoted from the call, or the rule behind it

Consortium size

Not quoted from this call — Coordination and Support Actions under the Horizon Europe rules are at least one legal entity established in a Member State or Associated Country — a consortium is common but not required.

Funding rate

Legal and financial set-up of the grants The funding rate is 70 % of the eligible costs.

Excellence Hubs

In context of Horizon Europe

What this call funds

What applying costs you

Where these conditions come from

Also open in HE

Become the beneficiary.