Barry Jennings
National Delegate and National Contact Point (NCP) for Horizon Europe Cluster 4 - Space
Enterprise Ireland
HORIZON EUROPE - SPACE UPDATE
The Cluster 4 work programme (Digital, Industry and Space) is designed to fund competitive and trusted research and innovation technologies for the European industry in key areas, such as discrete and continuous manufacturing and engineering, digitalisation of the construction sector and energy intensive industries.
Cluster 4 includes the Space destination, defined as ‘Open Strategic Autonomy in Developing, Deploying and Using Global Space-Based Infrastructure, Services in Space and on Ground, Applications and Data’.
The Cluster 4 work programme for 2025 has just been pre-published, with the official publication date mid-May.
The total budget for the Space destination in Cluster 4 for 2025 is approximately €266m, split between a HADEA call, a EUSPA call and various “Other Actions not subject to calls for proposals”.
· The main HADEA call incorporating 20 topics and 52% of the budget will open at the end of May 2025 and close at the end of Sept 2025.
· The EUSPA call incorporating 3 topics will open at the end of Oct 2025 and close in Feb 2026. These topics will mainly cover the development of high TRL applications/services which utilise space data for various sectors such as energy, climate, green financing, liveable cities and crisis/security practitioners.
· The remaining topics/actions will be managed by various third parties at different times (eg ESA, EU SST Partnership, CASSINI).
Info Days and events
The main Horizon Europe 2025 Info Day for Cluster 4 will be on May 13/14th, with the Space destination covered on May 13th. More details here.
The twenty topics in the main HADEA call are grouped under various sub-headings:
· Accessing Space (the ability to transport cargo and humans into space)
- There are three topics relating to best practices for spaceports and developing digital solutions for space transportation systems.
· Acting in Space (the ability to perform multiple functions in space)
- There are four topics (total budget of €55m) relating to the ISOS (In Space Operations & Services) pilot mission planned for 2030.
- Details on ISOS as well as the recently pre-released guidance document can be found here In Space Operations and Services – a strategic ability for the future - European Commission.
- There will be a separate webinar specific to these four topics on ISOS held on May 21st. You can register and view this webinar by registering for the new Digital EU Space Ecosystem and checking out the Events section of the ISOS Hub.
· Using Space on Earth
- There are eight topics relating to satellite communications and earth observation technologies and services.
· Boosting Space thru non-dependence of the EU for key critical space technologies
- There are four topics on developing space critical equipment and EEE components, in particular chip scale atomic clocks, solar cells, RISC V microprocessors, advanced packages, memories and connectors.
· Boosting Space through international cooperation
- There is one topic on exploiting quantum space gravimetry data.
Space Partnership
The newly formed Space Partnership has sponsored four of the topics in the 2025 work programme. This number will increase in future years. Details on the Space Partnership (ie members, how to join, etc) can be found here.
