Update on Cluster 4 - Digital      

Cluster 4 (Digital, Industry & Space) is one of the largest clusters under Pillar two of Horizon Europe with an overall budget in excess of €15 billion. Irish participants have been doing very well in this area with over €168M in signed grant agreements to date. This equates to approx. 2% of the available budget. 103 Irish organisations are involved in 242 projects – this includes involvement in the “Chips” and “Smart Networks & Services” joint undertakings. We are also aware of more than €25M of further research funding secured from the 2025 calls. This extra money will be captured in signed grant agreements over the coming months.

The 2026-2027 Cluster 4 Work Programme is now published and can be found on the Funding and Tenders Portal. The work programme is divided into five “Destinations” – there were six in previous Work Programmes. The main difference this time is that Destination 1 (Manufacturing) and Destination 2 (Materials) have now been amalgamated. The five Destinations are as follows: -

·   Destination: Leadership in materials and production for Europe

·   Destination: Developing an agile and secure single market and infrastructure for data-services and         trustworthy artificial intelligence services

·   Destination: Achieving open strategic autonomy in digital and emerging enabling technologies

·   Destination: Open Strategic Autonomy in Developing, Deploying and Using Global Space-Based               Infrastructure, Services, Applications and Data

·   Destination: Digital and industrial technologies driving human-centric innovation

The main “Digital” topics are spread across three of these Destinations:

In the current Work Programme €1.52B has been earmarked for 76 topics across 11 Calls for Proposals. The following table provides an overview of the different calls.

Calls for Proposals:

INDUSTRY — HORIZON‑CL4‑2026‑01

Opening: 06/01/26 — Deadline: 21/04/26 — Topics: 15 — Budget: 319.6 M€

INDUSTRY (two‑stage) — HORIZON‑CL4‑2026‑02‑two‑stage

Opening: 16/12/25 — Deadlines: a) 17/03/26, b) 13/10/26 — Topics: 3 — Budget: 98 M€

INDUSTRY — HORIZON‑CL4‑2027‑01

Opening: 22/09/26 — Deadline: 02/02/27 — Topics: 10 — Budget: 224 M€

INDUSTRY (two‑stage) — HORIZON‑CL4‑2027‑02‑two‑stage

Opening: 22/09/26 — Deadlines: a) 02/02/27, b) 02/09/27 — Topics: 2 — Budget: 82.5 M€

INDUSTRI‑FTRI — HORIZON‑CL4‑2027‑06

Opening: 22/09/26 — Deadline: 02/02/27 — Topics: 2 — Budget: 35 M€

SPACE — HORIZON‑CL4‑2026‑03

Opening: 10/03/26 — Deadline: 03/09/26 — Topics: 8 — Budget: 90.97 M€

SPACE — HORIZON‑CL4‑2027‑03

Opening: 09/03/27 — Deadline: 02/09/27 — Topics: 7 — Budget: 66.16 M€

DIGITAL — HORIZON‑CL4‑2026‑04

Opening: 15/01/26 — Deadline: 15/04/26 — Topics: 15 — Budget: 221.8 M€

DIGITAL — HORIZON‑CL4‑2027‑04

Opening: 17/11/26 — Deadline: 18/03/27 — Topics: 11 — Budget: 272 M€

DIGITAL — HORIZON‑CL4‑2026‑05

Opening: 15/01/26 — Deadline: 15/04/26 — Topics: 3 — Budget: 85.5 M€

DIGITAL — HORIZON‑CL4‑2027‑05

Opening: 17/11/26 — Deadline: 18/03/27 — Topics: 1 — Budget: 25 M€

In preparation for the Cluster 4 Calls, the Commission organised on-line Info Days on 29/30 January. 

The three NCP projects in Cluster 4 (IDEAL-IST, NCP4Industry and COSMOS4HE) have also organised on-line brokerages that will remain open up until call deadlines.

· Online brokerage by IDEAL-IST for Digital calls HORIZON-CL4-2026-04, HORIZON-CL4-2026-05, HORIZON-      RAISE-2026

· Online brokerage by NCP4Industry for Industry calls HORIZON-CL4-2026-01 and HORIZON-CL4-2026-02

· Online brokerage by COSMOS4HE for Space call HORIZON-CL4-2026-03

Update on the Chips Joint Undertaking

EFECS 2025, the flagship event of the Chips JU took place in Malta on 3rd and 4th December 2025. Presentations can be found on the event website. The 2026 edition of the event is planned for Helsinki in December.

This year, a number of calls will again be launched under both the ECS and Chips4Europe part of the programme.

Under the ECS part of the programme, 10 calls are planned as follows (note – these may change): -

For the Chips4Europe initiative, 8 calls are planned as follows (note – these may change): -

Further details will be available on the Chips JU website. An ECS Collaboration tool is available to help participants find potential partners.

Note that many of the above Chips JU opportunities depend on a mix of EU and National funding. If you are interested in any of these topics, please contact [email protected] to discuss further and to get up-to-date information.

Update on the Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU)

The 2026 SNS work programme has been published and represents an EU investment of €22M. The SNS JU R&I WP 2026 marks a critical transitional year for the SNS JU and the broader European 

6G agenda. It comes at a time when the SNS JU Programme is moving from Phase 2 into Phase 3, consolidating the foundation laid in 2024–2025 and preparing for the final major call, under Horizon Europe, to be launched in 2027.

Compared to previous Work Programmes, the SNS JU R&I WP 2026 is smaller and more targeted. This focused approach enables the SNS JU to sustain momentum and ensure high-impact investments, while strategically preparing for a broader and more ambitious R&I Work Programme in 2027.

Topics in this year’s call are: -

Deadline for submission of proposals is 29 April 2026 at 17:00 CET.

An info day and brokerage event took place on Tuesday 2nd February. See event website for details. 

There is also an on-line brokerage platform that can be accessed here.

For any queries in relation to SNS please contact [email protected]