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Call key data
Large-scale production of liquid advanced biofuels and renewable fuels of non-biological origin
Funding Program
Horizon Europe: Cluster 5 - Climate, Energy and Mobility
Call number
HORIZON-CL5-2026-02-D3-01
deadlines
Opening
16.09.2025
Deadline
17.02.2026 17:00
Funding rate
70%
Call budget
€ 33,000,000.00
Estimated EU contribution per project
€ 11,000,000.00
Link to the call
Link to the submission
Call content
short description
Demonstrate innovative large-scale production of liquid advanced biofuels and/or renewable fuels of non-biological origin for sectors with specific need for such fuels (particularly aviation and shipping and energy-intensive industries). Production is expected to be based on various EU sustainable biomass feedstocks, notably biogenic residues and wastes, biogenic part of slurries and industrial wastes, and/or on non-biological origin feedstocks, such as renewable hydrogen and CO2 or renewable carbon, nitrogen, or their compounds, through chemical, biochemical, biological, and thermochemical pathways, or a combination of them.
Call objectives
Proposals are expected to:
- demonstrate large scale production of ready-to-deploy advanced biofuels and/or renewable fuels of non-biological origin, engaging feedstock developers and suppliers, technology developers, fuel suppliers, end users for purchasing the quantities, national bodies, and public or private authorities with funding capacity;
- address and assess the impact of actual, real-size feedstocks, (like for example agricultural wastes, energy crops grown on marginal and degraded lands or as intermediate crops, forestry wastes, biogenic municipal and industrial wastes, all types of renewable hydrogen, actual streams of CO2 and nitrogen, available renewable carbon or their compounds), in terms of their constitution on plant design, (e.g. for feedstock pretreatment and wastewater treatment as appropriate);
- address and assess the impact on plant design and feasibility of improving the feedstocks externally and upstream to the fuel production plant, by increasing the energy density of the feedstocks through for example torrefaction, by homogenisation of feedstocks for making them uniform or similar, and by standardisation of feedstocks, as appropriate.
Projects should produce a lifetime cycle analysis of their production route and in particular for renewable fuels of non-biological origin, as inputs in terms of renewable energy and material (CO2, nitrogen, renewable hydrogen) may not be continuously available.
Production of renewable hydrogen as an end-product is excluded from the scope of this topic.
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Expected effects and impacts
The projects are expected to result in reference cases for ready-to-build, revamp/reuse and/or operate full-scale plants of advanced biofuels and/or renewable fuels of non-biological origin. Improvements, optimisation, new schemes and modification of existing demonstration plants that can result into the preparation of the next full-scale plant are considered within scope to encourage deployment of cost-effective solutions.
The plan for the exploitation and dissemination of results should include a strong investment and business case and sound exploitation strategy. The exploitation plan should include plans for scalability, commercialisation, and deployment. It is expected to provide information and assessment about the economic viability of the commercial plant, the permitting procedures, a full value chain-based business plan and identified funding sources such as private equity, loans, loans guarantee, grants, or public financing for CAPEX and OPEX, as well as take-off agreements for the fuel uptake. Moreover, they should provide information on, or linked to, the identified funding sources, like private equity, the InvestEU, the EU Catalyst Partnership, the Innovation Fund, and possibly the European Regional Development Fund programmes. Projects are expected to include at least one relevant local economic business case, outlining local value and supply chains and the expected number of local jobs at the place of deployment. Furthermore, proposals are expected to provide information and assessment of impact on land and water use, soil and biodiversity, for example in relation to marginal and degraded land feedstocks, and of public awareness on full-scale renewable fuel plants.
An assessment of the sustainability and the GHG reduction from fossil equivalents should be shown based on a life-cycle analysis for the large-scale fuel production. Special attention should be paid to estimating the GHG emissions reduction potential; projects are encouraged to use the methodology in the Innovation Fund.
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Expected results
A quite wide portfolio of technologies, which are close to be deployed but still lack the real-world demonstration of economic viability, exists. Significant volumes of advanced biofuels and renewable fuels of non-biological origin (RFNBOs) are needed to cover the current fleets and the sectors where renewable fuels are the main long-term solution, such as aviation and shipping and energy-intensive industries. Therefore, an exceptional effort is needed to establish more successful projects where full-scale plants are built and operated based on the vast potential of sustainable feedstocks throughout the EU.
Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:
- Energy producers and consumers in transport and energy-intensive industries benefit from the mobilisation of building of industrial capacity for advanced biofuels and renewable fuels of non-biological origin;
- Technology developers benefit from the support to the preparation of first-of-a-kind plants of advanced biofuels and/or renewable fuels of non-biological origin to become precursors for the following commercial plants;
- Technology providers benefit from the de-risking of the innovative technologies, reduction of CAPEX and production costs, boosting of scale-up and contribution to market up-take of advanced biofuels and/or renewable fuels of non-biological origin;
- Public authorities, citizens, researchers, and industrial stakeholders benefit from the improvement of the sustainability, reliability, robustness, and security of the relevant value chain;
- National authorities profit from the provided evidence for innovative advanced biofuels and/or renewable fuels of non-biological origin technologies, which can contribute to the Renewable Energy Directive indicative target for innovative renewable energy technology in each Member State of at least 5 % of newly installed renewable energy capacity by 2030, as well as to the targets under ReFuelEU Aviation and FuelEU Maritime.
- Policy makers and regulators profit from the provided factual information and evidence in view of their decision as regards accelerating permitting procedures, harvesting benefits from multiple uses of land and water and increasing the responsiveness of research and innovation in that field to diverse societal interests and concerns;
- The implementation of the Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET Plan) Action for Renewable Fuels and Bioenergy is supported and facilitated.
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Eligibility Criteria
Regions / countries for funding
Moldova (Moldova), Albania (Shqipëria), Armenia (Հայաստան), Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosna i Hercegovina / Босна и Херцеговина), Canada, Faeroes (Føroyar / Færøerne), Georgia (საქართველო), Iceland (Ísland), Israel (ישראל / إِسْرَائِيل), Kosovo (Kosova/Kosovë / Косово), Montenegro (Црна Гора), New Zealand (Aotearoa), North Macedonia (Северна Македонија), Norway (Norge), Serbia (Srbija/Сpбија), Tunisia (تونس /Tūnis), Türkiye, Ukraine (Україна), United Kingdom
eligible entities
EU Body, Education and training institution, International organization, Non-Profit Organisation (NPO) / Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Other, Private institution, incl. private company (private for profit), Public Body (national, regional and local; incl. EGTCs), Research Institution incl. University, Small and medium-sized enterprise (SME)
Mandatory partnership
Yes
Project Partnership
To be eligible for funding, applicants must be established in one of the following countries:
- the Member States of the European Union, including their outermost regions
- the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) linked to the Member States
- countries associated to Horizon Europe - see list of particpating countries
Only legal entities forming a consortium are eligible to participate in actions provided that the consortium includes, as beneficiaries, three legal entities independent from each other and each established in a different country as follows:
- at least one independent legal entity established in a Member State; and
- at least two other independent legal entities, each established in different Member States or Associated Countries.
Any legal entity, regardless of its place of establishment, including legal entities from non-associated third countries or international organisations (including international European research organisations) is eligible to participate (whether it is eligible for funding or not), provided that the conditions laid down in the Horizon Europe Regulation have been met, along with any other conditions laid down in the specific call topic.
A ‘legal entity’ means any natural or legal person created and recognised as such under national law, EU law or international law, which has legal personality and which may, acting in its own name, exercise rights and be subject to obligations, or an entity without legal personality.
other eligibility criteria
Specific cases:
- Affiliated entities (i.e. entities with a legal or capital link to a beneficiary which participate in the action with similar rights and obligations to the beneficiaries, but which do not sign the grant agreement and therefore do not become beneficiaries themselves) are allowed, if they are eligible for participation and funding.
- Associated partners (i.e. entities which participate in the action without signing the grant agreement, and without the right to charge costs or claim contributions) are allowed, subject to any conditions regarding associated partners set out in the specific call conditions.
- Entities which do not have legal personality under their national law may exceptionally participate, provided that their representatives have the capacity to undertake legal obligations on their behalf, and offer guarantees to protect the EU’s financial interests equivalent to those offered by legal persons.
- Legal entities created under EU law (EU bodies) including decentralised agencies may be part of the consortium, unless provided for otherwise in their basic act.
- International European research organisations are eligible to receive funding. International organisations with headquarters in a Member State or Associated Country are eligible to receive funding for ‘Training and mobility’ actions or when provided for in the specific call/topic conditions. Other international organisations are not eligible to receive funding, unless provided for in the specific call/topic conditions, or if their participation is considered essential for implementing the action by the granting authority.
- Joint Research Centre (JRC)— Where provided for in the specific call conditions, applicants may include in their proposals the possible contribution of the JRC but the JRC will not participate in the preparation and submission of the proposal. Applicants will indicate the contribution that the JRC could bring to the project based on the scope of the topic text. After the evaluation process, the JRC and the consortium selected for funding may come to an agreement on the specific terms of the participation of the JRC. If an agreement is found, the JRC may accede to the grant agreement as beneficiary requesting zero funding or participate as an associated partner, and would accede to the consortium as a member.
- Associations and interest groupings — Entities composed of members (e.g. European research infrastructure consortia (ERICs)) may participate as ‘sole beneficiaries’ or ‘beneficiaries without legal personality’. However, if the action is in practice implemented by the individual members, those members should also participate (either as beneficiaries or as affiliated entities, otherwise their costs will NOT be eligible.
- EU restrictive measures — Entities subject to EU restrictive measures under Article 29 of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU) and Article 215 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU) as well as Article 75 TFEU, are not eligible to participate in any capacity, including as beneficiaries, affiliated entities, associated partners, third parties giving in-kind contributions, subcontractors or recipients of financial support to third parties (if any).
- Legal entities established in Russia, Belarus, or in non-government controlled territories of Ukraine — Given the illegal invasion of Ukraine by Russia and the involvement of Belarus, there is currently no appropriate context allowing the implementation of the actions foreseen in this programme with legal entities established in Russia, Belarus, or in non-government controlled territories of Ukraine. Therefore, even where such entities are not subject to EU restrictive measures, such legal entities are not eligible to participate in any capacity. This includes participation as beneficiaries, affiliated entities, associated partners, third parties giving in-kind contributions, subcontractors or recipients of financial support to third parties (if any). Exceptions may be granted on a case-by-case basis for justified reasons.
With specific regard to measures addressed to Russia, following the adoption of the Council Regulation (EU) 2024/1745 of 24 June 2024 (amending Council Regulation (EU) No 833/2014 of 31 July 2014) concerning restrictive measures in view of Russia’s actions destabilising the situation in Ukraine, legal entities established outside Russia but whose proprietary rights are directly or indirectly owned for more than 50% by a legal person, entity or body established in Russia are also not eligible to participate in any capacity. - Measures for the protection of the Union budget against breaches of the principles of the rule of law in Hungary — Following the Council Implementing Decision (EU) 2022/2506, as of 16 December 2022, no legal commitments can be entered into with Hungarian public interest trusts established under the Hungarian Act IX of 2021 or any entity they maintain. Affected entities may continue to apply to calls for proposals and can participate without receiving EU funding, as associated partners, if allowed by the call conditions. However, as long as the Council measures are not lifted, such entities are not eligible to participate in any funded role (beneficiaries, affiliated entities, subcontractors, recipients of financial support to third parties, etc.).In case of multi-beneficiary grant calls, applicants will be invited to remove or replace that entity in any funded role and/or to change its status into associated partner. Tasks and budget may be redistributed accordingly.
Additional information
Topics
Relevance for EU Macro-Region
EUSAIR - EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region, EUSALP - EU Strategy for the Alpine Space, EUSBSR - EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, EUSDR - EU Strategy for the Danube Region
UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs)
Additional Information
Applications must be submitted electronically via the Funders & Tenders Portal electronic submission system (accessible via the topic page in the Search Funding & Tenders section). Paper submissions are NOT possible.
Applications must be submitted using the forms provided inside the electronic submission system (not the templates available on the topic page, which are only for information). The structure and presentation must correspond to the instructions given in the forms.
Applications must be complete and contain all parts and mandatory annexes and supporting documents.
The application form will have two parts:
- Part A (to be filled in directly online) contains administrative information about the applicant organisations (future coordinator and beneficiaries and affiliated entities), the summarised budget for the proposal and call-specific questions;
- Part B (to be downloaded from the Portal submission system, completed and then assembled and re-uploaded as a PDF in the system) contains the technical description of the project.
Annexes and supporting documents will be directly available in the submission system and must be uploaded as PDF files (or other formats allowed by the system).
The limit for a full application (Part B) is 45 pages.
Activities are expected to achieve TRL 7-8 by the end of the project. Activities may start at any TRL.
To ensure a balanced portfolio, grants will be awarded to proposals not only in order of ranking but at least also to one proposal that is the highest ranked within the area of liquid advanced biofuels and at least also to one proposal that is the highest ranked within the area of liquid renewable fuels of non-biological origin, provided that proposals attain all thresholds (and subject to available budget). This condition to ensure a balanced portfolio will also be considered to be met if a proposal addressing both areas is funded.
Call documents
Horizon Europe Work Programme 2025 Cluster 5 - Climate, Energy and MobilityHorizon Europe Work Programme 2025 Cluster 5 - Climate, Energy and Mobility(2548kB)
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