Filter Search for grants
Call Navigation
Call key data
Hydrogen-powered aviation
Funding Program | Horizon Europe - Cluster 5 - Destination 4: Efficient, sustainable and inclusive energy use | |
Call number | HORIZON-CL5-2023-D5-01-07 | |
deadlines | Opening 13.12.2022 | Deadline 20.04.2023 17:00 |
Funding rate | 70% (NPO:100%) | |
Call budget | € 20,000,000.00 | |
Estimated EU contribution per project | between€ 8,000,000.00 and € 10,000,000.00 | |
Link to the call | ec.europa.eu | |
Link to the submission | ec.europa.eu |
Call content
Call objectives | Hydrogen-powered commercial aviation is today on a promising path towards climate neutrality by 2050, with European industry setting 2035 as an expected date of entry into service of the first hydrogen-powered commercial aircraft. While the Horizon Europe Clean Hydrogen partnership focuses on the production side (e.g. developing new fuel cells and hydrogen storage technologies), the Clean Aviation partnership addresses the integration and demonstration of disruptive technologies, including ones on hydrogen-powered aviation and subsequent aircraft architectures. However, there is currently a clear research and innovation gap for the phase in-between. Most notably, this gap relates to the demonstration of hydrogen refuelling and supply from air transport ground infrastructures to the aircraft, with follow-on demonstrations of ground-based aircraft movements (e.g. taxiing). In particular, hydrogen refuelling entails significant operational issues, safety risks and other barriers (e.g. scalability) at both air transport ground infrastructure and aircraft levels. This has the potential to create a bottleneck for Europe to proceed on the path to climate neutrality, lower emissions and reducing Europe’s dependency on oil and fossil fuels, which are clear objectives of the Versailles Declaration and REPowerEU. At the same time, demonstration pilots of hydrogen-powered aircraft ground movements need to start urgently, in order to be able to achieve full operations of hydrogen-powered airplanes in the EU by 2035. In this context, building on good practices, studies and research projects (e.g. Horizon 2020 green airport projects, Horizon 2020 ENABLE-H2), as well as other policy initiatives (e.g. Fit for 55 and ReFuelEU Aviation), actions should address all of the following aspects:
The EU’s Hydrogen Strategy prioritises renewable hydrogen (low-carbon hydrogen being considered a transitional technology) and should be taken into account to develop the proposals, considering, inter alia, how the hydrogen will be produced and supplied. The topic aims to exploit synergies with the Horizon Europe Clean Aviation and Clean Hydrogen partnerships, for the roll-out of transformative aircraft liquid hydrogen propulsion technologies, with an eye towards future large-scale demonstrations and real-life airborne plane trials during the later phase of the Clean Aviation partnership. The retained proposals, should, during the implementation phase, regularly exchange information with the Technical Committee and the Governing Board of the Clean Aviation and Clean Hydrogen partnerships respectively (in-line with articles 65 and 80 of the COM(2021) 87). For standardisation activities and in view of future certification of airports and vertiports and aircraft, including VTOL and UAV, the participation of EASA is deemed necessary to address airport and aircraft certification issues. The involvement of airports, vertiports and aircraft manufacturers in the project activities is required. Since regional and short haul aviation is likely the first segment to start the transition to hydrogen-based fuel technology, the involvement of regional and insular airports in the project will be an asset. In line with the Union’s strategy for international cooperation in research and innovation, the participation of airports and regulatory bodies outside of the European Union is encouraged. Projects should collaborate with the Clean Hydrogen Joint Undertaking on aspects that require integration of hydrogen and are expected to contribute and participate to the activities of the TRUST database and the hydrogen observatory. read more |
Expected results |
read more |
Regions / countries for funding | EU Member States, Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT) Moldova (Moldova), Albania (Shqipëria), Armenia (Հայաստան), Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosna i Hercegovina / Босна и Херцеговина), Faeroes (Føroyar / Færøerne), Georgia (საქართველო), Island (Ísland), Israel (ישראל / إِسْرَائِيل), Kosovo (Kosova/Kosovë / Косово), Montenegro (Црна Гора), Morocco (المغرب), 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, Natural Person, 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:
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:
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. Specific cases:
|
other eligibility criteria | Activities are expected to achieve TRL 6 by the end of the project. For the Technology Readiness Level (TRL), the following definitions apply:
If projects use satellite-based earth observation, positioning, navigation and/or related timing data and services, beneficiaries must make use of Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS (other data and services may additionally be used). |
Additional information
Topics |
Competitiveness of Enterprises, Employment/Labour Market, SME & entrepreneurship, Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy , Mobility & Transport |
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 | All proposals 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. Proposals must be complete and contain all parts and mandatory annexes and supporting documents, e.g. plan for the exploitation and dissemination of the results including communication activities, etc. The application form will have two parts:
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. |
Call documents | HE-Work Programme 2023-2024, Cluster 5, Destination 5 (835kB) |
Contact | National Contact Points for Horizon Europe Website |
To see more information about this call, you can register for free here
or log in with an existing account.
Log in
Register now