Facilitate the engagement of European stakeholders in international digital standardisation (CSA) – Förderung EU-weit

Expected Outcome: Proposals are expected to contribute to the following outcomes: • Increasing the participation and influence of European experts in digital standardisation to promote EU values and strategic interests, contributing to strengthen EU competitiveness in the digital field. • Improvement of the skills of European experts, especially from SMEs, R&I institutions, Open-Source community, academia and societal stakeholders, to successfully contribute and lead in the development of digital standards. • Development and update of standardisation landscapes and gap analyses of key digital technologies as outlined in the Rolling Plan for ICT Standardisation. • Provision of foresight analyses regarding standardisation in new emerging technologies to identify short and medium-term digital standardisation needs to support EU policies and anticipate appropriate participation by EU stakeholders. • More awareness of the benefits and competitive advantages of standardisation, in particular for SMEs and researchers, and more visibility of the European digital standardisation ecosystem. Scope: Contribute to the implementation of the EU Standardisation Strategy and other policy initiatives such as Europe’s Digital Decade, Apply AI Strategy or the Competitiveness Compass, with an emphasis on supporting the EU’s leading position in global standards-setting of key digital technologies. The goals are inter alia to 1) strengthen the EU competitiveness in the digital domain; 2) contribute to EU tech sovereignty and 3) promote EU values and interests internationally, by empowering and financially supporting the active participation of European stakeholders in the development of digital international standards. The objective is to reinforce the presence of experts from the EU and associated Horizon Europe countries in global digital standards setting, especially those coming from SMEs, R&I institutions, Open-Source community, academia and societal stakeholders. To achieve this objective, proposals under this topic should provide for: • Setting up of a management facility to support contributions and leadership (e.g. chairing of technical committees, convenor positions) of European specialists in activities in relation to global digital standardisation • When relevant, support financially the hosting of international standardisation meetings (e.g. 3GPP, ISO/IEC JTC1) and workshops in Europe to ease the participation of European experts • Landscape and gap analysis of standardisation activities in key digital priority areas, as outlined in the Annual Union Work Programme and the Rolling Plan for ICT standardisation, including identification of new emerging technology areas. • Promotion of the relevance and benefits of digital standardisation, especially for strengthening the competitiveness of EU industry, driving sustainability, achieving tech sovereignty, and promoting EU values. The proposal shall build synergies with other similar EU- and national-funded initiatives. It shall also include actions, including development of tools and materials, to promote education and skills on standardisation. The proposal should take into account the previous activities carried out at least in terms of educational material and facilities for funding experts within the topics ICT-40-2017 (implemented by the StandICT.eu project), ICT-45-2020 (implemented under StandICT.eu2023 project), HORIZON-CL4-2022-RESILIENCE-01-21 (implemented under StandICT.eu 2026) and HORIZON-CL4-2024-HUMAN-03-04 (implemented under StandICT.eu 2029). See website: http://www.standict.eu. ">General conditions 1. Admissibility Conditions: Proposal page limit and layout described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes. Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System. 2. Eligible Countries described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes. A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide. 3. Other Eligible Conditions described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes. 4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes. 5a. Evaluation and award: Award criteria, scoring and thresholds are described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes. 5b. Evaluation and award: Submission and evaluation processes are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual. 5c. Evaluation and award: Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes. 6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants The granting authority may, up to 4 years after the end of the action, object to a transfer of ownership or to the exclusive licensing of results, as set out in the specific provision of Annex 5. Beneficiaries may provide financial support to third parties (FSTP). The support to third parties can only be provided in the form of grants. The maximum amount to be granted to each third party is EUR 60 000. As the primary purpose of the action is to support European experts in the global ICT standardisation scene, a minimum of 75% of the total requested EU contribution should be allocated to FSTP selected through open calls. Beneficiaries will define the process for the selection of specialists through open calls. They will also define the process that will lead to a selection of a pool of evaluators that will evaluate the applications received in the open calls. Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum as defined in the Decision of 7 July 2021 authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2021-2027) – and in actions under the Research and Training Programme of the European Atomic Energy Community (2021-2025) [[This decision is available on the Funding and Tenders Portal, in the reference documents section for Horizon Europe, under ‘Simplified costs decisions’ or through this link: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/horizon/guidance/ls-decision_he_en.pdf]]. Described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes. Specific conditions described in the [specific topic of the Work Programme] Application and evaluation forms and model grant agreement (MGA): Application form templates — the application form specific to this call is available in the Submission System Standard application form (HE CSA) Evaluation form templates — will be used with the necessary adaptations Standard evaluation form (HE CSA) Guidance HE Programme Guide Model Grant Agreements (MGA) Lump Sum MGA Call-specific instructions Detailed budget table (HE LS) Guidance: "Lump sums - what do I need to know?" Information on financial support to third parties (HE) Additional documents: HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027 – 1. General Introduction HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027 – 7. Digital, Industry and Space HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027 – 15. General Annexes HE Programme Guide HE Framework Programme 2021/695 HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764 EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509 Decision authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual Funding & Tenders Portal Terms and Conditions Funding & Tenders Portal Privacy Statement