Informal session: Applying Directly to EU Horizon for Larger Grants

Speaker: Michiel Leenaars, NLnet's Director of Strategy

Thursday June 26, 2025. 15.00-16.00 CEST (Brussels time)
Location: Online. Please RSVP to webinars@nlnet.nl to receive the link to the video conference room.

Objective of the info session

The goal of this informal session is to share some information about applying to the EU Horizon Funding program. On June 10, 2025 the European Commission will among other open a new call to 'drive an open and interoperable web'. You will need a small consortium to apply for a grant between 1 and 3 million euro. While NLnet has no role or privileged position in this, we would obviously like to see worthwhile projects from good teams awarded - and limit the time lost to the application process for anyone else. In this informal session we offer to share our knowledge about applying to Horizon Europe grants. It is an informal session aimed at sharing our own experience with and insights on these processes, answering questions and hear your thoughts as well. As a side effect, for interested people to meet each other and potentially consider forming a consortium together.

Information about the Horizon Europe call

There are many calls you might apply to, but for this session we will specifically be talking about the call: HORIZON_HORIZON-CL4-2025-03-HUMAN-16 'Drive the evolution of the internet towards open and interoperable Web 4.0 and Virtual Worlds: building blocks in priority areas (RIA) (Virtual Worlds Partnership)'. The call will open on June 10, 2025 and close on October 2, 2025. From the call description:

The aim of this topic is to advance the evolution of the internet towards open and interoperable Web 4.0 enabling Virtual Worlds, ensuring seamless user experience navigating across platforms by increasing the take up of digital commons technologies and other Open Source solutions in Europe. The action will thus leverage the strong and active community of European Open Source innovators that can contribute to relevant digital commons to deliver on key features of virtual worlds.

There are five different areas that can be applied to: Identity management, Software supply chain security, Open hardware, Alternative solutions to centralised platforms, and Web 4.0 demonstration for Virtual Worlds. There is a total 14.5 million euro available for up to nine different consortia with can apply for grants between 1 and 3 million euro.

Note that there are two separate pages describing the open call:

• The textual description can be found on CORDIS
• The page with numbers and criteria can be found on the EC funding opportunity portal. Multiple calls are mentioned there but we are talking specifically about HORIZON_HORIZON-CL4-2025-03-HUMAN-16 (number 16). Of course, feel free to look at the other calls as well. And should there be any time left during the session, we are happy to answer questions on other calls too.

Similar previous programmes: the Pilots

The current calls are issued by the Directorate-general Connect which is also responsible for the Next Generation Internet initiative. DG Connect has issued a similar call a few years back which resulted in the NGI Pilot programmes. NLnet is involved in three of them: NGI Mobifree, NGI Taler and NGI Fediversity. These Pilots are run by small consortia consisting of between four and twelve legal entities (which is a lot, and for these new programmes might be too much), and to a greater or lesser extent focus on a specific topic. The minimum required was actually three partners from three different member states, and for the new call this will again hold.

What to expect from the info session

Like we said above, this is an informal session. It is open to anyone interested in this call and might consider to apply. These are quite idiosyncratic processes and it might be useful to hear from people who have done it before to help you determine if applying is worth your time and if so, what the most efficient route is. It may also be possible that multiple people in the session are interested in applying for the same topic in which case it might be interesting to pool resources. If you are potentially interested, you are very welcome to join. Please RSVP to webinars@nlnet.nl - so we can better prepare. You'll receiive a link to the video room once you've RSVP'd.