Grand Challenge on Quantum Sensors for Inertial Navigation
Grand Challenge on Quantum Sensors for Inertial Navigation · HORIZON-JU-CSA · Needs partners
What this call funds
This call funds a short study project (about six months) to prepare quantum-based navigation sensors for future investment. Rather than funding new research or prototype-building, it pays for organisations to produce detailed technical, industrialisation and financial roadmaps that benchmark existing quantum navigation prototypes and demonstrate their readiness for commercial investment through EU financial instruments like InvestEU.
quantum technologies · aerospace · space technologies · defence security · deep tech
Who wins this
A single SME (or small group) with an existing, externally-funded quantum inertial navigation prototype that wants to build an investment-ready technical and financial roadmap for commercialisation.
Could you win this call?
We read your site to see what you build.
The call in detail
- Indicative grant size
- €400k–€500k
- Funding model
- Budget-based — reimbursement of actual eligible costs
- Submission
- Single-stage submission (full proposal at once)
- Type of action
- HORIZON JU Coordination and Support Actions
- Partners
- Required. The call asks for a consortium — a group applying together, typically 3+ organisations from 3+ countries.
- Eligible applicants
- SME
- Also required
- Participation is limited to legal entities established in EU Member States, Norway and Iceland; consortium may exceptionally be a single SME (mono-beneficiary grant); project duration is six months with EU contribution up to EUR 0.5 million; no EU funding of R&I or prototype development is allowed under this CSA.
- Eligible countries (45)
- Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, United Kingdom, IL, TR, UA, RS, MK, ME, AL, BA, XK, GE, AM, MD, TN, NZ
Read the full conditions from the official call ›
General conditions 1. Admissibility conditions: Proposal page limit and layout The page limit of the application is 25 pages. 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 Eligibility Conditions The conditions are described in General Annex B. The following exceptions apply: The eligibility conditions are those established in the EuroHPC JU Council Regulation (EU) 2021/1173 as last amended by Council Regulation 2026/150. In accordance with Article 22.5 of the HE Regulation, the Governing Board has decided that in order to achieve the expected outcomes, and safeguard the Union’s strategic assets, interests, autonomy, or security participation is limited to legal entities established in Member States, Norway and Iceland. Proposals including entities established in countries outside the scope specified in the action will be ineligible. For the duly justified and exceptional reasons listed in the paragraph above, in order to guarantee the protection of the strategic interests of the Union and its Member States, entities established in an eligible country listed above, but which are directly or indirectly controlled by a non-eligible country or by a non-eligible country entity, may not participate in the action unless it can be demonstrated, by means of guarantees approved by the eligible country of establishment, that their participation to the action would not negatively impact the Union’s strategic, assets, interests, autonomy, or security. The consortium may exceptionally be composed of a single legal entity (mono-beneficiary grant) which is an SME. 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 Eligible proposals submitted under this topic and exceeding all the evaluation thresholds will be awarded a STEP Seal [ https://strategic-technologies.europa.eu/about/step-seal_en ]. described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes. 5b. Evaluation and award: Submission and evaluation processes The criteria are described in General Annex D. The following exceptions apply: The following modifications to the general award criteria apply: 1. Excellence: credibility of the technical approach for road-mapping and benchmarking; adequacy of performance metrics and methodology (e.g. drift rate, SWaP-C, environmental resilience) early end-user engagement to define requirements 2. Impact: enhancing the EU stance around quantum inertial navigation from different angles[[ https://qt.eu/media/pdf/Strategic-Reseach-and-Industry-Agenda-2030.pdf]] expected contribution to EU technological sovereignty (including mitigation of non-EU supply-chain dependencies) and to societal, industrial and economic benefits; credibility of the path to commercialisation and investor-readiness. 3. Quality and efficiency of the implementation: credibility of the work plan, resources and risk management for a mono-beneficiary CSA; capacity to deliver the specified outputs (technical & financial roadmap, validation/benchmarking reports, viability assessment); appropriateness of the team and access to facilities for validation/benchmarking of existing prototypes. 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 described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes. Specific conditions Expected project duration: 6 months
Who has won calls like this
No past winners are recorded for this call family yet.