Hydrogen Powered Aircraft Concepts And Key Technologies Integration And Impact Assessment
HORIZON JU Innovation Actions
Basic Information
- Identifier
- HORIZON-JU-CLEAN-AVIATION-2026-04-ACI-01
- Programme
- Clean Aviation CfP 04
- Programme Period
- 2021 - 2027
- Status
- Forthcoming (31094501)
- Opening Date
- March 31, 2026
- Deadline
- May 19, 2026
- Deadline Model
- single-stage
- Budget
- €329,500,000
- Min Grant Amount
- –
- Max Grant Amount
- €12,000,000
- Expected Number of Grants
- 1
- Keywords
- HORIZON-JU-CLEAN-AVIATION-2026-04-ACI-01HORIZON-JU-Clean-Aviation-2026-01
Description
Expected Outcome:
Integration and performance assessment of the fully electric hydrogen fuel cell powered aircraft and the direct hydrogen combustion propulsion aircraft concepts introduced in the CAJU SRIA. The topic covers the integration and co-ordination of CAJU key technology projects into a comprehensive aircraft concept at TRL4, demonstrating the viability of the aircraft concept and delivering a performance, emissions and maturity assessment. See the topic description document published with this call for full details,
Eligibility & Conditions
General conditions
1. Admissibility conditions: Proposal page limit and layout
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
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.
- The Specific Clean Aviation Rules for submission, evaluation, selection, award and review procedures of Calls for Proposals are described in a document to be found by clicking ==> HERE
Editorial clarification: On page 15 of the document, the reference to the “Horizon Europe Work Programme 2021–2022” shall, for the purposes of this call, be understood as a reference to the CAJU Work Programme, as adopted by the Governing Board. This clarification is of a purely editorial nature and does not modify the substance of the Rules nor the applicable legal framework"
- Award criteria, scoring and thresholds are described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes
- The CA JU Specific Evaluation Template for this topic is: Evaluation Form CAJU Large Scale Projects (IA Actions)
- Submission and evaluation processes are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual
Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement: described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes
5. Legal and financial set-up of the grants
described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes.
Specific conditions
Note in particular Chapter 2.4.3 "Conditions and Management of the call" in the Work Programme
The winning applicants will be required to sign a Cooperation Agreement, an agreement between the consortia of the relevant CAJU Grant Agreements that sets out a framework to foster the exchange of information and/or data among and across CAJU co-funded actions and the beneficiaries on a “need to know basis”.
The Proposal Templates will be available in the submission system when it opens (late March 2026),
But to allow potential applicants to already start preparing their proposal(s) from the moment of call publication, the necessary documents are also available here on the F&T Portal:
Proposal Application Form for this topic.
The templates for the financial annexes’, which are mandatory parts of the proposal, will be available here on the F&T Portal around mid-March.
Those templates concern the estimated budget for the actions per reporting period
- Work Package description (Detailed)
- Work Package effort (Detailed)
- Cost Breakdown per beneficiary
- Budget summary per applicant and work package
- In Kind Contribution
CA JU Model Consortium Agreement
Potential applicants are advised to check this web page periodically in case there are any updates to the documents.
If there are any changes this will be mentioned in the "Topic Updates" section at the top of this page and also in the Q&A document.
Two publications of the Q&As are foreseen:
• A first Q&A document will be released on 17 February 2026.
• A second version of the Q&A document will be released 17 April 2026.
To understand how the Q&A process works see the explanation inside the release 1 document.
Additional documents:
The Full Description of Topics in this Call
Clean Aviation Work Programme 2026-27
Q&A Document: First Release (17.02.2025)
Model Cooperation Agreement v 2026
Clean Aviation Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (CA JU SRIA)
HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027 – General Introduction
HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027 – Climate, Energy and Mobility
HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027 – General Annexes
HE Framework Programme and Rules for Participation Regulation 2021/695
HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764
Regulation (EU) 2021/2085 establishing the Joint Undertakings (JU) under Horizon Europe (HE)
EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509
Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment
EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement
Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual
Frequently Asked Questions About Hydrogen Powered Aircraft Concepts And Key Technologies Integration And Impact Assessment
Support & Resources
Mailbox for Submitting Questions: Clean Aviation Call Questions
The process for handling the questions is as follows:
We have a transparent approach for handling any questions (either administrative or technical) on the Call.
This consists of collecting questions as they come, developing the answers when appropriate, then publishing them on the Funding & Tenders Opportunities Portal of the European Commission for the benefit of all potential applicants.
Questions received up to 03 April 2025, 17:00 CET, will be answered, after analysis, in due time
Two releases of Q/As are foreseen:
- A first Q/A document is released on 17 February 2026.
- A second version of the Q/A document will be released around 17 April 2026.
All interested parties are recommended to consult periodically the Clean Aviation JU website and the call documents on Funding & Tender Opportunities Portal of the European Commission for updates to this document and any other updates to this call.
Online Manual is your guide on the procedures from proposal submission to managing your grant.
Horizon Europe Programme Guide contains the detailed guidance to the structure, budget and political priorities of Horizon Europe.
Funding & Tenders Portal FAQ – find the answers to most frequently asked questions on submission of proposals, evaluation and grant management.
National Contact Points (NCPs) – get guidance, practical information and assistance on participation in Horizon Europe. There are also NCPs in many non-EU and non-associated countries (‘third-countries’).
Enterprise Europe Network – contact your EEN national contact for advice to businesses with special focus on SMEs. The support includes guidance on the EU research funding.
IT Helpdesk – contact the Funding & Tenders Portal IT helpdesk for questions such as forgotten passwords, access rights and roles, technical aspects of submission of proposals, etc.
European IPR Helpdesk assists you on intellectual property issues.
CEN-CENELEC Research Helpdesk and ETSI Research Helpdesk – the European Standards Organisations advise you how to tackle standardisation in your project proposal.
The European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for their recruitment – consult the general principles and requirements specifying the roles, responsibilities and entitlements of researchers, employers and funders of researchers.
Partner Search help you find a partner organisation for your proposal.
Latest Updates
No updates available.