Closed

Scale-up and Optimisation of manufacturing processes for electrolyser materials, cells, or stacks

HORIZON JU Research and Innovation Actions

Basic Information

Identifier: HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-01-03
Programme: HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025
Programme Period: 2021 - 2027
Status: Closed (31094503)
Opening Date: January 30, 2025
Deadline: April 23, 2025
Deadline Model: single-stage
Budget: €184,500,000
Min Grant Amount: €1,000,000
Max Grant Amount: €1,000,000
Expected Number of Grants: 1
Keywords: HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-01-03HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025Hydrogen

Description

Expected Outcome:

Clean hydrogen is expected to play a critical role in Europe’s decarbonisation objectives and electrolysers, which produce hydrogen from water and electricity, are a key enabler for Europe to meet its net-zero targets. Given this, it is vital to increase the amount of electrolysis capacity produced annually through scale-up of material, components, and stack manufacture.

Providing sufficient electrolyser capacity to meet the needs of the energy transition requires a rapid and efficient scale up of stacks (and component) production capacity. This will require electrolyser components and material manufacturers to transition to large-scale production featuring increased automation, or novel technologies. Optimisation and upscaling of manufacturing processes is required to increase production yields and improve cost-effectiveness. At the same time, new materials, components, and stack designs for improved efficiencies and reduced environmental impact must be produced in sufficient quantities to meet the growing needs of clean hydrogen production facilities.

Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following outcomes:

Maintain European leadership in electrolyser production and strengthen the European value chain through the ability to deliver high-quality stacks;
Employ sustainable-by-design and/or design for recycling methods to improve circularity;
Minimise the life-cycle impact of materials, component, or electrolyser manufacture through waste (e.g scrap or consumables);
Increase production rates whilst reducing manufacturing costs for materials, components or stacks through manufacturing process development, considering learnings from other industrial sectors such as fuel cells, batteries, etc;
Contribute to CAPEX reductions of water electrolysis systems through economies of scale and reduced waste;
Contribute to creating a viable business case for clean hydrogen production and use, through delivery of more affordable, higher-quality systems with improved lifetimes;
Improve the cost-effectiveness, efficiency, reliability, quantity and quality of clean hydrogen production through improved manufacturing processes and scale-up of material, component, or stack production or the component or stack active area;
Contribute to the creation of high-value manufacturing and supply chain jobs;

Project results are expected to contribute to the following objectives and 2030 KPIs of the Clean Hydrogen JU SRIA:

Technologies should have efficiencies at nominal capacity comparable to those in the 2030 SRIA:
- AEL 48kWh/kg
- PEMEL 48kWh/kg
- SOEL 37kWh/kg
- AEMEL 48kWh/kg

Technologies not mentioned in the 2030 SRIA should provide similar, suitable KPIs in line with current state of the art

Capital Cost 2030 KPIs for the relevant technologies:
- AEL 800 €/(kg/d)
- PEMEL 1000 €/(kg/d)
- SOEL 800 €/(kg/d)
- AEMEL 600 €/(kg/d)
Demonstration of a Takt time for material, component, and stack production, which will enable Europe to meet its hydrogen production markets;
Contribute to the achievement of manufacturing KPIs including:
- Manufacturing part yields of >98%, defined as 1-rejected parts / produced parts;
- Manufacturing material yield >80%, defined as (material used in stacks*yield)/amount of material;
- FAT failure rates linked to stacks of <10%, defined as (Number of FAT failures / Total number of FAT events).

Technologies not mentioned in the 2030 SRIA should provide suitable KPIs in line with current state of the art.

Scope:

The scope of this topic is the development and demonstration of manufacturing processes which are suitable for scale-up and which can contribute to meeting predicted annual clean hydrogen production requirements. Considering manufacturing scale-up of new materials, the proposal should provide sufficient information to show that these materials have been proven to work at an appropriate scale.

Proposals should consider and build on relevant existing work in this area and results from projects related to the manufacturing and scaling- up of electrolysis systems including projects funded by the Clean Hydrogen JU such as AMPS^[1], DJEWELS^[2], HERAQCLES^[3], MULTIPLHY^[4], NEPTUNE^[5], OUTFOX^[6], PilotSOEL^[7], REFHYNE^[8] and SUSTAINCELL^[9], clean-tech manufacturing projects supported by the Innovation Fund such as [ARA(HJ1] [CP2] TopSOEC^[10], HyNCREASE^[11] and GIGA-SCALES^[12], national funded projects such as ELYAS^[13], and Open Innovation Test Beds projects supported by Horizon Europe such as H2Shift^[14] and CLEANHYPRO^[15]. In addition synergies with the Made in Europe partnership^[16] and the Zero-Defect Manufacturing Platform^[17] should be explored. Successful projects are also expected to review the state of the art during their implementation and to identify additional synergies with these and other ongoing relevant projects.

Proposals should develop solutions to address material and manufacturing bottlenecks including component supply, manufacturing processes, and end-of-line testing. Technologies to be developed should lead to increased manufacturing throughput and/or yield. Research and Development (R&D) activities should be included, for example, design for manufacture, additive manufacture, improved handling methods, automation and in-line quality control. The developed technologies may be capable of processing several types of material or be used for the manufacture of more than one type of electrolyser system.

Proposals should include relevant baseline information relating to techno-economics and the environmental / life cycle impacts of the current state of the art for the processes being considered. They should also provide a quantified description of the expected improvements.

Proposals should include validation of the developed technologies in an industrial environment on an OEM-relevant stack, i.e. TRL5/6 and MRL5 depending on the electrolyser technology and on the current TRL/MRL of the process. Proposals should state the capacity of their demonstrator and justify the way in which the equipment and stack size used for validation demonstrates manufacturing capacity sufficient for production of sufficient electrolyser manufacturing capacity to allow Europe to meet its hydrogen production targets using high-quality components.

Validation consists of demonstration of increased throughput or yield of the material, component, or stack without reduction in quality. For example, in-line inspection may increase the number of flaws detected so a link could be made between defect type/severity and its impact on quality to determine critical defect types.

The project outputs should include validation of increased manufacturing capability in a relevant environment and include life-cycle analysis, waste management/recycling potential and a techno-economic report describing the expected throughputs, yields, defect rate and costs when implemented in a manufacturing facility.

The inclusion of consortium partner(s) relevant to the electrolyser stack manufacturing value chain is considered beneficial.

The following aspects are to be addressed in the scope of the project:

Further develop and optimise industrially relevant, scalable manufacturing processes to increase production rate while reducing cost for materials, components or stacks, or a combination of these. Examples of potential innovations include:
- Design for manufacture techniques applied to material, components, or stacks for high volume manufacture;
- Increased automation to improve throughput, tighten tolerances and reduce scrap;
- Streamlined manufacturing processes to remove non-value-added steps and reduce waste;
- Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) / machine learning for scalability of processes;
Develop quality control tools (preferably in-line) to increase production yield and decrease scrap rates. Increased detection of defects should be considered and for example, machine learning could be used to link defects to material, component, or stack quality and avoid increased scrap. Development of statistical sample-testing methods could also be considered;
Apply Design for Sustainability principles to improve the environmental and end-of-life impact of electrolyser manufacture to maximise the potential of recycling processes to recover CRMs and other materials and investigation of material or component recycling when considering rejected items and dismantled stacks. Recycling development is out of scope of this topic;
Provide an industrially relevant baseline and relevant KPIs for each technology and describe the quantified expected improvements;
Validate novel processing solutions in an industrially relevant environment and demonstrate operation and reliable scalability with respect to cost, performance and durability KPIs. Quantify expected scrap and recall rates to reflect the true cost to the end-user.

This topic is focused on manufacturing technologies and concepts that will facilitate production scale-up rather than on new materials. It is particularly relevant to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), component suppliers and integrators, although support from research and technology organisations (RTOs) developing innovative manufacturing technologies is welcome. Projects and processes should be relevant to electrolyser-manufacturing OEMs and should consider future demand when considering novel manufacturing processes.

Proposals should include manufacturing scale-up of materials and components in the supply chain as well as of electrolysers; proposers should clearly explain the importance of the components, materials, or stacks which are the focus of their project in terms of increased electrolyser production and deployment.

Scale-up can include:

Production of an increased number of stacks, components or materials;
The development of manufacturing processes for stacks with larger active areas at the cell level;
Development of processes with higher throughputs due to reduced scrap or increased recycling potential.

The above improvements will enable manufacturers to deliver sufficient hardware for large-scale deployment as well as to benefit from economies of scale, improving the competitiveness of clean hydrogen.

It is expected that this topic will support complementary projects in order to cover low-temperature electrolysis and high-temperature electrolysis.

For additional elements applicable to all topics please refer to section 2.2.3.2.

Activities are expected to start at TRL4 and achieve TRL5-6 by the end of the project - see General Annex B.

Activities are expected to start at MRL4 and achieve MRL 5 by the end of the project - see Call management and general conditions section.

The JU estimates that an EU contribution of maximum EUR 4.00 million would allow these outcomes to be addressed appropriately.

The conditions related to this topic are provided in the chapter 2.2.3.2 of the Clean Hydrogen JU 2025 Annual Work Plan and in the General Annexes to the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2023–2025 which apply mutatis mutandis

[1] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101111882

[2] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/826089

[3] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101111784

[4] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/875123

[5] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/779540

[6] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101101439

[7] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101112026

[8] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/779579

[9] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101101479

[10] https://climate.ec.europa.eu/news-your-voice/news/topsoec-fuelling-europes-renewable-hydrogen-ambitions-energy-efficient-electrolyser-components-2024-09-30_en

[11] https://ec.europa.eu/assets/cinea/project_fiches/innovation_fund/101132982.pdf

[12] https://cinea.ec.europa.eu/featured-projects/giga-scales-smarter-membranes-lower-cost-hydrogen-production_en

[13] https://www.bosch-hydrogen-energy.com/about-us/collaboration-funding/elyas/

[14] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101137953

[15] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101091777

[16] https://www.effra.eu/made-in-europe-state-play/

[17] https://www.zdmp.eu/

View on EU Portal →

Eligibility & Conditions

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.

Page limit for Innovation Actions: For all Innovation Actions the page limit of the applications are 70 pages.

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.

Additional eligibility condition: Maximum contribution per topic

For some topics, in line with the Clean Hydrogen JU SRIA, an additional eligibility criterion has been introduced to limit the Clean Hydrogen JU requested contribution mostly for actions performed at high TRL level, including demonstration in real operational environment and with important involvement from industrial stakeholders and/or end users such as public authorities. Such actions are expected to leverage co-funding as commitment from stakeholders. It is of added value that such leverage is shown through the private investment in these specific topics. Therefore, proposals requesting contributions above the amounts specified per each topic below will not be evaluated:

- HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-01-04: The maximum Clean Hydrogen JU contribution that may be requested is EUR 6.00 million

- HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-01-06: The maximum Clean Hydrogen JU contribution that may be requested is EUR 8.00 million

- HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-02-03: The maximum Clean Hydrogen JU contribution that may be requested is EUR 6.00 million

- HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-04-01: The maximum Clean Hydrogen JU contribution that may be requested is EUR 5.00 million

- HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-06-01: The maximum Clean Hydrogen JU contribution that may be requested is EUR 20.00 million

- HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-06-02: The maximum Clean Hydrogen JU contribution that may be requested is EUR 9.00 million

Additional eligibility condition: Membership to Hydrogen Europe / Hydrogen Europe Research

For the topics listed below, in line with the Clean Hydrogen JU SRIA, an additional eligibility criterion has been introduced to ensure that one partner in the consortium is a member of either Hydrogen Europe or Hydrogen Europe Research. This concerns topics targeting actions for large-scale demonstrations, flagship projects and strategic research actions, where the industrial and research partners of the Clean Hydrogen JU are considered to play a key role in accelerating the commercialisation of hydrogen technologies by being closely linked to the Clean Hydrogen JU constituency, which could further ensure full alignment with the SRIA of the JU. This approach shall also ensure the continuity of the work performed within projects funded through the H2020 and FP7, by building up on their experience and consolidating the EU value-chain. In the Call 2025 this applies to: demonstration of efficient electrolysis coupling with variable renewable electricity and/or heat integration, demonstration of innovative hydrogen and solid carbon production from renewable gases/biogenic waste processes, demonstration of scalable ammonia cracking technology, and demonstration of stationary fuel cells in renewable energy communities. This will also apply to the Hydrogen Valley (flagship) topics as they are considered of strategic importance for the European Union ambitions to double the number of Hydrogen Valleys by 2025. For the Hydrogen Valleys topics a large amount of co-investment/cofunding of project participants/beneficiaries including national and regional programmes is expected.

- HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-01-04

- HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-01-06

- HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-02-03

- HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-04-01

- HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-06-01

- HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-06-02

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.

STEP (Sovereignty) Seal

For the topics below topics the STEP Seal (so called “Sovereignty Seal” under the STEP Regulation) will be awarded to proposals exceeding all of the evaluation thresholds set out in this Annual Work Programme. The STEP Seal is a label, which aims to increase the visibility of quality projects available for funding and help attract alternative and cumulative funding for quality projects, and simultaneously to provide a potential project pipeline for regional and national programmes

- HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-01-04

- HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-01-06

- HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-02-03

- HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-04-01

- HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-06-01

- HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-06-02

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

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.

In addition to the standard provisions, the following specific provisions in the model grant agreement will apply:

1. Lump Sum

This year’s call for proposals will take the form of lump sums 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).

Lump sums will be used across all topics in the Call 2025.

2. Full capitalised costs for purchases of equipment, infrastructure or other assets purchased specifically for the action

For some topics, in line with the Clean Hydrogen JU SRIA, mostly large-scale demonstrators or flagship projects specific equipment, infrastructure or other assets purchased specifically for the action (or developed as part of the action tasks) can exceptionally be declared as full capitalised costs. This concerns the topics below:

- HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-01-04

- HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-01-06

- HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-02-03

- HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-04-01

- HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-06-01

- HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-06-02

3. Subcontracting

For all topics: an additional obligation regarding subcontracting has been introduced, namely that subcontracted work may only be performed in target countries set out in the call conditions.

The beneficiaries must ensure that the subcontracted work is performed in the countries set out in the call conditions.

The target countries are all Member States of the European Union and all Associated Countries.

4. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), background and results, access rights and rights of use (article 16 and Annex 5 of the Model Grant Agreement (MGA))

An additional information obligation has been introduced for topics including standardisation activities: ‘Beneficiaries must, up to 4 years after the end of the action, inform the granting authority if the results could reasonably be expected to contribute to European or international standards’. These concerns the topics below:

- HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-02-01

Specific conditions

described in the chapter 2.2.3.2 of the Clean Hydrogen JU 2025 Annual Work Programme

Application and evaluation forms and model grant agreement (MGA):

Application form templates

Application form - Part B (HE CleanH2 RIA, IA)

Application form - Part B (HE CleanH2 CSA)

Evaluation form templates

Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA)

Standard evaluation form (HE CSA)

Guidance

HE Programme Guide

Model Grant Agreements (MGA)

Lump Sum MGA

Call-specific instructions

Detailed budget table (HE LS)

Clean Hydrogen JU - Annual Work Programme 2025 (AWP 2025)

- AWP 2025

Clean Hydrogen JU - Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA)

- SRIA Clean Hydrogen JU

Lump Sums Guidance

- Guidance: "Lump sums - what do I need to know?"

- Comprehensive information on lump sum funding in Horizon Europe

Additional documents:

HE Main Work Programme 2023–2025 – 1. General Introduction

HE Main Work Programme 2023–2025 – 13. General Annexes

HE Programme Guide

HE Framework Programme 2021/695

HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764

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

Funding & Tenders Portal Terms and Conditions

Funding & Tenders Portal Privacy Statement

Support & Resources

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.

Research Enquiry Service – ask questions about any aspect of European research in general and the EU Research Framework Programmes in particular.

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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

Last Changed: August 8, 2025

CALL UPDATE:

An overview of the evaluation results for the call HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025 is now available. More information can be found in this document: FLASH EVALUATION RESULTS

Last Changed: April 24, 2025

CALL UPDATE: PROPOSAL NUMBERS

Call HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025 has closed on the 23/04/2025.

212 proposals have been submitted.

The breakdown per topic is:

RENEWABLE HYDROGEN PRODUCTION

-HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-01-01: 21 proposals

-HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-01-02: 10 proposals

-HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-01-03: 11 proposals

-HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-01-04: 9 proposals

-HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-01-05: 8 proposals

-HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-01-06: 14 proposals

-HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-01-07: 15 proposals

HYDROGEN STORAGE AND DISTRIBUTION

-HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-02-01: 9 proposals

-HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-02-02: 10 proposals

-HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-02-03: 7 proposals

HYDROGEN END USES: TRANSPORT APPLICATIONS

-HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-03-01: 9 proposals

-HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-03-02: 7 proposals

-HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-03-03: 7 proposals

HYDROGEN END USES: CLEAN HEAT AND POWER

-HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-04-01: 19 proposals

CROSS-CUTTING

-HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-05-01: 7 proposals

-HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-05-02: 8 proposals

-HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-05-03: 6 proposals

HYDROGEN VALLEYS

-HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-06-01: 16 proposals

-HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-06-02: 19 proposals

Evaluation results are expected to be communicated in August 2025.

Last Changed: April 15, 2025

Notice to Applicants (15/04/2025)

Please note that we will no longer be accepting questions regarding the current call for proposals HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025. We appreciate your interest and encourage you to refer to the published documentation for any remaining clarifications.

Last Changed: April 15, 2025

Errata Notice - Topic HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-01-05

The correct text for topic HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-01-05 stipulates:

"Furthermore, project results are expected to contribute to the following KPIs, targeted at co-electrolyser scale, specific for three high temperature co-electrolysis technologies: Oxide and Proton conductive Solid Oxide electrolysers (SOEL, PCCEL) and Molten Carbonate Electrolyser (MCE):

Oxide conductive Solid Oxide electrolysers (SOEL)

Power to syngas efficiency: 0.9 kWLHV /kWe
Degradation in operating conditions: 0.8 %/1000h @1A/cm²
Unit cost: 500 €/kW

Proton Conductive Ceramic electrolysers (PCCEL)

Power to syngas efficiency: 0.9 kWLHV/ kWe
Degradation in operating conditions: 0.8 %/1000h @0.75A/cm²
Unit cost: 500 €/kW

Molten Carbonate electrolysers (MCE)

Power to syngas efficiency: 0.93 kWLHV/ kWe
Degradation in operating conditions: 0.5 %/1000h @0.5A/cm²
Unit cost: 500 €/kW

KPIs are defined for the main high temperature co-electrolysis techniques, derived from the SRIA and from results of previous EU funded projects."

Last Changed: April 3, 2025

Errata Notice – Topic Conditions

We appreciate your attention to this information. Please be advised that the Topic Conditions are provided below, as they were not displayed correctly under each topic. These conditions apply to all topics across the entire call.

We kindly ask you to refer to the information below and in the AWP2025 to ensure compliance with the applicable requirements.