Studies On Rail Industry 5.0
HORIZON JU Research and Innovation Actions
Basic Information
- Identifier
- HORIZON-JU-ER-2025-EXPLR-01
- Programme
- EU-RAIL JU Call Proposals 2025-02
- Programme Period
- 2021 - 2027
- Status
- Open (31094502)
- Opening Date
- October 30, 2025
- Deadline
- February 11, 2026
- Deadline Model
- single-stage
- Budget
- €33,100,000
- Min Grant Amount
- €33,100,000
- Max Grant Amount
- €33,100,000
- Expected Number of Grants
- 1
- Keywords
- HORIZON-JU-ER-2025-EXPLR-01HORIZON-JU-ER-2025-02Innovation managementRail OperationsRail ServicesRail infrastructure
Description
European Commission’s Industry 5.0 Award provides a vision of the future of European industry taking into consideration the achievement of ‘societal goals beyond jobs and growth. Industry 5.0 is seen “as transition to a sustainable, people-centric and resilient European industry”[1].
The expected outcome of this Research and Innovation Action is a study that identifies the key challenges, drivers, and expected measurable outcomes/benefits related to the application of the new concepts introduced by the 5.0 Industry principles to the rail sector.
The study shall provide recommendations for the implementation of Industry 5.0 vision that will lead to a significant improvement of safety, reliability, and efficiency in rail operations.
Scope:The scope of the activities to be performed under this research and innovation action can address the following:
- Identification of practices and drivers required for the implementation of the Industry 5.0 principles in the European rail sector:
- Identification of the impacted stakeholders (i.e. Infrastructure Managers (IM), operators, suppliers, academia, etc.)
- Investigation and identification of possible implementation solutions
- Definition of implementation drivers, challenges and risks. The study shall also focus on the scope and role of public policies and regulations in the successful implementation of Industry 5.0 ).
- Definition of success factors for the implementation of the Industry 5.0 principles in the rail sector, including: stimulating competitiveness, reputation, talent attraction, job creation, meeting climate goals, etc.
- Identification of internal and external factors with the potential to impact (positively or negatively) the implementation of Industry 5.0 in rail industry. Such factors may include: worker acceptance of advanced technology, community engagement, and the potential for inequalities.
- Progress and benefits measurement: develop a framework for the measurement of progress towards the implementation of the Industry 5.0 in the rail sector within its three main dimensions: safety, reliability and efficiency.
- Recommendations for pilot projects showcasing the implementation of Industry 5.0 principles and leading towards a human centric rail system.
Interactions with other EU-RAIL projects:
The action to be funded under this topic shall:
- Take into account the outputs from EU-RAIL Flagship areas 1,2,3,4,5 and 6 if relevant to the studies.
[1] https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/research-area/industrial-research-and-innovation/industry-50_en
Eligibility & Conditions
General conditions
1. Admissibility Conditions: Proposal page limit and layout
Regarding admissibility conditions and related requirements, part A of the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2023-2025 General Annexes applies, with the following exception: the limit for a full Research and Innovation Action application is set to 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 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
The award criteria included in part D of the General Annexes of the Horizon Europe – Work Programme 2023 – 2025 are complemented with additional criteria as specified in Annex VIII to this Work Programme.
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 starting date of grants awarded under this topic may be as of the submission date of the application. Applicants must duly justify the need for a retroactive starting date in their application. Costs incurred from the starting date of the action may be considered eligible.
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]
Indicative budget
The total indicative budget for the topic will be 0.6 million EUR.
Applicant Private[[As defined in Article 2(5) of Council Regulation (EU) 2021/2085.]] Members of the EU-Rail part of consortia responding to this topic should provide in-kind contributions to additional activities to be declared via the template model available on the F&T portal. The amount of total in-kind contributions (i.e. in-kind contributions for operational activities and in-kind contributions for additional activities) should be no less than 1.26352 times the funding request, in aggregate, of these applicant Private Members. Any discrepancy shall be well and duly justified. In this respect, the grant agreements will set, in principle, annual deliverable on in-kind contributions for the projects selected under this topic, as well as mandatory reporting requirements, for those applicants who are Private Members of EU-Rail.
Indicative project duration
30 months. This does not preclude submission and selection of a proposal with a different project duration
Special skills and/or capabilities expected from the Applicant(s)
Applicants shall ensure that their proposals and consortium reflect the aggregated expertise to perform the activities and achieve the objectives set by the topic.
The applicants are expected to gather expertise leveraging from the knowledge of Academia and of the rail supply industry, SMEs and start-ups. In addition, applicants should leverage from the expectations of the end users, in the horizon 2030, considering the R&I contribution and vision from the EU-Rail Master Plan and Multi-Annual Work Plan.
Europe's Rail - Work Programme 2025-2026
Europe's Rail Master Plan
Europe's Rail - Multi Annual 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
Application form - Part B (HE EU-RAIL, IA)
Application form - Part B (HE EU-RAIL, RIA)
Application form - Part B (HE EU-RAIL, CSA)
Evaluation form templates
Evaluation form (HE EU-RAIL, RIA/IA)
Evaluation form (HE EU-RAIL, CSA)
Guidance
Model Grant Agreements (MGA)
Call-specific instructions
Additional documents:
HE Main Work Programme 2023–2025 – 1. General Introduction
HE Main Work Programme 2023–2025 – 13. General Annexes
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
Support & Resources
EU-RAIL JU Call Helpdesk: [email protected]. Please note that the deadline for addressing queries related to EU-RAIL JU call for proposals to the Q&A functional mailbox ([email protected]) is Wednesday 28 January 2026 at 17:00 (Brussels Local Time).
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.
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Latest Updates
Questions & Answers Release 1: 20 October 2025
https://rail-research.europa.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/QACall2025.02-1st-publication.pdf