SNS Trials and Pilots (T&Ps) with Verticals

General Annex A of the General Annexes to the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2023-2025 shall apply mutatis mutandis to the SNS call 2025 covered by this Work Programme, with the following derogations to page limits:

The limit for a full proposal is 70 pages for IAs submitted under Stream D.

General Annex B of the General Annexes to the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2023-2025 shall apply mutatis mutandis to the SNS call 2025 covered by this Work Programme, with the following restrictions, exceptions or amendments:

Restrictions on participation in accordance with Article 22(5) of the Horizon Europe Regulation

In order to achieve the expected outcomes, and safeguard the Union’s strategic assets, interests, autonomy, and security, it is important to avoid a situation of technological dependency on a non-EU source, in a global context that requires the EU to take action to build on its strengths, and to carefully assess and address any strategic weaknesses, vulnerabilities and high-risk dependencies which put at risk the attainment of its ambitions. For this reason, for proposals under topics identified as “subject to restrictions on participation in accordance with Article 22(5) of the Horizon Europe Regulation” (in the specific conditions for eligibility), participation is limited as follows:

- For proposals under Stream D (SNS trials and pilots with verticals), to legal entities established in Member States, Iceland, Norway and the following additional Associated Countries (Canada, Israel, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Switzerland and the United Kingdom).

In all topics, 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 positively assessed by their eligible country of establishment, in so far this is a Member State or Associated Country, that their participation to the action would not negatively impact the Union’s strategic, assets, interests, autonomy, or security. Entities assessed as high-risk suppliers of mobile network communication equipment within the meaning of ‘restrictions for the protection of European communication networks’ (or entities fully or partially owned or controlled by a high-risk supplier) cannot submit guarantees.

The guarantees shall in particular substantiate that, for the purpose of the action, measures are in place to ensure that:

a. control over the applicant legal entity is not exercised in a manner that retrains or restricts its ability to carry out the action and to deliver results, that imposes restrictions concerning its infrastructure, facilities, assets, resources, intellectual property or know-how needed for the purpose of the action, or that undermines its capabilities and standards necessary to carry out the action;

b. access by a non-eligible country or by a non-eligible country entity to sensitive information relating to the action is prevented; and the employees or other persons involved in the action have a national security clearance issued by an eligible country, where appropriate;

c. ownership of the intellectual property arising from, and the results of, the action remain within the recipient during and after completion of the action, are not subject to control or restrictions by non-eligible countries or non-eligible country entity, and are not exported outside the eligible countries, nor is access to them from outside the eligible countries granted, without the approval of the eligible country in which the legal entity is established.

Restrictions for the protection of European communication networks

These restrictions apply in accordance with General Annex B of the General Annexes of the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2023-2025:

Entities that are assessed as high-risk suppliers of mobile network communication equipment within the meaning of ‘restrictions for the protection of European communication networks’ (or entities they fully or partially own or control) are not eligible to participate as beneficiaries, affiliated entities and associated partners

Legal entities established in Russia, Belarus, or in non-government-controlled territories of Ukraine

Given the illegal invasion of Ukraine by Russia and the involvement of Belarus, there is currently no appropriate context allowing the implementation of the actions foreseen in this programme with legal entities established in Russia, Belarus, or in non-government-controlled territories of Ukraine. Therefore, even where such entities are not subject to EU restrictive measures, such legal entities are not eligible to participate in any capacity. This includes participation as beneficiaries, affiliated entities, associated partners, third parties giving in-kind contributions, subcontractors or recipients of financial support to third parties (if any). Exceptions may be granted on a case-by-case basis for justified reasons. With specific regard to measures addressed to Russia, following the adoption of the Council Regulation (EU) 2024/1745 of 24 June 2024 (amending Council Regulation (EU) No 833/2014 of 31 July 2014), legal entities established outside Russia but whose proprietary rights are directly or indirectly owned for more than 50% by legal persons established in Russia are also not eligible to participate in any capacity.

described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes and with the following additional requirement:

At least 70% of the budget should be implemented by the SNS JU member (other than the Union) and their constituent or affiliated entities.

Applicants will be invited to fill a mandatory table of compliance at proposal stage in the Application Form Technical Description (Part B). Proposals that do not fulfil the above conditions, including the mandatory table of compliance, at the time of the proposal submission, will be considered ineligible and, therefore, will not be evaluated.

Gender equality plans and gender dimension of R&I:

According to the General Annexes, provision of a gender equality plan for public bodies, research organisations or higher education establishments (including private research organisations and higher education establishments) applies as per Part B of the General Annexes to the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2023-2025. Additional gender issues (related to award sub-criterion consideration of the gender dimension in research and innovation content) shall be addressed as appropriate in case research results are expected to differ when applied to different gender populations of users.

General Annex C of the General Annexes to the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2023-2025 shall apply mutatis mutandis to the SNS call 2024 covered by this Work Programme.

are described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes.

Part D of the General Annexes to the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2025 shall apply mutatis mutandis to the SNS call 2025 covered by this Work Programme with the following complements:

The award criteria table is complemented as follows:

• Introduction in the impact section of a sub-criterion assessing the proposal contribution to the overall SME objective as appropriate;
• Introduction in the impact section of a sub-criterion assessing the proposal contribution to the IKOP objectives;

are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual.

General Annex F of the General Annexes to the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2023-2025 shall apply mutatis mutandis to the SNS call 2025 covered by this Work Programme with the following amendments related to the procedure to rank proposals:

- When two IA proposals are equally ranked and that it has not been possible to separate them using first the coverage criterion, second the impact criterion, and third the excellence criterion (i.e., after step 2 of the procedure outlined in part F of the General Annex), the level of SME participation will be taken as the next criterion to sort out the ties and if still unconclusive, the level of IKOP will be considered as appropriate. If still inconclusive, the procedure outlined in part F of the General Annex will be resumed from step 3 onwards.

To ensure a balanced portfolio within Stream D and to guarantee that the approved projects will have different centre of gravity from the identified vertical priorities (i.e., Industry/Manufacturing, Media, Transportation/Logistics, Emergency and Safety Services and Health), grants will be awarded to proposals not only in order of ranking but at least also to one project that is the highest ranked within each of the above vertical priorities, provided that the proposals attain all thresholds (and subject to available budget). Only the centre of gravity vertical area will be considered in terms of topic coverage during the evaluation process.

General Annex G of the General Annexes to the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2023-2025 shall apply mutatis mutandis to the SNS call 2025 covered by this Work Programme. In addition:

Participants of selected projects will be requested to cooperate in the SNS Programme for topics of common interests by signing a written agreement (called “collaboration agreement” ) referred in the specific provisions of the Model Grant Agreement (Annex 5 of the MGA).

Further to Open science provisions set out in the General Annex G of the General Annexes to the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2023-2025, in all SNS topics under Stream B, AI/ML training data sets, which will be created and used in the context of the selected projects, have to be made available through a common repository that will be openly accessed and may be used by other SNS projects over the programme lifecycle.