Open grounds for future pre-commercial procurement of innovative security technologies
Preparatory action to establish grounds for future pre-commercial procurement of innovative security technologies in the EU.
This call invites end-users and public procurers from multiple countries to prepare for a future joint procurement of innovative security solutions. The project should build evidence and consolidate buyer groups to justify a pre-commercial procurement (PCP) action. It focuses on aligning public procurement with innovation and societal values, with a maximum duration of 1 year.
Likely relevant for
- Public procurers in security sector
- End-user organisations in security
- Innovation coordinators in public sector
- SMEs and startups in security technology
- Policy makers in security procurement
Project signals
What it funds
- Preparatory actions to build grounds for future PCP actions in security technologies
- Coordination among end-users and public procurers across multiple countries
- Market and technology state-of-the-art analysis
- Development of documentation and planning for future PCP tendering
- Consideration of societal, gender, privacy, and fundamental rights aspects in technology development
Expected outcomes
- Consolidated group of potential buyers committed to future PCP
- Clear evidence justifying necessity of PCP for technology maturation
- Increased capacity of EU public procurers to attract innovation
- Draft planning and documentation ready for launching PCP call
- Technologies developed in compliance with European societal values
Who can apply / participate
- End-user organisations
- Public procurers
- Consortia including multiple beneficiaries
- At least 6 end-user organisations and 3 public procurers required
- Participants must be from at least 3 different EU Member States or Associated Countries
- One beneficiary can count as both end-user and public procurer
- Consortium must include participants from at least 3 EU Member States or Associated Countries
- Open market consultations must be conducted in at least 3 EU Member States or Associated Countries
- Must comply with EU Directive on public procurement and Horizon Europe PCP provisions
- Applicants must fill in specific security practitioner information in application form
- Specific budget amount for this CSA action
- Exact funding rate for lump sum grant
Must check before shortlisting
- Confirm ability to form consortium with required number and type of participants
- Check compliance with PCP and Horizon Europe specific provisions
- Verify capacity to conduct open market consultations in at least 3 countries
Money
Estimated budget for this Coordination and Support Action is around 2 million EUR for 2027 with lump sum funding.
- Maximum contribution per grant — 1000000EURLump sum grant per project, expected 2 grants
Application notes
- Single-stage submission model.
- Proposal page limits and layout as per Horizon Europe General Annexes.
- Eligible countries as per Horizon Europe Annex B.
- Additional eligibility conditions require specific number and type of participants.
- Open market consultations required in at least 3 countries.
- Financial and operational capacity and exclusion criteria apply as per Horizon Europe Annex C.
- Evaluation criteria and procedures as per Horizon Europe Annex D and F.
- Eligible costs covered by lump sum grants as per Horizon Europe lump sum decision.
- Prepare consortium meeting eligibility criteria (6 end-users, 3 public procurers, 3 countries).
- Conduct open market consultations in at least 3 EU or Associated countries.
- Submit proposal using the specific HE CSA application form.
- Include required security practitioner information in application form.
- Follow guidelines in Horizon Europe Programme Guide and Online Manual.
- Consortium composition and market consultation requirements are strict and must be met.
- Project duration is limited to maximum 1 year.
- Applicants should ensure deliverables consolidate evidence for future PCP action.
- Compliance with EU procurement directives and societal values is mandatory.
Derived from official EU Funding portal source · updated 22 Jun 2026, 15:07 UTC. Use this as a shortlisting aid; the official call text remains authoritative.
Related calls
These funding calls are closely related and may be worth considering as part of the same funding landscape.
Official source text
Fine print from the EU source record. Expand when you need the original wording.
Topic description
Expected Outcome: Project results are expected to contribute to some or all of the following expected outcomes: Establish a consolidated group of potential buyers with shared needs and requirements, committed to carrying out a pre-commercial procurement (PCP) action for future joint procurement of innovative solutions; Evidence for Future PCP Action: Provide clear evidence justifying the necessity of a PCP action to complete the maturation cycle of certain technologies and compare different alternatives; Increased capacity of EU public procurers to align requirements with industry and future products and to attract innovation and innovators from security and other sectors through common validation strategies, rapid innovation, experimentation and pre-commercial procurement. Scope: End-users and public procurers from several countries are invited to submit proposals for a preparatory action that should build the grounds for a future pre-commercial procurement (PCP) action. Both this preparatory action and the future PCP action are open to proposals oriented to the acquisition of research and development (R&D) services for the development of innovative technologies, systems, tools or techniques under the priorities laid down in this Work Programme. In preparing the grounds for a possible future PCP action, the outputs of this Coordination and Support Action (CSA) should take into consideration: The policy priorities described in this Work Programme Part for the security areas mentioned above; The EU Directive for public procurement and in particular with the provisions related to PCP; The specific provisions and funding rates of PCP actions and the specific requirements for innovation procurement (PCP/PPI) supported by Horizon Europe grants, as stated in the General Annex H of the Horizon Europe Work Programme; The guidance for attracting innovators and innovation, as explained in the European Commission Guidance on Innovation Procurement C(2021) 4320, in particular those measures oriented to reduce the barriers to high-tech start-ups and innovative SMEs. During the course of the project, the applicants are expected to deliver clear evidence on a number of aspects in order to justify and de-risk a possible follow-up PCP action, including: That the challenge is pertinent and that indeed a PCP action is required to complete the maturation cycle of certain technologies and to compare different alternatives; That there is a consolidated group of potential buyers with common needs and requirements which are committed to carry out a PCP action in order to be able to take an informed decision on a future joint procurement of innovative solutions; That there is a quantifiable and identifiable community of potential buyers (including and beyond those proposed as beneficiaries in the proposal) who would share to a wide extent the common needs and requirements defined and who could be interested in exploring further joint-uptake of solutions similar to those developed under the PCP, should these prove to be technologically mature and operationally relevant by the end of the project; That the state of the art and the market (including research) has been explored and mapped, and that there are different technical alternatives to address the proposed challenge; That a future PCP tendering process is clear, that a draft planning has been proposed and that the supporting documentation and administrative procedures will be ready on due time in order to launch the call for the acquisition of R&D services according to the PCP rules; That the technology developments to be conducted in the future PCP can be done in compliance with European societal values, fundamental rights and applicable legislation, including in the area of free movement of persons, privacy and protection of personal data; That in developing technology solutions, societal and gender aspects (e.g., perception of security, possible side effects of technological solutions, societal resilience) are taken into account in a comprehensive and thorough manner. If the applicants intend to submit a proposal for a follow-up PCP in a future Horizon Europe Cluster 3 Work Programme, they should ensure that the above evidence is consolidated in the project deliverables of this CSA before the submission of the PCP proposal. The project should have a maximum estimated duration of 1 year. Finally, proposals are expected to address all applicable considerations expressed in the Introduction of the Strengthened Security Research and Innovation Destination.
Conditions and documents
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.
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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
Subject to restrictions for the protection of European communication networks.
The following additional eligibility conditions apply:
This topic requires the participation, as beneficiaries, of at least 6 end-user organisations as well as at least 3 public procurers. One beneficiary can have the role of end-user and public procurer simultaneously, both counting towards the number of such entities required for the additional eligibility condition. These beneficiaries must be from at least 3 different EU Member States or Associated Countries. For these participants, applicants must fill in the table “Information about security practitioners” in the application form with all the requested information, following the template provided in the submission IT tool.
Open market consultations carried out during this project must take place in at least 3 EU Member States or Associated Countries.
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
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
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]
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
Standard application form (HE RIA, IA)
Standard application form (HE RIA IA Stage 1)
Standard application form (HE RIA IA Stage 1 BLIND)
Standard application form (HE CSA)
Standard application form (HE CSA Stage 1)
Standard application form (HE CSA Stage 1 BLIND)
Standard application form (HE RI)
Standard application form (HE PCP)
Standard application form (HE PPI)
Standard application form (HE COFUND)
Standard application form (HE FPA)
Standard application form (HE MSCA PF)
Standard application form (HE MSCA DN)
Standard application form (HE MSCA SE)
Standard application form (HE MSCA COFUND)
Standard application form (HE MSCA COFUND CE)
Standard application form (HE ERC STG)
Standard application form (HE ERC COG)
Standard application form (HE ERC ADG)
Standard application form (HE ERC POC)
Standard application form (HE ERC SYG)
Standard application form (HE EIC PATHFINDER CHALLENGES)
Standard application form (HE EIC PATHFINDER OPEN)
Standard application form (HE EIC TRANSITION)
Standard application form (HE EIC STEP)
Standard application form (HE EIC Accelerator stage 2 - full proposal)
Standard application form (HE EIC Accelerator stage 1 - short proposal)
Evaluation form templates — will be used with the necessary adaptations
Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA)
Standard evaluation form (HE CSA)
Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA and CSA Stage 1)
Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA and CSA Stage 1 BLIND)
Standard evaluation form (HE PCP PPI)
Standard evaluation form (HE COFUND)
Standard evaluation form (HE FPA)
Standard evaluation form (HE MSCA)
Standard evaluation form (HE EIC PATHFINDER CHALLENGES)
Standard evaluation form (HE EIC PATHFINDER OPEN)
Standard evaluation form (HE EIC TRANSITION)
Standard evaluation form (HE EIC Accelerator stage 1 - short proposal)
Standard evaluation form (HE EIC Accelerator stage 2 - full proposal)
Guidance
Model Grant Agreements (MGA)
Framework Partnership Agreement FPA
Call-specific instructions
Information on financial support to third parties (HE)
Additional documents:
HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 1. General Introduction
HE Main Work Programme 2023–2025 – 2. Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 3. Research Infrastructures
HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 4. Health
HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 5. Culture, creativity and inclusive society
HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 6. Civil Security for Society
HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 7. Digital, Industry and Space
HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 8. Climate, Energy and Mobility
HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 9. Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment
HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 10. European Innovation Ecosystems (EIE)
HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 12. Missions
HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 13. New European Bauhaus Facility (NEB)
HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 14. General Annexes
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
Decision authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme
Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment
EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement
Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual
Support information
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. 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.
Raw budget overview
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