Sustainable and Competitive Cell Production Techniques for Lithium-ion And Sodium-ion Batteries (BATT4EU Partnership)
Innovate flexible, sustainable, and cost-efficient lithium-ion and sodium-ion battery cell production with advanced manufacturing and digitalization.
This call seeks projects to develop next-generation battery cell manufacturing processes that reduce costs and energy use. It focuses on flexible production lines for lithium-ion and sodium-ion batteries. Projects should demonstrate improved quality, sustainability, and digital quality control.
Likely relevant for
- Battery manufacturers
- Advanced manufacturing technology developers
- Energy storage technology innovators
- Sustainability and lifecycle assessment experts
- Industrial automation and digitalization specialists
Project signals
What it funds
- Development and demonstration of innovative battery cell manufacturing processes and machinery
- Flexible, modular pilot production lines for lithium-ion and sodium-ion batteries
- Novel mixing systems and electrode manufacturing with inline quality control
- Optimization of dry-room assembly processes to increase throughput and reduce energy use
- Rapid and energy-efficient cell formation and aging processes
- Digitalisation of production lines including defect identification
- Techno-economic assessments and life-cycle analyses demonstrating advantages over current practices
Expected outcomes
- Enhanced competitiveness, resilience, and sustainability of European battery cell manufacturing
- Significant reductions in CAPEX, OPEX, energy consumption, and environmental footprint
- Improved battery production efficiency and quality
- Flexible pilot lines capable of switching battery chemistries with reduced cross-contamination
- Clear environmental, economic, and scalability benefits over state-of-the-art manufacturing
Who can apply / participate
- Industry and manufacturing companies
- Research organizations and technology developers
- Consortia including SMEs and large enterprises
- Consortia expected to include relevant industrial and research partners
- Joint Research Centre (JRC) may participate as beneficiary with zero funding or as associated partner
- Legal entities established in China are not eligible to participate
- Eligible countries as per Horizon Europe Annex B
- Projects must comply with Horizon Europe general and specific conditions
- Use of Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS data if satellite data involved
- Exact consortium size and composition requirements
- Specific funding rates and co-funding rules
Must check before shortlisting
- Eligibility restrictions on legal entities established in China
- Specific consortium composition rules
- Exact funding rates and budget limits
Money
Total indicative budget for this call is approximately €37.8 million for 2027, funding up to 2 projects with a maximum contribution of €18.9 million each.
- Total budget for 2027 — 37800000EURIndicative budget for this call
- Expected grants — 2Number of projects expected to be funded
- Maximum contribution per grant — 18900000EURMaximum EU contribution per project
Application notes
- Single-stage submission model with deadline on 31 March 2027.
- Proposal page limits and layout as per Horizon Europe General Annexes
- Eligible countries as per Annex B of Horizon Europe Work Programme
- Financial and operational capacity requirements as per Annex C
- Evaluation criteria and process as per Annex D and F
- Legal and financial set-up as per Annex G
- Prepare proposal following the specific topic guidelines and application form
- Ensure compliance with eligibility and admissibility conditions
- Submit proposal via the Funding & Tenders Portal before the deadline
- Include exploitation and dissemination plans in the proposal
- Legal entities established in China are not eligible
- JRC participation possible but not involved in proposal preparation
- Check specific consortium and eligibility rules before applying
Derived from official EU Funding portal source · updated 2 Jul 2026, 09:55 UTC. Use this as a shortlisting aid; the official call text remains authoritative.
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Official source text
Fine print from the EU source record. Expand when you need the original wording.
Topic description
Expected Outcome: Proposals are expected to contribute to all following points: Significantly enhanced competitiveness, resilience, and sustainability of the European battery cell manufacturing industry, achieving measurable reductions in capital expenditure (CAPEX), operational expenditure (OPEX), energy consumption, and environmental footprint compared to state-of-the-art processes. Demonstrated advanced manufacturing processes and equipment that substantially decrease battery production costs and improve overall production efficiency and battery quality. Established flexible and modular pilot production lines capable of efficiently transitioning between various battery chemistries and compositions, with demonstrated reduction in cross-contamination and effective management of sensitive materials. Scope: Proposals are expected to target the development and demonstration of innovative, next-generation battery cell manufacturing processes and machinery. These solutions are expected to explicitly focus on simultaneously achieving significant cost reductions and considerable decreases in energy consumption over the battery lifecycle, while maintaining or improving battery cell quality and sustainability metrics. Proposals are expected to address all of the following: Demonstration of flexible, modular, and reconfigurable machinery to be integrated in manufacturing pilot lines that effectively accommodate transitions between various lithium-ion chemistries/compositions and sodium-ion chemistries. Development and demonstration novel mixing systems and novel electrode manufacturing techniques with advanced inline quality control Optimization of dry-room cell assembly processes, including the development and validation of advanced assembly equipment and techniques to significantly increase cell assembly throughput rates, reduce overall energy consumption associated with maintaining dry-room conditions, and enhance environmental controls Establishment of rapid and energy-efficient cell formation processes, significantly shortening formation and aging times compared to state of the art and enhancing quality assurance. Digitalisation of the production line, including in-line quality testing and identification of defects. Inclusion of comprehensive techno-economic assessments (TEA) and life-cycle analyses (LCA) to demonstrate clear environmental, economic, and scalability advantages over existing, state-of-the-art battery cell manufacturing practices. The Commission initiative for Safe and Sustainable by Design [1] (SSbD) sets a framework for assessing the safety and sustainability of chemicals and materials which should be considered as a reference for project proposals. Whenever the expected exploitation of project results entails developing, creating, manufacturing and marketing a product or process, or in creating and providing a service, the plan for the exploitation and dissemination of results must include a strategy for such exploitation. The exploitation plans are expected to include preliminary plans for scalability, commercialisation, and deployment (feasibility study, business plan) indicating the possible funding sources to be potentially used (in particular the Innovation Fund). Proposals could consider the involvement of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) [2] whose contribution could consist of performing experimental or desk-top research on battery performance or safety. For further information on the JRC’s possible contribution to the projects, please, search for additional publicly available information on the JRC’s website [3] (EU Science Hub) on the NCP portal, or request specific information from the JRC (JRC-NCP-Network@ec.europa.eu) JRC will assure that all the other applicants receive the same information on the JRC’s possible contribution to the project (e.g., via the topic-specific FAQs under the Funding and Tenders Portal). This topic implements the co-programmed European Partnership on Batteries (Batt4EU). As such, projects resulting from this topic will be expected to report on the results to the European Partnership on Batteries (Batt4EU) in support of the monitoring of its KPIs. Technology Readiness Level - Technology readiness level expected from completed projects Activities are expected to achieve TRL 6-7 by the end of the project – see General Annex B. Activities may start at any TRL. [1] https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/research-area/industrial-research-and-innovation/key-enabling-technologies/chemicals-and-advanced-materials_en [2] https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/laboratories-z/battery-energy-storage-testing_en [3] JRC NCP | Horizon Europe NCP Portal
Destination
This Destination contributes directly to the Strategic Plan’s Key Strategic Orientations ‘ Green transition ’, ‘ Digital transition ’ and ‘ A more resilient, competitive, inclusive and democratic Europe ’. In line with the Strategic Plan, the overall expected impact of this Destination is to contribute to the “Facilitating a clean and sustainable transition of the energy and transport sectors towards climate neutrality through cross-cutting solutions ”. The main impacts to be generated by topics under this Destination are: Batteries Increased competitiveness and strategic autonomy of a complete EU value chain while maximizing sustainability. Reducing dependency on raw materials and upscaling processing capacity, also for recycled materials. Creating an integrated European battery sector for next generation batteries , from design to manufacturing and all the way to end of life, reducing environmental impact. Improving energy storage technologies to enhance the resilience of EU’s energy system, facilitating integration of renewable energy sources. Legal entities established in China are not eligible to participate in both Research and Innovation Actions (RIAs) and Innovation Actions (IAs) falling under this destination. For additional information please see “Restrictions on the participation of legal entities established in China” found in General Annex B of the General Annexes.
Conditions and documents
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 Eligible Conditions
If projects use satellite-based earth observation, positioning, navigation and/or related timing data and services, beneficiaries must make use of Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS (other data and services may additionally be used).
The Joint Research Centre (JRC) may participate as member of the consortium selected for funding as a beneficiary with zero funding, or as an associated partner. The JRC will not participate in the preparation and submission of the proposal - see General Annex B.
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
The granting authority may, up to 4 years after the end of the action, object to a transfer of ownership or to the exclusive licensing of results, as set out in the specific provision of Annex 5.
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)
Evaluation form templates — will be used with the necessary adaptations
Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA)
Guidance
Model Grant Agreements (MGA)
Additional documents:
HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027 – 1. General Introduction
HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027 – 8. Climate, Energy and Mobility
HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027 – 15. 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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