HORIZON-CL5-2027-07-D3-16

Industrial processes and equipment for innovative, reliable and scalable tandem technologies (EUPI-PV Partnership)

Status
forthcoming
Programme
Horizon Europe (HORIZON)
Action type
HORIZON Innovation Actions
Opens
4 Aug 2027
Deadline
1 Dec 2027
Fetched
15 Jul 2026, 07:18 UTC
Plain-language summary

Develop innovative, scalable tandem solar PV technologies to boost EU manufacturing and meet 2030 solar deployment targets.

This call supports projects to develop advanced tandem solar photovoltaic technologies with higher efficiency and durability. It aims to strengthen the European solar manufacturing sector and reduce dependency on fossil fuels. Projects should demonstrate scalable production processes and include strong exploitation plans.

Likely relevant for

  • Solar PV technology developers
  • Renewable energy manufacturers
  • Photovoltaic equipment producers
  • Start-ups and scale-ups in solar tech
  • Energy innovation researchers

Project signals

Focus on scalable tandem PV techDemonstration of production equipmentCommercialisation and exploitation plans

What it funds

  • Development and demonstration of tandem solar PV technologies exceeding silicon efficiency limits
  • Engineering of interfaces and thin-film large-scale manufacturing
  • Production processes and equipment ready for large-scale deployment
  • Projects aiming to reach TRL 6-7 by project end
  • Strong business case and exploitation strategy including scalability and commercialisation plans

Expected outcomes

  • Increased commercialisation potential of tandem PV technologies
  • Strengthened European PV industrial base technological know-how
  • Contribution to EU Solar PV Industry Alliance objectives
  • Support for solar energy joint research and innovation agenda

Who can apply / participate

  • Industry including SMEs
  • Research organisations
  • Start-ups and scale-ups
  • Consortia of multiple entities
  • Consortium composition must comply with Horizon Europe rules
  • Collaboration encouraged to cover full value chain
  • Legal entities established in China are not eligible
  • Check eligibility of other non-EU/non-associated countries
  • Participants must comply with Horizon Europe eligibility criteria
  • Projects must align with European Partnership for Innovation in Photovoltaics (EUPI-PV)
  • Exact consortium size and composition requirements
  • Specific country eligibility beyond China restriction

Must check before shortlisting

  • Eligibility of participant countries
  • Consortium composition rules
  • Specific exploitation plan requirements

Money

Total budget of approximately €28.5 million for 3 expected grants in 2027.

  • Total budget for 2027 — 28500000EUR
    For 3 grants, each up to €9.5 million

Application notes

  • Single-stage submission model.
  • Proposal page limits and layout as per Horizon Europe General Annexes
  • Eligibility and admissibility conditions per Horizon Europe rules
  • Evaluation criteria and procedures as described in General Annexes
  • Prepare proposal following Application Form templates
  • Submit via Horizon Europe Submission System
  • Include exploitation and dissemination plan with business case
  • Projects must report results to EUPI-PV partnership
  • Exploitation plan should consider Innovation Fund and scalability

Derived from official EU Funding portal source · updated 22 Jun 2026, 15:42 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: The REPowerEU plan and the EU Solar Energy Strategy introduced targets for the deployment of solar PV amounting to 600 GWac by 2030. Complying with these targets will be crucial for the European Union to reach its climate targets and free itself from import dependency on fossil fuels and the costs this imposes on Europe’s competitiveness in terms of high energy prices. The Solar Strategy also introduces a target, which has been enshrined into the Net-Zero Industry Act, to re-consolidate the European solar manufacturing sector and scale up European manufacturing capacity across the entire value chain to at least 40% of the EU’s annual deployment needs, or 30 GW of annual capacity by 2030. Innovation is particularly important in the solar PV sector, which is characterised by a short technology cycle, where new technologies become mainstream in only a few years. Novel tandem technologies offer therefore the opportunity for innovative spin-offs or start-ups and scale-ups to manufacture and put on the market competitive and efficient PV products, strengthening the resilience of the EU PV value chain and thus reducing excessive dependencies and increasing security. Project results are expected to contribute to all the following expected outcomes: Increase the potential for commercialisation of tandem PV technologies creating a competitive technological know-how for the European PV industrial base; Contribute to the objectives of the EU Solar PV Industry Alliance; Support the execution of the solar energy joint research and innovation agenda. Scope: Proposals are expected to: Demonstrate tandem technologies with similar lifetimes to Si and higher efficiencies (beyond the Si limits); Demonstrate interface and thin-film large scale engineering; Demonstrate production processes and equipment ready for large scale deployment. 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. Proposals will present a plan for the exploitation and dissemination of results which should include a strong business case and sound exploitation strategy. The exploitation plan should 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). This topic implements the co-programmed European Partnership for Innovation in Photovoltaics (EUPI-PV). As such, projects resulting from this topic will be expected to report on the results to the European Partnership for Innovation in Photovoltaics (EUPI-PV) in support of the monitoring of its KPIs. null Activities are expected to achieve TRL 6-7 by the end of the project – see General Annex B. Activities may start at any TRL.

Destination

This Destination includes activities targeting a sustainable, secure and competitive energy supply. In line with the scope of cluster 5, this includes activities in the areas of renewable energy; energy system, grids and storage; as well as Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS). 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 ‘Ensuring more sustainable, secure and competitive energy supply through solutions for smart energy systems based on renewable energy solutions’ . This destination contributes to the activities of the Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET Plan) and its implementation working groups. The main impacts to be generated by topics under this Destination are: Renewable energy Energy producers have access to efficient and competitive European renewable energy and renewable fuel technologies with a solid knowledge base and are able to deploy them to enhance the EU’s energy security and reach its climate neutrality objectives, in a sustainable way in environmental (e.g., biodiversity, multiple uses of land and water, natural resources, pollution) and socioeconomic terms, and in line with the Sustainable Development Goals. Technology providers have access to European, competitive, resilient, reliable, sustainable, and affordable value chains of renewable energy and renewable fuel technologies including emerging ones, and with strong export potential to supply both the EU internal and global markets. They benefit also from circular renewable energy technologies that are safe and sustainable by design with reduced and diversified external dependence on critical raw materials [1] . Economic sectors benefit from better integration of renewable energy and renewable fuel-based solutions that are, among others, competitive, cost-effective, efficient, flexible, reliable, and sustainable. Such integration is facilitated through digitalisation and integration of artificial intelligence of renewable energy technologies that provide network stability and reliability. European industries benefit from a reinforced export potential of renewable energy and renewable fuel technologies, also through international partnerships, and become more competitive in innovative renewable energy technologies in Europe and globally. European researchers benefit from a stronger community and from a reinforced scientific basis on renewable energy and renewable fuel technologies including emerging ones, also through international collaborations. European citizens have access to an energy market that is fair and equitable, more resilient, uses all different types of local renewable energy resources, and is less dependent on fossil fuels imports. Citizens experience less fuel and energy poverty, and also benefit from new employment and upskilling opportunities. Local communities benefit from a more decentralized, affordable, and secure energy system and from multiple uses of land and water. Energy systems, grids and storage R&I actions will support the just digital and green transformation of the energy system through advanced solutions for accelerating the energy systems integration and decarbonisation . The developed clean, sustainable solutions will contribute to making the energy system work better for actors and supply more reliable, resilient and secure energy – even under increasingly more frequent extreme climate events. The solutions developed will contribute to increase flexibility and grid hosting capacity for renewables through optimizing cross sector integration and grid scale storage as well as cover off-grid situations. They will improve the preparedness of the electricity system to support the EU's binding target for 2030 of minimum of 42.5% renewables in the gross final energy consumption (with the aspiration to reach 45%), and full decarbonisation by 2050. They will enable further electrification of demand and will enhance the competitiveness of the European value chain , reduce pressure on resources (also by making technologies ‘circular by design’) and decrease dependencies. Such solutions would also enable a better EU resilience to climate risks. The solutions will improve consumer awareness and engagement in the energy transition, via innovative offers and services (e.g. demand response, energy communities) and will target different types of consumers, including “hard to reach” population groups (such as energy poor or low-income households). This will result in increased trust in, and uptake of the new products and services entering the energy system. Carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS) and carbon dioxide removal (CDR) Accelerated deployment of carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS) as a CO2 emission mitigation option in electricity generation and/or in industry applications, as well as carbon dioxide removal for negative emissions. 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. [1] For an example of a methodology for the assessment of sustainability, circularity and contribution to EU resilience and technological autonomy of clean energy technology in the R&I pipeline, please see Study on circular approaches for a sustainable and affordable clean energy transition

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.

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

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]

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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