Share
Print
Fundamental research for other topics
Details
Location:EU 27
Funding agency:
Grantmaking entity type:Development Institution
Quick summary
Objectives: The Horizon Europe Call for Proposals under the HORIZON-SESAR-2025-DES-ER-03-WA1-4 Topic ID is focused on fundamental research in air traffic management (...
Eligibility criteria: Eligibility for the 'HORIZON-SESAR-2025-DES-ER-03-WA1-4' is determined by several key factors as outlined in the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes. Entities participating must be legal entities established in a Member State...
Description
Topic updates
29 January 2026
Flash Evaluation results
Published: 01/04/2025
Deadline: 16/09/2025
The total budget for the call is EUR 24 000 000
The results of the evaluation for each topic are as follows:
|
Topic |
Number of proposals evaluated |
Number of proposals retained for funding |
Maximum EU contribution |
Number of proposals in reserve list |
|
HORIZON-SESAR-2025-DES-ER-03-WA1-4 |
17 |
2 |
1.999.544,76 € |
2 |
|
TOTAL |
81 |
17 |
23.829.981,16 € |
7 |
Number of inadmissible proposals: 0
Number of ineligible proposals: 1
The applicants were informed on 29 January 2026 about the evaluation results for their proposals.
For questions, please contact info-call@sesarju.eu.
Summary of observer report:
The overall quality of the HORIZON-SESAR-2025-DES evaluation process was of a very high standard. All experts consistently complied with the established procedures, which were clearly articulated in the guidance documents and thoroughly explained during the briefings. As a result, the high-quality Evaluation Summary Reports (ESRs) provide precise, well-substantiated assessment of the proposals.
The assessment process was conducted in a transparent, impartial, fair, and fully confident manner, further reinforced by the examination and alignment which took place during the Panel Review Meetings.
Experts repeatably highlighted the added value of the on-site consensus meetings. In their view, the on-site setting fostered open, constructive and well-structured dialogue, enabling an effective assessment supporting the achievement of consensus through substantive discussion.
Finally, it is essential to acknowledge the professionalism, diligence, and exemplary level of preparation demonstrated by SESAR 3 JU staff throughout all stages of the evaluation process. Their commitment significantly contributed to the efficiency, coherence and overall quality of the evaluation.
18 September 2025
Call HORIZON-SESAR-2025-DES-ER-03 has closed on the 16-09-2025.
82 proposals have been submitted for a total EU grant requested of around 113 MEUR.
The breakdown per topic is: 17
HORIZON-SESAR-2025-DES-ER-03-WA1-4
Evaluation results are expected to be communicated in February 2026.
15 July 2025
Disclaimer
As regards enquiries related to the submission of proposals sent to info-call@sesarju.eu, SESAR JU cannot guarantee to provide an answer in time shortly before the call deadline. Therefore, we invite to submit your enquiries at least 2 weeks before the deadline.
Fundamental research for other topics
TOPIC ID: HORIZON-SESAR-2025-DES-ER-03-WA1-4
Type of grant: Call for proposals
General information
Programme: Horizon Europe (HORIZON)
Call: Digital European Sky Exploratory Research 03 (HORIZON-SESAR-2025-DES-ER-03)
Type of action: HORIZON-JU-RIA HORIZON JU Research and Innovation Actions
Type of MGA: HORIZON Lump Sum Grant [HORIZON-AG-LS]
Status: Forthcoming
Deadline model: single-stage
Planned Opening Date: 01 April 2025
Deadline dates: 16 September 2025 17:00 (Brussels time)
Topic description
Expected Outcome:
Fundamental research is typically curiosity-driven and explores new and innovative research areas for air traffic management (ATM), which are at TRL0. The objective is to bring new knowledge encouraging scientists to develop innovative ideas, concepts, emerging technologies, methods, and theories that explore the current boundary of knowledge on ATM/U-space and that have potential for the evolution of the future air traffic management / U-space system. Exploration of the potential benefits of the application of interdisciplinary methods is considered positive and in scope.
Scope:
The scope under this topic covers any ATM/U-space research area not covered by the development priorities for fundamental research (FR-1, FR-2 or FR-3) described in previous topics.
The proposals shall demonstrate their innovation / breakthrough potential, justify how the scope of the proposed research is aligned to the ATM Master Plan vision and how the expected outcomes will contribute to one or more of the five key transformation levers described in the ATM Master Plan.
The five transformation levers are described in the ATM Master Plan as follows:
- Trajectory optimisation: the proposed research shall contribute to guarantee a systematic, continuous, and precise optimisation of all aircraft trajectories throughout their lifecycle, from planning to execution, from gate to gate and within the context of congested airspace.
- Data volumes: the proposed research shall contribute to collect and process large volumes of data (e.g., aircraft performance characteristics, user preferences, real time traffic information and meteorological information throughout the network, etc.). Increased real-time sharing of secure and trusted data will enable airborne and ground systems and actors to stay interconnected and share the same situational awareness.
- Automation: the proposed research shall contribute to realise an effective teaming up of human operators and systems (i.e., human-machine teaming), which will be necessary to make best use of a large volume of data to optimise trajectories. To that end, higher levels of automation will be introduced in ATM. This requires advanced artificial intelligence (AI)-powered digital support tools, to deal safely with complex decision-making while optimising capacity and environmental performance.
- Dynamic airspace: the proposed research shall contribute to enable a near real-time configuration of the airspace with human operators and systems teaming up to meet needs of all airspace users (civil and military) and to manage capacity more efficiently. For certain phases of flight, the system will be fully automated and able to handle both nominal and non-nominal situations.
- Role and function of human operators: the proposed research shall contribute to the gradual evolution of the role and skills of the human operator (e.g., air traffic controllers, air traffic safety electronic personnel, flight crew and operators, etc.), as well as the emergence of new roles.
When relevant and regarding civil military collaboration, the proposed research shall contribute to enhance military access to the airspace and to the ability to protect confidentiality and critical information of military air missions. In addition, it could address the coordination with civilian aviation authorities enabling effective contribution to operations in multinational coalitions and the adaptation of Military systems and CNS capabilities to ensure civil military interoperability. The military implications of U-Space and higher altitude operations (HAO) could also be included.
General conditions
1. Admissibility Conditions
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.
This call is subject to restrictions for the protection of European communication networks.
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.
The award criteria are described in subsection 1.4 of the BAWP 2024-2025.
5b. Evaluation and award: Submission and evaluation processes
are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual.
The evaluation committee may be composed partially of representatives of EU institutions and agencies (internal experts).
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
described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes.
The following exceptions apply.
1) 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).
2) Beneficiaries will be subject to the following additional dissemination obligations:
- beneficiaries must make proactive efforts to share, on a royalty-free basis, in a timely manner and as appropriate, all relevant results with the other grants awarded under the same call;
- beneficiaries must acknowledge these obligations and incorporate them into the proposal, outlining the efforts they will make to meet them, and into Annex I to the grant agreement.
3) Beneficiaries will be subject to the following additional exploitation obligations:
For the purpose of complying with the objectives set in Council Regulation (EU) 2021/2085, the SRIA and the European ATM Master Plan,
- beneficiaries must make available for reuse under fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory conditions all relevant results generated, through a well-defined mechanism using a trusted repository;
- if the purpose of the specific identified measures to exploit the results of the action is related to standardisation, beneficiaries must grant a non-exclusive licence to the results royalty-free;
- if working on linked actions, beneficiaries must ensure mutual access to the background to and to the results of ongoing and closed linked actions,should this be necessary to implement tasks under the linked actions or to exploit results generated by the linked actions as defined in the conditions laid down in the biannual work programme and in the call for proposals.
Beneficiaries must acknowledge these obligations and incorporate them into the proposal, outlining the efforts they will make to meet them, and into Annex I to the grant agreement.
The maximum project duration is 30 months, including a 6-month period at the end of the project life cycle to undertake communications, dissemination and exploitation activities in relation to the research results.
Start submission
The submission system is planned to be opened on the date stated on the topic header.
Get support
SESAR 3 JU Call Helpdesk info-call@sesarju.eu
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.
Similar grants
By Locations
Funding agency:
EC
Status:
awarded
Location:
EU 27
Funding agency:
EC
Status:
awarded
Location:
EU 27
By Sectors
Funding agency:
Horizon 2020
Status:
awarded
Location:
EU 27, Switzerland
Funding agency:
Horizon 2020
Status:
awarded
Location:
EU 27, Switzerland
grant Background
About the Funding Agency
Horizon Europe will incorporate research and innovation missions to increase the effectiveness of funding by pursuing clearly defined targets.
The Commission has engaged policy experts to develop studies, case studies and reports on how a mission-oriented policy approach will work.
Mission areas
5 mission areas have been identified, each with a dedicated mission board and assembly. The board and assembly help specify, design and implement the specific missions which will launch under Horizon Europe in 2021.
- Adaptation to climate change including societal transformation
- Cancer
- Climate-neutral and smart cities
- Healthy oceans, seas, coastal and inland waters
- Soil health and food
About the Sectors
Research & Innovation
Focuses on collecting data, generating new knowledge, and applying it to develop improved methods, technologies, products, and solutions across sectors.
Key areas:
- Scientific research, studies, and investigations
- Innovation programs and applied R&D initiatives
- Technology development
- Space-related research and exploration themes
Transport
Involves initiatives related to the movement of people, goods, and resources through land, water, and air transport systems.
Key areas:
- Land transport infrastructure and services
- Railways, metro, and tramway construction
- Air transport operations and air traffic systems
- Water transport and navigable waterways
Frequently Asked Questions
Haven't found what you're looking for? Get in touch with us using our contact page.
Where can I find international grant opportunities?
DevelopmentAid collects grant opportunities from bilateral donors, multilateral agencies, foundations, and international organizations in one centralized platform.
Who can apply for grants listed on DevelopmentAid?
Grants are typically open to NGOs, civil society organizations, research institutions, public entities, and sometimes private organizations or consortia.
Does DevelopmentAid help with grant applications?
DevelopmentAid does not write or submit applications, but it provides access to full call details, guidelines, deadlines, and donor information needed to apply.