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Innovative Deployable Antennas
Details
Location:EU 27
Funding agency:
Grantmaking entity: DG DEFIS - European Commission Directorate-General for Defence Industry and Space
Grantmaking entity type:Development Institution
Description
Topic updates
16 July 2025
Evaluation results will be communicated around end of September 2025.
27 May 2025
Call Innovative Deployable Antennas (PPPA-2025-DEPLAN) has closed on 27/05/2025.
5 proposals have been submitted.
Evaluation results are expected to be communicated in the second half of July 2025.
25 April 2025
It is noted that there was a typo in the Call Document: there is no requirement/template to provide the list of previous projects. Any relevant information is to be provided in the Proposal Template Part B.
25 April 2025
Please note that the mailbox for help related to this call has changed, please contact: DEFIS-C2-SPACE-RESEARCH@ec.europa.eu
06 February 2025
The submission session is now available for: PPPA-2025-DEPLAN
It is noted that the HORIZON-CL4-2025 Work Programme has not been adopted yet.
The reference to the forthcoming HORIZON-CL4-2025 Work Programme call topics is conditional to the final published Work Programme.
Innovative Deployable Antennas
TOPIC ID: PPPA-2025-DEPLAN
Type of grant: Call for proposals
General information
Programme: Pilot Projects & Preparation Actions (PPPA)
Call: Innovative Deployable Antennas (PPPA-2025-DEPLAN)
Type of action: PPPA-LS PPPA Lump Sum Grants
Type of MGA: PPPA Lump Sum Grant [PPPA-AG-LS]
Status: Forthcoming
Deadline model: single-stage
Planned Opening Date: 04 February 2025
Deadline dates: 27 May 2025 17:00 (Brussels time)
Topic description
Expected Outcome:
Deployable antennas are a key element of satellites enabling them to receive and transmit data. They are relevant for all types of space applications such as navigation, Earth observation, science and defence.
The need for the space sector to rely on space qualified technology with high level of quality, reliability, robustness, suitability to space harsh environment demonstrated by in-orbit demonstration and validation presents a challenge for the availability of antennas, especially large deployable antennas with a diameter at or above 5 meters. Additionally, the launch and deployment of large structures in space presents further technological and cost challenges.
It is important to explore novel approaches that can reduce development, manufacturing, launch and deployment costs for such large antennas, as well as approaches that can allow in-orbit manufacturing, disassembly, re-use and recycling of parts from defunct satellites, overall contributing to a higher sustainability of space infrastructure. Emerging technologies and concepts linked to the deployment and assembly/disassembly of such structures in orbit, as well as the re-use of parts are key for the future.
The expected outcomes of this pilot project are the following:
- Contribute to higher sustainability of space infrastructure by reinforcing the feasibility and potential of novel techniques linked to the in-orbit recycling of space assets
- The identification of novel techniques for ground manufacturing of deployable antennas and the re-use parts/materials from end-of-life assets and antennas for further manufacturing/assembly in-orbit
- Contribute to the elaboration of possible future use-cases for planned initiatives such as the In-Space Operations and Services (ISOS) Pilot Mission under the “Acting in Space” activities in Horizon Europe[1]
- Reduce the dependencies from non-EU countries for the critical space technologies relevant to reflectors and deployable antennas, accelerate time to market and increase EU sovereignty.
The pilot project is expected to contribute to the above-mentioned challenges and considerations. This will contribute to developing, deploying global space-based services applications and data and contribute to fostering the EU's space sector competitiveness.
Scope:
To tackle the above expected outcomes, all the following R&I actions should be addressed in the proposals:
- The development of novel ground manufacturing technologies for deployable antennas of larger diameters, at or above 5 meters, such as compatible low-cost and short manufacturing-time reflector moulds and novel materials and surfaces to ensure equivalent current performance or improved levels in terms of losses, depolarization, bandwidth, efficiency of reflector antennas
- The identification and testing of methods to retrieve the useful materials or components from end-of-life antennas for reuse in the assembly or manufacturing of new hardware on orbit;
- The definition of a holistic design concept for innovative deployable antennas that considers the integration of new manufacturing techniques and concepts that will allow in-orbit deployment, as well as disassembly, re-use and recycling of parts. This concept should be implemented in simulation and demonstrated in a small-scale laboratory environment (TRL4).
Technologies under development in the above R&I should target the demonstration of TRL4.
Proposals are expected to promote cooperation between different actors (industry, SMEs and research institutions) and consider opportunities to quickly turn technological innovation into commercial use in space.
Proposals should explore relevant and promising solutions developed in Horizon Europe, Horizon 2020, European Innovations Council (EIC) or other EU-funded relevant activities, in particular, the topics: Technologies for European non-dependence and competitiveness (COMPET‐1‐2017), SRC – Space robotics technologies (H2020-SPACE-12-TEC-2018, SPACE-27-TEC-2020), Future Space Ecosystem (HORIZON-CL4-2021-SPACE-01-12/ 2022-SPACE-01-11/ 2023-SPACE-01-12), EIC Pathfinder Challenges 2024 and in relevant projects funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) and/or national programmes.
The project awarded from this call should explore synergies and complementarities with the projects awarded from the HORIZON-CL4-2025-02-SPACE-21/22/23/24 and ISOS Pilot Mission Coordination and Support Action call topics.
In this topic the integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content is not a mandatory requirement.
[1] In Space Operations and Services – a strategic ability for the future - European Commission
Conditions
1. Admissibility Conditions: Proposal page limit and layout
The page limit of the application is 70 pages.
described in section 5 of the call document.
Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System and section 5 of thecall document
2. Eligible Countries
described in section 6 of the call document.
3. Other Eligible Conditions
In order to achieve the expected outcomes, and safeguard the Union’s strategic assets, interests, autonomy, or security, and in accordance with Article 197(3) of the Financial Regulation, this action is implemented with regard to the following eligibility and participation conditions:
(a) The eligible legal entity is established in an EU Member State, Norway and Iceland and its executive management structures are established in that Member State and/or country;
(b) The eligible legal entity commits to carry out all relevant activities in one or more EU Member States, Norway and/or Iceland;
(c) The eligible legal entity is not to be subject to control by a third country or by a third country entity.
For the purpose of these conditions, ‘control’ means the ability to exercise a decisive influence overa legal entity directly, or indirectly through one or more intermediate legal entities.
Eligibility conditions with regards to the consortium composition follow the Horizon Europe RIA rules.
The reference to third country above shall be understood as any country other than EU Member State, Norway or Iceland.
Declaration of ownership and control: a compulsory questionnaire on the declaration of ownership and control is to be filled by all project participants as part of the application. All declarations must be assembled by the coordinator and uploaded in a single file in the portal submission system. For successfully evaluated proposals that enter into Grant Agreement Preparation, an assessment of the ownership and control shall take place by the granting authority. Failure to demonstrate condition (c) above shall result in non-eligibility of the participant.
described in section 6 of the call document.
4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion
described in section 7 of the call document.
5a. Evaluation and award: Submission and evaluation processes
described section 8 of the call document and the Online Manual.
5b. Evaluation and award: Award criteria, scoring and thresholds
described in section 8 of the call document.
5c. Evaluation and award: Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement
described in section 2 of the call document.
6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants
described in section 9 of the call document.
Call document and annexes:
Call document
Application form templates
The application form specific to this call is available in the Submission System.
Ownership and Control Assessment
Participants must undergo an ownership control assessment and must fill in the Ownership Control Declaration template (used in Horizon Europe), which is obligatory in the application form.
This declaration must be signed by a person empowered to represent the legal entity. The coordinator must combine all declarations into one single document and submit it with the proposal (signed originals should be kept on file by the participants).
Proposals missing this annex for any of their participants may be declared inadmissible. Public bodies are exempted from this obligation but they will automatically be considered as controlled by their country. Formal validation in the Participant Register is required; ‘declared’ status is not sufficient.
If your proposal passes evaluation, the Commission Services will then contact you during grant preparation to upload the necessary supporting documents.
The documents required will be listed in the notification you receive. In general, you will need to provide documents showing your ownership/control situation (documents showing all direct and indirect shareholders, statutes, articles of association, shareholders’ agreements, reports/minutes of shareholders meetings, ID documents of ultimate owners, etc).
- Ownership Control Declaration template used in Horizon Europe.
- The definition of Control and possible application of Guarantees is the one described in the Guidance applicable for Horizon Europe (Participation in Digital Europe Programme (DEP), Horizon Europe (HE) and European Defence Fund (EDF) restricted calls, Sections 3 and 4).
Reference
Start submission
The submission system is planned to be opened on the date stated on the topic header.
Get support
Please read carefully all provisions below before the preparation of your application.
Please read carefully all provisions below before the preparation of your application.
For help related to this call, please contact: DEFIS-B2-SPACE-RESEARCH@ec.europa.eu
Funding & Tenders Portal FAQ – Submission of proposals.
IT Helpdesk– Contact the IT helpdesk for questions such as forgotten passwords, access rights and roles, technical aspects of submission of proposals, etc.
Online Manual– Step-by-step online guide through the Portal processes from proposal preparation and submission to reporting on your on-going project. Valid for all 2021-2027 programmes.
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Location:
EU 27
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Funding agency:
Gates Foundation, WHO
Status:
awarded
Location:
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grant Background
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