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Europe: funding calls and deadlines closing soon (week of 26 October 2026)

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By TrustList Editorial

Calls for software, AI, cybersecurity, chips, telecoms and car-industry firms from EU programmes and funders in France, Italy, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, Czechia, Portugal, Spain and Germany, closing from 28 October 2026 to April 2027.

About Europe: funding calls and deadlines closing soon (week of 26 October 2026)

Europe: funding calls and deadlines closing soon (week of 26 October 2026)

25 October 2026: More than twenty calls for European software, AI, cybersecurity, chip, telecoms and car-industry companies are open, from EU programmes and from funders in nine countries, with deadlines from 28 October 2026 to April 2027. The largest new one is the EIC's STEP Scale Up, which invests EUR 10 to 30 million per company and closes on 25 November. Each was read on its own page or in the EU portal's data today; amounts and deadlines are given as the funder states them.

Not yet independently verified. EU amounts and deadlines for Digital Europe and Chips JU topics come from the Funding and Tenders portal's own data, which gives deadlines without a time zone; co-funding rates and consortium rules sit in each call document, which we did not read. Several national call pages are undated. We will update this when it can be confirmed, and remove this note.

EU programmes

EIC STEP Scale Up offers investments of EUR 10 to 30 million to start-ups, SMEs and small mid-caps in strategic technologies, from a 2026 budget of EUR 300 million. A company needs a qualified investor committed to at least 20% of a round of EUR 50 to 150 million. It closes on 25 November 2026 at 17:00 CET. The EIC Accelerator has its last 2026 cut-off on 4 November.

Digital Europe, cybersecurity deployment (DIGITAL-ECCC-2027-DEPLOY-CYBER-11) opened on 1 September and closes on 14 January 2027. Among its topics, cybersecure AI for SMEs (AI4SME) expects five grants of EUR 3 to 5 million from EUR 20 million, and another topic on AI for cybersecurity four grants from EUR 15 million.

Chips Joint Undertaking topics close in December: AI chip demonstrators, with ten grants of EUR 500,000 to EUR 1 million, on 1 December, and EU-Japan semiconductor projects, two grants of EUR 3 to 5 million, on 8 December.

NLnet's Restack call, funded under Horizon Europe, takes proposals of EUR 5,000 to 50,000 for open-source software and hardware building blocks until 3 November 2026 at 12:00 CET.

EIT calls: EIT Urban Mobility's SME Market Expansion Open Call 2027 pays a fixed EUR 60,000 to each of about ten SMEs that have an end client lined up, closing on 1 December 2026 at 17:00 CET; EIT Health's Innovation Validation Call 2027 covers up to 50% of a company-led, two-country consortium's budget, up to EUR 850,000, for digital or AI medical devices, closing on 13 January 2027.

Eureka: Xecs's quantum call ends on 26 November 2026 at 5:00 PM CET and its electronic components Call 6 on 21 January 2027; Innowwide's fifth call, for feasibility studies in markets outside Europe, closes on 1 December 2026; SMART Call 10 outlines are due on 26 January 2027 at 11:00 CET. The 12th Eurostars-3 call opens on 17 December 2026 and closes on 4 March 2027.

France and Italy

Bpifrance has moved the Invest auto 2 deadline: the call for investment in producing tomorrow's road vehicles in France now runs to 28 October 2026 at noon Paris time, after its specification was amended on 21 October. Its Espace de données call, for data spaces led by a sector body or a company consortium including an SME or mid-cap, with an expense base of at least EUR 2 million and aid of up to 50%, closes on 2 December 2026 at noon. CORAM 2025-2026, for automotive R&D including connected and automated vehicles, closes on 15 December 2026, and Standardisation des réseaux du futur, for French telecoms firms working on 6G and 3GPP standards, on 15 January 2027.

Italy's Voucher cloud e cybersecurity (the Ministry of Enterprises with Invitalia, EUR 150 million) pays SMEs and professionals a non-repayable grant of up to 50% of cloud and cybersecurity costs, capped at EUR 20,000. Applications open at 12:00 on 10 November 2026 and close at 12:00 on 20 January 2027, judged in order of arrival, so early filing matters.

Nordics and the Netherlands

Sweden's Vinnova has two industrial digitalisation calls closing on 19 January 2027 at 2PM: 5G and automation, with SEK 3 to 15 million per consortium, and cybersecurity, AI and resilience, with SEK 1 to 10 million, both at up to 50% of costs. Business Finland funds Finnish partners in the Driving Urban Transitions call with EUR 3 million in total until 17 November 2026. In the Netherlands, RVO's Innovatiekrediet, government financing for SMEs and large companies with risky technical or clinical development projects, of up to EUR 10 million per technical project from EUR 50 million, stays open until 31 December 2026.

Central and southern Europe

Czechia's innovation vouchers (OP TAK, call IV) pay SMEs CZK 100,000 to 2 million, at 75%, for bought-in innovation services such as software development, testing and certification; the allocation rose to CZK 350 million on 24 September and applications run to 30 April 2027. Its international cooperation call for industrial R&D with a foreign partner, CZK 500 million, closes on 30 November 2026.

Portugal's COMPETE 2030 STEP call for digital and biotechnology R&D has EUR 76 million for companies of all sizes with higher-maturity projects, open until 4 January 2027 at 17:00. Spain's ENISA lends EUR 25,000 to 1.5 million to start-ups and SMEs as participatory loans without guarantees, with no closing date. Germany's SPRIND takes applications for its quantum sensing challenge, Measuring with entanglement, until 9 November 2026 at 12:00 CET, with up to EUR 545,000 in the first stage.

Last week's edition, for the week of 19 October, covers the SPRIND chip design, ITEA, France-Taiwan and EIT calls that are still open. Our UK edition covers Innovate UK and other UK schemes.

Sources

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