Funding Amount

Total indicative budget

• EUR 10 million

Expected EU contribution per project

• Up to EUR 1 million, although proposals requesting different amounts may be submitted if appropriately justified.

The topic is co-funded with National Funding Authorities (NFA).

Submission Deadlines

• Call launch: 7 July 2026
• Submission deadline (Full Proposal): 23 September 2026, 17:00 Brussels time

This is a one-stage call.

Submission Conditions

• Simple Grant (SG) action.
• One-stage submission (Full Proposal only).
• Co-funded with National Funding Authorities.
• Projects have an expected duration of 8 months, consisting of:
  • 6 months for demonstrator development;
  • up to 2 months for benchmark evaluation support.
• Beneficiaries must deliver the demonstrator to the common EU evaluation platform and remain available throughout benchmarking.
• Award of the AI Compute Excellence Label is required to become eligible for the future Topic A2 (AI Compute Racks).
• Standard Digital Europe Programme admissibility, eligibility and evaluation conditions apply, together with the Chips JU evaluation procedures.
• All design data, benchmark data, logs and KPI testing must be processed and stored within the EU, with secure EU-operated remote access where required.

Eligible Types of Businesses

The call is open to organisations eligible under the Digital Europe Programme and Chips JU rules, including:

• AI chip design companies (mandatory consortium member);
• SMEs;
• Large enterprises;
• Semiconductor companies;
• Hardware and system integrators;
• Universities;
• Research institutes;
• Research and Technology Organisations (RTOs);
• Software developers;
• AI infrastructure providers;
• Other eligible legal entities.

Each consortium must include at least one EU-established AI chip design company responsible for the chip design and associated intellectual property.

Eligible Countries

Participation follows the eligibility rules of the Digital Europe Programme.

Eligible entities include organisations established in:

• EU Member States;
• EEA countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway).

Legal entities established in eligible countries but controlled by third countries may participate only if they provide the required security guarantees protecting the essential security interests of the EU and its Member States. Additional participation restrictions under Article 12(6) of the Digital Europe Programme apply.