EU Frontier AI Initiative: Developing frontier AI solutions that are safe and computationally efficient within Apply AI (RIA)

Overview

Funding for consortia developing sovereign, computationally efficient frontier AI models with built-in safety mechanisms, targeting researchers, AI developers, and industry partners in eligible EU and associated countries.

Who Can Apply

Consortia of legal entities established in EU Member States, Iceland, Norway, and associated countries (Canada, Israel, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Switzerland, United Kingdom). Entities controlled by non-eligible countries may participate only if they provide guarantees approved by their eligible country of establishment to protect EU strategic interests.

Funding Details

• Maximum grant amount: 44,000,000 EUR
• Funding rate: Not specified
• Total budget: Not specified

What Is Funded

• Development and training of frontier AI models with state-of-the-art performance, multimodal capabilities, and agentic AI features (e.g., tool use, reasoning, autonomous problem-solving).
• Research on reducing computational demands of frontier AI models, including compression, distillation, and innovative architectures.
• Safety research addressing misalignment, adversarial robustness, transparency, interpretability, and risks in agentic AI frameworks.
• Collaboration with the Resource for AI Science in Europe (RAISE) and integration with AI Factories, Data Labs, and the AI-on-demand platform.

Technology / Maturity Requirements

• Technology Readiness Level (TRL): 4 to 6

Key Dates

• Open date: 2026-11-16
• Deadline: 2027-03-17

Application Process (High-Level)

• Single-stage submission via the Funding & Tenders Portal.
• Evaluation based on award criteria outlined in Annex D of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes.

Post-Award Obligations

• Incorporation of qualitative and quantitative KPIs, benchmarking, and progress monitoring.
• Sharing of communicable results with the European R&D community via the AI-on-demand platform.
• Allocation of tasks for cohesion activities with the European Partnership on AI, data, and robotics (ADRA) and the GenAI4EU central Hub.

Geographic Scope & Language

• Eligible countries: EU Member States, Iceland, Norway, and associated countries (Canada, Israel, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Switzerland, United Kingdom).
• Application language: English.

Notes

• Proposals must demonstrate mechanisms for assessing progress and reusing public results from previous funded actions.
• Participation of entities controlled by non-eligible countries is subject to strict guarantees to prevent negative impacts on EU strategic interests.
• Entities identified as high-risk suppliers of mobile network communication equipment are ineligible unless they provide approved guarantees.