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 eligibility conditions: described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes

If projects use satellite-based earth observation, positioning, navigation and/or related timing data and services, beneficiaries must make use of Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS (other data and services may additionally be used).

4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion: described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes

5. Evaluation and award:

• Award criteria, scoring and thresholds are described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes

• Submission and evaluation processes are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual

• 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

Specific conditions

7. Specific conditions: described in the [specific topic of the Work Programme]

Documents

Call documents:

Standard application form — call-specific application form is available in the Submission System

Standard application form (HE RIA, IA)

Standard evaluation form — will be used with the necessary adaptations

Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA)

MGA

HE General MGA v1.0

Additional documents:

HE Main Work Programme 2023–2024 – 1. General Introduction

HE Main Work Programme 2023–2024 – 8. Climate, Energy and Mobility

HE Main Work Programme 2023–2024 – 13. General Annexes

HE Programme Guide

HE Framework Programme and Rules for Participation Regulation 2021/695

HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764

EU Financial Regulation

Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment

EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement

Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual

Funding & Tenders Portal Terms and Conditions

Funding & Tenders Portal Privacy Statement

Project results are expected to contribute to at least 3 of the following expected outcomes:

• Availability of disruptive and sustainable solar fuel technologies in order to accelerate the replacement of fossil-based energy technologies with more efficient use of primary solar energy in solar fuel production.
• Reduced cost and improved efficiency of solar-based renewable fuel technologies and their value chains by addressing rate-limiting steps in the solar fuels value chain.
• Increase technology leadership, competitiveness and technology export potential of European industry in possibly game-changing solar fuel and synthetic biological technologies.
• Enhanced sustainability of solar fuels, taking fully into account circular economy, social, economic and environmental aspects in line with the European Green Deal priorities.
• Reinforced European scientific basis and European export potential for renewable energy technologies through international collaborations (e.g., the AU-EU Climate Change and Sustainable Energy partnership, the missions and innovation communities of Mission Innovation 2.0).
• Increasing the European energy security and reliability by improving the solar fuel conversion efficiency as well as maintaining and fostering the European global leadership in affordable, secure and sustainable solar fuel technologies.

Development of novel in-vivo or in-vitro biochemical and/or bio-inspired/biomimetic pathways for solar fuel production with increased efficiency in comparison to light and dark reactions of natural photosynthesis by synthetic biological and/or bio-inspired/biomimetic approaches. The aim is to achieve a significant improvement of components of both, light harvesting and carbon fixation, which are rate limiting for the conversion of solar energy to renewable fuels. Proposals are expected to include case studies for analysing the potential and impact of the technology for future application at scale and analyse possible interfaces with other solar fuel technologies, with a particular focus on socioeconomic and environmental sustainability including circular economy, social, economic and environmental aspects and cost-effectiveness. All relevant aspects of safety of the technology are expected to be addressed. Hydrogen as a fuel and end-product is excluded.

Projects are expected where possible to collaborate with and contribute to the activities of the Coordination and Support Action funded under the topic HORIZON-CL4-2021-RESILIENCE-01-16

Activities are expected to achieve TRL 3-4 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.