HORIZON-CL4-2027-04-DIGITAL-EMERGING-06

Challenge-Driven AI Innovation Booster in Applied AI Prioritised Sectors

Applied AI
Global Gateway
Living Labs
High-TRL

📣 Call Overview

Metadata Field Details
Programme Challenge-Driven AI Innovation Booster in Applied AI Prioritised Sectors)
Status

Forthcoming
Call ID

HORIZON-CL4-2027-04-DIGITAL-EMERGING-06
Type Action

Innovation Action (IA)
Type Grant

Lump Sum Grant
Target TRL

TRL 5 to TRL 7
Planned Opening

2026-11-17
Closing Date

2027-03-18
Geographic Target

African Countries
Note Low- and middle-income countries (Explicitly prioritizing African Countries)
Submission Model Single-stage

🎁 Expected Outcome by the EU

Important

(low- and middle-income countries)

  • 🚀 Accelerate uptake of tailored AI solutions hubs via applied research and local data optimization.
  • 📈 Ease deployment of local AI via large-scale system demonstrations in operational environments.
  • 🌱 Strengthen ecosystems to drive socio-economic impact across education, health, agriculture, and environmental sustainability.

🏗️ Scope Summary

Warning

The proposals must support digital partnerships and international digital cooperation to promote an approach to AI that enhances human well-being and societal progress through:

  • 📊 Gather local data aligning with the EU data strategy to train/optimize algorithms (e.g., AI for Public Good, GenAI for Africa).
  • 🏙️ Ease deployment of Living Labs within local innovation, as platforms for “experiential learning, inclusive participation, and sustainable technology adoption” for “community members, researchers, entrepreneurs, and policymakers” to “collaboratively tailor, enhance, test, and iterate AI-driven solutions”.
  • ⚡ Deploy bottom-up AI tailored to low-income communities using local data to enable “meaningful knowledge transfer” and empower stakeholders with “relevant and actionable technologies”.
  • 🌍 Solve global development challenges by contributing, where possible, to “climate and agriculture, biodiversity, health and humanitarian needs, education”.
  • 🎓 Build an enabling innovation environment featuring “reinforced talent pipelines” and the “technological transfer of AI algorithms and solutions”.
  • 🛠️ Validate solutions via real-life scenarios, providing full testing and “initial support to large-scale deployment” in low- and middle-income countries.
  • 🔗 Leverage existing EU initiatives to upscale deployment, specifically capitalizing on GenAI for Africa, Global Gateway, and Smart Africa.

⚠️ IP Restriction Note: Beneficiaries must formally notify DG-CNECT and HaDEA before transferring ownership or granting exclusive licenses of project results; the granting authority reserves veto rights for up to 4 years post-project.

🛣️ Strategic Alignment for Consortium Partners

This Innovation Action (IA) focuses on the practical adaptation, testing, validation, and deployment of existing European AI capabilities (starting at TRL 5) into operational, real-world environments (achieving TRL 7).

The primary geopolitical mandate aligns with the EU’s Global Gateway Strategy, fostering North-South digital cooperation through the creation of localized Living Labs.

TipOur Technical Value Proposition

We provide the underlying governance, RegTech capabilities, and architectural frameworks necessary to anchor an AI Environmental/Reputation Governance Harness.

This software platforem layer (likely RegTech and FinTech) bridges robust European technology with localized infrastructure to prevent “compliance tracking vulnerabilities” and “data fragmentation”.

Core Areas of Collaboration

We are utilizing our research frameworks to establish structural bridges with partners targeting the following call mandates:

  1. 🔏 Local Data Optimization: Gathering and structuring contextualized data to optimize algorithms while maintaining “data sovereignty”. For instance, we apply the International Data Spaces framework alongside the IEEE International Roadmap for Devices and Systems (IRDS) Environment, Safety, Health, and Sustainability (ESHS) roadmaps. This enables African green mining and manufacturing services to adhere to the Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) framework and the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), securely proving regulatory compliance without localized data fragmentation.

  2. 🌊 Socio-Economic Impact: Adapting software platforms to solve “pressing societal challenges” across energy community, green energy management, water infrastructure, climate-resilient mining, or Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) supply chains.

  3. 🏫 Living Lab Co-Creation: Living Lab Co-Creation: Partnering with regional innovation hubs and universities to host “experiential testing environments” and “co-creation spaces”. This alignment ensures that participation in Global Value Chains (GVC) proportionally translates into localized community resilience for critical energy, water, and food resources.

👷 Consortium Engagement

We are actively seeking to connect with:

  • 🇪🇺 EU-Based Consortium Leads: Established organizations looking to fulfill the international digital partnership mandates of the Cluster 4 work program.

  • 🌍 Regional Innovation Hubs: Academic networks, municipal authorities, or technology hubs based in African Countries (e.g., Kenya) capable of anchoring a local Living Lab infrastructure.

📬 Action Item: To review joint deployment strategies or exchange Participant Identification Code (PIC) profiles, please reach out via our Contact Page.

Official Reference: HORIZON-CL4-2027-04-DIGITAL-EMERGING-06 - EU Funding & Tenders Portal