Call for Expressions of Interest - Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI) on Artificial Intelligence
Enterprise Estonia invites project proposals under this Call for Expression of Interest for IPCEI in Artificial Intelligence Services (AI). This call is intended to identify businesses active in this field that may wish to put forward projects that could fit within the scope of this upcoming IPCEI and accordingly be considered for possible State co-funding.
Call for Expressions of Interest has ended.
IPCEI Application Template (direct participants)
GBER Application Template (associated partners)
Preliminary Funding Gap Template (direct participants only)
Slides from the information day held on 09.02 (in Estonian)
What are IPCEIs?
IPCEI are large-scale, EU multi-country projects and are an increasingly important industrial policy tool for delivering breakthrough innovation and infrastructure when the market alone does not deliver. IPCEI are a unique instrument for large-scale industrial collaborations across the European Union, contributing to sustainable growth and increasing EU competitiveness.
Where a funding gap is evidenced, a State funding contribution may be granted for certain projects that make an important contribution to the growth, competitiveness and productivity of the European industrial sector and to the strategic objectives of the EU.
IPCEI also make an effective contribution to national and European climate and digital goals by building European value chains in key sectors. Member States support domestic companies who undertake projects at national level, with significant collaborations across Member States, which feed into the achievement of the overall IPCEI objectives.
What is IPCEI AI?
The European Union as a unique digital single market is challenged by rapid digital developments. The European Union faces double challenges:
- first, it needs to increase the adoption of key digital technologies in its economy to improve its competitiveness
- second, and to do so in a way that strengthens its technological sovereignty and the resilience of its infrastructure and societies
Detailed information on IPCEI AI can be found in the value chain document
The engine of the next industrial revolution will be artificial intelligence, which is a major paradigm shift and the technological foundation for the development and use of digital solutions today and tomorrow. Europe’s industry needs access to the latest software, AI models, high-quality data sets as well as high-end computing resources. European industries need equal access to sufficient computing and data resources for AI to reduce their dependence on non-European solutions and providers. The European industries must have the choice to increase resilience as well as security. This shall be achieved by combining new and existing European technologies through increased interoperability.
Therefore, a group of Member States has agreed to undertake 2 comprehensive and integrated Important Projects of Common European Interest, one focusing on AI (services) and the other on infrastructure deployment (hardware).
The goal of the IPCEI AI is the development of a next-generation AI ecosystem for the European Union providing latest AI training and development technologies. This requires secure access to high-quality data sets and ensuring the availability of state-of-the-art AI technologies, thereby significantly increasing the adoption rate of AI solutions in European industries by offering easy-to-use AI applications with low ramp-up effort.
Project areas
The project should focus on:
Development of a first ever next generation AI continuum for the EU that includes:
- Research and development of open and competitive AI foundation models: New foundational frontier models, next-generation AI model training technologies and methods, incl. innovative post-training techniques, such as fine-tuning for specific sector offerings
- Enablement of sovereign European cloud services and essential components for AI training and deployment (including resource management and computation distribution)
- Development of new energy efficiency technologies to train and run AI models
Secure and safe access to high-quality data sets for AI:
- Development of technologies for the availability and access to high-quality and structured data sets for AI under European data privacy and security regulations
- Integration of new solutions for data storage and management, database administration, data processing, and analytics
Development of advanced AI-as-a-Service (AIaaS) approaches tailored to the needs of AI developers and users, especially SMEs. This will enable the broad adoption of AI models to address specific use cases across various industrial sectors. This includes:
- Development of advanced tools and frameworks to facilitate the development process and the deployment of AI models
- Creation of a framework enabling access to AI models and end-to-end capabilities through APIs
- Development and deployment of next generation inference and AI training services
Development of a common open-source framework to ensure security and high interoperability of European solutions. Substantial building block is an active developer community to create and maintain the code for an open-source toolbox to allow for easy creation of highly customisable AI solutions for industries.
Systematic integration of next generation AI models into applications and interconnection services (for example, telco network services), addressing common use cases within specific industrial sectors and public administrations.
The role of direct participants and associated partners
Direct participants are companies that are funded by Member States to conduct research, development, and first industrial application projects, contributing to a larger, integrated European value chain. Their primary role is to carry out their own projects in close collaboration with other DPs through cross-border partnerships, creating synergies and driving innovation. They must also share their results and knowledge widely with the wider European scientific and industrial community.
Direct participant projects are typically funded under the IPCEI instrument and receive a minimum State aid contribution of €50 million and must be notified to, and approved by, the EU Commission. They undergo detailed annual reporting nationally and to the EU Commission.
In case You are considering participation as a direct participant please be aware that if You are chosen You should be able to prepare the Project Portfolio and Funding Gap Document
The goal of the category of associated partners is to give interested companies or Research Organisations (ROs) – that are not IPCEI direct participants – the chance to participate in the IPCEI and to strengthen the IPCEI ecosystem in Europe. Associated partners’ projects, depending on the nature of the IPCEI, can be all different kinds of organisations (undertakings of any size or ROs) and projects (not limited to research projects as it has been the case in previous research-related IPCEIs) located within an EU Member State, EEA state, or EU candidate country.
Associated partner projects are typically funded via GBER, receiving a State aid contribution of less than €50 million. Unlike IPCEI direct participants, associated partners are not subject to the (pre)-notification process to the Commission under the IPCEI Communication.
However, based on past IPCEIs, their contribution to an IPCEI can play an important complementary role (for example, in contributing to fulfilling and adding to the objectives of an IPCEI, enlarging the IPCEI direct participants spillover commitments, and so on).
More information about the roles of participant categories
Assessment criteria
Proposals will be assessed against the following criteria:
- alignment with the objectives of the IPCEI and wider EU objectives
- level of innovation
- potential for collaboration
- impact
- spillover effects
Projects can be supported as an “Important Project of Common European Interest” according to Art. 107(3)(b) of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union. Specific criteria for the assessment of compatibility of State aid to promote the execution of IPCEI projects are further elaborated in European Commission’s Communication on the criteria for the analysis of the compatibility with the internal market of State aid to promote the execution of IPCEI. This Communication gives guidance on the assessment of public financing for IPCEIs under Union State aid rules. Please read this document carefully for full details of the criteria used for the analysis of the compatibility with the internal market of State aid to promote the execution of important projects of common European interest.
Submitting a proposal
Companies and organisations, in particular SMEs (as defined by the European Commission[3]), from the fields of AI with research and production in Estonia that are willing to participate in an integrated European project can submit their project proposals, completing the appropriate application template, by 4pm on, 4rd of March.
Please note that there are separate application templates for seeking funding as direct participants under the IPCEI instrument and those seeking funding as associated partners under the GBER.
The IPCEI instrument is the mechanism for funding direct participant projects (typically seeking funding in excess of €50 million) and GBER is the mechanism for funding associated partners with projects seeking less than €50 million).
Further information on the role and responsibilities of direct participants and associated partners can be viewed using the links above.
Please download the appropriate template for your project application:
IPCEI Application Template (direct participants)
GBER Application Template (associated partners)
Preliminary Funding Gap Template (direct participants only)
Please note that only direct participant applications require a completed Funding Gap Template. Direct participant proposals, if selected, will need to be further developed into full format project proposals for notification to the EU Commission.
Associated partner proposals, if selected, will not be subject to notification to the EU Commission.
Completed applications should be sent, using the proposal template, to [email protected] with the title of the relevant IPCEI as the subject line.
All parties involved in this call for expressions of interest for participation in these IPCEIs make a commitment to ensure the confidentiality of any and all documents and information sent as a result of an application related to this call, regardless of result of pre-selection process.
Please note that this is a competitive funding call. The submission of a project concept within the framework of the call for expressions of interest neither establishes a claim to public funding in the intended IPCEI or any other form of public funding.
What happens if your project is selected
Following the assessment of submitted projects, should your project be selected to progress to the next stage, it is anticipated that you shall be notified in April 2026.
At this point, you will also be required to develop your outline project proposal into a full format project proposal. Guidance on this process will be provided at that stage, but next steps will include international matchmaking with other EU Member States to identify collaborations (in March ) and to begin work on the detailed integrated IPCEI project description (known as the chapeau document).
It is hoped that projects will be notified to the EU Commission in the second half of 2026 and projects will commence by the end of 2026/early 2027, subject to approval of final project proposals by the EU Commission.
Submitting an expression of interest
Proposals will be assessed against the following criteria:
- alignment with the objectives of the IPCEI and wider EU objectives
- level of innovation
- potential for collaboration
- impact
- spillover effects
Projects can be supported as an “Important Project of Common European Interest” according to Art. 107(3)(b) of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union. Specific criteria for the assessment of compatibility of State aid to promote the execution of IPCEI projects are further elaborated in European Commission’s Communication on the criteria for the analysis of the compatibility with the internal market of State aid to promote the execution of IPCEI. This Communication gives guidance on the assessment of public financing for IPCEIs under Union State aid rules. Please read this document carefully for full details of the criteria used for the analysis of the compatibility with the internal market of State aid to promote the execution of important projects of common European interest.
Companies and organisations, in particular SMEs (as defined by the European Commission[3]), from the fields of AI with research and production in Estonia that are willing to participate in an integrated European project can submit their project proposals, completing the appropriate application template, by 4pm on, 4rd of March.
Please note that there are separate application templates for seeking funding as direct participants under the IPCEI instrument and those seeking funding as associated partners under the GBER.
The IPCEI instrument is the mechanism for funding direct participant projects (typically seeking funding in excess of €50 million) and GBER is the mechanism for funding associated partners with projects seeking less than €50 million).
Further information on the role and responsibilities of direct participants and associated partners can be viewed using the links above.
Please download the appropriate template for your project application:
IPCEI Application Template (direct participants)
GBER Application Template (associated partners)
Preliminary Funding Gap Template (direct participants only)
Please note that only direct participant applications require a completed Funding Gap Template. Direct participant proposals, if selected, will need to be further developed into full format project proposals for notification to the EU Commission.
Associated partner proposals, if selected, will not be subject to notification to the EU Commission.
Completed applications should be sent, using the proposal template, to [email protected] with the title of the relevant IPCEI as the subject line.
All parties involved in this call for expressions of interest for participation in these IPCEIs make a commitment to ensure the confidentiality of any and all documents and information sent as a result of an application related to this call, regardless of result of pre-selection process.
Please note that this is a competitive funding call. The submission of a project concept within the framework of the call for expressions of interest neither establishes a claim to public funding in the intended IPCEI or any other form of public funding.
Following the assessment of submitted projects, should your project be selected to progress to the next stage, it is anticipated that you shall be notified in April 2026.
At this point, you will also be required to develop your outline project proposal into a full format project proposal. Guidance on this process will be provided at that stage, but next steps will include international matchmaking with other EU Member States to identify collaborations (in March ) and to begin work on the detailed integrated IPCEI project description (known as the chapeau document).
It is hoped that projects will be notified to the EU Commission in the second half of 2026 and projects will commence by the end of 2026/early 2027, subject to approval of final project proposals by the EU Commission.
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