Research & Innovation for the Clean Industrial Deal

Presentation materials: Philipp Hawkins & Alessandra Colli (European Commission)

Horizon Europe Work Programme 2026–27 – Horizontal Activities (Clean Industrial Deal & AI in Science) (PDF, European Commission)

The EU aims for climate neutrality by 2050, with 55 % less emissions by 2030 and 90 % by 2040. To achieve this, Europe must accelerate clean energy deployment, decarbonise energy-intensive industries (steel, cement, chemicals), modernise infrastructure and strengthen circular economy solutions.

This is the focus of the Clean Industrial Deal – linking decarbonisation with competitiveness and creating incentives for clean tech and heavy industries to drive Europe’s industrial transformation.

A new Horizon Europe call in the 2026–2027 Work Programme will provide around 600 million euros for large-scale, market-ready demonstration projects. It follows a bottom-up, industry-driven approach and covers two open topics:

• Clean Tech for Climate

• Decarbonisation of Energy-Intensive Industries

50 million euros of the overall budget are reserved for the Research Fund for Coal and Steel.

This horizontal call is part of Horizon Europe Pillar II (“Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness”) and links to activities in Cluster 4 and Cluster 5, including the Clean Hydrogen Joint Undertaking.

Expected impacts: faster uptake of clean technologies in sectors such as manufacturing, energy-intensive industries, energy and transport; strengthened EU competitiveness, resilience, strategic autonomy and increased public and private investment.

In cooperation with the Federation of Austrian Industries (IV).