Funder: EuroHPC Joint Undertaking
Due Dates: June 2, 2026 (Opening) | January 28, 2027 (Application deadline)
Funding Amounts: Expected EU contribution €2–3 million per project for 48 months; €6 million topic budget; up to 50% of eligible costs
Summary: Supports development, validation and demonstration of quantum-enhanced AI with measurable advantages over classical approaches.
Key Information: Developed software must use EUPL or compatible OSI-approved licences, with an IP strategy enabling first exploitation in EU and Participating States.
Description
EuroHPC Joint Undertaking funds this Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Action to advance quantum-enhanced AI for data-heavy and computationally intensive tasks. Projects should develop scalable quantum, quantum-inspired or hybrid algorithms integrated into existing AI workflows, demonstrating measurable improvements in speed, accuracy, data efficiency, computational complexity or scalability. Rigorous benchmarking, complexity analysis and noise-aware methods for near-term quantum processors are central priorities.
Proposals should address multiple research directions: supervised learning, quantum convolutional neural networks, quantum-native models, reinforcement learning, unsupervised learning and AI-assisted algorithmic discovery. Demonstrators may address climate modelling, Earth observation, healthcare, materials discovery, finance, robotics, manufacturing or cybersecurity. Collaboration across academia, research infrastructures, industry, SMEs and the European quantum ecosystem is strongly encouraged to support industrial uptake and European technological sovereignty.
