This week the European Commission published the long-awaited Work Programme for 2025-2026 which sets out the R&I funding opportunities under Horizon Europe. Horizon Europe with is the largest R&I programme of the EU to date has as overarching goal to contribute to the green and digital transition as well as to building a united, more competitive, fairer and more resilient Europe.
CEN and CENELEC welcomes the new work programme and the attention to standardization which is a key route for knowledge valorisation as well as for enhancing Europe’s competitiveness. This is also in line with the CEN and CENELEC Strategy 2030, which has among its objectives to enhance the link between R&I and standardization.
Following the official publication, CEN and CENELEC have assessed the topics within the six thematic clusters under pillar two of the new Horizon Europe work programme. Among the topics, about a quarter have been identified to be of relevance for standardization. The identified topics either suggest or require the resulting projects to contribute to the development of new standards or to collaborate with the European Standardization Organizations.
Some examples of topics identified as relevant to standardization include:
- HORIZON-CL4-2025-03-DIGITAL-EMERGING-01: Continuation of the Quantum Technologies Flagship
- HORIZON-CL4-INDUSTRY-2025-01-MATERIALS-44: Innovative Advanced Materials Innovation Procurement
- HORIZON-CL4-INDUSTRY-2025-01-MATERIALS-45: Materials Commons for Europe
- HORIZON-CL4-INDUSTRY-2025-01-TWIN-TRANSITION-01: Integrated approaches for remanufacturing
- HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D2-06: Fostering the European battery ecosystem by providing accurate and up-to-date information and stimulating excellence in the European battery R&I community (Batt4EU Partnership)
- HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D3-25: Effects of CO2-stream impurities on CO2 transport and storage
- HORIZON-CL5-2026-02-D3-19: Innovative tools and services to manage and empower energy communities
- HORIZON-CL5-2025-04-D5-07: Accelerating the circular transformation of the EU automotive industry
See the detailed list of calls with relevance to standardization
Annexe I - CEN and CENELEC Technical Bodies relevant to the six Clusters of Horizon Europe Pillar II (non-exhaustive list)
For more information about how standardization can be embedded in R&I projects please check our FAQ or contact the CEN-CENELEC Research Helpdesk.
