R&I Policy Support for Enlargement Countries
Horizon Europe · HORIZON-WIDERA-2025-04-ACCESS-01
Small grants for R&I cooperation, uptake of results and mobility involving organisations in the EU enlargement countries.
What is this call about?
The call offers small grants for joint regional innovation actions, uptake of results and people-to-people mobility involving organisations and individuals in the EU enlargement countries.
What does this call fund?
Scope
The POLICY ENLARGE open call provides small grants to strengthen research and innovation in the EU enlargement countries through three funding instruments. The total budget of the open call is €300,000, shared across the three instruments and all cut-off dates.
Funding instruments
- Small Grants for Joint Regional Innovation Actions: developing collaborative R&I projects, accessing EU funding, strengthening R&I management and technology transfer capacities, and contributing to evidence-based policy reforms and the digital and green transformation
- Small Grants for Collaborative Uptake of Results: joint activities supporting the R&I, regulatory or societal uptake of results
- Small Grants for People-to-People Cooperation Projects: mobility grants for cooperation with and within enlargement countries
Number of projects
Up to 45 projects: up to 15 joint regional innovation actions, up to 10 collaborative uptake projects and up to 20 mobility grants. The project aims to select at least one project per enlargement country, with an indicative number selected at each cut-off date; unused budget moves to later cut-off dates.
Submission rules
Applications are in English via an online form. Each third party may receive no more than one grant throughout the open call; where the same entity submits several proposals for the same instrument and cut-off date, only the latest is considered.
What are the key facts?
- Call code
- HORIZON-WIDERA-2025-04-ACCESS-01
- Programme
- Horizon Europe
- Eligible applicants
- companies, research organisations, academic research groups, non-profit entities, digital innovation hubs and other R&I actors based in enlargement countries
- Expected number of projects
- up to 45
Who can apply for this call?
- Applicants must be based in an enlargement country: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Türkiye or Ukraine.
- Funding instruments 1 and 2: consortia of at least two independent legal entities, each established in a different enlargement country; companies, research organisations, academic research groups, non-profit entities, (European) digital innovation hubs and other R&I actors may take part.
- Funding instrument 3: consortia of researchers, artists or entrepreneurs affiliated with independent legal entities in different enlargement countries, or in an enlargement country and an EU Member State; the hosting entity may also be in an EU Member State, its Overseas Countries and Territories or a Horizon Europe Associated Country.
- Secondees must be citizens of, or hold permanent residence in, an eligible enlargement country.
- POLICY ENLARGE partners, their affiliated entities, employees and associates (including former ones involved in the project) are excluded.
- Entities subject to EU restrictive measures are ineligible, including Hungarian public interest trusts under Hungarian Act IX of 2021 and entities they maintain.
Check your eligibility and how your project fits
In your free account, we check the eligibility conditions against the call documents for your organisation and assess how well your project fits this call.
When is the deadline?
Multiple cut-off dates: 12 November 2026, 5 May 2027, 3 November 2027 and 3 May 2028.
Interested in this call? Summary written with AI from the official call documents. Details can differ, so check the official call page before you apply. Read the official call documents before you decide. The official text is always binding.
Source: the official call page and the official call documents. Always check them before you apply. Official call page Last updated 16 October 2026.