Detection and characterisation of threats or illegal/ smuggled goods in cargo
Civil Security for Society 2027 · HORIZON-RIA · TRL 4 to 5 · Needs partners
What this call funds
This call funds research and innovation projects that develop technology to detect threats or smuggled and illegal goods hidden in air, maritime, land, rail, or postal cargo. It supports tools such as sensors, AI, tracking systems, and non intrusive scanning that help customs authorities find dangerous or illicit materials without slowing down trade. Projects should also improve interoperability between customs systems and across EU member states.
cybersecurity · internet of things · artificial intelligence · defence security · mobility transport · environmental monitoring
Who wins this
A consortium including research organisations, technology developers, and at least two customs authorities from different EU or associated countries that wants to build and test cargo security or smuggling detection technology from TRL 4 to TRL 5.
Could you win this call?
Only the website is required.
The call in detail
- Indicative grant size
- €3.5M
- Funding model
- Lump sum. Paid per completed work package, with no financial reporting of actual costs
- Submission
- Single-stage submission (full proposal at once)
- Type of action
- HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions
- Partners
- Required. The call asks for a consortium: at least 2 partners, from 2 countries.
- Eligible applicants
- research organisation, public body, customs authority
- Support to third parties
- Beneficiaries must provide financial support to third parties, in the form of grants, up to a maximum of EUR 100,000 per third party to support collaboration with additional national Customs Authorities, including testing and validation activities.
- Also required
- Proposals must explicitly select either Option a (security of cargo) or Option b (detection of smuggled and trafficked goods) and must include at least 2 Customs Authorities from at least 2 different EU Member States or Associated Countries as beneficiaries.
- Sectors
- Cybersecurity · Defence
- Eligible countries (45)
- Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Israel, Türkiye, Ukraine, Serbia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Georgia, Armenia, Moldova, Tunisia, New Zealand
Read the full conditions from the official call ›
General conditions 1. Admissibility Conditions: Proposal page limit and layout described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes. Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System. 2. Eligible Countries described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes. A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide. 3. Other Eligible Conditions Subject to restrictions for the protection of European communication networks. The following additional eligibility criteria apply: This topic requires the active involvement, as beneficiaries, of at least 2 Customs Authorities from at least 2 different EU Member States or Associated Countries. For these participants, applicants must fill in the table “Information about security practitioners” in the application form with all the requested information, following the template provided in the submission IT tool. If projects use satellite-based earth observation, positioning, navigation and/or related timing data and services, beneficiaries must make use of Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS (other data and services may additionally be used). described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes. 4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes. 5a. Evaluation and award: Award criteria, scoring and thresholds To ensure a balanced portfolio, grants will be awarded to applications not only in order of ranking but at least also to one proposal that is the highest ranked within each of the two options: Option a, and Option b; provided that the applications attain all thresholds are described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes. 5b. Evaluation and award: Submission and evaluation processes are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual. 5c. Evaluation and award: Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes. 6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants The granting authority may, up to 4 years after the end of the action, object to a transfer of ownership or to the exclusive licensing of results, as set out in the specific provision of Annex 5. Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum as defined in the Decision of 7 July 2021 authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2021-2027) – and in actions under the Research and Training Programme of the European Atomic Energy Community (2021-2025) [[This decision is available on the Funding and Tenders Portal, in the reference documents section for Horizon Europe, under ‘Simplified costs decisions’ or through this link: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/horizon/guidance/ls-decision_he_en.pdf ]]. Beneficiaries must provide financial support to third parties. The support to third parties can only be provided in the form of grants. The maximum amount to be granted to each third party is EUR 100 000 to support the expected outcomes of the topic and effective collaboration and/or coordination with additional relevant national Customs Authorities, including testing and validation activities within the projects; the organisation of testing and validation activities also justifies the maximum amount to be granted to each third party indicated above. described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes. Specific conditions described in the topic conditions Some activities resulting from this topic may involve using classified background and/or producing of security sensitive results (EUCI and SEN). Please refer to the related provisions in section B Security — EU classified and sensitive information of the General Annexes.
Who has won calls like this
Organisations that most often win this call family · 33 past winners