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Horizon Europe Cluster 3 — Civil Security & Disaster Resilience

Horizon Security: Missing Persons Prevention & Investigation

Funds one €5M project building forensic, training and privacy-safe data-sharing tools so European police and NGOs can find missing people and crack cold cases.

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People go missing for all kinds of reasons — running away, abduction, a mental health crisis, conflict, migration, or a natural disaster. Children, trafficking victims, people with disabilities, and people with cognitive impairments face the highest risk, often in distressing circumstances. Fixing this needs Police Authorities, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and NGOs working together — not any

Building and testing tools, training curricula and methods that help Police Authorities and Civil Society Organisations both stop people from going missing and investigate the cases when they do — cold cases and new ones alike. In-scope work spans prevention (awareness campaigns and training curricula for at-risk groups such as children, trafficking victims, and people with disabilities or cognitive impairments), investigation (forensic and biometric tools such as old-DNA analysis or facial ageing, combined with criminology), privacy-preserving data-sharing between practitioners, and better cross-border cooperation and training for new cases. At least 3 Police Authorities and 2 Civil Society Organisations or NGOs from 3 different countries have to be named as beneficiaries, and a forensic institute has to join too if the work touches forensics.

CycleiHow often this grant runs — e.g. annually, on a rolling basis, or a one-off call.Annual
Next deadlineiThe next date applications are due. Rolling means you can apply any time.5 Nov 2026
Decision timeiTypical time from the deadline to the funder's decision.22 weeks
Project durationiHow long the funded work is expected to run.
Award typeiThe form of funding — grant, equity, loan, tax credit, etc.Grant
Match fundingiThe share of project costs you must cover yourself. 0% = fully funded.30%
Funding pooliThe total budget available across all awards in this round.€5M

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Last verified: 25 Aug 2026Funder reference: HORIZON-CL3-2026-01-FCT-03Source: ec.europa.eu