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Horizon Europe Cluster 5 — Climate, Energy and Mobility

Horizon Energy: Full-Scale Industrial Heat Upgrade

Funds two €9M projects that capture a factory's own waste heat and put it back into the process, proven at a live plant and built for EU-wide reuse.

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Factories and industrial plants need heat to run their processes, and most of that heat still comes from burning fossil fuels — even though a lot of usable heat is already sitting inside the plant, thrown away as waste. This topic funds fixing that with a real, working demonstration, not a study or a lab test.

A winning project recovers the excess or waste heat already produced by an industrial p

Designing and physically demonstrating (TRL 7-8) a heat-recovery and heat-upgrade solution for an industrial process — typically a heat pump — that captures excess or waste heat from the process itself, optionally combined with nearby recovered heat, local renewable heat, or thermal/electrical storage, to cut fossil fuel use for process heat in at least one industrial sector. The demonstration runs physically at one or more real operational industrial site(s), and the project also has to survey the wider sector before finalising the design, standardise the common components, and publish open guidelines and tools so other EU and Associated Countries' plants in the same sector can replicate it.

CycleiHow often this grant runs — e.g. annually, on a rolling basis, or a one-off call.One-off
Next deadlineiThe next date applications are due. Rolling means you can apply any time.15 Sept 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.€18M

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Last verified: 25 Aug 2026Funder reference: HORIZON-CL5-2026-09-D4-08Source: ec.europa.eu