HELIOS digest 3: 10 Horizon Europe calls

The HELIOS project, coordinated by Lviv Polytechnic National University, has published the third issue of its grant opportunities digest. The issue holds 10 calls across five programmes: Horizon Europe, the European Research Council, the European Innovation Council, the Chips Joint Undertaking and COST.

We checked every deadline as of 14 August 2026. Since publication on 31 July none of the ten has closed, so 8 calls accept proposals right now and 2 more open in September.

One thing stands out in this issue. Five of the ten entries give Ukrainian institutions a structural advantage, because four WIDERA calls address Widening countries, Ukraine among them, while COST requires at least half of the proposers to come from Inclusiveness Target Countries, and Ukraine sits on that list.

What HELIOS is and why its digest is worth reading

HELIOS is a Horizon Europe project developing white organic light-emitting systems under grant agreement 101155017. The Department of Electronic Engineering at Lviv Polytechnic coordinates it, at St. George’s Square 1, room 118.

In practice the digest runs as a separate series. Issue three covers July 2026, while issue two appeared on 18 May. So the stated monthly rhythm does not quite hold yet, since roughly two and a half months passed between issues two and three. For a reader that means one thing: treat the digest as one source of monitoring among several.

What makes it useful is the selection. A team that runs its own Horizon Europe project and has been through these procedures picks the calls. As a result, the digest focuses on advanced materials, substitution of critical raw materials, photonics, frontier research, individual researcher mobility and institutional capacity building. The full issue is available as a PDF and as a flipbook.

Four WIDERA calls where Ukraine holds a structural advantage

First, WIDERA is the fourth part of Horizon Europe, devoted to widening participation and strengthening the European Research Area. Its calls target Widening countries, so competition runs narrower than in the general Pillar II calls.

ERA Fellowships: deadline 9 September

The call code is HORIZON-WIDERA-2026-05-WIDENING-01. So these are postdoctoral fellowships built on the MSCA model, although they are reserved for host institutions located in Widening countries. In practice the grant covers salary, mobility, research, training and networking costs.

How submission works. Proposals go through the MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2026 call, and the ranking of that call determines the outcome. According to the European Research Executive Agency, the call opened on 9 April 2026, the indicative budget is EUR 8 million, results arrive in February 2027 and projects start from June 2027.

Fellowships stay open to researchers of any nationality who either come to the EU from anywhere in the world or move within the EU to a Widening country. So for a Ukrainian institution this is a route to bring a postdoc from abroad onto its own base.

Hop-On Facility: deadline 24 September

Code HORIZON-WIDERA-2026-03-WIDENING-01. So the instrument lets an institution from a Widening country join an already running Horizon Europe Pillar II project, or a collaborative EIC Pathfinder project, as a full beneficiary with its own work package.

In total the indicative topic budget is EUR 30 million, while the contribution per project runs from EUR 200,000 to EUR 600,000, and roughly 60 projects should receive funding. Also the action type is RIA, and intake opened on 13 January 2026.

Here is the detail the digest leaves out, and it matters. The coordinator of the already funded action submits the proposal, not the Widening-country institution that wants to join. So the sequence runs backwards from what people expect: first you find a running project without a Widening partner, then you agree with its coordinator, and then the coordinator submits on behalf of the consortium. The WIDERA work programme 2026-2027 sets out the procedure in detail, including the amendment request that follows a successful evaluation.

Research Management Facility: deadline 24 September

Code HORIZON-WIDERA-2026-04-WIDENING-01, action type CSA. Specifically, the call supports institutions in Widening countries in upgrading research management capacity: proposal preparation, project and intellectual property management, data management and staff training, plus a strategy for lasting institutional change.

The second detail. The indicative topic budget is EUR 7 million, and that money goes to a single project. In other words, one grant will be awarded across the whole of Europe. This call needs a consortium, and the work programme notes separately that national contact points in Widening countries are exceptionally eligible to take part.

Excellence Hubs: opens 2 September

Code HORIZON-WIDERA-2027-04-WIDENING-01. The call builds place-based innovation ecosystems in Widening countries by linking academia, business, government and civil society across at least two countries, in line with regional smart specialisation strategies. Indicative budget: EUR 15 million.

Intake opens on 2 September 2026 with a deadline of 4 March 2027. So this is the entry to start assembling partners for now, while the call formally does not yet exist.

ERC and COST: individual researchers and networks (HELIOS digest)

Next come three entries for those applying without a consortium, or building a network from scratch.

ERC Advanced Grants: deadline 27 August

Code ERC-2026-AdG. Up to EUR 2.5 million over five years for established research leaders. Notably, scientific excellence is the sole evaluation criterion, applied both to the project and to the principal investigator, and additional funding covers start-up and relocation costs.

According to the ERC, the call budget is EUR 747 million for roughly 294 grants, with a deadline of 27 August 2026 at 17:00 Brussels time. This is the nearest entry in the whole digest, since only about two weeks remain.

ERC Starting Grants 2027: deadline 14 October

Code ERC-2027-StG. Up to EUR 1.5 million over five years for early-career researchers building their first independent team. Also the 2027 call widens the eligibility window to ten years after the PhD defence, which opens the scheme to two cohorts of applicants previously excluded from it.

COST Open Call 2026: deadline 28 October

Code OC-2026-1. Support for new four-year interdisciplinary research networks in any field of science and technology, covering meetings, Short-Term Scientific Missions, Training Schools and dissemination. In total up to 80 new COST Actions will receive funding.

One condition works in Ukraine’s favour: at least 50 per cent of proposers must come from Inclusiveness Target Countries, and Ukraine belongs to that group. So Ukrainian participation in a consortium is not merely allowed, since the consortium itself needs it for eligibility.

EIC Transition, photonics and advanced materials (HELIOS digest)

Finally, three technology entries for teams that already hold a result and want to move it closer to market.

EIC Transition Open 2026: deadline 16 September

Code HORIZON-EIC-2026-TRANSITIONOPEN. Specifically, up to EUR 2.5 million takes a validated technology from proof of principle at TRL 3-4 to a demonstrator at TRL 5-6, together with its business case. In total the call budget is EUR 100 million.

The entry condition. A proposal must build on results from an eligible precursor project. So this is a continuation route for teams that already ran EIC Pathfinder or another qualifying project, and a team starting from zero cannot enter.

Photonics under Chips JU: deadline 16 September

Code HORIZON-JU-Chips-2026-FT2-IA. Industrial scale-up of advanced photonic platforms through wafer-level processing, heterogeneous integration and automated packaging and testing. In practice applications span artificial intelligence, telecommunications, sensing, mobility and health.

So the indicative EU contribution is EUR 20 million, co-funded with the Chips JU Participating States. In fact this topic sits closest to the profile of HELIOS itself, which works on organic light-emitting systems.

Advanced materials: opens 22 September

Code HORIZON-CL4-2027-01-MAT-PROD-22. Co-development of safe and sustainable alternative materials together with the processes needed to produce them, with a demonstrated substitution in one target industry. Indicative budget EUR 36 million, deadline 2 February 2027.

Also HELIOS notes the relevance of this topic for lighting emitter concepts that avoid iridium, platinum and rare-earth phosphors. For Ukrainian materials science groups this is one of the few Cluster 4 calls written explicitly around critical raw material substitution.

What to check yourself before applying (HELIOS digest)

The digest gives an entry point. You do the final verification yourself. Four things are worth verifying on your own.

• Call status on the portal. The digest captured the picture on 31 July. We rechecked the deadlines on 14 August and all ten held, although conditions can shift between publication and your submission.
• Who actually submits. In the Hop-On Facility that is the coordinator of a running project, not the institution from a Widening country. Confusing this costs a month of work.
• How many grants are awarded. Research Management Facility funds one project across Europe, while Hop-On funds roughly 60. The odds differ by two orders of magnitude.
• Whether a precursor project is required. EIC Transition Open asks for results from an eligible precursor project, so without one a proposal fails the formal check.

The full version of the issue sits on the project website alongside the PDF version and the flipbook. Each entry there carries a description of objectives, the programme identifier, the deadline and a direct link to the official call page.