GenAI4EU: Funding opportunities to boost Generative AI “made in Europe”

The European Commission has launched a first wave of EU funding opportunities to integrate generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Europe’s strategic sectors, and keep their competitive edge. The table below gives an overview of relevant calls from the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2025, including the European Innovation Council, and the Digital Europe Programme. All topics contribute to GenAI4EU. Future calls will also be found on the EU’s Funding & Tenders Portal. Stakeholders are encouraged to use the b2match platform for networking and matchmaking. Support in the application process is offered by Ideal-Ist.

Ongoing calls

Past calls

GenAI4EU: moving generative AI from a promising potential to concrete applications

Researchers, innovators, industrial companies and others applying to these EU funding opportunities will become part of GenAI4EU. It is the European Commission’s flagship initiative to support the development and deployment of generative AI solutions across Europe’s industrial ecosystems. 

The specific sectors—manufacturing, robotics, health, energy, agrifood, mobility, and aerospace—are aligned with those identified in the EU Industrial Strategy and the Draghi Report. GenAI4EU will support the transition pathways outlined in these strategies by driving innovation, streamlining production, and fostering sustainable growth in these sectors through the tailored adoption of generative AI. This initiative will promote the development of large, open innovation ecosystems that encourage collaboration between AI developers—including startups and scale-ups—and strategic European industrial players and the public sector.

As such, GenAI4EU contributes to the European Commission’s overarching goals of enhancing competitiveness and economic growth through AI, as outlined in the AI Continent Action Plan presented in April 2025 and the Apply AI strategy in October 2025. GenAI4EU aims to increase the adoption of AI among EU companies, which currently stands at just 13.5%. This highlights the significant potential for growth, innovation, and competitiveness through broader AI uptake. 

This initiative builds on the Horizon Europe’s AI Boost project (2023) , which awarded €1 million and 8 million GPU hours to four winners developing large AI models. It also builds on the Digital Europe Programme’s support for open-source, multilingual large language models through OpenEuroLLM . Ongoing efforts aim to embed generative AI in future calls across Horizon Europe, DEP, and the European Innovation Council (EIC) for 2026 and 2027, reinforcing Europe’s position as a global hub for secure, inclusive, and innovative AI technologies.

Future events

Coming soon

Past events

• 17 December 2025: Infoday - GenAI Meets Public Administrations
• 3 September 2025: Online matchmaking event on public administrations and GenAI
• 14 April 2025: Infoday on public administration and GenAI
• 16 May 2025: General information and brokerage event (Horizon Europe Cluster 4)
• 22 May 2025: Infoday on public administration and GenAI
• 6 June 2025: AI in cluster 1 of Horizon Europe (health)
• 16 June 2025: EFFRA infoday on GenAI4EU robotics and manufacturing calls
• 18 June 2025: Infoday on GenAI4EU challenge-driven booster call
• 25 June 2025: Living-in.EU info session and matchmaking on GenAI & public administrations call