CELTIC-NEXT call for projects – Autumn 2026

About this grant

CELTIC-NEXT is a Eureka Clusters call for international, market-oriented R&D projects in telecommunications and related fields. The autumn 2026 call opens on 1 July 2026 and closes on 26 October 2026 at 23:59 CET. It funds consortium projects that research or develop an innovative product, process or service with the goal of commercialisation, and that have a civilian purpose. Projects must represent specific international cooperation between at least two independent legal entities from a minimum of two Eureka countries. No single organisation or country may be responsible for more than 70% of the project budget. Funding is not provided by Eureka directly. Each participating country's national funding agency funds its own participants under national rules, and the page lists rates and procedures per country (for example FFG in Austria, Bpifrance in France as a loan, BMFTR in Germany, NRC IRAP in Canada, Business Finland in Finland, Enterprise Singapore, and others). Some countries require a national application after the Eureka cluster label is awarded, and some require contact with a national agency before submission.

Eligibility

Applicants must form a consortium of at least two independent legal entities from at least two Eureka member countries. The project must be international cooperation in a specific project, aimed at innovative commercialisable research or development, with a civilian purpose. Participation is open to companies, research organisations and universities, subject to national rules. Country-specific rules apply: for example, France excludes companies with more than 2,000 FTEs from funding, Ireland excludes High-Potential Start-Ups, Canada limits direct funding to SMEs with a 500 FTE cap for large companies, Portugal excludes large companies from funding and limits projects to 36 months, Singapore requires local ownership of at least 30%, South Africa requires SME-led projects, and Lithuania requires at least two Lithuanian participants including an SME. Participating countries listed on the page are Austria, Belgium (Flanders and Wallonia), Canada, Chile, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Türkiye, and the United Kingdom.

How it's scored

The page does not provide a numerical scoring scheme or panel composition for the Eureka evaluation as a whole. Country-level evaluation steps are described: Bpifrance assesses French projects for technical and financial capacity, Belgian (Wallonia) applications are assessed with valorisation as a regional criterion, Canadian SME participation is evaluated for benefit to Canada, Luxembourg assesses technological challenge, incentive effect, financial viability and national economic impact, and Poland's NCBR evaluates the national application against published criteria. Portugal and Lithuania also require national evaluation of applications.

Key requirements

• ✓Applicants must be from one of the 21 eligible countries/regions
• ✓Projects must be collaborative (consortium-based) under Eureka framework
• ✓Deadline for submission is 26 October 2026
• ✓Focus on ICT and related technology sectors aligned with CELTIC-NEXT priorities