Call 2025 – FAQ for Applicants
The QuantERA Call Secretariat has prepared answers to some Frequently Asked Questions, in order to provide help to all prospective Call 2025 applicants.
Please note that this section and the related FAQ document will be updated regularly. If your question is not answered here, please contact the QuantERA Call Secretariat. For questions about national/regional eligibility issues, please contact the national contact persons listed in the Call Announcement.
The QuantERA Programme, launched in 2016, is a leading European network of 40 Research Funding Organisations (RFOs), which is dedicated to advancing high-quality Research and Innovation (R&I) in the field of Quantum Technologies (QT). Through organisation of Calls for Proposals we support multilateral research projects with the potential to initiate or foster new lines of QT.
Following the success of the ERA-NET Scheme – realised, respectively, as QuantERA I and QuantERA II under the framework of Horizon 2020 – the Programme aims to continue its efforts under Horizon Europe in the formula of RIA with Financial Support for Third Parties (FSTP, i.e. cascading funding).
The countries participating in the Call for proposals are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye, United Kingdom.
The countries are represented by one or more funding organisations. The eligibility of a potential project consortium partner depends on the funding rules of the respective funding organisation this partner is applying to.
The Widening Countries participating in the Call are: Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Türkiye.
The Call’s Partner Search Tool allows searching potential partners by country.
Yes, a Consortium may include a Partner from a country not listed in the Call 2025. However, in such cases, funding for that Partner’s activities must be secured independently, as they will not be eligible for funding under the Call. Please note that Partners from countries subject to European Union sanctions are not permitted. For detailed guidance, please refer to the ‘Eligibility’ section of the Call Announcement.
Each project must comprise at least three eligible partners, based in an entity eligible to Research Funding Organisations (RFOs) participating in the QuantERA Call from at least three countries. Each partner can choose only one funding organisation when submitting a proposal.
The eligibility of national teams is subject to national/regional eligibility rules as stated in Call Announcement specified in Annex 1. The composition of a project team should be determined by the research question and project design.
Standard consortium size is three to six partners.
Applicants are offered a Partner search tool that can be used to look for partners or to look for projects:
A PC is a researcher responsible for managing an entire consortium and is a leader of a transnational team. A PC also acts as a single point of contact towards the QuantERA Call Secretariat.
A PC must be based at an institution eligible to the funding of Research Funding Organisations (RFOs) participating in this Call.
A PC may coordinate only one proposal.
Each consortium partner is led by a Principal Investigator (PI), who liaises with the respective RFO. There can only be one PI per Partner, but the same person can be a PI in two different projects. The project is coordinated by one of the PIs (the Project Coordinator – PC). One PI may not coordinate more than one proposal.
One person can be included in more than one project; however, they cannot be Project Coordinator (PC) in more than one project. It is strongly recommended to consult respective RFO to check any additional requirements at the national level.
QuantERA encourages excellent early career researchers to take responsibilities. Generally, PhD costs are eligible as well as post-doctoral costs. However, since the funding follows national/regional rules, the projects consortium partners need to check the specific eligible costs with their respective funding institution. See Annex 1 of the Call Announcement.
It depends on the national/regional funding regulations. The section Funding: Overview of the Call Announcement lists all the funding organisations allowing such partners to be funded
The submitted proposals are expected to be aligned with one of the two QuantERA Call 2025 topics:
- Quantum Phenomena and Resources (QPR) – with the goal to lay the foundations for the QT of the future,
- Applied Quantum Science (AQS) – aimed at taking known quantum effects and established concepts from quantum science, translating them info technological applications and developing new products.
Funded projects in both topics are expected to address one or more of the following areas:
- Quantum communication,
- Quantum computing,
- Quantum simulation,
- Quantum sensing and metrology,
- General quantum science.
More details can be found in Call Announcement – section Targeted Research .
Proposals submitted under QPR and AQS topics are assessed separately by two Evaluation Panels (EP), being composed of scientific and industry experts in Quantum Technologies.
A proposal can focus on a single research area or cover several of them.
Expected impacts from funded projects are listed in Call Announcement – Expected impacts
Proposals are expected to achieve one or more of these impacts.
Funded projects are expected to significantly advance the state-of-the-art of quantum sciences and technologies, meaning they shall not duplicate research funded as part of the projects of the previous QuantERA Calls (see funded projects: Call 2017, Call 2019, Call 2021, Call 2023) and the projects of the EC Quantum Technologies Flagship Call (see here). Details can be found in Call Announcement – Expected Impacts section.
Do I have to have an agreement with my national funding organisation before I can submit a proposal?
All partners in a transnational research proposal should consult their eligibility and the eligibility of their requested budget items with their national funding organisations before submitting a proposal. You will find the contact details for the participating national funding organisations in the section Funding: Overview of the Call Announcement.
The Project Coordinator (PC) prepares a joint proposal for the whole project consortium, using the templates available on the QuantERA website. The two forms (proposal form and financial form) composing the proposal are submitted via the Electronic Submission System (ESS) for QPR and for AQS. The system will be open for applications by the end of September. Please check the Call webpage regularly for updates.
Please consult your RFO to check if additional submission in national system is additionally required.
All applications must be in English.
Proposals need to be submitted via ESS by 5 December 2025 17:00 CET. We recommend submitting the proposal several days before the deadline in case that unforeseen issues occur. Submitted proposals can be modified until the Call deadline.
The budget available is set at ca. € 53 million.
There is no cap on an individual transnational project. However, you should check whether there are national/regional limits on amount you can apply for. More details you can find in the section Funding: Overview of the Call Announcement.
The grant for one legal entity being a partner organisation in one or more project consortia in the Call cannot exceed 1,000,000.00 EUR.
A legal entity is defined as any natural or legal person created and recognised under national or international law that has legal personality and can act in its own name, i.e., enter into legal and financial obligations and rights independently.
As an example, if a given Partner is registered in European Commission’s Funding and Tenders Portal under its own Participant Identification Code (PIC), it is considered a separate legal entity, even if it operates as part of a larger institute/ entity.
Requested amount of funding also needs to be balanced within the full consortium budget:
- At most 60% of the total requested funding may be requested by partners from one country,
- At most 40% of the total requested funding may be requested by a single partner.
You should use euros.
All costs must be eligible according to the national or regional eligibility rules specified in Annex 1 of the Call Announcement. Each research team may request funding for personnel costs, consumables, travel costs, equipment and subcontracting in accordance with these national or regional rules. In case of doubt, applicants should consult their respective Research Funding Organisations (RFOs).
Proposals are evaluated based on the European Commission’s criteria of Excellence, Impact, and Quality and efficiency of the implementation. Detailed information on criteria is available in Call Announcement – Section 4. Evaluation and selection.
While the “Quality” threshold is the same for each criterion and each topic, the weights of the other two criteria differ between the Quantum Phenomena and Resources (QPR) and the Applied Quantum Science (AQS) topics:
- Excellence (weight in QPR: 50%; weight in AQS: 25%)
- Impact (weight in QPR: 25%; weight in AQS: 50%)
Based on the ranking lists provided by the Evaluation Panels, the funding organisations will establish the final list of projects recommended for funding.
Proposals are typically between 25 and 35 pages (documents exceeding 35 pages will not be uploadable on the Electronic Submission System). Detailed instructions are provided in the QuantERA Proposal Template document regarding the expected length within each section
Projects can last from 24 up to 36 months. The earliest starting date for successful projects is June 2026. All national research teams within a given project will be expected to start their projects at the same time.
Call results are expected in May 2026. Funded projects will be notified by respective RFOs.
“3-3” rule is the eligibility criterium which states that a Project Consortium must comprise of at least 3 Partners eligible to receive funding from at least 3 different countries participating in the Call.
No. If a country is not listed in the Call 2025, you need to have Partners from 3 additional countries participating in the Call.
No. PC must be based at an institution eligible for the funding of Research Funding Organisations (RFOs) participating in this Call.
Based on previous editions of QuantERA Calls, the most common Consortium size is 3 to 6 Partners. The minimum size of the Consortium is 3 (as you need to have at least 3 Partners from 3 different countries). However, the Consortium might be bigger than 6 Partners. In each case, Consortium’s composition should be well matched with project’s objectives and tasks should be clearly assigned to each Partner.
Yes. Participation of a Widening country is not included in the eligibility criteria. However, ‘Widening countries participation’ is part of expected impacts listed in Call Announcement. Furthermore, it will be considered in the selection process in case two or more projects have the same score. If at a given rank in the list not all ex aequo proposals can be selected additional criteria such as participation of Widening country will be applied.
Eligibility of costs is defined at national level. Please check with your respective RFO to confirm the costs that will be viewed as eligible.
For guidance regarding salaries, please check with your respective RFO.
Projects can start between June and September 2026. All Partners within a project should start their work at the same time.
Yes. In the RFO requirements for the maximum funding per national Partner in a transnational project, the EU contributions are included.
The evaluation relies on international Evaluation Panels of experts (EP). Based on the two ranking lists (AQS, QPR) provided by the Evaluation Panels, a final list of projects selected for funding will be approved by QuantERA CSC (representatives of RFOs participating in the Call).
Projects are expected to start at 1-4 TRL and achieve TRL in the range 1-6 commensurate with the Call topic.
In principle yes, but in such a case it important to consider both transnational and national eligibility regulations: in particular it is reminded here that the maximum funding per entity cannot exceed 1 M EUR. It is also strongly recommended to contact respective RFO to check any additional requirements at the national level.
Yes. The list of projects recommended for funding will be based on the commitments of the RFOs.
If PhDs and Post-docs are not yet identified, it is possible to simply mention in the list: “PhD (to be recruited)” or “Post-doc (to be recruited)”.
No, you can only have one PI per entity.
In principle yes, but it is strongly recommended to contact respective RFO to check for any additional limitations at the national level.
In principle no, but it is strongly recommended to contact the respective RFO to check for any additional requirements concerning participation of 2 or more entities from one country in a proposal.
No. However, intellectual property topics should be defined in Consortium Agreement.
In case modifications are made to official list of sanctioned entities/ individuals, QuantERA will initiate appropriate measures, which follow EC official guidance regarding respective country/ territory. Applicants are strongly encouraged to use tools listed in Call Announcement, to check potential Partners’ eligibility.
As an example, the success rate in the Call 2023 was 24% and 30 % in 2021. More statistics are available on the QuantERA website.
‘Widening countries participation’ and ‘gender balance’ are part of expected impacts listed in Call Announcement. Furthermore, they will be considered in the selection process in case two or more projects have the same score. If at a given rank in the list not all ex aequo proposals can be selected additional criteria such as participation of Widening country or gender will be applied.
No. Each Widening country/ territory is treated equally.
The grant for one legal entity being a partner organisation in one or more project consortia in the Call cannot exceed 1 M EUR. This amount may be higher only if the objective of the action would be impossible or overly difficult to achieve. Such exemption will be subject of detailed verification; therefore, it needs to be duly substantiated.
There is no upfront allocation of funds between QPR and AQS topics. In some cases, respective RFOs fund only projects from one topic (detailed information can be found in Call Announcement document in ‘Funding Overview’ section).
There are no specific formal requirements for PC, yet this should be a person with capabilities to lead transnational Consortium, represent project on international events and collaborate with QuantERA Coordination Team. It is also recommended to contact the respective RFO to check for any additional requirements.
In principle yes, but it is recommended to consult respective RFO for any additional requirements.
Decision on topic (QPR or AQS) is done by the Consortium and should be derived from the nature of planned research. If the project’s goal is to lay the foundations for the QT of the future: QPR should be selected. If a project is aimed at taking known quantum effects and established concepts from quantum science, translating them info technological applications and developing new products: AQS should be selected. Proposers are encouraged to contact at the submission stage respective national/regional funding organisations to confirm that the research activities planned in their proposals will be eligible for funding under the chosen topic.
The level of technical detail depends on the individual requirements connected with a chosen topic. Applicants should focus on clear description of planned activities and explaining expected impacts from conducted research.