Have a bold idea to digitise your eco-village or eco-region? The SMART ERA Open Call offers up to €60,000 to make your smart city or energy innovation a reality.
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About SMART ERA
The SMART ERA 1st Open Call for Pilots & Add-ons is a major Horizon Europe initiative designed to deploy digital solutions across Europe’s rural regions. The call targets SMEs, startups, and research-based technology providers with innovative AI, IoT, and edge computing solutions. Participants will co-create, pilot, and scale technologies that address real-life challenges in agriculture, tourism, energy, mobility, and healthcare. These solutions are expected to improve resilience, stimulate rural economies, and tackle depopulation through the deployment of Smart Innovation Packages (SIPs).
With a total budget of €660,000, SMART ERA will fund up to 11 projects with individual grants of up to €60,000 each and offer a 9-month support programme that includes expert mentoring, business guidance, and on-site co-creation. This open call is particularly focused on eco-regions and smart villages that are leading the green transition.
This open call not only provides financial support but also fosters collaboration, innovation, and market readiness through technical mentoring and pilot deployment. The overarching goal of SMART ERA is to accelerate the adoption of advanced digital technologies that can contribute to more efficient, sustainable, and intelligent urban and green energy systems across Europe. It does so by creating a structured support mechanism that helps innovators develop, validate, and deploy their solutions in collaboration with real end users, including municipalities, utility providers, and technology developers.
About SMART ERA 1st Open Call for Pilots Add-ons
SMART ERA is an EU-funded project aiming to revitalise rural areas through digital innovation and sustainable development. The project will address socio-economic and environmental challenges by fostering smart solutions that are co-designed with local communities. The call supports 6 pilot eco-regions across Europe:
- Val di Sole/Trentino, Italy
- Tramuntana/Sóller, Spain
- Northern Ostrobothnia, Finland
- Trebinje/East Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Šmarje-Padna, Slovenia/Italy/Croatia
- Devetaki Plateau, Bulgaria
These pilot areas are set to become “smart villages,” leveraging technology for rural prosperity, climate adaptation, and social inclusion.
Why Apply?
SMART ERA offers a range of benefits designed to help SMEs and startups thrive:
- Up to €60,000 in equity-free funding for solution deployment
- 9-months support programme, including mentoring and milestone-based payment
- Access to local pilot regions and real users for co-creation
- European-level visibility and replication potential
- Integration into an EU digital ecosystem of rural innovation
This call is particularly suited for innovators looking to commercialise or scale digital solutions with strong environmental and societal impact.
Who can Apply?
Eligible applicants include:
- Individual SMEs and startups legally established in EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries;
- Must act as Technology/Solution providers;
- Minimum Initial Technological Readiness Level 4 (TRL4) and achieve a Final TRL of at least 6 (TRL6).
- Solutions should align with one of the 11 challenges, mapped to the key 5 pilot regions:
IMPORTANT! No consortia allowed for this call.
Target regions
Solutions must address the needs of one of the following 6 SMART ERA pilot eco-regions:
- Val di Sole/Trentino, Italy
- Tramuntana/Sóller, Spain
- Northern Ostrobothnia, Finland
- Trebinje/East Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Šmarje-Padna, Slovenia/Italy/Croatia
- Devetaki Plateau, Bulgaria
Each region hosts specific challenges across domains like agrifood traceability, pasture monitoring, rural tourism, AI in healthcare, and mobility on demand. You can consult the full details of each challenge in the Call Guidelines document.
How to Apply?
- Download the open call guidelines document from the official site.
- Get acquainted with all the applicable rules and pre-requisites.
- Identify the specific pilot region and corresponding challenge your organization can best reply to
- Submit your application before Deadline – no later than 4 November 2025 at 15:00 CEST.
IMPORTANT!
- Applications must be submitted via the SMART ERA application system;
- Only proposals in English are admitted;
- Each applicant can submit up to 2 proposals, but only 1 can be funded.
If you have any technical problems or doubts when filling in the online Application Form, you can contact SMARTERA.help@fundingbox.com, or post your questions in the SMART ERA Helpdesk in Discord. Here you can find out how to access the Community.
Evaluation & Selection Process
- Eligibility check / First screening
- In/Out Scope screening (European relevance)
- Pre-scoring (A pre-scoring system may be applied if, after the previous evaluation stage, the number of eligible proposals exceeds 88 eligible proposals, in which case, the eligible proposals will be automatically scored by the FundingBox Open Call Management System according to the criteria listed in the call document)
- Independent External evaluation of each Project by 3 experts
- Pitching Day + Consensus Meeting
- Formal verification and grant agreement.
Evaluation is based on Excellence, Impact, and Implementation, with minimum thresholds. Solutions must show scalability, local relevance, and contribution to EU Green Deal or Digital Decade strategies.
What Will You Get?
- Stage 1: Onboarding (2 months): €10,000 after approval of mentoring plan and design report;
- Stage 2: Deployment (7 months): €50,000 after delivery of the technical solution;
- Ongoing evaluation of KPIs and deliverables.
Important Dates:
- Submission opens: 28 August 2025, 09:00 (Brussels time)
- Webinar: How to Apply & Challenges Presentation: 18 September 2025, 11:00 (Brussels time)
- Deadline: 4 November 2025, 15:00 (Brussels time)
- Pitching Days: January 2026 (indicative)
NB! The top 3 proposals per challenge will be invited to pitch in online sessions planned for January 2026 (indicatively). This is a key selection step before finalising the funded projects.
- Results announcement: February 2026 (indicative)
- Sub-grant agreement signature: February 2026
- Support Programme: 9 months – March 2026 – November 2026
- Welcome Event (Online, March 2026): Mandatory for at least one representative of each selected beneficiary. It will match beneficiaries with mentors and introduce the Support Programme structure.
- Onboarding Stage (2 months): Includes mentoring plan definition, training, and co-creation with pilot regions. Ends with deliverables (Individual Mentoring Plan and Design Report).
- Deployment Stage (7 months): Includes ongoing mentoring, milestone reviews, and interim evaluations. Reviews are tied to funding disbursements and KPIs.
Final Thoughts on SMART ERA Open Call
SMART ERA Open Call 1 is a unique chance for innovators to pilot digital solutions in real eco-regions and smart villages, backed by EU funding and expert support. With a strong focus on sustainability and rural resilience, it empowers SMEs and startups to scale impactful technologies while shaping Europe’s green and digital transition.
Ready to make your eco-region the next hub for green innovation?
Apply now to SMART ERA and access funding, mentoring, and real-world testing environments.
More Information
- Project website
- Open Call details
- Webinar on How to Apply and Challenges Presentation
- Open call application form
Support emails
- Project email: info@smartera-project.eu
- Communication secretariat: costanza.danovi@icons.it, C. Danovi, Fondazione ICONS
- Project coordinator: gerosa@fbk.eu, M. Gerosa, Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK)
For contact with any of the 6 pilots regional contact points, check here.
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