GATE 5.0 Open Call for Agrifood and Technology SMEs
SMEs are invited to develop and validate Agriculture 5.0 solutions that address key agrifood sector challenges through collaboration between agrifood and digital technology companies.
Type of projects to be funded: Projects focused on developing, validating and scaling innovative Agriculture 5.0 solutions addressing real challenges in the agrifood sector. Solutions must be jointly developed by agrifood and technology SMEs and may include technologies such as artificial intelligence, IoT, robotics and data-driven systems to improve sustainability, efficiency and digitalisation in agrifood value chains.
Sectors / domain: Agrifood sector, including farming, food production and agrifood value chains undergoing green and digital transformation.
Individual or consortium: Consortium. Each proposal must be submitted by a consortium composed of two SMEs or startups: one agrifood SME and one technology or digital SME.
Specific eligibility requirements: Applicants must be SMEs (including startups) legally established in EU Member States, countries associated to the Single Market Programme (such as Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein), or Ukraine (territories under effective control of the Ukranian authorities). The proposed technological solution must demonstrate a minimum TRL 6 at the time of application, so they scale up to TRL 8.
Specific topics or challenges: Projects should cover either sustainability, new digital solutions or security for one of the five main topics. This topics are water management, labour and smart productivity, reduction of crop protection inputs, soil health and crop optimisation, and data interoperability and governance. Proposals may also address other relevant agrifood challenges if justified.
Projects duration: Up to 25 months, structured in three phases: Seed (3 months), Sprout (14 months), and Harvest (8 months).
Budget, funding rates and payment conditions:
Funding rate: 85% (lump sum) of the project's budget.
Budget conditions / limitations: Maximum financial support of €59,250 per SME (€49,750 for project development and €9,500 in business support services); up to €118,500 per consortium project. The distribution of the support is structured in three phases, where funding is awarded for the acceleration program and the capacity building activities: seed (€1,250 + €1,000, respectively), sprout (€29,000 + €3,500) and harvest (€19,500 + €5,000). Also, each SME must also provide a minimum private financial contribution equivalent to 15% of the funding received under the FSTP scheme.
Payments: In seed phase 100% of the capacity building funding at the start and 100% of the acceleration funding after validation of the phase's final milestrone; in sprout phase, 100% of capacity building at the start, 50% of the acceleration budget upon milestone 2 and the other 50% upon milestone 3; and for the harvest phase 100% of the capacity building at the start, 50% of the acceleration grant upon milestone 4 and the rest upon milestone 5..
Links
Closes
30/04/2026
Max funding per project
118.500€