In addition to the Work Programmes supporting projects between 2026 and 2027, the European Commission has officially published the Horizon Europe Horizontal Activities Work Programme 2026–2027 to open new calls in interdisciplinary fields. Following the Draft Work Programmes published in December 2025 and May 2026, the Horizontal Activities Work Programme was officially released in September 2026.
Under the Bridging category, a call titled “HORIZON-BRIDGING-2027-01-10: Autonomous Drive Ambition Cities (IA) - Apply AI” has been announced. While it was previously announced that the €15 million call would be open for applications between 06.10.2026 and 18.03.2027, a schedule change has been made in the updated work programme. The call will now accept project applications between 20.10.2026 and 16.02.2027.
Within the scope of the call, submitted projects are expected to address the integration, operations, and deployment (positioning) of autonomous vehicles across pilots in 5 to 7 European cities located in 5 or more EU Member States or Associated Countries such as Türkiye. This includes:
Developing prototype equipment (vehicles, software, hardware),
Integrating vehicles into the transport infrastructure and mobility system,
Conducting initial demonstrations in real-time traffic, and
Preparing scaling and financing roadmaps.
You can access the call details on pages 91–94 of the relevant Work Programme.