FFplus Updates - Open Call for Innovation Studies and Success Stories
The Second call for Innovation Studies is officially closed.
It was remarkable to see a maximum of 250 proposals submitted within less than a 24-hour submission window.
The strong and rapid response clearly shows the high level of interest from European SMEs and start-ups in advancing generative AI with HPC.
The evaluation process will now begin and will be carried out by external expert evaluators. The execution of the innovation studies is expected to start in September 2026, with a planned completion in June 2027.
The final FFplus Open Call for Innovation Studies is expected to open in spring/summer 2027.
While the project is delighted by the exceptionally high level of interest in its open calls, it is also important to clearly communicate to both current and future proposers the challenges arising from this level of oversubscription. The funding available for each open call is limited, and the number of submitted proposals has far exceeded the number of sub-projects that can be supported. As a result, rejection rates will inevitably be very high.
In addition, FFplus must carry out the evaluation process with constrained resources, both in terms of project staff capacity and the budget available for engaging external independent experts. At the same time, we remain fully committed to ensuring a high-quality, fair, and rigorous evaluation process, while respecting the timelines defined by the overall project duration. For these reasons, a cap of 250 proposals was introduced for the most recent call, alongside the implementation of a two-stage evaluation procedure, as described in the corresponding call announcement.
Join us at two FFplus Webinars: FFplus European Innovation Showcase: Strategic Integration of AI & High-Performance Computing
To highlight the cutting-edge technological innovations developed by SMEs within the first tranche of FFplus Innovation Studies, we are pleased to invite you to exclusive webinars taking place on 18 and 20 February.
During these sessions, SMEs will take centre stage, showcasing their work and demonstrating how the powerful synergy between HPC and AI enables unprecedented computational scale, accelerates innovation, and delivers tangible industrial impact.
Discover how these advanced technologies are helping companies gain a strong competitive advantage on the global stage, and get first-hand insight into real-world, industry-driven applications of HPC and AI.
The first Innovation Studies Success Stories are now published!
The Innovation Studies call was designed to support SMEs and start-ups ready to develop and fine-tune generative AI models, including Large Language Models LLMs, by leveraging large- to extreme-scale HPC resources. The goal: to strengthen Europe’s innovation capacity and help companies scale cutting-edge AI solutions built on their domain expertise and business vision. First 18 sub-projects successfully concluded their journey. Their work is now highlighted through a success stories, presenting their development phase, impacts and business benefits they gained.
Get inspired by success stories here.
Curious about how SMEs and start-ups find their niche, get familiar with HPC, ML, AI and generative AI, and take their first steps into the HPC world?
How do they experiment with EuroHPC JU infrastructure, face business and technical challenges, and turn them into outstanding results and innovations?
And most importantly — what lessons and experiences are SMEs sharing with other SMEs to help them succeed on this journey?
Listen to the podcast
Watch the video
Read the blog
Follow FFplus on LinkedIn & stay updated for future open calls, events and inspiring success stories.
We’re excited about what comes next. Stay tuned, and best of luck on your innovation journey!