> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://wiki.gen6.life/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://wiki.gen6.life/research/eu-funding-landscape-and-gen6-fit.md).

# EU Funding Landscape and Gen6 Fit

Reference page: where EU money sits in 2021-2027, how it changes for 2028-2034, and where Gen6 can realistically apply. Last updated: 2026-10-12. Figures are EU contribution in current prices unless n

> **Positioning.** Gen6 is a complementary integrity layer on existing systems, not a replacement. For EU funding the applicant is **Bitbalansz Kft (Budapest)** because these programmes favour EU-controlled participants. Post-quantum cryptography is described as a working implementation in development, not a certified product.

***

### 1. The big picture

The EU's 2021-2027 budget is roughly **€2.0 trillion** of firepower:

* **Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF):** €1.21 trillion
* **NextGenerationEU (recovery):** €807 billion, mostly the Recovery and Resilience Facility (€648bn)
* **Off-budget, carbon-market funded:** Innovation Fund, about €40bn (2020-2030)

**Key insight:** most of the money is not competitive research grants. It flows to Member States and regions through shared management. Recovery, cohesion and farming together hold about **€1.43 trillion (around 70%)**. Horizon Europe, the flagship research programme, is €93.5bn: real money, but small next to the national envelopes.

***

### 2. Where the money is

| Programme                               | Budget (€bn) | Mechanism            | What it funds                                                                        |
| --------------------------------------- | -----------: | -------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Recovery and Resilience Facility (NGEU) |          648 | Shared / national    | National recovery plans. €357bn grants + €291bn loans. Min. 20% digital, 37% climate |
| Cohesion policy (ERDF, CF, ESF+, JTF)   |          392 | Shared / national    | Regional development, skills, transition. \~€490bn with national co-financing        |
| Common Agricultural Policy              |          387 | Shared / national    | Direct payments and rural development                                                |
| Horizon Europe                          |         93.5 | Competitive grant    | Research and innovation, frontier science to scale-up                                |
| Innovation Fund                         |         \~40 | Thematic / ETS       | Large-scale clean and low-carbon tech                                                |
| InvestEU                                |         26.2 | Financial instrument | EU guarantee, mobilises \~€372bn in loans, equity, guarantees                        |
| Erasmus+                                |         26.2 | Competitive grant    | Education and mobility                                                               |
| EU Space Programme                      |         14.9 | Competitive grant    | Galileo, Copernicus, GOVSATCOM                                                       |
| Digital Europe (DIGITAL)                |          8.1 | Competitive grant    | HPC, AI, cybersecurity, skills, deployment                                           |
| European Defence Fund                   |          8.0 | Competitive grant    | Collaborative defence R\&D (incl. €1.5bn STEP top-up)                                |
| LIFE                                    |          5.4 | Competitive grant    | Environment and climate                                                              |
| EU4Health                               |          5.3 | Competitive grant    | Health systems and preparedness                                                      |
| Creative Europe                         |          2.4 | Competitive grant    | Culture and audiovisual                                                              |

***

### 3. The funding hierarchy

Gen6 targets are highlighted: **solid orange = core**, **dashed orange = strategic or indirect**, grey = rest of the landscape.

```mermaid
flowchart TD
  EU["EU funding 2021-2027<br/>~€2.0 trillion"]
  EU --> CG[Competitive grants]
  EU --> SM[Shared management]
  EU --> FI[Financial instruments]
  EU --> TH[Thematic + STEP]

  CG --> HE["Horizon Europe €93.5bn<br/>EIC · CL2 · CL3 · CL4"]
  CG --> DE["Digital Europe €8.1bn<br/>AI · cyber · EUDI"]
  CG --> SPACE["EU Space €14.9bn"]
  CG --> EDF["European Defence Fund €8bn<br/>dual-use cyber"]
  CG --> SECT["Sectoral grants<br/>Erasmus+ · LIFE · EU4Health · Creative Europe"]

  SM --> RRF["Recovery / RRF €648bn"]
  SM --> COH["Cohesion / ERDF €392bn"]
  SM --> CAP["CAP €387bn"]

  FI --> INV["InvestEU €26.2bn guarantee<br/>mobilises ~€372bn"]

  TH --> IFUND["Innovation Fund ~€40bn"]
  TH --> STEP["STEP Seal"]
  TH --> EUPM["EUROPEUM-EDIC"]

  STEP -. "Seal unlocks direct award" .-> COH

  classDef core fill:#f7ebe0,stroke:#c2621c,stroke-width:3px,color:#111;
  classDef strat fill:#ffffff,stroke:#c2621c,stroke-width:1.5px,stroke-dasharray:5 4,color:#111;
  class HE,DE,STEP core;
  class COH,EDF,INV,EUPM strat;
```

***

### 4. Programme reference

#### Competitive EU grants (Brussels-managed)

* **Horizon Europe, €93.5bn** (current prices, \~€95.5bn as launched). Research and innovation across three pillars:
  * *Pillar I, Excellent Science (\~€25bn):* ERC €16bn, Marie Skłodowska-Curie €6.6bn, Research Infrastructures €2.4bn
  * *Pillar II, Global Challenges and Industry (\~€53.5bn):* six clusters, largest are Digital/Industry/Space €15.3bn and Climate/Energy/Mobility €15.1bn, then Food/Bioeconomy €9.0bn, Health €8.2bn, Culture/Society €2.3bn, Civil Security €1.6bn
  * *Pillar III, Innovative Europe (\~€13.6bn):* European Innovation Council €10.1bn, EIT €3.0bn, Innovation Ecosystems €0.5bn
  * *Widening and ERA (\~€3.4bn)*
* **Digital Europe (DIGITAL), €8.1bn:** supercomputing, AI, cybersecurity, advanced digital skills, deployment. Includes the ECCC cybersecurity calls.
* **EU Space Programme, €14.9bn.** European Defence Fund, €8.0bn. Connecting Europe Facility, Digital, €2.1bn.
* **Sectoral grants:** Erasmus+ €26.2bn, LIFE €5.4bn, EU4Health €5.3bn, Creative Europe €2.4bn.

#### Shared management (Member State and regional authorities)

* **Recovery and Resilience Facility, €648bn.** National plans, grants plus loans, reaches firms through national schemes.
* **Cohesion policy, €392bn (EU).** ERDF, Cohesion Fund, ESF+, JTF, Interreg. Allocated by regional managing authorities. About €490bn deployable with national co-financing.
* **Common Agricultural Policy, €387bn.** National paying agencies.

#### Financial instruments

* **InvestEU, €26.2bn EU guarantee,** designed to mobilise about €372bn through the EIB and partner banks across four windows (sustainable infrastructure, research/innovation/digital, SMEs, social investment).

#### Thematic, off-MFF (carbon-market funded)

* **Innovation Fund, about €40bn (2020-2030).** Commercial-scale clean and low-carbon technology.
* **Modernisation Fund.** Energy transition in 13 lower-income Member States.

***

### 5. STEP, the cross-cutting layer

The Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (2024) is **a label, not a new fund**. It steers 11 existing programmes toward four sectors: digital and deep tech, clean tech, biotech, defence tech. You still apply to the underlying calls. The headline ambition was to mobilise around €50bn, but almost all of that is existing money redirected. The only clearly new top-up is €1.5bn added to the European Defence Fund.

Two levers matter:

* **STEP Seal:** a quality label. Cohesion funds can **direct-award** a Seal project at up to 100% co-financing, with no second competition.
* **One dashboard** that aggregates STEP-relevant calls across programmes.

***

### 6. Where Gen6 fits

| Gen6 capability                      | What it is                                                                                               | EU priority it answers                                                                     | Programmes                                                          |
| ------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **RealSeal, provenance**             | Cryptographic content signing, verifiable on-chain. C2PA contributor (onboarding)                        | AI Act Article 50 transparency, deepfakes and disinformation, document and media integrity | Horizon CL2, Digital Europe CYBERAI, Creative Europe                |
| **Sovereign trust infrastructure**   | An EU-run signing, identity and anchoring stack, deployable as a Gen6 Private Chain                      | European digital sovereignty, reducing dependence on non-EU big tech                       | STEP Seal, CL4 Open Internet Stack, EUROPEUM-EDIC, ECF 2028+        |
| **Decentralisation, public chain**   | Live public chain since Jan 2025, 150+ validators, Web2 middleware. MiCA-notified, ISO 24165 DTI         | Decentralised and federated data and AI infrastructure, European blockchain                | CL4 DATA, EUROPEUM-EDIC, Next Generation Internet                   |
| **NCrypt + post-quantum**            | End-to-end encryption and an encryption layer, with a working post-quantum implementation in development | EU post-quantum transition (quantum-safe target 2030), confidential comms, NIS2            | Digital Europe EULEG, Horizon CL3, EuroQCI-adjacent                 |
| **Cyber security services**          | Consult, awareness and audit as the way in: workshops, pentest, forensics. CTF-rooted team               | NIS2 implementation, SME cyber uplift, incident readiness                                  | Digital Europe AI4SME, COORDPREP, EULEG, EDIH delivery, ESF+ skills |
| **Verifiable identity, RS Identity** | Self-sovereign identity bound to signed content                                                          | eIDAS 2.0 and European Digital Identity ecosystem (complementary layer)                    | Digital Europe EUDI, eIDAS 2.0                                      |

***

### 7. Gen6's way in: cyber first, then the Gen6 layer

This is the Hungary KKV motion through the VOSZ channel. Cyber opens the door on a real fear (breaches, deepfakes), Gen6 is what stays. The first two steps are fundable in their own right.

```mermaid
flowchart LR
  A["1 · Entry<br/>Workshops & awareness<br/>AI threats, deepfakes, quantum<br/>(fundable)"] --> B["2 · Scope<br/>Audit & pentest<br/>assessment + forensics<br/>(fundable)"] --> C["3 · Product<br/>The Gen6 layer<br/>RealSeal · NCrypt · PQC"]
  classDef g6 fill:#f7ebe0,stroke:#c2621c,stroke-width:3px,color:#111;
  class C g6;
```

**Funding the entry steps:** an EDIH partner can deliver subsidised SME workshops and audits (Digital Europe plus national co-funding), Hungarian ERDF and ESF+ fund SME digital and skills uplift, and the tooling competes in the Digital Europe cyber calls.

***

### 8. What Gen6 can apply to

> **Internal targeting.** This section is commercial strategy. If the wiki space is public, keep it on an internal page. Call IDs, deadlines and budgets are from current work-programme summaries. Confirm each on the EU Funding and Tenders Portal before committing.

#### Tier 1, near-term and most winnable

| Call / route                              | Programme             | Size                  | Deadline          | Fit         | Notes                                                                                                                          |
| ----------------------------------------- | --------------------- | --------------------- | ----------------- | ----------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **CYBER-11-AI4SME**                       | Digital Europe (ECCC) | topic €20M            | 14 Jan 2027       | High        | AI cyber tools for SMEs. Plays to Gen6 and the KKV channel. Deployment, lighter than research                                  |
| **CYBER-11-EULEG**                        | Digital Europe (ECCC) | topic €20M            | 14 Jan 2027       | High        | Meeting EU cyber law (AI Act, NIS2, CRA, DORA). RealSeal for Article 50, NCrypt and services for NIS2                          |
| **CYBER-11-COORDPREP**                    | Digital Europe (ECCC) | topic €15M            | 14 Jan 2027       | Medium      | Preparedness testing, training, exercises. Direct home for audit and workshops. Partner-led bid                                |
| **CYBER-11-CYBERAI**                      | Digital Europe (ECCC) | topic €15M            | 14 Jan 2027       | Medium-high | AI-based cyber and trustworthiness of AI. RealSeal for AI-output trust                                                         |
| **STEP Seal to Hungarian ERDF**           | Cohesion / ERDF       | up to 100% co-finance | lever, not a call | High access | Earn a Seal on a strong proposal, then a managing authority can direct-award. Most accessible route to real money for a HU SME |
| **SME cyber via EDIH and national funds** | EDIH, ERDF, ESF+      | subsidised            | ongoing           | High access | Funds the entry motion (workshops, audits) directly, via our EDIH partner and the VOSZ channel                                 |

#### Tier 2, strong thematic, research consortia (2027)

| Call                                 | Programme        | Size          | Deadline                        | Fit         | Notes                                                                                                                       |
| ------------------------------------ | ---------------- | ------------- | ------------------------------- | ----------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **HORIZON-CL2-2027-01-DEMOCRACY-04** | Horizon CL2, RIA | not stated    | 23 Sep 2027 (opens 13 May 2027) | High theme  | AI, deepfakes and democracy. The natural home for content provenance. University-led consortium, Gen6 as provenance partner |
| **HORIZON-CL4-2027-04-DATA-03**      | Horizon CL4, RIA | \~€17.5M x2   | 18 Mar 2027                     | Medium-high | Decentralised, federated AI data processing. Decentralisation plus data provenance                                          |
| **HORIZON-CL3 CS-ECCC 2026-2027**    | Horizon CL3      | confirm topic | varies                          | Medium      | Critical-infrastructure cyber and post-quantum migration. Fits NCrypt and PQC work                                          |
| **HORIZON-CL2-2026-01-DEMOCRACY-10** | Horizon CL2      | varies        | check status                    | Medium      | Digital and media literacy. Verification tooling as a component                                                             |

#### Tier 3, big, strategic, or indirect

| Target                      | Type                         | Size                                  | Fit                    | Notes                                                                                                     |
| --------------------------- | ---------------------------- | ------------------------------------- | ---------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **EIC Accelerator**         | Horizon / EIC                | grant up to €2.5M + equity up to €10M | High product, low odds | The single-company deep-tech prize. Heavy process, \~5% success. Applicant: Bitbalansz Kft                |
| **EUROPEUM-EDIC (ex-EBSI)** | EU blockchain infrastructure | not a grant                           | Strategic              | The EU sovereign blockchain, member-state controlled. Get inside as a technology contributor, via Hungary |
| **eIDAS 2.0 / EUDI Wallet** | Digital Europe, identity     | varies                                | Indirect               | Member-state-led. Gen6 as a complementary credential and content-signing layer in a consortium            |

#### Not a fit

* **Innovation Fund (\~€40bn):** clean-tech deployment only. A thin angle via RealSeal IoT for verifiable emissions or ESG data, but the fund pays for the clean tech itself.
* **Cluster 4 open strategic autonomy:** space, semiconductors, raw materials. Wrong domain despite the "sovereignty" label.
* **Direct cohesion grants without a Seal:** reachable only through the STEP Seal lever or a national ERDF call.

***

### 9. What comes next: MFF 2028-2034 (proposed, under negotiation)

* Proposed next long-term budget: about **€2 trillion** (around 1.26% of EU gross national income).
* **European Competitiveness Fund (€234bn) + Horizon Europe successor (€175bn) = €409bn** competitiveness envelope, about 21% of the budget. The ECF consolidates 14 programmes into one fund with four windows: Digital leadership, Clean transition, Health and biotech, Resilience and security.
* **National and Regional Partnership Plans:** one plan per Member State merging cohesion, farming, migration and fisheries.
* Status: proposed 16 Jul 2025, Council positions through 2026, political agreement targeted end-2026, entry into force 1 Jan 2028. Figures will move.

***

### 10. Operating notes

* **Applicant entity:** Bitbalansz Kft (Budapest) for all EU work. No US or Delaware references in EU-facing material.
* **Positioning:** complementary integrity layer, not a replacement for existing systems.
* **Post-quantum:** a working implementation in development, not a certified product.
* **Honest gap:** there is no dedicated provenance or post-quantum call this round, so Gen6 competes by framing provenance and encryption as AI-trust plus AI Act and NIS2 compliance.
* **Figures:** current prices, EU contribution. Some figures (Innovation Fund, InvestEU, cluster splits) are rounded or from secondary summaries. Confirm against the official work programme before applying.

***

### Sources

* European Commission, [MFF 2021-2027](https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/eu-budget/long-term-eu-budget/2021-2027_en) and [Cohesion budget](https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/funding/available-budget_en)
* European Commission, [Digital Europe Programme](https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/activities/digital-programme)
* [Horizon Europe budget](https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/funding/funding-opportunities/funding-programmes-and-open-calls/horizon-europe_en)
* European Commission, [STEP](https://strategic-technologies.europa.eu/about/step-funding-and-programmes_en) and [European Competitiveness Fund](https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/access-finance/european-competitiveness-fund_en)
* Council of the EU, [Long-term budget 2028-2034](https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/policies/the-eu-s-long-term-budget-2028-2034/)
* ECCC, [Digital Europe cybersecurity call (CYBER-11, open 1 Sep 2026)](https://cybersecurity-centre.europa.eu/news/new-eccc-call-proposals-under-digital-europe-programme-open-applications-2026-09-01_en)
* Horizon Europe Work Programmes 2026-2027: [Cluster 2](https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/horizon/wp-call/2026-2027/wp-5-culture-creativity-and-inclusive-society_horizon-2026-2027_en.pdf), [Cluster 4](https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/horizon/wp-call/2026-2027/wp-7-digital-industry-and-space_horizon-2026-2027_en.pdf)
* European Commission, [EUROPEUM-EDIC](https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/blockchain-creation-europeum-edic)