Open Call for Financial Support to Third parties as a mechanism to test, promote, validate, replicate PRIMARY business model blueprints and develop new value chains

Home Funding Calls for proposals Open Call for Financial Support to Third parties as a mechanism to test, promote, validate, replicate PRIMARY business model blueprints and develop new value chains Open Call for Financial Support to Third parties as a mechanism to test, promote, validate, replicate PRIMARY business model blueprints and develop new value chains PRIMARY Grant Cascade funding Internal navigation General information Submission & evaluation process Further information Task description General Information Opening date 09 March 2026 Deadline model single-stage Deadline date 08 June 2026 17:00 (Brussels time) Open For Submission Expected duration of participation The expected implementation duration of each PRIMARY Open Call funded sub-project is 18-months, which will be divided into three (3) phases: Phase 1 – Design (M1-M4), Phase 2 - Development (M5-M15), Phase 3 - Validation (M16 - M18). Total funding available 900 000,00 € Project acronym PRIMARY Full name of the EU funded project New business for farmers and cooperatives in rural areas by local upcycling solutions using underutilized agricultural feedstocks Grant agreement number 101180167 Topic HORIZON-CL6-2024-CircBio-02-6-two-stage - From silos to diversity – small-scale bio-based demonstration pilots Submission & evaluation process PRIMARY Open Call for proposals will be submitted digitally through the opencalls.fund platform at https://opencalls.fund/open-call/primary. All the documents needed for the application (PRIMARY Open Call Kit) can be found on the PRIMARY website, on the section dedicated to the Open Call (https://primary-project.eu/open-call/). Interested Applicants should visit the PRIMARY website for any updates and the FAQ section available in the opencalls.fund platform (https://opencalls.fund/open-call/primary/faq). Submissions received through any other channel will be automatically discarded. Documents required in subsequent phases will be submitted via dedicated channels (e.g. via email or via the opencalls.fund platform), which will be indicated by the PRIMARY consortium in the contracting phase. In case multiple versions of the same application are submitted, only the last version will be evaluated. All the previous ones will be discarded. Throughout the entire process, the confidentiality of applicants' identities and the contents of the proposals will be rigorously upheld. Any details pertaining to the proposed solution will be handled with the utmost discretion. By applying to PRIMARY Open Call consortia automatically accept the terms and conditions of the Open Call as described in the Open Call Kit. Evaluation: After the PRIMARY Open Call is closed, an eligibility check process will be carried out by the PRIMARY Monitoring Committee to discard non-eligible applications. Following the eligibility check, a remote evaluation will be done by carefully selected external reviewers. Each proposal will be reviewed by two (2) external evaluators with specific specific experience and academic, technical and/or industry knowledge surrounding agriculture, bioeconomy, biodiversity, circular economy and sustainability. The evaluators will have to evaluate each proposal under the specific evaluation criteria: Alignment Excellence Impact Value Organizational capacity and sufficiency All award criteria have the same weight. Each award criterion can be scored from 1 to 5 with a threshold of 3 points in each category, and a minimum of 15 points in total. Show more Further information PRIMARY Open Call will accept the submission of proposals from consortia of local and regional actors, including at least one technical partner (process operator, partner testing/applying/validating the technology/process) and at least one partner from the public (e.g., public body, university) or the private sector (e.g., primary producers, cooperatives, start-ups, SMEs, NGOs), that are active in the sustainable valorisation of agricultural residues. Selected consortia will receive funding to pilot, adapt, and validate processing solutions and business model blueprints within the PRIMARY framework, focusing on underutilised feedstocks and innovative bioeconomy processes. The supported projects are expected to demonstrate technical feasibility, economic viability, and replicability of integrated value-chain solutions under real rural conditions, contributing to the wider deployment of PRIMARY solutions across Europe. The Open Call will fund 6-9 sub-projects (consortia of 2-3 parties) with the maximum grant budget to be €150,000 per sub-project for consortia of three (3) parties and €100,000 per sub-project for consortia of two (2) parties. The total amount of the Open Call will reach at maximum €900,000.00. Task description Selected projects will be launched in November 2026 having an implementation timeframe of 18 months (until April 2028). The implementation period will be divided in 3 phases: Phase 1 - Design [Deliverable: Activity plan] (November 2026 – February 2027) –Payment of 20% of the total grant. Phase 2 - Development [Deliverable: Report on implemented activities in accordance with the OC requirements] (March 2027 – January 2028) – Payment of 50% of the total grant. Phase 3 - Impact and validation [Deliverable: Report on evaluation of impact and replicability of the tested processes and technologies (February 2028 – April 2028) – Payment of the final 30% of the total grant. In all selected projects, payments are deliverable based, meaning that the Sub-grantees have to deliver a specific report after the end of each phase in order to receive the payment (no pre-financing is foreseen).