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Cascade funding: 101 open calls
Cascade funding open calls: 101 opportunities with a summary and deadline to help you prepare your application.
What is cascade funding and why is it growing in Europe?
Cascade funding (also known as Financial Support to Third Parties, FSTP) is a mechanism used by many European projects to launch open calls that redistribute part of their budget to third parties. In practice, an EU-funded consortium acts as an “intermediary”: it publishes a call, selects beneficiaries and awards grants (typically smaller and more agile than a traditional Horizon Europe call).
This format has become established because it speeds up the uptake of solutions, lowers entry barriers and, moreover, connects start-ups, SMEs, universities, NGOs and public bodies with European ecosystems that are already up and running.
Cascade funding open calls: advantages
Cascade funding open calls are often attractive for several reasons:
- Less bureaucracy: in many cases, the application is shorter and the process is faster.
- More direct access: you can join a European project without being part of the original consortium.
- Pilot and market focus: these calls frequently fund proofs of concept, validation activities, demonstrators and deployments.
- Networks and visibility: if selected, you gain traction and contacts within the consortium and its community.
How to prepare a competitive proposal for cascade funding
To improve your success rate, it helps to work methodically:
Align your use case with the project challenge
It is not enough to “fit” by sector. You need to prove that your pilot solves the programme’s specific problem (and that you can deliver it on time).
Define measurable deliverables
Avoid vague objectives. Instead, propose clear metrics: performance, cost reduction, real-world validation, environmental impact, number of users, etc.
Ensure delivery capacity
These grants often come with tight timelines. Therefore, explain your team, your work plan and how you will manage risks from the outset.
List of open cascade funding calls and their deadlines
Below you will find a summary of each call and its deadline (where it is indicated in the listing). For calls with multiple stages, I include more than one date when relevant.
OPEN CALLS
2026
| MARCH 2026 – MULTIPLE CUT OFF | |||
| Rapid Response Grants | 03-02 | 29/05/2026 | 15/08/2026 |
| MAGICIAN Open Call 2 – Adaptation MAGICIAN capabilities framework to 5 new manufacturing use cases | 03-02 | ||
| Experience sharing grants | 03-02 | 30/06/2026 | 30/10/2026 |
| CETPartnership Joint Call 2025 | 03-12 | ||
| FIERCE 1st Open Call for the Financial Support Program | 03-31 |
| APRIL 2026 – MULTIPLE CUT OFF | |
| Water4All 2025 Joint Transnational Call “Water and health” | 04-13 |
| Restoration of ecosystem functioning, integrity and connectivity | 04-14 |
| Driving Urban Transitions (DUT) Call 2025 | 04-23 |
| MAY 2026 – MULTIPLE CUT OFF | |
| Call for applications: FRONTIERS Science Journalism Residency Program (round 3) | 05-07 |
| Financial support to startups Open Call | 05-18 |
| JULY 2026 – MULTIPLE CUT OFF | Deadline | ||
| UPC-GREENCHIPS-EDU Scholarship | 07-01 | 14/02/2027 | 01/06/2027 |
| TU Graz GreenChips-EDU Scholarship | 07-01 | 14/02/2027 | 01/06/2027 |
| G INP-UGA GreenChips-EDU Scholarship | 07-01 | 14/02/2027 | 01/06/2027 |
| ERDERA Joint Transnational Call 2026: “Resolving unsolved cases in rare genetic and non-genetic diseases” | 07-08 | 03/01/2028 | 02/09/2028 |
| Call No. 1 for proposals for NGOs to participate in capacity building and receive financial support | 07-14 | 03/01/2028 | 02/09/2028 |
| Accelerating Food Sustainability – through Household Dietary Shifts, Trust and Transparency, and Innovations in Circular Food Processing Systems | 07-27 |
| AUGUST 2026- MULTIPLE CUT OFF | Deadlline |
| Joint Transnational Call 2026 for the BE READY Partnership: Advancing knowledge of host and pathogens dynamics to better combat emerging diseases | 20-08 |
| SEPTEMBER 2026 – MULTIPLE CUT OFF | |||
| METU Internships Offer | 09-02 | 03/01/2027 | 02-09-2027 |
| Gnomon Internships Offer | 09-02 | 03/01/2027 | 02/09/2027 |
| DIGITWIN4CIUE Reduction-Fees Scholarships | 09-15 | ||
| Urban Mobility Explained (UMX) Open Call (Multi-cut-off) | 09-29 |
| DECEMBER 2026 | |
| Innovation Funding for Estonian Cybersecurity Companies for developing innovative, high value-added products and services | 12-02 |
Cascade funding: 101 open calls
| JULY 2027 | |
| Financial support for start-ups registered in Estonia for developing new cybersecurity tools or services (Cyber Accelerator) | 07-02 |
| AUGUST 2026 – MULTIPLE CUT OFF | Deadlline |
| PowerBoost – unlock energy related challenges | 31-08 |
Cascade funding: 101 open calls
| JANUARY 2028 | |
| Call for proposal for support to Slovenian and Croatian SCOs to “Go out and vote!” campaigns | 01-01 |
| MARCH 2028 | |
| ReAction – Rapid Response Grants | 03-31 |
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