What is "Financial Support to Third Parties"?

Some of the calls for proposals in Horizon Europe specify that consortia are expected to reserve a certain amount of their budget for so-called Financial Support to Third Parties (FSTP). This portion of the budget must be distributed to third-party organisations via grants, the idea being that these third parties should contribute to the project's expected outcomes through their grants while not actually being part of the consortium. This is a good way of including for example start-ups and SMEs in the EU projects ecosystem without them having to be full project beneficiaries with all the associated paper work.

The EC has published a guidance document on FSTP which we recommend to read for orientation, no matter whether you are a project beneficiary handling FSTP or interested in applying for FSTP grants yourself.

 

 

Currently open FSTP Calls from EU Projects

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Name and Link

Objective

Funding

Opening

Deadline
 
NGI Fediversity The NGI Fediversity Open Call aims to fund free and open source R&D projects that contribute to building a more secure, portable, user-controlled, and federated internet infrastructure, enabling easy deployment and operation of trustworthy online services while reducing dependence on centralized platforms. Up to 50,000€ 1 June 2026 1 August 2026
 
NGI TALER The NGI TALER Open Call aims to fund free and open source R&D projects that enhance, integrate, or build upon GNU Taler, a privacy-preserving digital payment system, contributing to a more secure, transparent, and user-controlled digital economy. Up to 50,000€ 1 June 2026 1 August 2026
 
AI-BOOST AI Challenge Competition The AI-BOOST AI Challenge Competition aims to support the development of innovative Generative AI solutions addressing real-world industrial challenges in robotics, engineering, healthcare, and mobility through a two-phase open innovation competition. For each challenge, five teams receive a €28,500 prize to develop their solution in the Spark Phase, while the best team after a five-month validation programme wins a final €100,000 prize - Challenge 1–2: opening 19 June 2026 - Challenge 3–4: opening 3 July 2026

- Challenge 1–2: deadline 25 August 2026;

- Challenge 3–4: deadline 8 September 2026
 
EUDOROS Open Call #2 The EUDOROS Open Call #2 aims to strengthen the cybersecurity preparedness of organisations by supporting the deployment, testing, and validation of advanced cybersecurity services and solutions in real operational environments, improving resilience against cyber threats. Up to €50,000 per project, plus consultancy, training, and technical support through a 10-month programme 6 June 2026 7 August 2026
 

 

 

Have you spotted an FSTP opportunity that we have missed? Or are you planning to run an FSTP call related to digital technologies in your EU project and would like to advertise it here? Then please send an e-mail with the relevant information to Diego Coglitore ([email protected]) and Jessica Bonanno ([email protected]).

 

 

Where to find further FSTP opportunities

Finding FSTP opportunities is not always easy. Some EU projects publish their FSTP calls on the Funding & Tenders Portal, while others have beneficiaries like who are specialised on running FSTP calls and publish these on their own portals. Some others publish FSTP calls only on their project website. Portals you can check regularly yourself include:

 

Ongoing initiatives regularly offering financial support for third parties

 

Past initiatives

Do you want to learn about previous initiatives and results of cascading grants?

Source URL: https://www.ideal-ist.eu/check-latest-fstp-opportunities