The FIERCE initiative has opened its second financing round for European SMEs, offering up to €50,000 per beneficiary from a total budget of €694,520 to contract External Service Providers on circularity, raw materials and environmental monitoring projects. The call aims to help European SMEs turn downstream space data into greener business practices, supporting small and medium-sized enterprises, start-ups and scale-ups that use Earth observation, remote sensing and satellite navigation data to advance Europe’s green and digital transition.
About FIERCE
• Mission: FIERCE’s mission is to accelerate the adoption of downstream space data and services (Earth Observation, remote sensing, satellite navigation) by SMEs, start-ups and scale-ups to drive Europe’s green and digital transition.
• Lifetime objectives: Over its lifetime, the project aims to mobilise €2.5 million in financial support for 70 SMEs, provide specialised technical and business advisory (including up to 50 hours of mentoring) to 140 SMEs, enable over 15 innovation intermediaries to run local entrepreneurship initiatives, and build the FIERCE Learning Hub, a reference point of 50+ sector-specific learning resources and tools.
• Policy contribution: The project also feeds its experience into policy recommendations for stronger SME support ecosystems.
About FIERCE 2nd Open Call
• Purpose: This Open Call funds SMEs that want to contract External Service Providers (ESPs) to design, upscale or commercialise space-enabled green solutions or to adopt commercially available ones.
• Type A – Internal Transformation: improving the applicant’s own processes to reduce resources, waste or pollution.
• Type B – External Transformation Project: creating or improving products and services for better resource management or environmental monitoring for the applicant’s users.
• Space data requirement: Applicants must demonstrate potential to leverage downstream space data.
• Focal areas: The call places particular focus on solutions addressing improvement of circularity, resource use and waste management; safe, resource-efficient and environmentally friendly management of primary, secondary and critical raw materials; and improved environmental monitoring.
Why apply to FIERCE 2nd Open Call
• Budget and beneficiary funding: The call distributes a total budget of €694,520, with each selected beneficiary eligible for up to €50,000 to implement their project, based on the budget declared in the application form and paid out only after successful completion and verification against an approved Transformation Plan.
• Ideation projects: up to €25,000 for research-focused activities on new or immature ideas.
• Scale-Up projects: up to €50,000 for testing and validating proven concepts.
• Commercialisation projects: up to €25,000 for the final steps toward solution validation.
• Two-project option: Because the overall cap per beneficiary is €50,000, applicants requesting an Ideation or Commercialisation voucher (up to €25,000 each) can apply for two separate, clearly distinct projects, provided the first is successfully completed (Milestone Review passed) before the second begins, and both finish within the programme’s duration.
• Previous beneficiaries: Beneficiaries already supported under FIERCE’s First Open Call for Financing can also apply here, as long as their combined support stays within the €50,000 ceiling.
• Payment structure: 100% of the voucher value goes to the External Service Provider(s); no additional costs are reimbursed.
Who can apply?
• Eligible applicants are single entities registered, at the time of the deadline, in an EU Member State (including its Overseas Countries and Territories) or a Horizon Europe Associated Country, including Switzerland.
• Self-employed individuals (sole traders).
• Micro enterprises: fewer than 10 employees, turnover or balance sheet under €2 million.
• Small enterprises: fewer than 50 employees, turnover or balance sheet under €10 million.
• Medium-sized enterprises: fewer than 250 employees, turnover under €50 million or balance sheet under €43 million.
• This includes start-ups and scale-ups.
How to apply to FIERCE 2nd Open Call
• Applications must be submitted in English through the online form.
• Each application must describe the proposed solution and the ESP service(s) required, including a price quotation from the intended ESP.
• The ESP may be drawn from the FIERCE ESP Pool or an external provider proposed by the applicant, chosen to reflect market value and the Best Value for Money principle.
• Applicants can submit up to two proposals, may modify a submission until the deadline, and only the latest version of each application is carried forward to evaluation.
Important dates
• Call opens: 8 September 2026, 13:00 CET.
• Info Day: 1 October 2026, 11:00 CET.
• How to Apply webinar: to be announced.
• • Submission deadline: 9 November 2026, 17:00 CET, Brussels time (16:00 GMT/UTC+0).
• Results notification and onboarding: by January 2027.
• Programme start: February 2027, once the Sub-grant Agreement (SGA) is signed.
• Support programme duration: up to 6 months per beneficiary from the SGA start date.
Proposal requirements
• Within the application form, applicants select services from a checklist spanning technical, business, environmental/social, and funding/financing categories, with the available options scaled to project type.
• Ideation: feasibility studies, proof of concept/experiments, lab testing; market/competition studies, draft business models, legal/IP/compliance; lifecycle thinking, social needs research; co-design with stakeholders, R&I grants, seed funding.
• Scale-Up: industrial pilots or demonstrators, MVP development; market-product fit and revenue stream validation, key partnerships development; stakeholder acceptance studies, supply chain analysis/LCA; grants or non-equity funding, VC/BA investment, incubation or acceleration.
• Commercialisation: full system integration, scalability testing; full business planning, KPI establishment, partners and clientele development; full socio-environmental strategy; acceleration and grants.
• By project end, beneficiaries are expected to show measurable progress on Technology Readiness Level (TRL) and, where relevant, Investment Readiness Level (IRL) and Societal Readiness Level (SRL).
Evaluation and selection process
• Initial Check: Proposals move through an initial check against the basic conditions.
• Pre-Scoring: If more than 60 proposals pass this stage, a pre-scoring step is triggered, scoring proposals automatically on Excellence (36.3%), Impact (36.3%) and Implementation (27.4%), for a maximum of 110 points. Pre-scoring ties are broken first by participation in FIERCE’s Advisory Services Support Program, then by alignment with the call’s focal areas.
• Experts Evaluation: Shortlisted proposals then go to evaluation by two independent external experts plus one FIERCE consortium reviewer, scoring three criteria from 0 to 5.
• Excellence: potential to apply downstream space technologies to the applicant’s chosen focal area, expected progress in TRL/IRL/SRL, and how well that progress is translated into measurable KPIs.
• Impact: sectoral role-model potential and scalability, plus environmental, social and economic contribution.
• Implementation: availability of resources and staff dedication to carry out the project.
• Thresholds: Each criterion carries a minimum threshold of 3 out of 5; the maximum total score is 15 points, with an overall minimum threshold of 10. Evaluation ties follow the same two-step priority as pre-scoring.
• Selection Committee: A Consensus Meeting of the Selection Committee (FIERCE consortium partners) then reaches agreement, or a two-thirds majority vote, on a Provisional List of around 22 beneficiaries plus a Reserve List, balancing project types against the available budget.
• Formal Check: Selected applicants proceed to a formal check of legal and financial documentation and an Ethics self-assessment before signing the Sub-grant Agreement.
Additional support beyond funding
• Every beneficiary is assigned a Lead Mentor from the FIERCE consortium.
• The Lead Mentor supports matchmaking with ESPs from the FIERCE catalogue and guides the project through two milestone stages: Transformation Plan (month 1) and Implementation & Final Review (month 5).
More information
• Project Website
• Guidelines for Applicants
• Online Application Platform
FIERCE’s second open call rewards SMEs that already have a clear environmental angle to their downstream space-data use, from an idea still needing feasibility testing to a solution that is nearly ready for market. What sets it apart from a typical grant is that the funding is tied to a specific External Service Provider engagement, making it suitable for companies that want curated technical, business or environmental expertise brought in rather than a lump sum to manage themselves. The option to run two smaller projects back-to-back, such as an Ideation study followed by a Commercialisation push, is also worth consideration.