As confirmed by the Commission during a recent webinar on lump sum funding in Horizon Europe, during 2026, the current Excel budget table will be progressively replaced by an online budget table fully integrated into Part A (online forms) of the proposal.
Nine Cluster 5 topics will be used to test the new online tool. These topics are:
- HORIZON-CL5-2026-05-D5-02 – Energy-efficient software-defined EVs (2ZERO Partnership)
- HORIZON-CL5-2026-05-D5-07 – AI-assisted digital aircraft design, manufacturing and MRO, towards a competitive aviation
- HORIZON-CL5-2026-05-D5-12 – Shipyards of the future (ZEWT Partnership)
- HORIZON-CL5-2026-05-D5-13 – Safety of renewable low and zero-carbon waterborne fuels in port areas: risk assessment, regulatory framework, and guidelines for safe bunkering, handling and storage (ZEWT partnership)
- HORIZON-CL5-2026-07-D1-01 – Next generation climate monitoring and related capabilities
- HORIZON-CL5-2026-07-D1-02 – Advancing European climate risk assessments
- HORIZON-CL5-2026-07-D1-03 – Economics of climate change and cost of inaction
- HORIZON-CL5-2026-07-D1-04 – Fighting disinformation and effectively communicating on climate change
- HORIZON-CL5-2026-07-D1-05 – Improving climate and weather models for Africa
For these topics, the Excel budget template will be unavailable in the submission system and applicants will be required to encode their lump sum shares directly in Part A of the online submission system.
The level of detail required in the online forms, and the evaluation approach remain unchanged.
All topics affected by the change include the following FAQ that explains the novelties.
Further information about proposal submission to lump sum topics and about managing lump sum projects can be found in the dedicated section of the Funding & Tenders Portal.
Next steps
As the roll-out of the online budget table is gradual, both ways of submitting project budgets in lump sum applications – Excel spreadsheet and online table for selected topics – will run in parallel for a while before the former is phased out completely.
Furthermore, the Commission will collect feedback from the applicants at a later stage to further improve the online budgeting tool.