PoliRural+ — Bridging Rural and Urban Europe · knowledge baseInteractive book · llms.txt · For AI agents

The open-call ladder

€900,000 set aside for outside organisations, split into four calls that each fund the next step, and how the delivered scheme differed from the plan.

What does each of the four PoliRural+ open calls fund, and how did the delivered scheme differ from the plan?

Outreach (€5,000 lump sums) mapped local needs and stakeholders, Mobilise (€10,000) ran hackathons and ideathons, Develop (€30,000–100,000) built working digital applications, and Enhance (up to €25,000) tested JackDaw in real use. Of the €900,000 planned, D6.3 reports €850,968 paid to 26 projects. Develop took about 68 % of it, against half of the planned envelope.

Open in the interactive book · missions, mini-games and memory cards there

The four PoliRural+ open calls as a ladder: Outreach, Mobilise, Develop, EnhanceFour cascade-funding calls build on each other: Outreach (June-August 2024, EUR 45,000) gathered grassroots ideas, Mobilise (January-March 2025, EUR 90,000) ran hackathons and ideathons, Develop (May-July 2025, EUR 450,000) funded operational digital applications and Enhance (September-December 2025, EUR 315,000) validated the JackDaw GeoAI tool. Of 339 applications, 30 were approved and 26 projects in 14 countries were funded, about EUR 851,000 of the EUR 900,000 budget, with at most EUR 60,000 per recipient.Four open calls, one ladder: from grassroots ideas to validated tools each call builds on the last: from ideation to TRL 7-8 operational deployment Outreach Jun-Aug 2024 grassroots ideas, local needs mapping Mobilise Jan-Mar 2025 hackathons and ideathons Develop May-Jul 2025 operational digital applications Enhance Sep-Dec 2025 real-world validation of JackDaw GeoAI EUR 45,000 max 5,000 per project EUR 90,000 max 10,000 per project EUR 450,000 max 100,000 per project EUR 315,000 max 25,000 per project 5% 10% 50% of the budget 35% share of the EUR 900,000 financial support to third parties (FSTP) 6 funded 7 funded 6 funded of 46 applications 7 funded of 160 applications 339 applications 30 approved 26 funded projects 14 countries, about EUR 851,000 allocated at most EUR 60,000 per recipient
Four cascade-funding calls build on each other: Outreach (June-August 2024, EUR 45,000) gathered grassroots ideas, Mobilise (January-March 2025, EUR 90,000) ran hackathons and ideathons, Develop (May-July 2025, EUR 450,000) funded operational digital applications and Enhance (September-December 2025, EUR 315,000) validated the JackDaw GeoAI tool. Of 339 applications, 30 were approved and 26 projects in 14 countries were funded, about EUR 851,000 of the EUR 900,000 budget, with at most EUR 60,000 per recipient.

Open calls: a four-step ladder from local ideas to tested tools

main tellingdepth: standard3 min markdown

Financial Support to Third Parties (FSTP) lets a Horizon Europe project pass part of its grant to organisations outside the consortium. PoliRural+ set aside €900,000 for this in the coordinator’s budget, with a cap of €60,000 per recipient. D6.1 puts the amount at 16 % of the requested EU contribution, including the cost of evaluating proposals. The money was not spent through one big call. It was split into four calls, each funding the next step of a ladder.

The design

Call (window)What it fundsWho may applyPer projectPlanDelivered (D6.3)
Outreach (Jun–Aug 2024)Regional workshops; collecting grassroots ideas; mapping local stakeholders and needsA single legal entity in a pilot region€5,000 lump sum9 projects, €45,0006 projects, €30,000
Mobilise (Jan–Mar 2025)A hackathon, datathon or ideathon on at least two regional themes, with mentoring on PoliRural+ tools (JackDaw, Map Whiteboard, Policy Advisor)A single entity in an EU Member State or Associated Country; at most one per pilot€10,000 lump sum9, €90,0007, €69,870
Develop (May–Jul 2025)Building and deploying a working place-based digital application (AI, IoT, GIS) that sends its data back to the projectA single entity or a consortium of up to three€30,000–100,0005–15, €450,0006, €577,203
Enhance (Sep–Dec 2025)Testing JackDaw on real use cases: structured user feedback, a 10–15 page validation report, trainingA single entity onlyup to €25,0007–15, €315,0007, €173,895

Planned budgets come from the project fact sheet; planned project numbers come from D6.1.

Each step builds on the one before. The two cheap early calls build up the local stakeholder base and the list of needs. The expensive call builds tools that answer those needs. The last call has outside organisations, who did not build JackDaw, test it. Develop was first planned on real costs and was then run on lump sums, like the other three calls.

Selection and payment

Applicants submitted proposals through the PoliRural+ Knowledge Hub. Evaluators scored Objectives, Impacts and Implementation from 0 to 5 in half-point steps. A proposal had to score at least 3 on each criterion and at least 11 of 15 overall. Projects from different pilot regions were preferred, one per region. Develop and Enhance received many proposals, so an AI tool did a first screening for clustering, completeness and baseline relevance. Two human experts then evaluated every proposal, and a consensus panel set the final ranking. Winners signed a sub-grant agreement with CVUT and were paid per milestone, once their reports, media outputs or data packages were approved.

Plan versus delivery

The four calls drew 339 applications: 46 for Develop and 160 for Enhance. Thirty were approved and 26 went ahead. Two changes stand out. Outreach and Mobilise funded fewer projects than the planned nine (6 and 7). Money also moved up the ladder: Develop received 67.8 % of the €850,968 reported, while the plan gave it half. Enhance used about 55 % of its planned €315,000. D6.3 notes that €850,968 is the final eligible value of the 26 projects and should not be read as the Grant Agreement envelope.

Open-call results covers what the 26 projects built, region by region.

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