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Horizon Europe
1 phase
Strategic Analysis
This Innovation Action (IA) targets the critical challenge of the escalating energy consumption and environmental footprint of AI data processing in data centres. A winning proposal will demonstrate cutting-edge innovations in thermal management, energy-efficient power backup, and AI-driven data centre optimization, culminating in a robust, open pilot demonstration site. The focus must be on achieving TRL 6-8, showcasing tangible, scalable breakthroughs for European digital sovereignty and sustainability.
TRL 6 → 8
Direct on-chip cooling and thermal management, including novel and innovative cooling techniques applied at chip and module level (direct liquid cooling, heat spreaders, thermal interface materials, and advanced packaging) and multi-scale thermal management techniques.
Energy-efficient power backup and storage systems: Innovations in early-stage energy storage concepts (graphene-enhanced batteries, supercapacitors, and other emerging battery chemistries) and approaches for net-zero backup.
Sustainable data centre architectures and AI workload optimization: addressing AI-driven workload scheduling, adaptive power management, dynamic resource allocation and integration of data centre heat capture and reuse.
Materials research for energy efficiency: Projects to make use of existing research in new materials and components supporting energy efficiency and thermal management, and to employ these for data centres benefit.
Optimisation of data centre operation and functioning: explore AI solutions to optimize the Data centre functioning, computing architecture, and virtualization, minimizing its carbon and environmental footprint.
Integration of data centres into energy systems and the wider region: including solutions that integrate Data centres into energy system planning and operation.
Demonstrated innovations that substantially improve heat removal from high-power AI chips (e.g. direct on-chip cooling, advanced thermal interface materials, multi-scale thermal management), enabling higher performance without thermal throttling. This should lead to lower cooling energy needs and higher reliability for dense AI workloads.
Prototypes of novel backup power systems (such as graphene-enhanced batteries) that operate with minimal cooling requirements, improving data centre resilience and enabling better use of renewable power.
New methods and frameworks that optimise the entire data centre for energy-efficient AI processing. This includes intelligent workload scheduling and AI model optimisation techniques to reduce energy use (e.g. carbon-aware job scheduling and power capping to cut energy demand and peak temperatures), as well as designs for integrating on-site/off-site renewables and waste-heat reuse.
As a result of all the above bullet points, an open pilot demonstration site that allows for the testing and integration of the outcomes of these projects and serves as the European reference for showcasing the breakthroughs and cutting-edge technologies for energy-efficient and sustainable data centres developed under this topic. This site should serve as a model for technology uptake for the European data centre industry.
Developing an agile and secure single market for data and trustworthy AI services is central to Europe’s digital sovereignty and competitiveness.
The convergence of the Telco-Edge-Cloud continuum (3C) with open orchestration platforms will unlock the transformative potential of AI across strategic sectors, from mobility and energy to health and manufacturing, fostering new services and business models.
Building a sovereign Open Internet Stack, rooted in open-source, interoperable and standard-based solutions, will reinforce trust, resilience and innovation, while ensuring Europe retains control over critical digital infrastructures.
Decentralised and federated approaches to AI data processing, combined with breakthroughs in sustainable data centres, will help overcome Europe’s compute bottlenecks and dependencies, and reduce the environmental footprint of AI.
By aligning with the Data Union Strategy and Common European Data Spaces, these efforts will deliver secure, compliant and adaptive data-sharing frameworks that empower citizens, businesses and administrations.
Strengthen Europe’s ability to innovate, scale and lead globally in data and AI, anchoring digital sovereignty in line with EU values and strategic interests.
Data Union Strategy
highThe European Data Strategy, often referred to in broader terms like 'Data Union Strategy', aims to create a single market for data within the EU, enabling its free flow across sectors and Member States for the benefit of businesses, researchers, and public administrations. It seeks to position the EU as a leader in the data economy, ensuring data availability, trustworthiness, and ethical use, while upholding EU values and regulations.
Proposals should demonstrate how they contribute to the overarching goals of the European Data Strategy, particularly by fostering greater data availability, interoperability, and responsible data sharing. For this call focusing on energy efficiency and sustainability of AI data processing in data centres, evaluators will look for how the proposed solutions contribute to a sustainable and efficient data economy, aligning with the strategy's objectives while minimizing environmental impact. This could involve showing how energy-efficient AI processing facilitates the strategy's aims for data utilization in a responsible and environmentally conscious manner.
Common European Data Spaces
highCommon European Data Spaces are a key component of the European Data Strategy, designed to establish secure, trusted, and interoperable environments for data sharing across specific sectors (e.g., health, energy, manufacturing) and Member States. They aim to overcome legal and technical barriers to data sharing, pooling data from diverse sources to fuel innovation, research, and public good, all while ensuring data sovereignty and compliance with EU data protection regulations.
Proposals should clearly articulate how their work contributes to or leverages the principles underpinning Common European Data Spaces. This includes demonstrating how their solutions facilitate secure, trusted, and interoperable data sharing, potentially across different sectors, while adhering to ethical guidelines and robust data governance frameworks. For this call, proposals could highlight how energy-efficient AI data processing contributes to the sustainability and long-term viability of these data spaces, or how data from such spaces could be utilized to optimize energy consumption within data centres, thereby supporting their overall environmental objectives.
Evaluators will prioritize proposals that clearly demonstrate substantial improvements in heat removal from high-power AI chips (@EO1), novel backup power systems with minimal cooling (@EO2), and new methods for energy-efficient AI processing across the entire data centre (@EO3). Crucially, a strong emphasis will be placed on the establishment of an open pilot demonstration site (@EO4) that serves as a European reference for showcasing these integrated, cutting-edge technologies and facilitating their uptake by the industry. Proposals must show a clear path to TRL 6-8.
The AI has drafted potential core elements based on the call analysis. To start building your project proposal structure, select the elements that resonate with your consortium's concept. You can refine and rewrite them fully once your project workspace is created.
The increasing demand for AI computing power leads to a significant rise in energy consumption by data centres, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions and environmental degradation.
Current cooling technologies struggle to efficiently dissipate heat from increasingly powerful AI chips, leading to performance limitations (thermal throttling), higher cooling energy demands, and reduced hardware reliability.
Traditional backup power systems for data centres are often energy-intensive, reliant on fossil fuels, and lack the efficiency and minimal cooling requirements needed for truly net-zero and resilient operations, especially when integrating renewables.
Data centres often operate with siloed systems for power, cooling, and workload management, missing opportunities for holistic optimization, waste heat reuse, and seamless integration with broader energy systems, leading to suboptimal energy efficiency.
There is a need for a dedicated, open platform in Europe to test, validate, and showcase advanced energy-efficient and sustainable data centre technologies, hindering industry adoption and Europe's leadership in this critical area.
Entities responsible for the operation, maintenance, and strategic planning of data centre facilities, seeking to improve energy efficiency, reduce operational costs, and enhance sustainability.
Professionals and academic groups involved in developing and deploying AI/ML models and applications, who require high-performance, energy-efficient computing infrastructure.
Companies specializing in the development and supply of advanced cooling solutions, energy storage systems, power management hardware, and novel materials for IT infrastructure.
Organizations managing energy grids and supply, interested in integrating data centres as flexible loads or sources of waste heat for district heating/cooling.
Bodies responsible for shaping digital and environmental policies, setting standards, and promoting sustainable digital infrastructure across Europe.
Academics, researchers, and R&D institutions working on advanced computing, thermal engineering, energy storage, and sustainable IT, seeking to advance knowledge and collaborate on cutting-edge solutions.
The general public benefiting from a more sustainable digital economy, reduced environmental impact of IT, and enhanced digital services.
To design, develop, and demonstrate novel direct on-chip cooling and multi-scale thermal management techniques, including advanced thermal interface materials, to significantly improve heat removal from high-power AI chips, thereby enhancing performance and reliability while reducing cooling energy needs.
To research, develop, and prototype innovative energy storage concepts, such as graphene-enhanced batteries and supercapacitors, and integrate them into net-zero backup power systems for data centres, ensuring enhanced resilience and optimal utilization of renewable energy sources with minimal cooling requirements.
To create and demonstrate new methods and intelligent frameworks for optimizing entire data centre operations, including AI-driven workload scheduling, adaptive power management, dynamic resource allocation, and effective integration of waste-heat capture and reuse, to achieve substantial reductions in energy consumption and environmental footprint.
To develop, deploy, and operate an open pilot demonstration site that integrates and showcases the breakthroughs from @OBJ01, @OBJ02, and @OBJ03, serving as a European reference for testing, validating, and promoting the uptake of cutting-edge energy-efficient and sustainable data centre technologies by the industry.
The project will significantly decrease the energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions associated with AI data processing in data centres, contributing to climate change mitigation.
By developing and demonstrating cutting-edge sustainable data centre technologies, Europe will strengthen its position as a global leader in data and AI, reducing dependencies and fostering a secure, agile single market.
Innovations in thermal management, power backup, and workload optimization will lead to substantially more energy-efficient and resilient data centres, reducing operational costs and improving reliability.
The establishment of an open pilot demonstration site will serve as a crucial reference, facilitating the testing, validation, and rapid adoption of new energy-efficient and sustainable data centre solutions by the European industry.
The project will generate new scientific knowledge and foster expertise in advanced thermal management, energy storage, and AI-driven optimization for sustainable data centres, contributing to the European research landscape.