IPCEI Artificial Intelligence (IPCEI AI)

A strategic opportunity for European artificial intelligence stakeholders

The European Commission and several Member States have initiated the structuring of a new Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI) dedicated to artificial intelligence: the IPCEI Artificial Intelligence (official designation at European level), referenced in the work of the Joint European Forum for IPCEI (JEF-IPCEI).

The IPCEI Artificial Intelligence aims to support industrial and technological projects of European scale, presenting a level of risk, complexity or strategic importance such that they cannot be financed by the market alone (market failures).

Within the IPCEI framework, these R&D and first industrial deployment (FID) projects are financed through State aid (in this case grants) and coordinated between Member States, under Article 107(3)(b) TFEU and the IPCEI Communication (2021).

In this context, around fifteen Member States have launched calls for expressions of interest (CEI): this constitutes the key entry point for companies wishing to position themselves within the IPCEI AI.

 

What is the IPCEI Artificial Intelligence?

The IPCEI Artificial Intelligence is a large-scale integrated pan-European R&D project aimed at accelerating the development, industrialisation and deployment of next-generation AI technologies (notably models, services and software ecosystem), generating spillovers beyond the sole beneficiary companies and participating Member States (European Union, 2021).

Like any IPCEI:

• it is designed, led and financed jointly by several Member States;
• it relies on national calls for expressions of interest to identify and pre-select projects;
• it requires a matchmaking phase to establish a cross-border R&D collaboration network in order to build an integrated pan-European project;
• it requires assessment by the European Commission under State aid rules, specifically the IPCEI Communication; grants cannot be awarded before Commission approval.

Why a European IPCEI dedicated to artificial intelligence?

Several Member States highlight the need to reduce dependencies and strengthen autonomy, security (data, cybersecurity) and innovation capacity in AI and related services.

The IPCEI Artificial Intelligence explicitly targets the scaling up of a “next-generation” AI ecosystem to accelerate adoption within European companies, addressing structural barriers: data availability, innovation fragmentation, interoperability and scalability.

The IPCEI Artificial Intelligence is part of a broader trajectory:

• • it is presented as complementary to the IPCEI on the Compute Infrastructure Continuum (CIC) (cloud/edge infrastructure);
  • it builds on previous IPCEIs (cloud and microelectronics);

<liid=”domaines-technologiques”>it is closely connected to the 8ra initiative aiming to build an open and interoperable European digital infrastructure.

In France, the initiative is also linked to the AI Continent Action Plan (The AI Continent Action Plan) announced on 9 April 2025.

Technological domains covered by the IPCEI Artificial Intelligence

Within the IPCEI Artificial Intelligence, several technological domains have been identified to cover the AI value chain. Projects must demonstrate their contribution to these priorities and to European innovation and competitiveness objectives (Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, 2025).

Foundation models and training technologies

R&D on foundation models (including frontier models), training methods and post-training techniques (sector-specific fine-tuning, etc.).

Sovereign cloud services and critical AI components

Cloud solutions and essential components for training, inference and compute distribution (resource management, computation distribution, orchestration).

Energy efficiency and sustainable AI computing

Technologies aimed at reducing energy footprint and improving efficiency in training and inference.

Data: secure access, quality, governance and tooling

Technologies enabling access to structured, high-quality datasets compliant with European requirements (privacy/security), as well as storage, management, processing and analytics.

AI-as-a-Service (AIaaS), tools, APIs and inference services

Tools and frameworks, API access and next-generation inference and training services, with a strong objective of lowering adoption barriers, particularly for SMEs.

Open source foundation and interoperability

Development of a shared open-source framework, high interoperability and security, supported by developer community engagement.

Integration into industrial use cases and public administrations

Large-scale deployment: sectoral use cases (industry, energy, mobility, healthcare, telecoms, etc.) and public administrations, with interconnection components (e.g. network services).

What is the process to secure a grant under the IPCEI Artificial Intelligence?

The process is coordinated at European level by a Member State (Germany), but implemented at national level by each participating country.

Calls for expressions of interest and national pre-selection

The first step consists of a national selection phase. Each participating Member State publishes a call for expressions of interest (CEI) to identify and pre-select projects. Each Member State remains sovereign in selecting the projects it wishes to fund. Selected companies can then participate in European structuring (matchmaking) and pre-notification.

Indicative timeline of national IPCEI AI consultations

Country	Deadline
Hungary	5 December 2025
Slovenia	15 December 2025
Spain	26 December 2025
Belgium	16 January 2026
Germany	21 January 2026
Italy	30 January 2026
France	30 January 2026
Ireland	4 February 2026
Croatia	15 February 2026
Sweden	23 February 2026
Estonia	4 March 2026
Slovakia	10 March 2026
Poland	12 March 2026
Netherlands	24 March 2026
Romania	9 April 2026

Finland and Lithuania had not yet published their calls for expressions of interest (CEI) as of March 2026.

Download our calendar of upcoming IPCEI deadlines

Project structuring and cross-border matchmaking

Once national pre-selection has been completed, a phase of European matchmaking is organised to build an integrated and coherent project, structured along the AI value chain and based on cross-border cooperation (a regulatory requirement under the IPCEI framework).

In practical terms, this phase aims to:

• identify complementary partners along the value chain,
• align technological and industrial roadmaps,
• structure integrated value chains at European scale.

Pre-notification to the European Commission (DG Competition)

The pre-notification phase aims to ensure compliance of individual projects, their financing and the integrated project with State aid rules, specifically the IPCEI Communication. It takes place through structured exchanges between Member States and the Commission. The State Aid unit of DG Competition is responsible for the assessment.

It relies on a set of standardised deliverables:

• Project Portfolio: document presenting the project, its public funding and demonstrating compliance with the IPCEI Communication criteria.
• Funding Gap: financial analysis (business plan) demonstrating the necessity of public support and its proportionality.
• PRODCOM market analysis: spreadsheet used to assess market structure and estimate the market shares of the beneficiary and its competitors.

Formal notification and State aid assessment

Pre-notification typically involves two to five rounds of questions and answers. Once the Commission has obtained all necessary information for its compatibility assessment, it invites Member States to formally notify the planned aid.

Compatibility decision

Following the assessment, the European Commission adopts a compatibility decision within two months of notification. This decision is subsequently published within a few months, allowing for the protection of confidential information (project costs, profitability, etc.). The decision is legally binding on third parties and protects the funded companies under the initiative.

Signature of the funding agreement

Based on the Commission’s decision, national authorities may then enter into agreements with beneficiaries (funding agreements) and initiate project implementation. The disbursement of aid and its timetable remain under the responsibility of Member States, in accordance with these agreements.

What are the eligibility criteria for IPCEI Artificial Intelligence projects?

Projects must demonstrate in particular:

• Major innovation, going beyond the global state of the art and presenting a strategic dimension for the European artificial intelligence ecosystem.
• A market failure, justifying public intervention in line with the principles of necessity, proportionality and incentive effect.
• Effective cross-border cooperation, embedded in an integrated project at European level along the AI value chain.
• Clear and binding commitments on the dissemination of project results (spillovers), ensuring benefits extend beyond direct beneficiaries and participating Member States.
• No undue distortion of competition and trade, in accordance with European State aid rules.

How does european economics support IPCEI project promoters in artificial intelligence?

european economics supports companies involved in the IPCEI Artificial Intelligence across the entire cycle, from project preparation for national calls for expressions of interest to the preparation of the notification file to the European Commission and up to the compatibility decision.

Our support includes:

• strategic positioning of the project within the European AI value chain;
• eligibility analysis against IPCEI criteria (innovation beyond the state of the art, funding gap, cross-border cooperation, spillovers, absence of distortion of competition);
• modelling and securing the funding gap to optimise the level of aid mobilised;
• preparation of national applications and pre-notification and notification deliverables;
• support until formal approval by the European Commission.

Since 2018, european economics has supported 148 projects across 11 IPCEIs in 13 Member States, helping secure €16 billion in State aid approved by the European Commission.

The objective of this support is to maximise available funding while securing the entire State aid approval process. european economics has achieved a 100% success rate in notification procedures conducted before the European Commission, while failure rates have been around 40% in recent IPCEIs.

Across the 11 IPCEIs already approved by the European Commission, companies supported by european economics obtained an average aid of €169 million per project, compared to €81 million on average for other beneficiaries, representing a multiplier of 2.1.

 

Summary:

• Instrument: IPCEI Artificial Intelligence, currently at the stage of national calls for expressions of interest.
• Legal basis: Article 107(3)(b) TFEU, IPCEI Communication (2021).
• Objective: build a next-generation European AI ecosystem (models, data, services, interoperability, industrial adoption).
• Eligible activities: R&D (from TRL 4–5) and First Industrial Deployment (FID, TRL 8).
• Process: national CEIs and pre-selection → European matchmaking → pre-notification → notification → compatibility decision.
• Key challenge for companies: anticipate national selection, structure a DG COMP-ready project, secure the funding gap and spillovers, and build strong cross-border partnerships.

Contact us to secure your positioning and maximise your chances of success in the IPCEI AI.