NOSTRADAMUS - Open Call #1: Funding Digital Applications for Sustainable and Efficient Agriculture
OpenDescription
NOSTRADAMUS Open Call #1 invites system actors and innovators (SMEs, start-ups, small mid-caps, RTOs, end-user organisations) to design, develop, test, and validate multi-functional, open-source digital applications for farm decision-making and agribusiness. Selected Third Parties will build upon the NOSTRADAMUS data infrastructure - including multi-dimensional Open Data Cubes, Analysis Ready Data (ARD) Earth Observation pipelines, real-time IoT Observatory streams, and socio-economic datasets - to deliver data-driven tools that optimize agricultural inputs (water, fertilizers, pesticides), improve energy balance, and enhance production resilience in cereal-based agricultural systems. The call covers 5 designated topics: Topic 1 (T1): Sustainable crop production and optimisation of cereal-based systems under changing climate and soil conditions. Topic 2 (T2): Nutrient and soil health management, integrating soil fertility indicators, organic matter dynamics, and precision fertilisation models. Topic 3 (T3): Water resource efficiency and drought resilience, using Early Warning System outputs and IoT-based soil moisture monitoring. Topic 4 (T4): Smart and predictive pest and disease management to support the EU objective of reducing pesticide dependency. Topic 5 (T5): Open topic (integrated, cross-domain decision-support applications combining at least two topics T1–T4). Awarded Third Parties must participate in a 12-month 4-Sprint program (Training, Design, Development & Validation, Demonstration & Assessment), physically demonstrate their application at 1 primary NOSTRADAMUS pilot site (DE, RS, CH, SI, or CY), deliver at least 1 user training session, release their source code as open-source, and author an EIP-AGRI Practice Abstract.
Beneficiary & submission
Applications must be submitted electronically via the F6S platform: https://www.f6s.com/nostradamus-open-call-1/apply by 02 December 2026 at 17:00 CET.
All Open Call #1 documents are available for download at: https://nostradamus-project.eu/open-call-1/
Evaluation Workflow:
- Admissibility & Eligibility Check: Verification of submission criteria, official templates, language (English), single submission rules, country eligibility (EU Member States & Horizon Europe Associated Countries), and applicant eligibility (individual SMEs/start-ups/small mid-caps or 2-partner consortia).
- External Remote Expert Evaluation: Each eligible proposal is reviewed independently by two external experts against 4 criteria: Alignment (score 0–5), Excellence (score 0–5), Impact (score 0–5), and Implementation (score 0–5). Thresholds: min. 3/5 per criterion, min. 12/20 overall.
- Consensus & Ranking: Expert review panel establishes a consensus report and topic ranking lists (one list per topic, 5 in total).
- Online Interviews: The top 3 ranked proposals per topic undergo a 30-minute pitch and Q&A session with an Interview committee to finalize scores and ranking.
- Final Selection & Contracting: Selection of 5 sub-projects (guaranteeing min. 1 project per topic T1–T5) followed by formal KYC verification and Sub-Grant Agreement signature.
Further information
Official Project Website: https://nostradamus-project.eu
Helpdesk Email: opencall@nostradamus-project.eu
Eligible Applicants: Single SMEs / start-ups / small mid-caps, or consortia of up to 2 entities (Lead Beneficiary must be an SME/start-up/small mid-cap; 2nd partner can be an RTO/university or end-user/sectoral representation organisation).
• Funding Model: Fixed 12-month lump-sum grant of up to €50,000 paid / per project in 4 tranches linked to sprint performance reviews (10% + 25% + 40% + 25%).
• Starting TRL: Minimum TRL 4 (technology validated in lab), targeting TRL 7 by Month 12.