Summary
- Profile Type
- Technology offer
- POD Reference
- TODE20260116009
- Term of Validity
- 16 January 2026 - 16 January 2027
- Company's Country
- Germany
- Type of partnership
- Research and development cooperation agreement
- Targeted Countries
- All countries
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General information
- Short Summary
- The power electronics research group at a German university of applied sciences seeking partners to form a consortium for the HORIZON-CL5-2026-05-D5-02 call: Energy-Efficient Software-Defined Electric Vehicles (2ZERO Partnership). The research group focuses on applied research for modern mobility and energy systems. This includes control applications + HW/SW for power converters for EVs and rail applications, MW charging infrastructure application, industrial communication protocols, and more."
- Full Description
-
The power electronics group provides expertise in the design and realization of power electronic systems for high-power mobility and energy applications. Its competencies cover the full spectrum of power conversion, including AC/DC, DC/DC, and DC/AC systems, with a focus on high efficiency, high power density and reliable operation under demanding conditions.
Core strengths include the development of traction inverters for electric drive systems in road and rail applications, addressing requirements such as dynamic load behaviour. Advanced modulation and control strategies are applied to optimize efficiency and system robustness.
A further competence area is high-power charging and energy conversion infrastructure. The group develops scalable converter architectures for fast and ultra-fast charging systems, including high-power applications up to the megawatt range. This includes bidirectional charging concepts, system efficiency optimization and the integration of local energy storage to manage grid loads.
Methodological expertise spans model-based system design, control implementation, hardware prototyping and experimental validation. The group conducts efficiency, thermal, and fault-related testing under realistic operating conditions with considerations for EMC compatibility, enabling reliable assessment of converter performance.
About the project idea under HORIZON-CL5-2026-05-D5-02:
This project aims to develop and demonstrate next-generation electric passenger vehicles (also software defined) to reduce energy use and costs. Research will focus on better integration of vehicle hardware (batteries, motors, chassis) with software layers (controllers and communication nodes) that manage energy efficiency, charging, comfort and driving functions. The project will demonstrate benefits such as improved range, faster charging with optimally sized batteries, reduced material used and better use of vehicle space. Vehicle-to-grid functionalities should be implemented and tested in real conditions to enable interaction between vehicles, charging infrastructure and the electricity system, while ensuring compatibility with existing standards and mass-market deployment.
Web link to the call: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/HORIZON-CL5-2026-05-D5-02?order=DESC&pageNumber=1&pageSize=50&sortBy=startDate&isExactMatch=true
Deadline for EOI: 15th of March 2026
Deadline of the call: 14th of April 2026 - Advantages and Innovations
- Develops software-defined electric vehicles through the integration of software (enabling over-the-air-updates), energy management and bidirectional charging. It supports passenger vehicles types suitable for daily city use and if necessary for longer trips (for this about 300 miles or 480 km). V2G functionality enables consumers to act as prosumers, supporting grid stability and renewable energy use. Software-based optimisation reduces energy demand, improves charging flexibility and extends vehicle lifetime through updates. Impacts include lower ownership costs, improved urban air quality and faster adoption of affordable EVs.
- Technical Specification or Expertise Sought
-
Partners should show expertise in:
• Real-world requirements and ensure system-level integration for passenger vehicles.
• Software development, cybersecurity, communication protocols and data management.
• Validation of solutions in real operating environments, and if given, in software-defined vehicles for rapid prototyping - Stage of Development
- Lab tested
- Sustainable Development Goals
- Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
- Goal 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
- Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
- IPR status
- No IPR applied
Partner Sought
- Expected Role of a Partner
-
The roles of the partner(s) are:
• To provide support in defining functional requirements, vehicle development, and testing.
• Create reliable software framework and codebase which is replicable and sustainable.
• Real-world testing and validation of the developed vehicle
• Technoeconomic evaluation, including cost of ownership of current EVs available in the market and compare that to the resulted vehicle after development
• And more to cover the scope and expectation of the call
These roles can be adapted during the preparation of the proposal - Type and Size of Partner
- SME 11-49
- SME 50 - 249
- SME <=10
- Big company
- R&D Institution
- Type of partnership
- Research and development cooperation agreement
Dissemination
- Technology keywords
- 01001001 - Automation, Robotics Control Systems
- 01002004 - Embedded Systems and Real Time Systems
- 01003016 - Simulation
- 04007001 - Energy management
- 01002003 - Electronic engineering
- Market keywords
- 06011 - Energy for Transport
- 06002003 - Power grid and distribution
- 06003010 - Distributed power and grid connection
- 06006002 - Metering and monitoring
- 06008 - Energy Storage
- Targeted countries
- All countries