There are many ways to collaborate on thematic funding calls from various authorities on international or national levels. We’d herewith like to point you to some opportunities that are however often overlooked: cascade funding calls.
Cascade funding or financial support to third parties (FSTP) is a mechanism set up by a funding authority to distribute public funds more efficiently and at scale, by means of intermediary projects. Instead of the funding authority directly selecting all final beneficiaries, it uses funded consortia/initiatives to run “open calls” to grant parts of their budget to third parties.
These open calls are competitive, but they are often designed to allow for simplified processes, both for applications and evaluations. The size of grants given via cascade funding is typically moderate and third-party projects funded are usually of short duration (roughly 6–18 months), with the focus lying on innovation: R&D, prototyping, pilot projects, demonstrations.
The calls must be made public and allow for fair and transparent selection but each funding authority or initiative organising a cascade funding call will set the exact conditions for application, the expected scope and modalities, so it is important to check the details on eligibility criteria for each call specifically. For example, in some cases funding is allocated by different funding bodies to representatives from their country only and the grant allocation can differ.
The European Commission Funding and Tenders Portal gathers a specific section with cascade funding calls – see https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/home and select the “Funding” tab / sub-section “Calls for Proposals”; the detailed filter options allow for the display of “calls for funding in cascade” in particular. Here are a few examples of cascade funding opportunities that you can currently find:
- LEAP-SE, “Europe-Africa Research and Innovation call on Sustainable Energy” – 2026: call
- ERA4Health calls, e.g. on “Understanding and Preventing Overweight and Obesity: Mechanisms of their onset and progression, neglected determinants and novel strategies for critical transitional periods in life – PREVENT-OO” – call ; see also https://era4health.eu/calls/preventoo2026.php
- SBEP, “Digitalisation and Innovation for Resilient Marine Ecosystems Businesses, and Communities to Strengthen the EU Blue Economy’s Competitiveness” – call ; see also https://www.bluepartnership.eu/funding-opportunity/sustainable-blue-economy-partnerships-third-joint-transnational-call
- Water4All 2025 Joint Transnational Call “Water and health” – call; see also https://www.water4all-partnership.eu/joint-activities/water4all-2025-joint-transnational-call
- Clean Energy Transition Partnership Joint Call 2025 – call; see also https://www.cetpartnership.eu/calls/joint-call-2025/fundig-organisations
Some of the cascade funding calls will require you a submission with other partners – so do not hesitate to search for relevant organisations in our Members Directory or under the Networking tab on the Hub!