March has been one of the most active months yet across Sploro’s EU project portfolio.
Drones took to the fields in Mallorca with SPADE, PQ-REACT made strides in quantum security with the first SPQR Cluster meeting and a new expert interview, and Women Tech EU closed its programme with a landmark event in Brussels. Open Horizons launched its third open call and showed up at events across Europe, Evolve2Care published its open call results dashboard and a fresh report on digital health innovation, and PhotonQBoost brought together SMEs and researchers in Prague for its Czech Republic Matching Mission.
Here is everything that happened.
2-18 March | Online
March was one of the most active months yet for Open Horizons, with the project appearing at multiple events across Europe and launching a major milestone for its startup community.
After months of preparation, Open Call #3 officially opened on 2 March 2026 — a significant moment for the project and for the deep tech startups across Europe waiting for this opportunity. The call offers cascade funding and structured support for innovative ventures, with a particular focus on women-led and digital-first companies.
To complement the launch, an Open Call #3 Info Day was held on 18 March, giving prospective applicants a dedicated space to ask questions, understand the requirements, and connect with the Open Horizons team ahead of their application.
On 11 March, Open Horizons participated in the EEN2EIC online webinar, a 90-minute session focused on guiding women-led deep tech companies through the EIC Accelerator 2026 application process. Sploro presented the Open Horizons project alongside broader cascade funding opportunities available to eligible startups.
The session brought together women founders and female-led leadership teams preparing to apply for one of Europe’s most prestigious innovation funding instruments — offering practical, application-oriented guidance alongside direct exchange with experienced EIC professionals.
On 17 March, Sploro took part in a half-day in-person seminar organised by Technology Centre Prague, in collaboration with the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic and Access2EIC. The event — “Women Innovators in Deep Tech: Support & Opportunities” — focused on presenting national and European programmes available to women entrepreneurs and researchers considering launching technology ventures.
Our own Virginia Vasilakou (Sploro) presented the opportunities available through Open Horizons, with a particular emphasis on cascading grants that provide early-stage innovators with access to funding, mentorship, and ecosystem support. The session recording is available on YouTube.
Open Horizons is a Horizon Europe project supporting deep tech and digital startups through cascade funding and structured corporate collaboration. Learn more at openhorizonsproject.eu.
5 March | Brussels, Belgium
March marked the official conclusion of the Women Tech EU programme, with a landmark final event held in Brussels. The closing brought into sharp focus what the initiative has achieved — and how much further the broader ecosystem still needs to go in supporting women-led deep tech startups.
But that wasn’t all. March kept us busy on the Women Tech EU front — from a conference on women’s entrepreneurship where our own Maja Horvat took to the stage, to a major matchmaking event that brought together startups and investors from across Europe.
On March 5, our project manager Maja Horvat attended and presented at an event organised under the EU Support to Women Entrepreneurs project — an initiative working to close the data gap on women entrepreneurs and put more female role models front and centre in ESTEAM fields.
Maja joined the “Improve Access to Finance” breakout session, where participants mapped key stakeholders in the funding ecosystem and discussed how to channel more capital towards women-led ventures. Cascade funding mechanisms were a big part of what she brought to the conversation — and after the group discussions, she was one of the presenters who took the stage to share the session’s findings with the full auditorium, alongside speakers from the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA). She put it well herself:
“Any and each one of us that brings a piece of puzzle to the ecosystem… starting with founders themselves acting as the running force and role models. I de-briefed one of the sessions on the stage, talking about what I know best — cascade funding — easy access to public funding for SMEs and the importance of stakeholders in the ecosystem.”
On 18 March, the team also hosted a Matchmaking Event for the 4th cohort, connecting 67 startups with 95 investors and corporates — a total of 162 participants from 33 countries, enabling 142 one-to-one meetings.
Women Tech EU is a European initiative supporting women-led startups in deep tech. Learn more at womentecheurope.eu.
17 March | Palma de Mallorca, Spain
One of the highlights of the month for SPADE was an open informative session on drone application for phytosanitary treatments, held on 17 March 2026 in Palma de Mallorca, in collaboration with ASAJA Baleares and local partners.
The event brought together farmers, cooperatives, agronomic advisors, and drone professionals for a practical and regulatory deep-dive into the use of drones in precision agriculture. Topics covered included:
SPADE is a Horizon Europe project developing smart, sustainable solutions for precision agriculture across the EU. Learn more at spade-horizon.eu.
17 March | Online
March brought a series of meaningful developments for Evolve2Care, the EU project supporting innovation in transitional care across Europe.
The headline update from Sploro’s perspective is the publication of the Open Call Results & Platform Insights Dashboard on the Evolve2Care website. As the team directly managing Evolve2Care’s open calls, this dashboard represents a tangible output of the work we have been driving — and a transparent window into the project’s impact so far.
The dashboard brings together key data visualisations covering country distribution of applicants, selected projects, TRL distribution, and use case breakdown — offering a clear, data-driven picture of the innovation landscape the project is shaping across Europe.
There is plenty more happening across the project this month — from new research on the barriers and drivers shaping digital health innovation, to events, plenary meetings, and Living Labs updates. If you want to get the full picture, the 6th edition of the Evolve2Care newsletter they released on March 17 is well worth a read.
Evolve2Care is a Horizon Europe project accelerating the adoption of digital innovations in transitional care. Learn more at evolve2care.eu.
19 March | Online
March brought several significant developments for PQ-REACT, the post-quantum cryptography framework project focused on energy-aware contexts.
PQ-REACT is a founding member of the SPQR Cluster — a coalition of European projects united by a shared mission: securing Europe’s digital infrastructure against emerging quantum threats. On March 19, the cluster held its first online coordination meeting, bringing together all participating projects to introduce their work, align on objectives, and identify opportunities for joint activities in the months ahead.
The SPQR Cluster currently unites eight cutting-edge EU projects, including QUBIP, PQ-NEXT, FOCAL, QARC, Q-Fence, POSEIDON PQC, and FORTRESS — alongside PQ-REACT itself. This collaborative framework marks an important step in building a coherent European response to the quantum security challenge.
On March 11, the project continued its “Conversations With Our Experts” series with a compelling new episode featuring Tobias Köppl from Fraunhofer Institute FOKUS, exploring the intersection of quantum computing and cybersecurity under the theme “Quantum vs. Classical: Where Quantum Computing Meets Security”.
PQ-REACT is a Horizon Europe project developing a post-quantum cryptography framework for energy-aware contexts. Learn more at pqreact.eu.
24-26 March | Prague, Czech Republic
March was a landmark month for PhotonQBoost, with the project’s Czech Republic Matching Mission taking place in Prague from 24 to 26 March 2026 — the second in a series of regional missions designed to connect SMEs, researchers, and industry leaders across Europe’s photonics and quantum ecosystem.
Focused on Manufacturing & Industrial Optics, the three-day mission combined on-site visits to leading research infrastructures — including ELI and HiLASE — with discovery sessions, hands-on demonstrations of real industrial applications, and collaborative ideation workshops oriented towards upcoming Horizon Europe opportunities. The final day brought participants together to turn ideas into concrete project proposals, reflecting the mission’s core purpose: building connections that lead to real impact.
The Czech Republic mission is just one stop on a wider journey. PhotonQBoost has five more regional missions planned across Austria, Finland, France, Germany and Lithuania, each focused on a different target sector — from Mobility and Life Sciences to Quantum Generation and Medical & Health. Eligible SMEs are welcome to attend all missions relevant to their business, and travel grants are available to support participation.
PhotonQBoost is a Horizon Europe project accelerating the growth of photonics and quantum technologies across European SMEs through cluster collaboration and cascade funding. Learn more at photonqboost.eu.
March has reinforced something we see across all of Sploro’s EU projects: European innovation is best when it is collaborative, cross-border, and grounded in real-world impact. Whether it is farmers learning to fly drones in Mallorca, cybersecurity researchers aligning on quantum threats in Kraków, women founders building deep tech ventures across the continent, startups unlocking cascade funding through Open Horizons, digital health innovators navigating Living Labs across Europe, or photonics SMEs forging new partnerships in Prague — the work is happening, and it matters.
Stay tuned for more updates as these projects continue to evolve throughout 2026.
