Prototypes of higher algebroids with applications to variational calculus

Reductions of higher tangent bundles of Lie groupoids provide natural examples of geometric structures which we would like to call higher algebroids. Such objects can be also constructed abstractly starting from an arbitrary almost Lie algebroid. A higher algebroid is, in principle, a graded bundle equipped with a differential relation of special kind (a Zakrzewski morphism). In the paper we investigate basic properties of higher algebroids and show some applications. Namely, we develop a geometric framework for variational calculus on higher algebroids (including both forces and momenta). Such a formalism covers simultaneously variational problems on higher tangent bundles, first-order problems on algebroids and higher-order problems reduced by symmetries.