292 proposals submitted to first EIC Transition calls as demand far outstrips €100 million budget
- ›The European Innovation Council received 292 proposals for its inaugural EIC Transition calls.
- ›221 proposals were submitted to the EIC Transition Open call, requesting about €583.7 million.
- ›71 proposals entered the two EIC Transition Challenges, requesting in total about €191.6 million between medical devices and energy technologies.
- ›The combined requested funding of around €775 million far exceeds the announced call budget of roughly €100 million, underlining strong demand and expected selectivity.
- ›Projects are being evaluated and selected proposals are expected to start in spring 2022.
High demand for EIC Transition funding: 292 proposals for inaugural calls
The European Innovation Council’s first EIC Transition calls attracted 292 proposals, the European Commission announced on 19 October 2021. The calls are the EIC’s route for taking results from early stage breakthrough research and pushing them towards application and market readiness. The submissions cover an open call plus two targeted challenges in medical technologies and energy harvesting and storage.
What the EIC Transition programme is for
EIC Transition grants are designed to fund the maturation and validation of novel technologies that have already reached experimental proof of principle in the laboratory. The programme is explicitly intended to bridge the gap between early research outcomes and project activities that increase market readiness. Successful Transition projects are expected to demonstrate technology performance in application‑relevant environments and to advance a credible exploitation or commercialisation pathway.
Submission statistics and budget pressure
The headline numbers show strong interest but also a stark mismatch between demand and supply. The EIC received 292 proposals requesting a combined sum far above the resources available for these inaugural Transition calls. That level of oversubscription will make the selection process highly competitive.
| Call | Proposals received | Number of countries represented | Total requested budget (approx.) | Notes |
| EIC Transition Open | 221 | 35 | €583.7 million | Open to novel technologies from any scientific field that have reached experimental proof of principle |
| EIC Transition Challenges — Medical technology & devices | 45 | 22 | €106.5 million | Targets devices and technologies for direct clinical treatment and care and transition to clinical evaluation |
| EIC Transition Challenges — Energy harvesting & storage | 26 | 22 | €85.1 million | Targets efficient, low cost, sustainable, compact and flexible energy harvesting, conversion and storage, aligned with Green Deal goals |
| Total | 292 | — | ≈ €775.3 million requested | Compared with an announced combined call budget of about €100 million |
The public announcement referred to the Transition calls as ‘‘worth €100 million’’ in total. Against roughly €775 million requested by applicants, that suggests an oversubscription on the order of nearly eight times. High oversubscription is not unusual for selective EU innovation instruments, but it does mean many quality proposals will not be funded and selection will be tight.
The two EIC Transition Challenges in detail
Alongside the open strand, the EIC ran two challenge‑based Transition streams. They were narrower in scope and targeted technologies with clearer links to strategic EU priorities.
Next steps and timing
According to the EIC announcement, the proposals are under evaluation and selected Transition projects were expected to start in spring 2022. The European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency is running evaluation and contracting. Projects will receive grants to support maturation and market readiness, along with access to Business Acceleration Services provided by the EIC.
Context and implications for applicants and the innovation ecosystem
This was the first set of Transition calls under the European Innovation Council. EIC Transition sits between earlier stage EIC Pathfinder or ERC Proof of Concept work and later stage EIC Accelerator support. The Transition stage is meant to take demonstrators and early IP toward investment readiness, de risking technologies enough to attract commercialization or follow - on funding.
From a policy perspective, the large number of Transition submissions confirms strong interest in EU backing for technology maturation. It also underscores capacity constraints. Member States, regional funds and the EU’s other instruments may be pushed to expand complementary support to avoid losing promising leads that cannot be funded in a single EIC round.
A cautious note on claims and outcomes
The EIC is positioning Transition as a critical step to convert public research into marketable products and services. That is a reasonable ambition. However, converting laboratory proof of principle into robust, regulated, market ready products is difficult. Clinical devices face long and costly regulatory and trial pathways and energy technologies must prove cost and reliability at scale. High oversubscription combined with limited budgets means many plausible and promising proposals will not receive EU support. The EIC’s downstream services and links to private investment will be important for funded teams, but claims about future market impact should be treated as aspirations until projects clear validation, regulatory and commercial milestones.
Practical links and documents
Further information about the EIC Transition strand and the EIC work programme is available through the EIC website and the EIC Work Programme 2021. The EISMEA agency manages the EIC. The Commission’s announcement dated 19 October 2021 communicated the submission statistics and the evaluation timeline.
What to watch next
Watch for the Evaluation Summary Reports and the list of projects selected to start in spring 2022. Also watch for how the EIC allocates the roughly €100 million in Transition funding across open and challenge streams and for signals about follow - on support for high quality proposals that do not make the initial funding cut. The balance between public grant funding and mechanisms to crowd in private capital will determine how many Transition winners reach deployment.