EIC Transition: first projects chosen to move lab breakthroughs into real world settings

On 17 January 2022 the European Innovation Council announced the first set of EIC Transition winners. The call attracted 292 proposals and resulted in 42 projects receiving a combined €99 million in EU grants. The scheme is explicitly aimed at taking outputs from high risk research supported earlier under EIC Pathfinder pilot activities and European Research Council Proof of Concept projects and advancing them toward market validation and investment readiness.

What the EIC Transition scheme aims to do

Transition is positioned between early stage research and commercial scale up. The funding is intended to fund activities that go beyond laboratory proof of principle. Typical aims are to mature and validate a technology in a relevant real world environment and to develop a viable business case so that the innovation can attract further private investment or enter customer trials. The initiative was co-designed by the EIC and the ERC and advised by the EIC pilot Advisory Board and members of the ERC Scientific Council.

Results of the first call and geographic spread

From 292 submitted proposals the EIC selected 42 Transition projects. The winners are based in 24 EU Member States and Horizon Europe associated countries. Germany had the highest number of participants with 25, followed by Italy with 17 and Spain with 14. The call combined an open funding stream with two targeted challenge streams for energy harvesting and storage and for medical technologies and devices.

Each selected project is eligible for a grant of up to €2.5 million. Exceptional cases may receive higher amounts. Alongside the grants, beneficiaries gain access to EIC Business Acceleration Services and may apply for Fast Track to the EIC Accelerator when ready. The Transition scheme accepts both single entities such as research teams, SMEs or spin outs and small consortia up to five partners from different countries.

Representative projects and technologies selected

The selection includes a mix of health, deep tech, robotics and energy projects that exemplify the gap the Transition funding aims to bridge between lab demonstration and field validation.

Connection with ERC and the role of research funding

The Transition call was created in partnership between the EIC and the ERC. The ERC highlighted that 25 of the 42 Transition recipients grew out of ERC funded research. That is an important signal that frontier curiosity driven research often seeds innovation opportunities. The ERC and the EIC have been working to join forces where appropriate to facilitate the transfer of academic discoveries toward commercialisation pathways.

Funding, support and eligibility details

Each Transition project may receive a grant up to €2.5 million with larger amounts allowed only in exceptional circumstances. Beneficiaries are offered coaching, mentoring and partnering opportunities through EIC Business Acceleration Services. Projects selected under Transition can request access to the Fast Track scheme for a quicker route to the EIC Accelerator which provides larger scale funding and equity investments for scale up.

Why Transition matters and what to watch next

Transition addresses a well known valley of death between laboratory proof of concept and commercial deployment. The funding and advisory services can help reduce technical risk, demonstrate system integration and validate early business models. However there are practical limits to what a single Transition grant can achieve. Commercialisation often requires further rounds of private investment, regulatory approvals, customer trials and supply chain development.

Policymakers and observers should watch for several indicators of impact. These include whether Transition projects secure follow on private investment, whether they enter the EIC Accelerator or other scaling instruments, and whether technologies meet regulatory and clinical milestones where relevant. Monitoring the conversion rate from Transition funding to market traction over the next three to five years will be essential to judge whether the instrument closes the gap it targets.

Background context on governance and budgets

The EIC operates under Horizon Europe and is implemented by the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency. The EIC was allocated a multi year budget under Horizon Europe to support early research, innovation maturation and scaling. The ERC continues to fund frontier research under the same programme. Joint statements from the EIC Advisory Board and the ERC Scientific Council in 2021 underlined the intention to strengthen cooperation between researcher led discovery and investor oriented innovation instruments.

This first Transition call is an early test of that cooperation. The selection of 42 projects and the high share of ERC origin projects indicate a pipeline of research based innovations. Whether these projects convert into companies, clinical products or industrial deployments will be the real test of the instrument.

Sources and next steps for readers

Primary sources include the EIC announcement of selected Transition projects and related ERC communications about the share of recipients originating from ERC funded research. Readers interested in applying to future Transition calls should consult the EIC and ERC pages on the Funding and Tenders portal and contact national Horizon Europe National Contact Points for guidance on eligibility and proposal preparation. Observers tracking impact should follow whether Transition projects secure Fast Track access to the EIC Accelerator and what follow on finance and commercial milestones they achieve.