EIC awards up to €183 million to 57 early stage deep tech projects under Pathfinder Open 2022
- ›The European Innovation Council has selected 57 projects for Pathfinder Open 2022, allocating up to €183 million in grants.
- ›Projects cover early stage research across health, environment, energy, computing and AI and will receive coaching via EIC business acceleration services.
- ›Selected proposals were drawn from several hundred submissions with the largest shares of successful applicants based in Spain, Germany, Italy, France and the Netherlands.
- ›Pathfinder funding targets high risk high gain research at low TRL levels and offers follow on routes including Booster grants, the Transition scheme and Fast Track to the EIC Accelerator.
- ›The programme helps fill early stage funding gaps but significant downstream funding and commercialization risks remain for many awardees.
EIC directs more than €180 million to cutting edge technologies under Pathfinder Open 2022 call
On 18 October 2022 the European Innovation Council announced that it has selected a second set of projects under the EIC Pathfinder Open call launched after the EIC was established in March 2021. The Commission decided to fund 57 new projects with a total contribution of up to €183 million. The awards target early stage, high risk research that could underpin radical new technologies across sectors including health, environment, energy, computing and artificial intelligence.
Scale and coverage of the 2022 call
The 57 projects were selected from a large pool of applications. The EIC reports that the chosen proposals were selected among 858 evaluated submissions. Earlier reporting from the EIC indicated that around 863 consortia had applied to the Pathfinder Open deadline in May 2022. The distribution of successful applicants is concentrated in a handful of Member States with the highest numbers coming from Spain, Germany, Italy, France and the Netherlands.
Most participating organisations are universities and public research institutions. Small and medium sized enterprises made up 18.5 percent of participants in the successful proposals. That mix reflects Pathfinder’s emphasis on multidisciplinary research consortia but also highlights the continuing challenge of moving more private sector and SME teams into early stage deep tech discovery.
What the grants fund and what recipients receive
Pathfinder grants are designed for exploratory research and technology creation at low technology readiness levels. The 2022 awards under the Open call provide up to €3 million per project. The EIC also runs Pathfinder Challenges calls which allocate higher amounts of up to €4 million where projects address thematic priorities defined by the EIC.
Beyond grants, selected Pathfinder projects have access to EIC business acceleration services that include tailored coaching. Projects can also interact with EIC Programme Managers who steer portfolios and may receive small additional EIC Booster grants of up to €50,000 to test innovation potential or to foster cross project portfolio activities.
Routes after Pathfinder: transition and acceleration
The EIC emphasises follow up pathways. Promising results from Pathfinder projects can move into the EIC Transition scheme which aims to mature technologies and build a business case. There is also a Fast Track route to the EIC Accelerator to support market entry, where awardees can access blended finance in the form of grants and equity investments through the EIC Fund.
Numbers and comparative funding
| Item | Figure |
| Projects selected under Pathfinder Open 2022 | 57 |
| Total EIC contribution to these projects | Up to €183 million |
| Number of submissions evaluated | 858 (EIC figure) / ~863 consortia applied earlier reported |
| Typical grant size Pathfinder Open | Up to €3 million |
| Typical grant size Pathfinder Challenges | Up to €4 million |
| EIC Booster grant amount | Up to €50,000 |
| Share of participants who are SMEs | 18.5 percent |
Context and analysis
Pathfinder sits within the EIC portfolio as the instrument that explicitly funds high risk high reward research. The scheme aims to catalyse breakthroughs that traditional funding routes typically avoid because of risk. The EIC’s model links exploration to later stage instruments so that successful ideas have routes to development and commercialisation.
That structure is useful but not sufficient. Early stage discovery rarely converts to market success without sustained follow on finance and business development. The Transition and Accelerator schemes exist to provide that follow up but demand is high and funding is selective. Many Pathfinder projects will still face a so called valley of death between academic proof of concept and commercial readiness.
Geographic concentration of awards also merits scrutiny. The largest numbers of selected applicants originate from a handful of Member States. That reflects existing research capacity but it also points to persistent inequalities across the EU innovation ecosystem. EIC policies such as widening measures and the EIC Pre Accelerator aim to address this but progress will require long term coordination with national and regional programmes.
What to watch next
Follow up questions for observers and beneficiaries include how many Pathfinder projects secure Transition funding, how many successfully access EIC Accelerator investments, and the timeline for detectable impact in terms of spin outs, patents, or commercial products. Evaluating the scheme requires tracking outcomes over several years because impacts from TRL 1 to market can take a long time.
For applicants and practitioners the immediate practical takeaways are to plan for staged financing, to build partnerships that can carry technologies through development, and to engage early with EIC Programme Managers and business acceleration services to improve chances of progression.
Definitions and programme roles
Source material and transparency
This article is based on the EIC announcement published on 18 October 2022 and related EIC materials about Pathfinder, the EIC Work Programme 2022 and explanatory pages on the EIC website. The data points quoted are those released by the EIC. As with all early stage funding announcements, the ultimate test of impact is in long term follow up data on technology maturation and commercial outcomes.