EIC commits €79.3 million to 34 Transition projects to move lab results toward market

Brussels, February 8th 2023

Summary

›The European Innovation Council selected 34 projects for EIC Transition grants worth a total of €79.3 million.
›Awards come from a pool of 181 eligible submissions and cover both open topics and three targeted challenges.
›Projects include bio-cementation for soil stabilisation, low-platinum PFSA-free fuel cell stacks, AI-driven RNA delivery vehicles, and wafer-scale radar sensors using 2D materials.
›Each project may receive up to €2.5 million and will get access to EIC Business Acceleration Services and a fast track to the EIC Accelerator.

EIC invests €79.3 million in 34 Transition projects to bridge research and market

On 8 February 2023, the European Innovation Council announced funding decisions from the September 2022 EIC Transition cut-off. Thirty four projects were selected for grants totalling €79.3 million. The call drew proposals from research teams, SMEs and spinouts that aim to mature technologies, validate them in application relevant environments and start building business cases for commercialisation.

Numbers and scope

The winners were chosen from 181 eligible submissions. The 34 selected projects come from 17 EU Member States and Horizon Europe associated countries. Grants are worth up to €2.5 million per project. The call combined open funding with three targeted challenge tracks covering clean energy system integration, green digital devices, and RNA-based therapies and diagnostics for complex or rare genetic diseases.

Metric	Result
Total projects selected	34
Total EIC Transition funding	€79.3 million
Maximum grant per project	Up to €2.5 million
Eligible submissions in cut-off	181
Countries represented	17
Breakdown by stream	27 Open, 4 Green digital devices, 2 RNA-based therapies and diagnostics, 1 Clean energy integration

Representative projects and why they matter

The selected portfolio mixes hardware, materials science, energy and health interventions. Below are four projects that illustrate the programme's technical breadth and the practical hurdles each faces before commercialisation.

BIGALPS — bio-cementation for geotechnical resilience

BIGALPS proposes a biotechnology for soil stabilisation that uses microbes to precipitate calcium carbonate and bind soil particles. The approach aims to offer an environmentally friendlier alternative to chemical or mechanical soil treatments and to tackle erosion and landslide-prone areas. The project will focus on validating compatibility with field conditions, existing norms and industry standards. Scaling, long term durability, regulatory acceptance and potential ecological side effects will be key hurdles before the technology can replace established civil engineering solutions.

ENABLER — lower-platinum, PFSA-free PEM fuel cell short stack

ENABLER targets a proton exchange membrane fuel cell short stack that reduces platinum use to 0.3 mg Pt per cm2 and eliminates PFSA polymer components. The stated goal is to match the performance of recent PFSA-containing PEMFCs while easing dependence on a critical raw material and potentially addressing environmental concerns around PFAS-like chemistries. Technical risk remains high because catalyst performance, membrane durability and manufacturability must reach automotive or heavy duty standards to be commercially viable.

TraffikGene-Tx — targeted peptide carriers for RNA delivery

TraffikGene-Tx combines modular carrier design and high throughput screening with AI enhanced structure activity relationship modelling to accelerate development of nucleic acid therapeutics delivery vehicles. The project plans to validate carriers for a range of RNA modalities and advance candidates toward preclinical studies. Delivery remains the principal bottleneck for RNA therapeutics beyond the liver. Demonstrating safe biodistribution, low immunogenicity and scalable manufacturing will determine whether this work translates into durable clinical platforms.

SMARTWAY — wafer-scale meta components for wireless sensing at mmWave and THz

SMARTWAY aims to integrate two dimensional materials, metamaterials and carbon nanotubes at wafer scale to create low energy, high performance radar sensors for IoT use at millimetre and terahertz frequencies. The plan is to deliver demonstrators for industry compatible radar sensors. Achieving reliable wafer scale fabrication and yield for heterogeneous material stacks is technically demanding and often requires long term investment in process control and standards to reach commercial cost targets.

What the EIC Transition programme supports

EIC Transition grants:Designed to move results from earlier-stage research programs toward market readiness. Typical activities include technology validation in application relevant environments, de risking, prototyping, and building a credible business case. Grants can support single entities or small consortia of up to five partners from different countries.

Eligible source technologies:The programme focuses on outputs from EIC Pathfinder, Future and Emerging Technologies projects and European Research Council Proof of Concept work. It is explicitly about translating frontier research into demonstrators and early market strategies.

Business Acceleration Services:Successful projects gain access to coaching, mentoring and partnering events. They can also apply for a fast track path to the EIC Accelerator, which supports later stage commercialisation and scaling through grants and blended finance including equity via the EIC Fund.

Explainer notes on technical terms

Technology Readiness Levels TRL:TRL is a common scale from 1 to 9 to describe maturity. EIC Transition typically supports projects moving from experimental proof of concept toward demonstration in application relevant environments, roughly TRL 4 to 6.

Proton exchange membrane fuel cell PEMFC and PFSA:A PEMFC generates electricity from hydrogen and oxygen across a polymer electrolyte membrane. PFSA refers to perfluorinated sulfonic acid polymers used in many high performance membranes. Reducing platinum loading and removing PFSA involves trade offs between catalytic activity, durability and manufacturability.

Bio-cementation:A soil improvement method using microbes to precipitate minerals that bind particles together. It can reduce the need for cement or mechanical stabilisation but requires proof that microbial processes are controllable, stable over time and safe for ecosystems.

RNA therapeutics delivery:Delivering therapeutic RNA to the intended tissues without degradation, off target effects or immune activation is the central technical challenge preventing wider use beyond some current applications such as liver targeted treatments and vaccines.

Metamaterials and 2D materials:Metamaterials are engineered structures that control electromagnetic waves. Two dimensional materials are atomically thin solids with novel electronic and optical properties. Integrating these materials at production scale is complex and can create contamination and yield issues in standard semiconductor fabs.

A pragmatic assessment and remaining questions

The EIC Transition call funds promising mid risk projects that require time and capital to prove technical and market viability. The portfolio includes disruptive ideas but many face steep technical scaling challenges and regulatory pathways. The programme's value will depend on whether these projects can secure follow on financing and industrial partnerships after the Transition grant period. Access to EIC Business Acceleration Services and the fast track to the Accelerator are useful mechanisms but they do not guarantee private investment or regulatory approval.

Another observation is the selection rate. With 34 projects chosen from 181 eligible submissions the success rate for this cut-off is under 20 percent. That reflects strong competition but also highlights opportunity costs for teams that do not secure funding. Geographic distribution across 17 countries signals some spread but the EIC and Horizon Europe have been criticised in the past for concentration of awards in a smaller set of member states. Greater transparency on country by country breakdown would help assess widening objectives.

Follow up and what to watch

Trackable indicators to watch over the next two to five years include follow on private investment, demonstrator performance in real world settings, regulatory milestones achieved especially in health and construction applications, and successful access to the EIC Accelerator. The Commission and EISMEA typically publish lists of selected projects and progress updates. Independent verification of claimed technical performance and environmental benefits will be important for stakeholders deciding whether to adopt these technologies.

How to find more information

The EIC publishes the list of selected projects and provides further details on the EIC Transition call pages. Beneficiaries can access business acceleration services and may apply for the EIC Accelerator fast track. Readers should consult the EIC and EISMEA websites for official documents and the full list of awardees.