EIC Partners' Day 2026: Bringing Europe’s innovation ecosystem together

On 2 June 2026, ahead of the EIC Summit, the European Innovation Council convened roughly 120 attendees in Brussels for Partners' Day. The meeting gathered EIC Ecosystem Partners, EIC awardees and other stakeholders to review progress on the EIC Service Catalogue, report early outcomes from EIC ACCESS+ co-funding and plan next steps to strengthen business acceleration support for Europe’s deep-tech startups and researchers.

From catalogue to marketplace: what is changing

A central theme was the evolution of the EIC Service Catalogue from a static directory into what organisers described as one of Europe’s largest marketplaces for innovation support. Hosted on the EIC Community Platform, the catalogue already aggregates contributions from more than 300 partner organisations across 43 countries and lists over 700 services. Partners and EIC staff used the day to debate how to increase service discoverability, improve matching between beneficiaries and providers, and raise overall service quality.

Speakers framed the Catalogue as an operational marketplace rather than a simple list. Planned functionality to support that transition includes a partner rating system, unique partner identifiers to avoid duplication and confusion, catalogue quality reviews, and an AI-powered assistant intended to accelerate service discovery for beneficiaries. EIC staff presented these features as tools to reward high-performing providers and increase transparency for awardees choosing support.

EIC ACCESS+: co-funding in practice and early uptake

EIC ACCESS+ is the Financial Support to Third Parties mechanism deployed to co-fund access to services listed in the Catalogue. It reimburses up to 50 percent of eligible service costs, with individual beneficiaries able to receive cumulative support up to a maximum of €60,000. The call for applications opened online on 1 November 2024 and ran until 31 May 2026 unless otherwise communicated.

At Partners' Day organisers reported that by the end of May 2026 roughly 190 ACCESS+ applications had been approved and that more than 90 percent of the available funding had been committed. Project materials circulated earlier had indicated selection of around 180 beneficiary companies as an aspiration, so the reported 190 approvals suggests higher than expected uptake or adjustments to implementation. The programme team said demand is strongest for services in fundraising, business planning, internationalisation, intellectual property and acceleration.

Quality, monitoring and early impact signals

Organisers presented preliminary findings from the ACCESS+ Service Quality and Impact Report based on feedback from 92 beneficiaries who had completed services. The early results indicate that providers are generally perceived as competent and responsive and that beneficiaries reported positive business outcomes and high satisfaction. Event participants used working sessions to discuss persistent gaps, service visibility problems and the need for better matchmaking mechanisms.

While positive early feedback is encouraging it is still limited in scope. Ninety-two completed service responses are a small sample relative to the catalogue size and the thousands of EIC awardees across programmes. The planned rating system and catalogue quality reviews could improve monitoring but their design will determine whether they meaningfully screen for quality and avoid gaming.

Matching and relationship management: Key Account Managers and the BAS ecosystem

Speakers argued that KAMs can help solve a persistent problem in European innovation policy namely fragmentation of support and weak navigation for founders. If KAMs have clear mandates and metrics they can improve alignment between awardee needs and partner offers. The risk is that KAMs become administrative intermediaries rather than strategic brokers if they lack autonomy, capacity or information about partner quality.

Strategic direction: ambitions, language and governance questions

Stéphane Ouaki, Head of the EIC Department at EISMEA, used a keynote to articulate an ambition for the EIC to play a mission-oriented role akin to DARPA in the United States. The speech framed the EIC’s strategy around increasing investment capacity, supporting disruptive innovation through flexible instruments and helping European startups scale globally while contributing to technological sovereignty.

Invocations of DARPA are ambitious but warrant scrutiny. DARPA operates with long-standing, highly flexible contracting and a culture of risk tolerance that sits within the US Department of Defense and a particular procurement and budgetary environment. If the EIC seeks to emulate DARPA it will need to reconcile that aspiration with EU rules on public funding, state aid, procurement and the political appetite of member states. The EIC also operates within Horizon Europe and through EISMEA which imposes accountability and transparency obligations that shape design choices.

Co-creation and peer learning: shaping the next phase

The afternoon peer learning workshop brought partners, beneficiaries and support organisations together to co-create improvements for the service catalogue and ACCESS+. Moderated small group sessions produced recommendations on service visibility, matchmaking, user experience and the prioritisation of services for a next generation of co-funding. The exercise reflected the programme’s emphasis on community-driven design and iterative improvement.

What the numbers mean and where to watch next

A few headline figures merit close attention. The ACCESS+ call advertises a total envelope of about €3.45 million and grants of up to €60,000 per beneficiary. Project descriptions initially indicated an aim to support around 180 companies. Partners' Day reported 190 approvals and over 90 percent of funds committed by end May 2026, showing fast uptake. Fast demand is positive but also raises questions about how evenly the support is distributed across sectors, countries and stages.

Operational design choices will shape impact. The first-come-first-served principle favours applicants who are administratively ready and well supported by their networks. That may unintentionally advantage more established awardees and providers. A transparent scoreboard of approvals by sector, country and TRL would help civil society and policymakers assess whether the programme is reaching the intended beneficiaries equitably.

Risks, caveats and governance

The proposed technical fixes can improve the catalogue but also introduce new risks. Rating systems require careful anti-gaming safeguards and transparent criteria. AI assistants can accelerate discovery but inherit biases from training data and will need human oversight. The quality review process needs to be independent enough to credibly filter low quality offers while also avoiding bureaucratic overreach that stifles diverse partner models.

Finally, ambitions to scale EIC BAS into a pan-European deep-tech acceleration ecosystem must be reconciled with budget realities and legal constraints. The EIC has substantial resources under Horizon Europe but converting catalogue functionality into measurable economic impact will require rigorous monitoring, data sharing, and sustained investment in outreach to underrepresented regions.

Practical guidance and next steps for beneficiaries and partners

For EIC awardees interested in accessing services or co-funding: review eligibility criteria on the EIC Service Catalogue, select a service and apply to the EIC ACCESS+ call through the Community Hub. Applicants should prepare documentation required by the ACCESS+ application form and be aware that approvals are treated on a timestamped first-come-first-served basis. For questions, the ACCESS+ helpdesk is available at help@eicaccessplus.eu and the EIC Community Helpdesk can be used for technical issues with the platform.

Concluding assessment

EIC Partners' Day 2026 showcased a maturing approach to ecosystem building in Europe. The transition from catalogue to marketplace, the rapid uptake of ACCESS+ and the introduction of KAMs are promising developments for deep-tech founders seeking targeted support. At the same time, the programme faces operational and governance challenges. Planned technical features such as ratings and AI tools could help navigate complexity but need careful design to avoid bias and manipulation. Ambitions to emulate DARPA-style mission funding are strategically bold but will require policy adjustments and realistic expectations given the European legal and budgetary context.

If the EIC is to turn concept into sustained impact it must continue to improve transparency, publish disaggregated uptake and performance data, and invest in independent quality assurance. That will allow policymakers, partners and the innovation community to track whether the marketplace actually helps Europe’s most promising deep-tech companies scale and attract private capital at the scale required for technological sovereignty.

About the EIC Ecosystem Partnership Programme and the EIC ACCESS+ project

The EIC Ecosystem Partnership Programme sits within the EIC Business Acceleration Services and aims to connect EIC beneficiaries with specialised sector-focused services, infrastructure and expertise through partnerships with accelerators, incubators, research organisations and other providers. The EIC ACCESS+ project implements co-funding under a Financial Support to Third Parties scheme to help beneficiaries pay for selected Catalogue services. The EIC overall is funded under Horizon Europe with more than €10 billion allocated to EIC instruments for 2021 to 2027 and operates alongside the EIC Fund which deploys equity investments.

Further reading and resources are available on the EIC Community Platform, the EIC Service Catalogue pages and the EIC ACCESS+ website. For technical problems or questions about specific services use the EIC Community contact form and choose the category related to the Ecosystem Partnership Programme.