EIC Pathfinder funds 53 projects with nearly €170 million for early deep tech

The European Innovation Council announced on 4 September 2023 that 53 proposals from its 2023 Pathfinder Open selection will receive up to €169.5 million in grant support. The awards cover a broad set of technical areas, including healthcare, artificial intelligence, computing, environmental technologies and energy. The selected projects were drawn from a competitive pool of 783 evaluated submissions and reflect the EIC’s preference for high‑risk, interdisciplinary research that could enable radically new technologies.

Who applied and who was selected

Applicants were mainly research organisations and higher education institutions with a minority share of private companies. SMEs accounted for roughly 18 percent of participants in the successful proposals. The countries with the highest number of selected applicants were France, Spain, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom. From 783 evaluated submissions, 53 projects were chosen representing an acceptance rate of about 6.8 percent among evaluated proposals. The projects will receive grant funding and access to targeted coaching via the EIC Business Acceleration Services.

Highlighted projects and their claims

The EIC communication highlights several exemplar projects selected under this round. Each is at an early stage and aims to open new technical directions. The descriptions below reflect project goals as presented by applicants. These proposals are exploratory and outcomes remain subject to scientific validation and development risks.

E-COOL — Holistic electric motor cooling using spray cooling and machine learning

E-COOL proposes a direct contact spray cooling technique for electric motors combined with new machine learning optimisation to maximise heat transfer at local hot spots. The project positions the approach as a way to enable electric motors to operate under higher loads and in demanding commercial or heavy duty settings such as earth moving machinery or some aeronautical applications. If successful this could address thermal limits that constrain power density and duty cycles but achieving reliable, manufacturable, and durable direct‑contact cooling at vehicle scale involves complex materials, fluids and integration challenges.

ICONIC — Implantable organic electronic devices for neuromorphic interfacing

ICONIC aims to develop ultra‑flexible, conformable and implantable organic electronic devices such as organic electrochemical transistors. The project combines macromolecular synthesis with non‑destructive, in‑situ spectroscopies to study ion‑to‑electron transduction from molecular to micrometre scales. The long term vision is wearable or implantable electronics that support real time monitoring, on‑device signal recognition, and potentially automated drug delivery. Translating soft organic electronics into robust medical devices faces regulatory, biocompatibility and long‑term reliability hurdles that are likely to extend development timelines.

4TunaTES — Tunable thermochemical energy storage

4TunaTES plans a flexible thermo‑chemical energy storage (TCES) technology adaptable to different input and output temperature ranges. The project claims a potential 90 percent reduction in development costs through modularity and manufacturing flexibility and aims to build prototypes that could be used at domestic scale and in larger applications. The proposed work covers material selection, heat exchange components and system thermodynamics. Cost reduction claims should be treated as projections until demonstrated in real world systems and life cycle analyses.

FASTCOMET — Colloidal nanoparticle memory for ultra‑high density storage

FASTCOMET proposes a memory concept using colloidal nanoparticles as data carriers with long‑term aims of integrating nanoparticles smaller than 15 nanometres to reach bit densities exceeding 100 Gbit per square millimetre and potentially up to 1 Tbit per square millimetre. The approach targets lower cost and higher density than conventional technologies. The idea is technically ambitious and faces major challenges such as nanoparticle placement and addressing, stability, read/write speed, error rates and device integration into standard electronics.

What the EIC Pathfinder funds and how the pathway works

The EIC coordinates these stages as part of a broader EU deep tech support infrastructure. The European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA) administers many EIC calls and services. For scale and later stage finance the EIC Fund provides equity investments and can co‑invest with private investors.

What to expect and where to be cautious

Pathfinder funding is explicitly targeted at high uncertainty science and technology exploration. That means outcomes are probabilistic and timelines to practical application are often measured in years. Bold claims by project teams about cost reductions, performance breakthroughs or market readiness are legitimate research objectives but should be seen as hypotheses requiring technical validation, independent replication and demonstration at relevant scale.

SME participation at only around 18 percent among funded participants suggests the round remained research heavy. If the policy aim is to increase the pipeline of European deep tech companies, converting research outcomes into investible ventures will require focused technology transfer, IP management and downstream funding. The EIC’s BAS, Transition and Accelerator instruments are designed to help but they are not a substitute for private capital and industrial partnerships.

Implications for Europe’s innovation ecosystem

The awards are another signal that the EIC continues to prioritise interdisciplinary, high‑risk research that could underpin next generation technologies in areas that match EU industrial policy goals. By funding projects across several strategic domains the EIC seeks to seed technological options that could later be integrated into portfolios managed by EIC Programme Managers or feed into the EIC Fund for equity support.

However, translating laboratory novelty into commercial systems remains difficult. The EIC’s model of blended support combining grants, acceleration services and potential equity investment is conceptually coherent but its success depends on effective coordination between researchers, technology transfer offices, investors and industrial partners. Outcomes from this Pathfinder cohort will be informative about how well the pipeline performs over the next three to seven years.

Key dates and administrative notes

The 2023 Pathfinder Open selections were announced in September 2023. The Pathfinder Challenges call for 2023 opened on 20 June 2023 and closed on 18 October 2023 at 17:00 CET. Pathfinder grants support research up to proof of concept and projects can request booster grants for complementary activities. Successful teams can seek EIC Transition support and use Fast Track options to apply to the EIC Accelerator.

How to follow developments

Progress of individual projects will be reported by their teams and may be visible via EIC news channels and the EIC Data Hub. For those tracking Europe’s innovation landscape, the outcomes of these Pathfinder projects over the next few years will be useful indicators of how early‑stage research converts into demonstrators, startups and later stage investments.

If you are a researcher or company considering EIC funding, study the EIC work programmes, familiarise yourself with TRL expectations and the BAS offerings, and plan for IP, business development and investor engagement early. The public descriptions of projects and the EIC’s own impact reporting can help set realistic expectations of timelines, success rates and the long turn costs of scaling deep tech in Europe.