EIC Pathfinder Challenges 2023: winners, funding and what comes next

On 14 March 2024 the European Commission announced the results of the 2023 European Innovation Council (EIC) Pathfinder Challenges call. Forty three research projects were selected to form directed portfolios intended to pursue early stage, high risk, high gain research across five strategic areas. The Commission will provide a total of €159 million in grant funding to the winners. The announcement also confirmed that the competitive EIC Pathfinder Open 2024 call closed with a high volume of applications.

Quick figures and selection overview

The 43 projects were drawn from 368 submitted eligible proposals. The total grant budget allocated to the selected Challenge projects is €159 million which corresponds to an average EU grant of about €3.7 million per project. Participants in the selected projects come predominantly from higher education institutions (45 percent), private organisations (26 percent) and research organisations (21 percent). EIC Programme Managers were directly involved in defining the Pathfinder Challenges and in selecting the portfolios of projects.

The five Pathfinder Challenges supported in 2023

The 2023 Challenge call targeted five thematic areas where the EIC wants portfolios of complementary or competing approaches. Projects will work together within each portfolio to address specific objectives assigned to each Challenge.

Clean and efficient cooling

Cooling is a major energy user worldwide and an area where new materials and thermodynamic approaches could reduce energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions. The Challenge funds projects that explore novel refrigeration technologies, materials with caloric effects and architectures to drive down energy use in cooling across sectors from vaccine transportation to data centres.

Construction digitalisation

This Challenge supports digital and manufacturing innovations to transform architecture engineering and construction. Themes include computational design, robotics and new material workflows aimed at cutting embodied carbon and enabling more resource efficient, automated construction methods.

Precision nutrition

Precision nutrition projects study diet, microbiomes, functional food components and diagnostics to target metabolic and non communicable diseases. The aim is to develop interventions tailored to biological variability rather than one size fits all dietary guidance.

Responsible electronics

Responsible electronics covers sustainable design and circular approaches for electronic boards and components. The intention is to reduce hazardous chemistries and improve recyclability and lifecycle management in the electronics value chain.

In-space solar energy

This Challenge looks at concepts for harvesting and using solar energy in space. Projects include novel solar cell architectures and energy harvesting systems that could enable long duration operations, in-space propulsion or new satellite capabilities.

What winners receive beyond grants

Selected projects receive grant funding and access to EIC Business Acceleration Services. They can be offered tailored coaching and mentoring intended to improve their ability to test market potential and to prepare for commercialisation. Projects within portfolios may also be eligible for additional portfolio actions, and promising results can be routed to the EIC Transition programme or fast tracked to the EIC Accelerator for follow on market oriented support.

EIC Programme Managers and active portfolio stewardship

Programme Managers are internal EIC experts who help define Challenge topics, select project portfolios and actively manage them after funding decisions. They are intended to act as convenors and gatekeepers, setting roadmaps for portfolio interactions and brokering external contacts with investors, industry and national actors. Their role is significant because it shifts some responsibility for impact from the project teams to the programme level.

Pathfinder Open 2024: demand and capacity

The EIC also reported strong interest in the Pathfinder Open 2024 call which closed on 7 March 2024. The call received 1,119 proposals from 64 countries and listed 5,632 participants. The indicative budget for the call is €136 million with an average grant of about €3 million. Evaluation of these proposals had already started at the time of the announcement and results were expected in summer 2024.

How Pathfinder fits in the EIC funding ladder

Critical observations and implications

The EIC Pathfinder Challenges award represents a meaningful investment in exploratory research across strategic areas. The portfolio model and Programme Manager stewardship are sensible responses to the recognised difficulty of translating early stage science into impact. Nonetheless, several caveats deserve attention.

First, headline averages mask distribution. An average grant of €3.7 million does not reveal whether a few large awards skew the mean or how funds are split across project partners. Second, the promise of portfolio level coordination will only pay off if the EIC commits staffing and time to active management and enforces mechanisms for data sharing and IP handling. Third, selection is only the first step. Most Pathfinder ideas will need sustained technical, regulatory and commercial support before they reach markets and create measurable economic or societal impact. Finally, demand for follow on funding will exceed supply which raises the risk that promising outputs stall at proof of concept.

Key metrics to monitor in coming years include the proportion of Pathfinder projects that secure Transition or Accelerator funding, private follow on investment attracted per euro of EU grant, geographic spread of successful teams, and progress on open data or shared infrastructure that benefits multiple projects.

Practical takeaways for applicants and stakeholders

For teams considering future EIC calls it is important to align proposals with portfolio objectives where relevant, engage early with EIC Programme Managers, and make use of Business Acceleration Services to build commercialization pathways. Applicants should prepare realistic plans for IP, data sharing and team building that can persuade Programme Managers and evaluators that the work can progress beyond early proofs of concept.

For policy watchers and investors the Pathfinder Challenges provide a signal about the Commission's strategic priorities. But converting that signal into sustained industrial capabilities will require coherent national commitments, private sector co investment and attention to regulatory and standards issues in technologies such as cooling and electronics.

Background on the Pathfinder instrument

The EIC Pathfinder scheme is designed to support very early stage, high risk, high gain research that could underpin breakthrough technologies. Grants are intended for activities from laboratory research to early proof of concept. Under the EIC rules grants of up to €3 million are available in Pathfinder Open calls and up to €4 million in Pathfinder Challenges. Pathfinder projects benefit from interactions with EIC Programme Managers and may receive additional funding for portfolio actions, testing or for follow-on market maturation via EIC Transition or fast track routes to the EIC Accelerator.

The EIC emphasises interdisciplinarity and research that challenges existing technological paradigms. That ambition is consistent with broader EU objectives to strengthen competitiveness in strategic technology areas while supporting the green and digital transitions.

What to watch next

The evaluation outcomes for Pathfinder Open 2024 were due in summer 2024. Longer term, observers should track how the 43 funded Challenge projects coordinate within their portfolios, whether they secure Transition or Accelerator follow on funding, and the degree to which public grants catalyse private co investment. These indicators will help measure whether the EIC approaches are shifting the odds for deep tech translation in Europe.

The EIC announcement contains the core facts on awards and numbers. Translating early stage discovery into commercial and societal impact remains the harder task. The EIC has tools to help but success will depend on follow on finance, competent portfolio management and realistic expectations about timelines from lab to market.