EIC Pathfinder Open 2023 attracted strong oversubscription with 788 proposals
- ›The EIC Pathfinder Open 2023 call closed on 7 March with 788 proposals and 4,758 participants from 55 countries.
- ›Applicants requested about €2.412 billion in grants against an indicative budget of €179.5 million, creating heavy oversubscription.
- ›Around 60 projects are expected to be funded and the EIC planned to publish results in August 2023.
- ›A separate Pathfinder Challenges call was scheduled to open on 20 June 2023 and close on 18 October 2023 at 17.00 CET.
- ›The Pathfinder targets high-risk, interdisciplinary research aimed at TRL 1 to 3 and offers grants typically between €3 million and €4 million to reach proof of concept.
High demand for early-stage deep tech research funding in EIC Pathfinder Open 2023
The European Innovation Council reported strong interest in its 2023 EIC Pathfinder Open call. By the submission deadline of 7 March 2023 the call had attracted 788 project proposals involving 4,758 participants from 55 countries. Collectively applicants requested approximately €2.412 billion of grant support while the call carried an indicative budget of €179.5 million. The EIC indicated it expected to fund roughly 60 projects and planned to publish results in August 2023. A separate Pathfinder Challenges track was scheduled to open on 20 June 2023 with a deadline of 18 October 2023, 17.00 CET.
| Item | Value | Source / comment |
| Proposals received | 788 | Submission deadline 7 March 2023 |
| Participants | 4,758 | Total participants across all proposals |
| Requested grant support | €2.412 billion | Aggregate amount requested by applicants |
| Indicative budget for the call | €179.5 million | Budget published by the EIC |
| Estimated projects to be funded | Approximately 60 | EIC expectation |
| Applicant countries represented | 55 | Applicants came from 55 countries |
| Pathfinder Challenges call | Opens 20 June 2023, deadline 18 October 2023 17.00 CET | Separate, thematic track |
| Expected results publication | August 2023 | EIC stated evaluation results would be available then |
What the numbers imply
The gap between the requested funding and the available budget indicates strong oversubscription. Simple arithmetic shows a requested to available ratio of roughly 13.4 times. With about 60 projects expected to be funded from 788 proposals the implied success rate would be in the order of 7 to 8 percent. The average consortium size in submitted proposals is about six partners given the 4,758 participants and 788 proposals. Those ratios matter because they shape selection pressure and the administrative burden on reviewers and EIC staff during evaluation and contracting.
Pathfinder Challenges and schedule
In addition to the Open call, the EIC runs Pathfinder Challenges which are themed calls that select portfolios of projects addressing predefined technological areas. According to EIC communications the 2023 Pathfinder Challenges call was planned to open on 20 June 2023 and to close on 18 October 2023 at 17.00 CET. The Challenge track allows the EIC to assemble complementary projects and to coordinate portfolio activities through Programme Managers.
Context and implications for the European innovation ecosystem
The EIC Pathfinder sits within Horizon Europe and aims to build Europe’s capacity for disruptive technologies by funding science that could lead to new technology platforms. High demand for Pathfinder grants is consistent with a strong research community seeking support to translate early discoveries toward technological opportunities. The steep oversubscription highlights two repeated issues in EU innovation funding. First many excellent projects compete for a relatively modest pool of resources at early stages. Second programmatic bottlenecks can appear later when many projects require follow-on funding to mature. The EIC seeks to mitigate this through interaction with Programme Managers and by connecting projects to business acceleration services. Those mechanisms can help but do not eliminate structural scarcity of public funding for translational deep tech research.
Policymakers and fund managers should watch how the EIC balances portfolio coherence, geographic balance and sectoral priorities when selecting projects. Observers should also look for transparency in how evaluation panels reconcile high-risk research with the need for credible milestones. For applicants the EIC results and the subsequent Challenge call will provide signals about priority areas and the competitiveness of different fields.
Practical takeaways for applicants and stakeholders
Applicants that were not funded in a heavily oversubscribed call should consider several options. These include seeking other EU instruments such as Transition funding where appropriate, exploring national or regional support schemes, coordinating with partners to prepare stronger joint applications for future EIC Challenge calls, and using Business Acceleration Services where offered to strengthen commercialisation pathways. Stakeholders should also factor into their planning that early stage grants are designed to de-risk novel directions rather than to bring products to market.
Finally, while the headline numbers underline the appetite for deep tech funding in Europe they also highlight the limits of available public funding. The EIC can help bridge the gap between frontier science and commercialisation but successful scaling will require coherent follow-on financing from public and private sources working together.