EIC Soft-landing Programme: how the European Innovation Council helps scaleups test new markets

Brussels, May 27th 2024

Summary

›The EIC Soft-landing Programme offers tailored, short-term immersion and mentorship to EIC-backed scaleups preparing to enter new markets.
›A San Francisco and Silicon Valley edition ran 19 to 24 May 2024 for 15 health and life sciences scaleups, combining workshops, investor meetings and a public networking event.
›The Soft-landing initiative has been folded into a broader EIC Global Business Expansion Programme as a stand-alone service inside the EIC Business Acceleration Services.
›The service promises bespoke market briefings, pitch coaching, VC introductions and follow-up support but long term outcomes and public performance metrics remain limited.

EIC Soft-landing Programme: testing markets with local expertise

The European Innovation Council Soft-landing Programme is an EIC Business Acceleration Service aimed at helping EIC-backed scaleups expand into new geographies with targeted, expert-led support. Rather than funding market entry, the programme offers a short, intensive mix of local market intelligence, tailored mentorship, pitch workshops and curated networking. The approach is intended to let companies explore opportunities abroad while they keep day to day operations at home.

What the Soft-landing programme offers to participants

The programme is marketed as a three month engagement leading to an intensive in-market week. Services are highly customisable and delivered by local domain experts and ecosystem partners. Offerings are operational and tactical rather than financial.

Service or activity	What it means in practice	Purpose
Local market outlook and opportunities presentations	Briefings by regional experts on demand, competitors and regulatory landscape	Help participants decide whether to prioritise a market
Tailored mentorship and coaching	Dedicated mentors to map strategy, with support on culture and IP	Build an actionable internationalisation plan
Investor and partner introductions	Presentations from VCs, IPO founders and enterprise partners	Open doors to capital and corporate partnerships
Pitch workshops and demo day	Practice sessions and public or private pitch events	Improve investor and partner readiness
Visits to innovation hubs and networking events	Site visits, university meetings and spotlight networking events	Create relationships and visibility in local ecosystems
Follow up support	Post-mission assistance to sustain conversations and build partnerships	Increase probability of converting leads into deals

Soft-landing defined:Soft-landing programmes in innovation are short, resource light immersion initiatives. They are designed to reduce the initial costs and risks of market exploration by providing curated local access and expert guidance rather than long term operational support.

EIC Business Acceleration Services:EIC BAS is the umbrella for non grant support offered to EIC beneficiaries. It includes coaching, investor readiness, trade fair participation, procurement matching and global expansion programmes including the Soft-landing activities.

San Francisco and Silicon Valley edition, 19 to 24 May 2024

From 19 to 24 May 2024 the EIC ran a US Soft-landing week focused on Health and Life Sciences. Fifteen EIC-backed companies completed a preparatory period of training and then joined a six day in-market bootcamp that included 30 plus speakers, one demo day, tours of innovation hubs and a large networking event labelled the European Innovation Spotlight. The programme was organised in partnership with local ecosystem players and the EU office in San Francisco.

Local partners and hosts included the Stanford University School of Medicine, NASDAQ Entrepreneurial Center, INSEAD San Francisco Hub, the San Francisco Bay Area Council, the Commonwealth Club World Affairs and the EU office in San Francisco. EIC ambassador and investor Jillian Manus played a visible role in the programme.

Week structure and highlights

The week combined academic and industry briefings, investor introductions, company pitches and practical workshops. Activities included branding and business model workshops, sessions on accessing funding, visits to Stanford and the Gladstone Institute, and meetings with venture fund representatives. The week culminated in a public networking event with some 200 attendees that brought together investors, corporates and entrepreneurs.

A senior perspective from EISMEA:Jean David Malo, Director of the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency, framed the initiative as a way for promising tech innovators to expand their market reach and to become global leaders. He emphasised immersion in the local ecosystem as the rationale for the week long format.

Participants in the May 2024 Health cohort

Fifteen EIC-backed scaleups in health and life sciences were selected for this edition. Selection was limited to EIC beneficiaries who had already launched and gained traction outside their home market.

Company	Country
ABCDx	Spain
Actome GmbH	Germany
Akara	Ireland
Augmedit B.V.	The Netherlands
Bluedrop Medical	Ireland
Celtic Biotech	Ireland
Immunethep	Portugal
INBRAIN Neuroelectronics	Spain
NETRIS Pharma	France
Ligence	Lithuania
Luminate Medical	Ireland
Peptomyc S.L.	Spain
SentryX	The Netherlands
UroMems	France
Vitalera	Spain

From a pilot to a stand-alone service and a broader programme

The Soft-landing model evolved from earlier EIC pilots called the EIC International Trade Fairs and USA Soft-landing Programme 3.0 and the EIC Immersive Programme. The EIC now positions the Soft-landing initiative as a stand-alone business acceleration service and also as an input into the newly named EIC Global Business Expansion Programme. The Global Business Expansion Programme aims to consolidate and scale these in-market immersion activities.

EIC Global Business Expansion Programme:This programme builds on the Soft-landing and Immersive pilots and is intended to offer improved, repeatable services for EIC awardees that want to test and enter global hubs. The stated goal is to enable exploration without forcing companies to relocate or divert major resources from their core operations.

Selection criteria and eligibility

Candidates for Soft-landing and Global Business Expansion activities are EIC beneficiaries and scaleups. External experts review applications against a set of criteria related to market fit and readiness. The information requested typically covers a market entry plan, expected impact of participation, alignment of the product with market needs, and the applicant's commitment of resources.

Selection criteria explained:Assessors look for a credible plan to enter the target market, realistic expectations about how the programme will help, evidence that the innovation meets local market needs and the company willingness to commit financial and human resources to follow up on leads. There is also an explicit check on how the company contributes to EU technology sovereignty and strategic autonomy.

How the Soft-landing service fits inside EIC Business Acceleration Services

EIC BAS groups a wide range of market facing services. The Soft-landing and Global Business Expansion offer sit alongside trade fair support, procurement matchmaking, investor readiness and coaching programmes. EIC publishes impact figures for BAS activities but these are aggregated and often lack long term verification of claims.

EIC BAS metric	Reported figure	Timeframe or note
One on one meetings facilitated	20,000 plus	Since 2021
Deals reported	595	Since 2021
Capital raised via investor outreach	EUR 350 million	Since 2021
Capital raised by EIC Scaling Club members	EUR 1.2 billion	Since joining Scaling Club
Turnover attributable to trade fairs	EUR 42 million	Figure reported since 2024
Funds raised through innovation procurement support	EUR 7.7 million	Out of EUR 28.4 million in submitted tenders, since March 2024
Pilots following buyer-innovator matches	22 ongoing and 16 completed	Supported with EUR 1.93 million

Those impact numbers are useful for context. They should however be read with caution. Aggregated outcomes do not show attribution, follow up conversion rates or the distribution of impacts across participating companies. The EIC emphasises that many services are complementary and longer term evaluations are still needed to assess sustained market entry success.

Recent and upcoming missions in the EIC portfolio

Mission or event	Location	Date
EIC Soft-landing on Cleantech	San Francisco and Silicon Valley	4 - 8 December 2023
EIC Soft-landing on Cleantech	San Francisco and Silicon Valley	9 - 13 December 2024
EIC Soft-landing on Cleantech	Singapore	24 - 30 October 2024
EIC Immersive Programme for Health and Life sciences	Boston, US	9 - 13 June 2025
EIC Immersive Programme for Cleantech	Austin and Houston, Texas, US	8 - 12 December 2025
More missions announced	Various global hubs	February 2026 announcement planned

How to apply and where to get more information

Open calls and application details for Soft-landing, the Global Business Expansion Programme and all EIC BAS activities are published on the EIC Community Platform. Applicants must sign in with EU Login credentials. For questions the EIC Community Helpdesk has a dedicated category for 'EIC Soft-landing Programme' or 'EIC Global Business Expansion Programme'.

Practical entry points:Use the EIC Community Platform to apply and to find detailed calls. Contact the EIC Community helpdesk and choose the relevant programme category to get directed support. Companies that hold EIC awards, the Seal of Excellence or are in related EIC initiatives are the primary audience.

A pragmatic view and outstanding questions

Soft-landing is consistent with the common practice among accelerators and public innovation programmes to buy down the early costs of market exploration by providing curated access. The EIC version leverages high profile partners and an established network. That said, there are recurring questions policy makers, applicants and taxpayers should expect answers to.

Key issues include transparency on participant selection, the conversion rate from meetings to contracts or investment, the distributional effects across countries and sectors, and the degree to which short visits lead to sustained commercial presence. The EIC reports aggregated outputs but does not publish granular longitudinal outcomes for each cohort. Independent follow up studies would strengthen the evidence base for continuing or scaling these activities.

Finally, the programme privileges EIC awardees who have already obtained EU support. That is sensible from the point of view of targeting scarce resources but it also means that the programme reaches a specific, preselected group of companies rather than the broader European startup population.

Relevant links and contacts

Official information, open calls, calendars and helpdesk contact options are available on the EIC Community Platform. If you have questions about an open call select the appropriate category in the helpdesk. For Soft-landing specific queries choose 'EIC Soft-landing Programme' as subject.

DISCLAIMER: The information in this article is compiled from EIC Community announcements and related EIC documents for knowledge sharing. It is not an official position of the European Commission. Reported figures and impacts reflect EIC communications and merit independent verification for longitudinal outcomes.