EIC Tech to Market Entrepreneurship Programme: from lab projects to market ambition
- ›The EIC Tech to Market Entrepreneurship Programme supports deep tech researchers to develop value propositions and business models and has reached over 200 projects in its second year.
- ›The programme comprises five training streams that range from two half-day sessions to multi-month coaching, plus a Venture Building track with four phases from Tech Demo Days to venture support.
- ›Beneficiaries such as EarDiTech report practical benefits from pitch training, market feedback, and connections to experts, while the programme also mobilises mentors and entrepreneurs in residence.
- ›The EIC has paused some T2M activities until 2026 and several calls and expert recruitment windows are currently closed, which limits immediate access to services.
- ›Key questions remain about long term outcomes, follow-on financing, and measurable conversion rates from projects to viable spin-offs.
Turning deep research into market-facing ventures
The EIC Tech to Market Entrepreneurship Programme offers tailored training and support services intended to help researchers funded by EIC Pathfinder and EIC Transition move from laboratory results to market-ready products. Now in its second year of delivery, the initiative says more than 200 projects have used T2M entrepreneurship services. The stated aim is to foster entrepreneurial aspirations among deep tech researchers and to accelerate science-led startup projects by building robust value propositions and viable business models.
What the Entrepreneurship Programme offers
The programme bundles short trainings, immersive bootcamps and longer coaching tracks. It is designed to address the common weaknesses in academic spinouts, for example limited business experience among principal investigators and the need to translate complex technical claims into clear customer benefits. The services combine collective workshops, individual coaching, design thinking driven validation and stakeholder interviews with market and industrial actors.
| Component | Typical length and format | Primary objective |
| EIC Innovation Discovery Training | Two half-day online collective sessions | Introduce entrepreneurial basics and pitching skills |
| EIC Bootcamp for innovative researchers | Four days of online collective workshops | Deep dive on value proposition, team, roadmap and pitch |
| EIC Pioneer Programme for innovative researchers | 4 to 5 months of weekly group sessions and individual coaching | Explore IP, industrialisation, regulatory issues, team and finance |
| EIC Business Idea Validation Bootcamp | Four weeks of workshops, team coaching and interviews | Pre-validate the business model and strengthen the value proposition |
| EIC Business Validation Programme | Eight weeks of online courses, masterclasses and coaching | Focus on product-market fit, customer discovery and market orientation |
Implementation beyond training: Venture Building
Alongside entrepreneurship training the EIC runs the Tech to Market Venture Building Programme. This track aims to move promising projects towards company creation by providing structured phases that mirror early venture development. The Venture Building stream includes opportunities for market feedback, team formation and targeted advisory support in domains such as IP, finance and HR.
| Venture Building phase | What happens |
| Tech Demo Days | The entry point. Thematic workshops and feedback from market actors on technology potential |
| Opportunities Exploration | Feasibility assessment and market attractiveness analysis by expert teams |
| Team Creation | Recruitment services, access to entrepreneurs in residence and talent brokerage |
| Venture Support Services | Needs analysis and advisory on IP, finance, regulatory and business set up |
Voices from beneficiaries and mentors
The T2M programme includes participant testimonials which highlight immediate learning outcomes such as better pitching, quicker articulation of a value proposition and access to diverse stakeholder feedback. The material features interviews and video case studies from projects that have taken part in different modules.
Iris Arweiler, the entrepreneurial lead on EarDiTech and an audiologist with industry experience, described participation in the Business Idea Validation Bootcamp as very helpful. She emphasised the value of repeated pitch practice, the diversity of expert interviews during the programme, and the practical feedback that helped the team shape next steps such as participating in Venture Building activities like Tech Demo Days.
Practical status, access and next steps
The EIC T2M web pages provide open calls, guidance documents and a helpdesk entry point. Several elements are time limited and subject to procurement cycles. The broader EIC Tech to Market activity was reported as paused and expected to resume in 2026. Calls for experts and entrepreneurs in residence are currently closed and will reopen in later calls according to the EIC pages.
A critical look at impact and gaps
The programme addresses a genuine need in Europe where research quality outpaces the number of successful technology spinouts. Training, mentoring and market feedback are important inputs. However the publicly available materials focus mainly on activity descriptions and participant anecdotes rather than on longitudinal impact metrics. Key questions that remain include the conversion rate from beneficiaries to sustainable startups, the volume of follow-on private investment leveraged, and long term survival or scaling outcomes for ventures created through T2M pathways.
Operational risks and challenges are also underreported. Deep tech commercialisation typically requires substantial capital, regulatory navigation where medical devices are involved, and specialist IP management. Programmes that stop at training will not be sufficient on their own. Venture building and targeted follow-on funding are required to bridge the so called valley of death. Reliable public reporting on these outcomes would help independent assessment of the programme's effectiveness.
Conclusions and recommendations
EIC Tech to Market delivers useful training and access to expertise that many academic teams lack. Beneficiary anecdotes show clear short term benefits in pitching, validation and stakeholder engagement. At the same time the programme would benefit from clearer public metrics on follow-on funding, company formation rates and commercial outcomes. For researchers interested in T2M services it is important to recognise the limits of training and to plan for capital, regulatory work and team building beyond the programme.
If you are an EIC beneficiary or a researcher considering the transition to a startup, use the T2M materials to sharpen your value proposition and to get validated feedback. Simultaneously, plan for the larger requirements of commercialisation such as technical de-risking, regulatory pathways and investor engagement.