ERC and EIC agree closer cooperation to link curiosity-driven research with deep-tech innovation

Brussels, May 18th 2021

Summary

›The European Research Council and the European Innovation Council have issued a joint statement committing to stronger cooperation to better link top‑level research and high‑risk innovation.
›The EIC, launched in 2021 with a €10.1 billion envelope, and the ERC, created in 2007 and funded with over €16 billion for 2021–2027, remain distinct institutions with complementary remits.
›Practical cooperation measures include the EIC Transition instrument, joint thematic workshops, and efforts to track research trends from ERC projects that could seed EIC investments.
›Recent EIC Pathfinder results show large interest from the research community with over €140 million awarded in 2025 to 44 projects spanning quantum, materials, health, energy and AI.
›The ERC Proof of Concept grant and the EIC Tech to Market resources are examples of efforts to move frontier research towards commercialization but important gaps and governance tensions remain.
›EISMEA operates the EIC and manages related programmes while the EIC Fund, EIB and contractors like Alter Domus and Dealflow support the investment side raising data protection and conflict of interest considerations to monitor.

ERC and EIC commit to closer cooperation to strengthen Europe’s research to innovation pipeline

On 17 May 2021 the European Research Council Scientific Council and the European Innovation Council pilot Advisory Board issued a joint statement setting out a commitment to closer collaboration. The goal is to better identify and nurture Europe’s best talent across curiosity‑driven frontier research and high‑risk, high‑gain innovation while respecting the distinct institutional mandates of the two bodies. The statement highlights concrete early steps such as the EIC Transition instrument, joint workshops on strategic themes and an intention to map research trends emerging from ERC projects that could become future EIC investments.

Why the link between frontier research and breakthrough innovation matters

The statement underlines a basic argument familiar to research and innovation policy makers. Long term curiosity‑driven research builds the knowledge base for later technological breakthroughs. Much successful innovation rests on years or decades of prior basic research. Both research and innovation entail risk and frequent failure, so public funding to underwrite high‑risk projects remains a policy priority for many member states and for the EU. The ERC and EIC now sit in the same Horizon Europe framework which creates an administrative opportunity to work together more systematically.

Non-linear translation from research to innovation:The path from a scientific discovery to a marketable technology is rarely linear. The statement repeats a common refrain that major innovations often emerge from knowledge accumulated over years. The example used in the statement links Ingmar Hoerr’s early work on RNA with CureVac and the later success of BioNTech and Pfizer in developing an approved COVID‑19 vaccine. Such examples are persuasive but they also mask the long, contingent and multi‑actor nature of successful translation and the many cases where promising research does not result in commercial impact.

Concrete cooperation measures described in the statement

The ERC and EIC identify several practical avenues for collaboration: targeted funding instruments such as EIC Transition to shepherd ERC Proof of Concept outcomes closer to markets, joint thematic workshops to combine research and innovation networks, and analytical work to detect research trends among ERC projects that could inform EIC strategy. The statement positions these measures as mutually reinforcing while stressing adherence to each organisation’s mandate.

EIC Transition explained:EIC Transition is designed to take promising results from research projects or ERC Proof of Concept work and help mature them toward demonstrators or early market validation. It aims to bridge the so called ‘valley of death’ where technologies often stall for lack of combined technical and business development funding.

Institutional background and budgets

Institution	Established	Primary remit	Indicative budget 2021–2027
European Research Council (ERC)	2007	Fund curiosity‑driven frontier research across disciplines with competitive grants to individual investigators	More than €16 billion
European Innovation Council (EIC)	Pilot launched in 2021 under Horizon Europe	Support ground‑breaking technologies and innovations across the lifecycle from early stage research to scale up	€10.1 billion
Horizon Europe (framework programme)	2021	EU research and innovation framework that houses the ERC and EIC among other programmes	Indicative €93.5 billion for 2021–2027. Commission proposal for 2028–2034 is €175 billion

The EIC is steered by an EIC Board drawn from innovators and ecosystem figures. The EIC Fund provides an investment arm that co‑invests alongside private capital. The ERC is governed by an independent Scientific Council and runs investigator‑led schemes such as Starting Grants, Consolidator Grants, Advanced Grants and Synergy Grants. The ERC also offers a dedicated Proof of Concept scheme to help grantees explore commercial or societal potential.

EIC Pathfinder 2025: scale and examples

The EIC announced the results of the 2025 Pathfinder Open call in October 2025. More than €140 million was awarded to 44 projects selected from proposals received across 71 countries. The consortia include universities, private companies and research organisations working on quantum technologies, advanced materials, health, energy and artificial intelligence. Selected teams receive grant funding alongside coaching and business acceleration services.

Pathfinder focus and Technology Readiness Levels (TRL):Pathfinder targets high‑risk, high‑gain early stage work generally at TRL 1–3. TRL is a scale that describes maturity from basic principles observed (TRL 1) to experimental proof of concept (TRL 3) and beyond. Pathfinder aims to fund radical, interdisciplinary research that could seed future revolutionary technologies.

Representative projects announced in the 2025 selection illustrate the range of technical ambition and application areas.

CEREBRIS:A health project proposing a secure, federated and explainable AI ecosystem for stroke care. Federated learning lets hospitals collaborate to train models without sharing raw patient data which helps protect privacy. The project aims to integrate diverse data such as brain scans, motion patterns and neural signals to improve diagnosis and rehabilitation across the entire stroke care pathway.

Superspin:A quantum communication project aiming to link superconducting quantum processors with spin‑based quantum memories that operate at different frequencies. The core technical challenge is microwave‑to‑optical quantum transduction. Success would provide a component to interconnect distant quantum systems and build scalable quantum networks, a priority area in European quantum strategy.

Fiber3D:A materials and manufacturing project combining advanced 3D printing and spraying to embed optical fibre sensors directly into metal structures. Integrated sensors would enable continuous monitoring of temperature and strain in infrastructures such as railways, hydrogen pipelines and nuclear facilities which could materially improve maintenance and safety regimes.

ERC Proof of Concept grant and the translation pathway

The ERC Proof of Concept (PoC) scheme is targeted only at principal investigators who already hold an ERC main frontier research grant. PoC funding supports activities that were not scheduled under the original research grant and aims to test, validate and de‑risk ideas arising from the funded research so they can move toward innovation or societal application.

Eligibility and amount:Only PIs of ERC Starting, Consolidator, Advanced or Synergy grants are eligible. From 2024 PoC calls are evaluated in two rounds and the 2026 work programme sets a single lump sum of €150,000 for an 18 month PoC project.

Evaluation and ethical review:PoC proposals are judged on a single excellence criterion with three elements, namely breakthrough innovation potential, approach and methodology, and the PI’s strategic leadership. Ethics oversight is mandatory under Horizon Europe. Proposals undergo pre‑screening, screening by independent ethics reviewers and where needed a fuller ethics assessment that may require additional deliverables during the project.

Seal of Excellence and onward support:A Seal of Excellence can be awarded to high quality proposals that cannot be funded due to budget limits. Holders can use the seal to approach national or regional funding sources listed on ERC pages. The EIC Tech to Market training is promoted to ERC PoC awardees who are eligible for EIC Transition support.

EIC Accelerator, EIC Fund and the investment chain

The EIC Accelerator combines grant and blended finance with a separate EIC Fund that co‑invests in later stage startups. The operational management involves several EU bodies and contractors. The process uses staged evaluation including a short video and pitch deck at Step 1, a full proposal at Step 2 often supported by an EIC business coach, and interviews with an EIC jury as the final selection step. Selected applicants negotiate grant and/or investment agreements and if chosen for the EU funded equity component undergo due diligence prior to signing.

Actor	Role in EIC Accelerator and EIC Fund
EISMEA	Operates the EIC programme and manages calls and business acceleration services
EIC Fund	Manages the EU funded equity instruments and co-invests with private investors
European Investment Bank (EIB)	Acts as investment adviser to the EIC Fund and supports due diligence
Alter Domus (contractor)	Performs KYC and valuation support, accountant and paymaster function for the EIC Fund
Dealflow.eu (contractor)	Supports investor pitching, due diligence, documentation and pitching activities

Data, privacy and procedural details in the Accelerator process:Applicants must obtain a Participant Identification Code and EU Login. Personal data are collected for application, evaluation and contracting. Additional documentation such as ID numbers and employment contracts may be requested for jury interview attendees. Some optional fields such as social media links are processed on explicit consent. The EIC and EIC Fund share data with advisors and contractors involved in due diligence and with potential investment partners with the applicant’s prior consent. The programme states use of AI may support data handling but that final decisions remain with humans.

Data protection and retention practices to watch

The EIC Accelerator and EIC Fund data processes fall under Regulation (EU) 2018/1725. The data protection notice outlines roles for joint controllers, the contractors used for investment and due diligence tasks, retention periods and audit logging. Retention windows include up to 7 years for selected experts, 10 years for funded applicants and shorter periods for interview documentation. The notices list technical safeguards, contractual confidentiality clauses and rights for data subjects to access, rectify and request erasure subject to legal restrictions.

Key privacy concerns to monitor:The operational model mixes administrative, commercial and financial functions across multiple public and private entities. That raises legitimate questions about governance of conflicts of interest, the adequacy of contractual safeguards with subcontractors, transfer of personal data to third parties, and the transparency of investor selection for co‑investment. The documentation commits to EU data rules and to requiring consent for transfers outside the EU, but the complexity merits continued oversight by data protection officers and auditors.

EISMEA and the agency layer

The European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency, EISMEA, implements the EIC, organises other SME and innovation programmes and manages day to day operations. The agency recruits experts and maintains the IT platforms and helpdesk that applicants use. EISMEA publishes newsletters, runs transparency registers for meetings and provides contact points and data protection information for stakeholders.

Horizon Europe context and future funding outlook

The ERC and EIC operate under the Horizon Europe umbrella. The programme’s indicative envelope for 2021–2027 sits at roughly €93.5 billion after the midterm review. The Commission has proposed a substantially larger successor Framework for 2028–2034, with a draft proposal of €175 billion reflecting political emphasis on strategic research and 'moonshot' projects in areas such as clean aviation, space economy and next generation AI. If approved the expansion would raise expectations on Europe’s capacity to sustain long term, large scale research and innovation missions.

Practical implications and open questions

The joint statement is constructive in ambition and lists realistic operational measures. It also highlights structural challenges. The EIC and ERC have different selection cultures, evaluation metrics and risk appetites. Building smooth handovers from a curiosity‑driven grant to investor‑oriented scale up requires more than instruments. It needs coordinated scouting, shared data infrastructure, harmonised IP and ethics handling, and clear incentives for universities and researchers to engage with acceleration without weakening basic science. There are also governance questions around the EIC Fund and its mix of public and private actors that deserve scrutiny to avoid conflicts of interest and to ensure public value from public investments.

Finally, policy success will be judged on outcomes that are difficult to measure quickly. Seeded projects need years to mature. Regional disparities in absorptive capacity risk skewing benefits toward countries with stronger ecosystems. For the cooperation to move from promising rhetoric to demonstrable impact, the ERC and EIC should publish measurable targets, track progress and expose results to independent evaluation.

Practical links and further reading

Readers interested in operational details can consult primary sources such as the ERC PoC call pages, the EIC Pathfinder and Accelerator announcements, EISMEA data protection notices and the Horizon Europe programme pages. Those pages contain application rules, ethics guidance, funding amounts and procedural timetables referenced throughout this report.

How to follow developments:Track EIC and ERC press pages, EISMEA news, the Horizon Europe work programmes and the Funding and Tenders portal. For data and accountability questions use the European Data Protection Supervisor contacts and the ERC/EIC published dashboards and annual reports.