New EIE calls: €12 million to broaden and connect Europe’s innovation ecosystems

The European Commission opened a new round of calls under the European Innovation Ecosystems (EIE) Work Programme on 4 February 2022. The three calls sit under two EIE destinations named CONNECT and SCALEUP. Together they offer a total of €12 million for projects designed to make Europe’s innovation ecosystems better connected, more inclusive and more able to support company growth.

Overview of the open calls

The SCALEUP call: expanding entrepreneurial ecosystems

Budget and deadline. The SCALEUP destination opens one call with a total budget of €5 million. Submissions are accepted until 10 May 2022 at 17:00 CET under the topic HORIZON‑EIE‑2022‑SCALEUP‑01‑01.

How this typically works. These are essentially coordination and capacity building projects. Successful proposals are expected to create multi‑year training programmes, student exchanges, mentoring with industry, and structured links between educational curricula and accelerator or scaleup pathways. The funding is intended to seed programmes and partnerships rather than to provide direct equity or late stage scaleup capital.

The CONNECT calls: inclusion and social innovation

Total budget and timing. The CONNECT destination opened two topics with combined funding of €7 million. Both calls use the EIE CONNECT destination and have the same submission deadline of 26 April 2022, 17:00 CET.

Key terms and references explained

What to expect from these calls and practical implications

Scope of the funding. The three calls together equal €12 million. That is material for coordination and capacity‑building measures, but modest compared with large innovation or investment programmes. The instruments prioritised in EIE tend to be Coordination and Support Actions and co‑funded activities aimed at networks, training and pilot programmes. Applicants and stakeholders should therefore expect grants to underpin partnership building, training, matchmaking and pilot testing rather than to inject significant risk capital into scaleups.

Realistic impact. Because the calls fund structure, relationships and services, measurable impact requires well defined indicators. Claims of systemic change will need to be backed by concrete deliverables such as number of participants trained, number of cross‑regional acceleration placements, number of social innovators reached, pilot procurement procedures launched, or matched investors and funding commitments mobilised.

Administrative and policy complexity. Applicants must navigate EU eligibility rules, partner composition requirements and benchmarking references such as the Regional Innovation Scoreboard. Projects that promise strong coordination across regions should allow time and resources for governance, monitoring and dissemination activities.

Practical advice for applicants and ecosystem actors

1) Demonstrate balanced partnerships. Show clear roles for partners from ‘modest’ or ‘moderate’ innovation regions and from stronger hubs. Use the Scoreboards to justify partner selection and explain how knowledge and resource flows will run both ways.

2) Be specific about outputs and KPIs. Define measurable short and medium term outcomes such as traineeships delivered, accelerators matched, buyer engagements, investment matchmaking events completed or pilot procurements executed. Funders will expect clear evidence of scalability and replicability.

3) Show linkages to other instruments. Explain how the proposed activities align with or leverage other EU and national instruments such as EIC, EIT, Horizon Europe projects, Cohesion funds, national promotional banks and private investors. Synergies strengthen an application.

4) Include social innovation and gender dimensions where relevant. Calls explicitly ask for broader participation, inclusion and social innovation. Demonstrate how women innovators and social entrepreneurs will be reached and supported and how activities will improve equity.

5) Plan the governance and sustainability of the initiative. Donors will look for credible plans to embed successful activities after the grant ends, including committed co‑funding from partners where applicable.

A measured, sceptical reading of the likely outcomes

The calls respond to real gaps. Europe needs better interconnection across regional innovation performance tiers and more inclusive pathways for social innovators and women founders. The EIE actions can help build the human networks, shared practices and institutional linkages required for longer term change.

But scale and pace will be constrained by funding and instrument type. With a combined €12 million and a focus on coordination support, these calls are unlikely to on their own generate the large financing rounds or rapid scaling episodes that complementary investment instruments such as the EIC Fund and private venture capital deliver. The work they fund can be influential if projects are well designed, sustained and linked to follow‑on financing, procurement and market access pathways.

Next steps and contact

Deadlines: CONNECT calls HORIZON‑EIE‑2022‑CONNECT‑01‑01 and HORIZON‑EIE‑2022‑CONNECT‑01‑02 close on 26 April 2022 at 17:00 CET. The SCALEUP call HORIZON‑EIE‑2022‑SCALEUP‑01‑01 closes on 10 May 2022 at 17:00 CET. These are time limited opportunities for partnerships that can demonstrate realistic, measurable outcomes and a clear route to lasting ecosystem benefits.

Administrative enquiries about the European Innovation Ecosystems work programme can be addressed to the EISMEA team responsible for ecosystems at the email address referenced in the calls: EISMEA‑EU‑ECOSYSTEMS@ec.europa.eu.