Record submissions for the EIC Transition call

The European Innovation Council received 413 proposals for its EIC Transition open call that closed on 18 September 2024. The number of submissions is the highest ever recorded for this call. Collectively the applicants requested about €991 million in grant funding. The Commission’s Transition instrument is designed to convert advanced research results into validated technologies and business plans that are closer to market. Grants of up to €2.5 million are available to demonstrate technologies in application relevant environments and increase market readiness.

Who applied and where proposals came from

Proposals were submitted from legal entities based in 39 countries. The largest shares of submissions came from Spain, Italy and Germany. More than half of applicants identified as private sector organisations at 51 percent. Universities accounted for about 33 percent and research organisations for roughly 15 percent of applicants. Across all proposals the total requested EU contribution was approximately €991 million.

What EIC Transition funds and who is eligible

The call is non-thematic and accepts proposals from any field of science and technology. Awardees receive grant funding and tailored business acceleration services provided by the EIC ecosystem.

Evaluation process and timeline

The EIC Transition selection comprises an initial remote evaluation followed by interviews for those passing the first phase. Proposals that clear the remote evaluation are invited to a face-to-face interview with an EIC jury. For the 18 September 2024 deadline the Commission scheduled interviews between 2 and 6 December 2024. All applicants, whether successful or unsuccessful at the first step, will be informed in January 2025. Proposals invited to grant preparation are expected to start in April or May 2025.

What the submission numbers mean in practice

The €991 million requested by applicants stands in sharp contrast to the indicative pot available for this call. The published 2024 work programme lists an indicative EIC Transition budget in the low hundreds of millions across years and the specific 2024 round is reported with an indicative figure around €94 million. That means requests exceeded roughly ten times the available money for this round. Oversubscription at this scale drives fiercer competition, forces stricter triage and limits the number of projects that can be funded even if many are high quality.

A high volume of submissions also places stress on the evaluation system. The EIC uses panels of external expert evaluators and juries to assess proposals and interviews. Large cohorts increase the workload for experts and can lengthen evaluation and grant preparation timelines.

Practical implications for applicants and the ecosystem

Applicants should expect intense competition and prepare for multi-stage assessment with a strong emphasis on both technological maturity and commercial readiness. Projects should clearly document the originating eligible project, state the TRL starting point, explain the validation experiments and present a credible market plan. Teams that combine technical, business and regulatory expertise will be better placed in assessment phases that include interviews.

Why the Transition call matters for Europe's innovation strategy

EIC Transition is a strategic element linking public research outcomes to market- oriented demonstration and commercialisation. By targeting results from programmes such as the EIC Pathfinder and ERC Proof of Concept, Transition aims to pull promising deep tech toward market uptake. In Europe’s innovation architecture, the Transition stage addresses a well known valley of death where ideas fail to secure the investment or validation needed to scale. Success here helps feed the EIC Accelerator pipeline and the EIC Fund for follow-on investment.

At the same time, demand outstrips supply. Tight budgets will force the EIC to be selective and to prioritise projects that offer both scientifically credible maturation steps and clear commercial potential. For policymakers and ecosystem partners it is a reminder that demand for late-stage, investment-ready deep tech exceeds current public financing capacity and that public funds often need to be combined with private capital and national programmes to achieve scale.

Next steps for observers and future applicants

Interviewed applicants remain the immediate focus through early December 2024. The EIC will notify all applicants in January 2025 about the evaluation outcomes. Projects invited to grant preparation are expected to launch in April or May 2025. The next submission deadline for the EIC Transition is 17 September 2025 according to the EIC work programme. Interested teams should use the intervening months to sharpen validation plans, secure partnerships or letters of intent from potential users, and review intellectual property arrangements that support future commercialisation.

How to follow up and where to get support

Information and documents referenced by the EIC include the EIC Work Programme, the list of eligible projects for Transition and the Transition call page which sets out eligibility rules, TRL expectations and the application template. National Contact Points and the Enterprise Europe Network provide national and regional support to applicants. The EIC Business Acceleration Services are available to awardees to help with go-to-market activities.

A cautious note

High submission volumes are a positive sign for deep tech activity across Europe but they also highlight the gap between research outputs and readily available public scale-up funding. Observers should avoid equating high application counts with systemic success. Winning projects still need to prove commercial traction after grant signatures and attract follow-on investment. The EIC has tools to catalyse that private investment but the scale of private co-investment needed remains substantial. Applicants and policymakers should therefore treat this milestone as both a success for the pipeline and a reminder that further funding avenues and ecosystem coordination are necessary to convert many more promising prototypes into market-scale companies.

Author: European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency. Publication date 24 September 2024.