European Innovation Council (EIC) Work Programme 2024

Who should read this document

This document presents the 2024 European Innovation Council (EIC) Work Programme funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. It sets out how the EIC will allocate its funding of over EUR 1.2 billion for the year 2024 and has been prepared following the advice of the EIC Board.

The Work Programme defines the calls for applications targeting innovative researchers, startups and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and founders and other organisations and individuals interested in innovation. The focus on breakthrough technologies and game-changing innovations which are high risk and with a high potential for impact and to scale up internationally and become market leaders.

A broad range of support is available, ranging from grants, investments through the EIC Fund, prizes to Business Acceleration Services (including access to coaching and mentoring, expertise and ecosystem partners). The Work Programme sets out the type of support available, how to apply, and how selection decisions are taken.

It's important for those seeking funding and opportunities through the EIC to carefully read and understand the Work Programme to ensure they align with the objectives and meet the eligibility criteria as well as understand each step of the process.

Potential applicants, and those interested in the EIC in general, can find more information, including background to the EIC mission, organisation and practical guidance, on the EIC website: EIC website

Support and advice for potential applicants is available in each EU Member State and Associated Country, through National Contact Points ( Funding & Tenders Portal).

Applications are made through the EU Funding and Tender Opportunities portal ( Funding & Tenders Portal home), which can also be accessed via the EIC website ( EIC website).

Introduction

Strategic goals and Key Performance Indicators

The EIC was established to identify, develop and scale up breakthrough technologies and companies, which are critical for EU policies to achieve the green and digital transition and help ensure future open strategic autonomy in critical technologies.

The EIC Board provides strategic advice for the EIC Work Programme 1. For the period 2021-27 the EIC Board has recommended six strategic goals, with associated Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), providing clear direction, track progress, and guide implementation and potential new actions 2. The baselines and progress against KPI targets will be included in the annual EIC impact reports. The KPIs represent mid to long term targets.

Six Strategic Goals for the EIC

In addition, the EIC Board has published a set of recommendations to improve the participation of innovators from widening countries in the EIC 4. The recommendations will be taken forward in the implementation of the EIC Work Programme, for example in the outreach activities and selection of EIC experts and jury members.

Overview of the 2024 Work Programme

The funding and support available in 2024 is organised into three main funding schemes: the EIC Pathfinder for advanced research to develop the scientific basis to underpin breakthrough technologies (Section II); the EIC Transition to validate technologies and develop business plans for specific applications (Section III); and the EIC Accelerator to support companies (SMEs, start-ups, spin-offs and in exceptional cases small mid-caps) to bring their innovations to market and scale them up (Section IV). In each case, the direct financial support to innovators is augmented with access to a range of Business Acceleration Services (Section V) providing access to leading expertise, corporates, investors and ecosystem actors.

All of the main calls (Pathfinder, Transition, Accelerator) provide for “Open” funding which can support technologies and innovations in any field without any predefined priority areas. In the case of the Pathfinder and Accelerator, this Open funding is complemented by a set of “Challenges” which target specific technologies and innovations of strategic interest for the Union, including to support initiatives such as Net Zero Industry, Critical Raw Materials, the Chips Act, and Health Emergency Responses. Outside of the calls, a budget is also set aside to support follow on investments to companies selected under previous EIC Work Programmes.

The Work Programme also supports a number of innovation prizes (Section VI), and additional supporting actions allowing the functioning of the EIC such as expert contracts, data management, communication and IT (Section VII).

Table 1. Summary of main calls in 2024 5.

Main changes of the 2024 Work Programme

The 2024 Work Programme incorporates adjustments, improvements and simplifications compared to the 2023 Work Programme, based on advice from the EIC Board, the reduced budget available (due to ending of the Next Generation EU budget) and experience and feedback from implementation.

Specific changes include:

General

EIC Pathfinder

EIC Transition

EIC Accelerator

Key features of EIC support

A combination of financial and non-financial support to accelerate and grow EIC innovations and companies.

The EIC support goes far beyond funding, and it aims at supporting the emergence, acceleration and growth of EIC innovations and deep tech companies. In order to further leverage the EIC investments, all EIC Awardees will be provided with access to a range of externally contracted, bespoke EIC Business Acceleration Services (BAS) at any stage of development of their activities.

The EIC uses its pan-European reach to connect EIC Awardees with partners from all around Europe and beyond, thereby also contributing to further develop the innovation ecosystem in Europe by providing access to and from a deal flow of top-level European innovators.

Proactive project and portfolio management by EIC Programme Managers.

Support awarded by EIC, and in particular by the EIC Pathfinder, is more than a one-off funding of a research project. By covering the full innovation cycle, whenever possible EIC aims to push results to higher Technology Readiness Levels (TRL). Whilst EIC Pathfinder Awardees will bear no obligation regarding the development of innovations as part of their project (beyond the evaluated proposal), the EIC will encourage and stimulate further maturation of preliminary findings and results by providing guidance as well as additional and continuous support, including financial one.

Moreover, EIC takes a proactive approach of project and programme management, performed by EIC Programme Managers 7, to identify, develop and implement such technology visions and to nurture potential market-creating innovations out of EIC funded projects and activities. Proactive management applies to EIC Pathfinder, EIC Transition and EIC Accelerator projects and consists of the following:

Based on any such revision, the Agency may request to amend the projects’ activities, milestones and deliverables in accordance with the grant agreement. If a project has been selected under an EIC Challenge topic, and where no amendment can be agreed upon to ensure coherence with the updated objectives of the related Challenge Portfolio, the Agency may suspend or terminate the project in accordance with the grant agreement.

EIC portfolio activities are identified and developed by EIC Programme Managers in consultation with the EIC Awardees of the projects in the EIC Portfolio, with relevant Commission services and where appropriate with other interested EIC Community members and third parties such as members of the innovation ecosystem.

They aim at developing cooperation within an EIC Portfolio in order to achieve its objectives, enhance research, prepare transition to innovation and stimulate business opportunities, understanding and enhancing of regulatory framework, and strengthen the EIC Community. Such activities may cover participation to conferences, workshops or meetings, experience and data sharing, and participation to any relevant EIC Business Acceleration Services events.

A tailored approach to proposal evaluation.

The EIC approach to the evaluation of proposals is tailored to the objectives of each of the EIC funding schemes. For the most mature technologies, when business and market readiness levels are close to market funding, greater emphasis is put on interviews with applicants and a simplified binary scoring (GO/NO GO).

For the EIC Pathfinder, which supports science-towards-technology breakthrough research, the evaluation follows a peer review method where proposals are evaluated, scored and ranked by experts based on weighted criteria and thresholds (see Section II).

For the EIC Transition, which funds innovation activities that go beyond the experimental proof of concept, proposals will first be evaluated remotely, scored, and ranked based on criteria and thresholds. For the top ranked applicants which are invited to the interview, the jury will decide based on a binary scoring (GO/NO GO, see Section III).

For the EIC Accelerator, which supports high risk/high gain innovations to go to the market and scale up, proposals will be evaluated remotely and at interviews based on a binary scoring (GO/NO GO) 8 (see Section IV).

Policy of open access and Intellectual Property rights 9.

For the EIC Pathfinder, provisions will be applied to ensure open access to scientific publications and promote the uptake of research results (see Annex 2 on open science).

Moreover, EIC aims to stimulate the cross-fertilisation and exploitation of results from EIC supported projects. Therefore, EIC Pathfinder and EIC Transition projects may be requested at any stage by EIC Programme Managers to actively share information about results (including preliminary findings), within their EIC Portfolio and with other relevant EIC projects and parties, as detailed in Annex 6.

This exchange of information between EIC Awardees will be without prejudice to their own legitimate interests to exploit the results or findings. To ensure full confidentiality, such sharing will be subject to non-disclosure obligations regarding confidential results, with EIC Awardees retaining the right on a case-by-case basis to fully disclose or not their intellectual property.

Technology transfer and other relevant support is expected to be provided by universities and research organisations for exploiting the results of EIC projects. In the absence of such support and without prejudice to ownership of results, the inventors of results generated by EIC Pathfinder and Transition projects may be entrusted with appropriate access rights for the purpose of further development and exploitation.

Exploitation activities may be eligible to additional financial support and services offered by the EIC, as further detailed in Annex 6.

Economic security.

Following the Communication on the European Economic Security Strategy 10 and the Commission Recommendation on critical technology areas for the EU's economic security 11 a number of provisions have been made to protect Europe from economic security risks.

These measures are:

EIC-EIT Collaboration.

The EIC is progressively increasing collaboration and synergies with the EIT and its Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) with the overall aim of strengthening the European Innovation Ecosystem. A number of collaboration areas are already in place and will continue to be supported under the current Work Programme facilitating the access to services to European innovators.

The Fast Track process by EIT KICs, that allows companies selected by the EIT KICs to enter the EIC Accelerator evaluation at the second stage will continue in 2024. EIC beneficiaries will have access to the services provided by the EIT KICs via the partnerships agreed with the EIC Business Acceleration Services.

The new innovation intern scheme (“Next Generation Talents”) is due to be launched in 2024 and will allow EIT Label Masters and Doctoral programmes, EIT Alumni, EIT Jumpstarter beneficiaries to undertake secondments in EIC and EIT supported startups and SMEs. Collaboration will continue to promote women entrepreneurs, with EIT access to the EIC Women Leadership Programme and joint women innovators prizes.

Outlook for 2025 and future years

The EIC Work Programme for 2025 will continue to follow advise provided by the EIC Board. This includes potential new synergies to support earlier stage deep tech startups and SMEs, where synergies the European Regional Development Funds (ERDF) could be developed 14.

The Commission has proposed the creation of a Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP) which includes an increased budget for the European Innovation Council in order to make larger investments (above EUR 15 million) through the EIC Fund in companies in key focal areas 15. Subject to the outcome of the inter-institutional negotiations on this proposal, the EIC Work Programme will be amended to provide this additional financing in line with the objectives of the STEP.

The process to identify EIC Challenges will continue to be improved and reinforced with new evidence, including from the Joint Research Centre and studies financed 16. This will also benefit from the analysis of emerging trends from EIC funding and third-party sources, presented in the EIC emerging technology report 17.

The Commission will also take into account the outcome of the mid-term evaluation of Horizon Europe in preparing future EIC Work Programmes.

Glossary 18

The EIC Board oversees the strategy and implementation of EIC activities and provides advice on EIC Work Programmes. It comprises 20 leading innovators and innovative researchers, including the EIC President, and is appointed by the European Commission following an open call for expressions of interest. The EIC Board members are subject to strict rules concerning conflicts of interest and confidentiality.

The Agency entrusted by the European Commission with the implementation of Horizon Europe EIC activities, except for the EIC Fund, is the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA).

The EIC Fund is an alternative investment fund (AIF) that has been established for the specific purpose of investing in companies selected through EIC Accelerator calls. An external alternative investment fund manager (AIFM, the “EIC Fund Manager”) manages the EIC Fund. The European Investment Bank (EIB) supports the EIC Fund as Investment Advisor.

The EIC Fund Manager makes investment and divestment decisions on the companies selected through the EIC Accelerator call by following a due diligence performed by the EIB according to the EIC Investment Guidelines 19. The EIC Fund Manager manages the EIC portfolio of invested companies, supported by the EIB, and in close coordination with the grant support provided to investee companies by the European Commission and managed by the Agency, as well as the provision of Business Acceleration Services (including access to other potential investors via the EIC Co-Investment Platform) and the performance of technology due diligence by the Agency.

Farinha, J., Vesnic Alujevic, L. and Polvora, A., Scanning deep tech horizons: participatory collection and assessment of signals and trends, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2023, doi:10.2760/48442, JRC134369. JRC134369 repository.

The EIC Forum brings different innovation drivers and levels of governance closer together to discuss openly and informally relevant policy issues 20. The policy recommendations and activities of the EIC Forum will aim at supporting and complementing initiatives undertaken in Horizon Europe.

The EIC Awardees are the beneficiaries identified in an EIC Grant agreement (Pathfinder, Transition and Accelerator), EIC contracts or investment agreements (for EIC Accelerator), as well as winners of EIC Prizes. The Horizon Europe model grant agreements and contracts are available on the EIC website 21.

EIC Programme Managers are high-level experts in specific fields of technology, business and innovation and who manage one or more EIC Portfolios. They are appointed to work in the Agency for a limited duration, in order to develop visions for breakthrough technologies and innovations, and to proactively manage portfolios of projects to achieve these breakthroughs. They are supported by EIC Project Officers as well as by EIC Tech to Market advisers. The EIC Programme Managers are subject to strict rules concerning conflicts of interest and confidentiality

EIC Tech to Market Advisers are agents employed by the Agency to assist primarily the EIC Transition projects, in agreement with EIC Programme Managers and in cooperation with Project Officers, with the design and the execution of the transition plan and to facilitate access to, and follow-up of, the relevant Business Acceleration Service offerings

EIC Project Officers are officials and other agents appointed by the Agency to manage an action

EIC Expert Evaluators are external independent experts in their field who assess proposals for funding against the criteria defined in the Work Programme. The EIC expert evaluators are selected from the Funding and Tender Opportunities portal Expert Database

EIC Juries are panels of specifically selected EIC expert evaluators (including, for example, independent investors, business angels and entrepreneurs) who conduct face to face interviews with applicants to the EIC Transition and EIC Accelerator calls as part of the evaluation procedure. EIC Programme Managers and, in the case of the EIC Accelerator representatives of the EIB as Investment Adviser to the EIC Fund, may participate in jury interviews as observers, but will not be members of the jury and will not take part in the jury’s decisions. Interviews may take place in either a physical or virtual setting

EIC expert monitors are external independent experts in their field who assist the Agency and, in some cases, EIC Programme Managers in the monitoring of projects

EIC evaluation committees are panels of EIC expert evaluators who evaluate proposals and rank those that have passed the applicable thresholds. In the case of EIC Pathfinder Challenges, EIC Programme Managers participate as members in some evaluation committees as specified in the call texts

EIC Business Acceleration Services (BAS) are support services provided to the EIC Awardees and other eligible organisations to support the commercialisation of EIC innovations and the scaling up of EIC companies, namely access to coaches and training, especially through the services of the EIC Ecosystem Partners, and access to global partners (leading corporates, investors, procurers, distributors, clients), see Section V for more detail

EIC business coaches are independent external experts with entrepreneurial and fundraising background who provide business development insights and improvement guidance to EIC Awardees, and applicants. They are part of the EIC Business Acceleration Services.

EIC Community platform is a platform available to all EIC Awardees and Seals of Excellence, facilitating links to Business Acceleration Services as well as enabling discussions, exchanges and matchmaking. The EIC Community platform is a virtual meeting place where EIC Awardees can connect with peer inventors, researchers, innovators and entrepreneurs as well as other actors from the ecosystem.

EIC Ecosystem Partners are organisations that have been selected to provide EIC Business Acceleration Services or other support to EIC Awardees. EIC Ecosystem Partners can include, for example, investors, business angels, mentors and coaches, innovation agencies, business associations, clusters, accelerators, incubators, technology transfer offices, venture builders, etc. They may also include the Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) of the EIT, members of the Enterprise Europe Network and Startup Europe, and the European IP Helpdesk

EIC Marketplace will be an EIC-dedicated space supported by the Horizon Results Platform, where results on the EIC Pathfinder and Transition projects will be made available in order to cross-fertilise activities and stimulate and nurture potential innovation. The EIC Marketplace is expected to become available during the course of 2024

EIC Portfolio is a set of actions presenting thematic similarities (Thematic Portfolio) or contributing to the same EIC Challenge (Challenge Portfolio). Further information can be found in the proactive project and portfolio management by EIC Programme Managers section

National Contact Points (NCPs) are appointed by Member States and Associated Countries to provide guidance, practical information and assistance to applicants on all aspects of participation in Horizon Europe

Next Generation Innovation Talents scheme supports EU funded researchers (from European Innovation Council EIC, European Research Council (ERC), European Institute of Technology (EIT), Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions (MSCA)) to carry out an innovation internship in a startup funded by the EIC or EIT. The aim is to enable researchers and aspiring innovators to better understand and gain direct experience of real-world innovation and entrepreneurship while allowing innovative start-ups to access new ideas and insights from cutting edge research

The Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) is a network of business intermediary organisations (chambers of commerce, technology poles, innovation support organisations, universities and research institutes, regional development organisations) that help Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) innovate and grow internationally.

Deep tech is technology that is based on cutting-edge scientific advances and discoveries and is characterised by the need to stay at the technological forefront by constant interaction with new ideas and results from the lab. Deep tech is distinct from ‘high tech’ which tends to refer only to R&D intensity 22.

Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) provide a guide to the stage of development. TRLs are used in the Work Programme for guidance, but do not preclude support for non-technological innovations. A strong degree of importance will also be given to

market readiness and business readiness 23, as described in the award criteria of the call texts. The following definitions of TRLs apply, recognising that there are important differences between technological fields 24:

TRL1 - basic principles observed. TRL2 - technology concept formulated. TRL3 - experimental proof of concept. TRL4 - technology validated in lab.

TRL5 - technology validated in relevant environment. TRL6 - technology demonstrated in relevant environment. TRL7 - system prototype demonstration in operational environment. TRL8 - system complete and qualified. TRL9 - actual system proven in operational environment.

Seal of Excellence: is a quality label which shows that a proposal submitted to a call for proposals exceeded all of the evaluation thresholds set out in the work programme. It is awarded to individual SMEs that apply for EIC Transition or EIC Accelerator funding and are assessed to meet the relevant evaluation criteria as defined in the call text, but which are not directly funded by the EIC.

The EIC Seal of Excellence provides access to EIC Business Acceleration Services and facilitates funding from other sources 25. The grant component of projects awarded a Seal of Excellence is exempted under the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER) 26 from State Aid notification requirements under the same funding rates as those applicable to the EIC. The investment component of projects awarded a Seal of Excellence may be supported by other funders, including public funders in accordance with the State Aid rules.

Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) is a category of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. It consists of enterprises that employ fewer than 250 persons and have either an annual turnover not exceeding EUR 50 million, or an annual balance sheet total not exceeding EUR 43 million. A full definition is provided in Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC 27. Under the EIC, this category includes start-ups.

Small mid-cap means an enterprise employing up to 499 employees 28

Women-led SMEs (including start-ups) means companies where the position of either the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Technology Officer (CTO) or Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) is held by a woman at the time of application, interview and award of the EU financial support

Women-led consortia means consortia where the consortium coordinator is a woman and at least 50% of Work Package leaders, including the consortium coordinator, are women at the time of application, interview and award of the EU financial support

EIC Pathfinder

The overall objective of the EIC Pathfinder for advanced research is to develop the scientific basis to underpin breakthrough technologies. It provides support for the earliest stages of scientific, technological or deep-tech research and development. Pathfinder projects aim to build on new, cutting-edge directions in science and technology to disrupt a field and a market or create new opportunities by realising innovative technological solutions through:

EIC Pathfinder Open

If the answer to each one of these questions is ‘yes’, then EIC Pathfinder Open may be the right call for you.

Why should you apply?

You should apply if you are looking for support from EIC Pathfinder Open to realise an ambitious vision for radically new technology, with potential to create new markets and/or to address global challenges. EIC Pathfinder Open supports early stage development of such future technologies (e.g., various activities at low Technology Readiness Levels from 1 to 4), based on high-risk/high-gain science-towards-technology breakthrough research (including ‘deep-tech’). This research must provide the foundations of the technology you are envisioning.

EIC Pathfinder Open may support your work, especially if it is highly risky: you may set out to try things that will not work; you may be faced with questions that nobody knows the answer to yet; you may realise that there are many aspects of the problem that you do not master. On the contrary, if the approach you want to follow is incremental by nature or known, EIC Pathfinder Open will not support you.

Before applying to this call, you should verify that your proposal meets all the following essential characteristics (‘Gatekeepers’):

EIC Pathfinder Open involves interdisciplinary research and development. By bringing diverse areas of research together, often with different perspectives, terminologies and methodologies, within individual projects and within a portfolio of projects, really new things can be generated and entirely new areas of research can be opened up.

It is up to you to compose the team that you need, that you can learn from, and that you can move forward with. The expected output of your project is the proof of principle that the main ideas of the envisioned future technology are feasible, thus validating its scientific and technological basis.

Project results should include top-level scientific publications in open access. While your vision is expected to be worthwhile because of its potential for future impact, for instance to create new markets, improve our lives, or address global challenges, these are not expected to be addressed or achieved in the course of your EIC Pathfinder Open project.

However, you are expected to take the necessary measures to allow future uptake to take place, for instance through an adequate formal protection of the generated Intellectual Property (IP) 29 and an assessment of relevant aspects related to regulation, certification, and standardisation.

In addition, you are encouraged to involve and empower in your team key actors that have the potential to become future leaders in their field such as excellent early-career researchers or promising high-tech SMEs, including start-ups. Your project should reinforce their mind-set for targeted research and development aimed at high-impact applied results.

This will strengthen Europe’s capacity for exploiting the scientific discoveries made in Europe throughout the steps to market success or for solving global challenges. You are particularly encouraged to empower female researchers in your project and to achieve gender balance among your work package leaders.

Can you apply?

This call is open for collaborative research. Your proposal must be submitted by the coordinator, on behalf of a consortium including as beneficiaries, at least three legal entities, independent from each other and each established in a different country as follows:

The legal entities may for example be universities, research organisations, SMEs, start-ups, industrial partners or natural persons. The eligibility of associated countries and third countries is detailed in Annex 2.

The standard admissibility and eligibility conditions are detailed in Annex 2. The scope of proposals should be in line with the Do No Significant Harm principle (see Annex 2). Research proposals within the scope of Annex I to the Euratom Treaty, namely those directed towards nuclear energy applications, must be submitted to relevant calls under the Euratom Research and Training Programme.

What support will you receive if your proposal is funded?

The total indicative budget for this call is EUR 136 million. You will receive a grant for a Research and Innovation Action to cover the eligible costs, necessary for the implementation of your project.

For this call, the EIC considers proposals with a requested EU contribution of up to EUR 3 million as appropriate. Nonetheless, this does not preclude you to request larger amounts, if duly justified. The funding rate of this grant will be 100% of the eligible costs.

In addition to funding, successful applicants will receive tailor-made access to a wide range of Business Acceleration Services (see Section V) and interactions with EIC Programme Managers (see Section I).

Projects funded through EIC Pathfinder (including grants resulting from certain EIC pilot Pathfinder, FET-Open and Proactive calls) 30 may be eligible:

The Model Grant Agreement can be found on the Funding and Tender Opportunities Portal 31.

How do you apply; how long does it take?

The deadline for submitting your proposal is 7 March 2024 at 17h00 Brussels local time 32. You must submit your proposal via the Funding and Tender Opportunities Portal before the given deadline.

Sections 1 to 3 of the part B of your proposal, corresponding respectively to the award criteria Excellence, Impact, and Quality and Efficiency of the Implementation, must consist of a maximum of 20 format A4 pages.

You will be informed about the outcome of the evaluation within 5 months from the call deadline (indicative) and, if your proposal is selected for funding, you can expect your grant agreement to be signed by 8 months after the call deadline (indicative).

How does the EIC decide if your proposal will be funded?

Your proposal will be first evaluated and scored individually by at least four EIC expert evaluators with respect to the award criteria. The score for each award criterion will be the median of the evaluators’ scores.

The overall score from this individual evaluation phase will be the weighted sum of the three median scores from the three award criteria. The evaluation committee, composed of EIC expert evaluators different than those who evaluated the proposals individually, will decide on the final score based on the score from the individual evaluation phase and the outcome of its consensus discussions.

The evaluation committee may invite expert evaluators who evaluated and scored the proposals individually to the consensus discussions, in particular to clarify diverging evaluators’ opinions. The Evaluation Summary Report will comprise the final score, a collation of the comments from individual reports, or extracts of them, a comment that summarises the assessment by the evaluation committee as well as any additional comments, possibly including advice not to resubmit the proposal.

Proposals will be assessed according to the following award criteria (Table 2):

For proposals with the same final score, priority will be based on the following factors, in order: higher score under the criterion Excellence; higher score under the criterion Impact; gender balance among the work package leaders as identified in the proposal; number of applicants that are SMEs; number of Member States and Associated Countries represented in the consortium; other factors related to the objectives of the call to be determined by the evaluation committee.

EIC Pathfinder Challenges

EIC Pathfinder Challenges aim to build on new, cutting-edge directions in science and technology to disrupt a field and a market or create new opportunities by realising innovative technological solutions grounded in high-risk/high-gain research and development.

With each specific Challenge, a portfolio of projects will be established that explore different perspectives, competing approaches or complementary aspects of the Challenge. The complexity and high-risk nature of this research will require multi-disciplinary collaborations.

A dedicated Programme Manager, who establishes a common roadmap and proactively steers the portfolio towards the goals of each Challenge, oversees a specific EIC Pathfinder Challenge. Projects in a Challenge portfolio are expected to interact and exchange, remaining flexible and reactive in the light of developments within the portfolio or in the relevant global scientific or industrial community.

They will progress together towards common goals and create new opportunities for radical innovation. This section refers to common criteria for all EIC Pathfinder Challenges. Please refer to the description below of each Challenge for specific information and requirements.

Why should you apply?

You should apply if you have a potential cutting-edge project that would contribute to the specific objectives of the respective Challenge. Specifically, your project must aim to deliver by its end the expected outcomes defined in the respective Challenge.

In general, the starting point of a proposal answering to a Pathfinder Challenge is early TRL (e.g., 2) to up to proof of concept or validation in the lab (e.g., TRL 3 or 4). Project results should also include top-level scientific publications as well as an adequate formal protection of the generated intellectual property (IP) as well as an assessment of relevant aspects related to regulation, certification and standardisation.

In addition, you are encouraged to involve and empower in your team key actors that have the potential to become future leaders in their fields such as excellent early-career researchers or promising high-tech SMEs, including start-ups. Your project should reinforce their mind-set for targeted research and development aimed at high-impact applied results.

You are particularly encouraged to empower female researchers in your project and to achieve gender balance among your work package leaders. Before you decide to apply, you are strongly encouraged to read the respective EIC Pathfinder Challenge Guide that will be published on the EIC website and the Funding and Tender Opportunities Portal after the call opening.

Can you apply?

In order to apply, your proposal must meet the general eligibility requirements (see Annex 2) as well as specific eligibility requirements for the Challenge (if applicable). Please check for particular elements (e.g., specific application focus or technology) in the respective Challenge chapter below.

The EIC Pathfinder Challenges support collaborative or individual research and innovation from consortia or from single legal entities established in a Member State or an Associated Country (unless stated otherwise in the specific Challenge chapter).

In case of a consortium your proposal must be submitted by the coordinator on behalf of the consortium. Consortia of two entities must be comprised of independent legal entities from two different Member States or Associated Countries.

Consortia of three or more entities must include as beneficiaries at least three legal entities, independent from each other and each established in a different country as follows:

The legal entities may for example be universities, research organisations, SMEs, start-ups, natural persons. In the case of single beneficiary projects, mid-caps and larger companies will not be permitted.

The standard admissibility and eligibility conditions and the eligibility of applicants from third countries are detailed in Annex 2. The scope of proposals should be in line with the Do No Significant Harm principle (see Annex 2).

What support will you receive if your proposal is funded?

The total indicative budget for this call is EUR 120 million which is expected to be allocated in approximately equal shares across the Challenges.

You will receive a grant for a Research and Innovation Action to cover the eligible costs, necessary for the implementation of your project, including the portfolio activities. For this call, the EIC considers proposals with an EU contribution of up to EUR 4 million as appropriate.

Nonetheless, this does not preclude you to request larger amounts, if duly justified or stated otherwise in the specific Challenge. The funding rate of this grant will be 100% of the eligible costs. Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum and the amount will be determined during the evaluation process.

Applicants must therefore propose the amount of the lump sum based on their estimated project costs as defined in the Decision of 7 July 2021 authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2021-2027) – and in actions under the Research and Training Programme of the European Atomic Energy Community (2021-2025) 33. It is advised to include a work package dedicated to portfolio activities and allocate at least 10 person-month to it.

In addition to funding, successful applicants will receive tailor-made access to a wide range of Business Acceleration Services (see Section V) and interactions with EIC Programme Managers and other actions in the portfolio of projects selected (see Section I).

Projects funded through EIC Pathfinder (including grants resulting from certain EIC pilot Pathfinder, FET-Open and Proactive calls) 34 may be eligible:

The Model Grant Agreement can be found on the Funding and Tender Opportunities Portal.

How do you apply; how long does it take?

The call deadline for submitting your proposal is 16 October 2024 at 17h00 Brussels local time 35. You must submit your proposal via the Funding and Tender Opportunities Portal before the given deadline.

Sections 1 to 3 of the part B of your proposal, corresponding respectively to the award criteria Excellence, Impact, and Quality and Efficiency of the Implementation, must consist of a maximum of 30 format A4 pages.

You will be informed about the outcome of the evaluation by 5 months after call deadline (indicative), and, if your proposal is accepted for funding, you can expect your grant agreement to be signed by 8 months after the call deadline (indicative).

How does the EIC decide if your proposal will be funded?

After the submission of your proposal, it will be evaluated in two steps:

Step 1 (assessment of each proposal separately): Your proposal will be first evaluated and scored individually by at least three EIC expert evaluators with respect to the award criteria. After the individual evaluation, these evaluators will get together in a consensus group to agree on a common position on comments and scores.

After the consensus phase, the evaluation committee will check consistency across the evaluation of each individual proposal and finalise the scores and comments for all proposals. For step 1, proposals will be assessed according to the following award criteria (Table 3).

All proposals that meet the thresholds defined in the award criteria will be considered in step 2. In step 2, the evaluation committee will consider each proposal’s contribution to setting up a consistent Challenge Portfolio of projects.

First, the evaluation committee will map the proposals in a number of categories stemming from the overall goal and specific objectives of the Challenge. Following this mapping of proposals against categories, a suitable portfolio of proposals will be selected by the evaluation committee by applying portfolio considerations.

Further information and details about the categories and the portfolio considerations will be provided in EIC Pathfinder Challenge Guides, which will be topic and domain specific. The evaluation committee may also propose some minor adjustments to the proposals as far as needed for the consistency of the portfolio approach.

These adjustments will be in conformity with the conditions for participation and comply with the principle of equal treatment. You will receive feedback in the Evaluation Summary Report which will comprise the final score and the comments endorsed by the evaluation committee as well as any additional comments.

If your proposal was either retained for funding or not retained for funding while it received a score that was higher than other proposals retained for funding under the same Challenge, then you will also be informed about the underlying portfolio considerations. Comments on the detailed lump sum budget table will be provided in the Evaluation Summary Report only for proposals invited to grant agreement preparation (or placed in the reserve list) and ones rejected (in part) due to significant overestimation or underestimation of costs.

What happens after a proposal is evaluated and retained for funding?

The coordinator of the proposal will receive a letter announcing the proposal has been retained for funding and the next steps regarding grant agreement signature. Grant agreement preparation and signature is expected to be completed within three months but shorter timelines may be specified.

The Project Officer and relevant EIC Programme Manager will contact and support you during the grant agreement preparation to plan the portfolio activities for which you will be expected to collaborate with the other projects in the Challenge Portfolio and to start the preparation of the Challenge roadmap.

During the execution of the project, you will interact continuously with the Project Officer assigned to your project and the EIC Programme Manager, assigned to the Challenge Portfolio of your project, who will oversee all the portfolio projects.

Solar-to-X devices for the decentralized prosumption of renewable fuels, chemicals and materials as climate change mitigation pathway

Background and scope:

There are currently quite mature technologies tested on industrial pilot scale to provide synthetic fuels and chemicals from renewable energy sources via a sequence of independent energy and chemical conversion steps (Power-to-X or Carbon Capture and Utilization technologies). However, energy losses during the different steps (e.g., electricity production or thermochemical conversion) make the process highly energy intense.

Also, the provision of affordable, renewable electricity at the needed scale is challenging. A potential workaround to this bottleneck is the development of devices which directly convert solar energy and abundantly available molecules (such as water or carbon oxides) into liquids and gases – within a single device.

These so-called solar-to-X technologies avoid the beforehand conversion of solar energy into electricity and reduce the complexity of the process by a complete integration of the different steps. Solar-to-X technologies, also called artificial photosynthesis or solar fuel technologies, support the vision of a decentralized, local energy and production system with a local provision of the needed resources.

In this vision, communities become not only prosumers of electricity, but also of fuels, chemicals and materials. In this Challenge, solar-to-X technologies must address societal needs not already sufficiently covered by other energy technologies.

The developed technologies should demonstrate how they can be embedded in the full functional value chain from generation to use, be self-sustaining in the long-run and provide a win-win opportunity for prosumers and the environment. The objective is to make progress towards synthetic fuels and chemicals technologies which integrate all necessary conversion steps into a single device, and which are solely and directly driven by solar energy.

Devices which are driven by electricity or heat are not the focus of this Challenge – except for radically new electrolyzer designs beyond incremental R&D on mature electrolyzer designs. Partially integrated systems, where the overall balance of plant is not significantly simplified (e.g., PV-assisted photoelectrochemical devices) are not within the scope of this Challenge.

The use of sacrificial agents has to be avoided and the desired product has to go beyond hydrogen and carbon monoxide. To summarize, this Challenge focusses on: i) Novel electrolyzer designs showing a significantly simplified balance-of-plant compared to mature electrolyzer designs; ii) Fully-integrated PV-EC devices, with electrochemical conversion (EC) and photovoltaic unit (PV) combined in a single device; iii) Photosynthetic devices converting directly sunlight and simple feedstock molecules into a fuel or chemical (e.g., photoelectrochemical devices, particulate systems, biohybrid photosynthetic devices, thermally-integrated photosynthetic devices, etc.); iv) Solar-driven biological conversion devices (e.g., solar cell factories).

This Challenge is directly relevant to the objectives of the European Green Deal and Repower EU.

Specific objectives

Project proposals should address one (and only one) of the following three areas:

Area 1: Standalone solar-to-X device development

Area 2: Benchmarking and common metrics development for solar-to-X devices

Area 3: Understanding fundamental mechanisms by means of computational materials science

Expected outcomes and impacts

This Challenge addresses the development of devices - their enabling technologies and use cases - that store sunlight directly on the long term in the form of fuels and chemicals to enable a decentralized energy, transport and production system.

The portfolio of projects selected under this Challenge is expected to collectively:

Concerning environmental and economic impacts:

Portfolio composition: The applicants of Area 1 should specifically mention to which of the technological areas their technology belongs (Novel electrolyzer designs, Fully-integrated PV-EC, Photosynthetic devices, Solar-driven biological conversion devices).

Specific conditions

Technologies starting from an energy-rich feedstock, such as biomass, and proposals that only address parts of the full solar-to-X chain (e.g., half reactions) will not be considered.

Towards cement and concrete as a carbon sink

Background and scope:

Cement is the largest manufactured product in the world by mass. In 2022 humans produced 4.2 billion tons of it (about 626 kg per capita). Combined with water, sand and aggregates cement is the glue to form concrete.

Aside from water, there is no material we use more than concrete. The industry is interrelated with other major sectors such as energy and steel. Its supply chains are vast, deeply complex, with increasing degrees of fragmentation going downstream.

Cement and concrete are versatile, low-cost, abundant and relatively local. Realistically, cement and concrete are here to stay. Then again, current mainstream cement and concrete technologies are also the source of 8% of our CO2 emissions (about 600 kg per capita).

Roughly 60% of these emissions are “chemical” released by converting limestone into clinker, and 40% of doing so at very high temperatures by burning fossil fuels. With EU (and global) commitments for rapid and radical emission reductions, it is necessary to pull all scientific, economic, and regulatory levers to reduce the environmental impacts of the cement and concrete sector.

One default pathway to decarbonize cement is to capture and store CO2 of current production processes (CCS). Technologies for CCS are in development and expected to increase the cost of cement.

To avoid additional costs of future emissions as much as possible, accelerated deep-tech innovations are needed to fully negate or even absorb emissions by the sector in future. This Pathfinder Challenge encourages breakthrough innovations that utilize CO2 and that are more cost effective than CCS, while CCS/CCUS technologies unrelated to cement and concrete are out of scope.

Specific objectives

This challenge is supporting the development of breakthrough technologies in one or more of the following domains:

Expected outcomes and impacts

Project results must clearly demonstrate validation in laboratory environment (TRL4) of the breakthrough technology. The portfolio is expected to cover the four domains and collaborate to further reduce carbon emissions of cement and concrete.

Projects are required to develop common metrics and terminology to compare project results and include a rough order of magnitude (ROM) estimation of the potential impact on emission reductions. Portfolio activities to develop techno-economic views for implementation, adoption, and scaling in real-world conditions are encouraged.

Any innovation that offers a reduction of CO2 emissions shall still enable, meet, or exceed the performance and workability criteria of incumbent products by the time of market adoption, as referenced by industry norms and standards. In the long run, project results should underpin novel products, processes and solutions aligned with the ambitions of the European Green Deal and reduce dependency on critical raw materials.

Nature inspired alternatives for food packaging and films for agriculture

The food production system is heavily reliant on fossil fuel derived plastics, from agricultural mulch to packaging for transportation, preservation, hygiene and safety. Plastic’s low cost, durability, and linear use with low levels of recycling is the source of numerous environmental challenges, further accentuated by coating agents and formulation additives.

This Pathfinder Challenge aims to support ambitious interdisciplinary research that will lead to the development and production of sustainable nature inspired alternatives for food packaging and agricultural production such as, but not limited to, greenhouse and mulch films.

These materials must have a reduced environmental impact, through design and production, while delivering the functional characteristics of plastics. Proposals should span the product lifecycle from the development of novel sustainable materials, their design and production through to end of life, while maximising the time and extent of use.

Abundant, naturally occurring materials that display properties to be optimized for food related applications with a reduced environmental footprint in production and enhanced scope for re-use, recycling and biodegradability, including in extreme environments, will be encouraged.

Specific objectives

The Challenge seeks groundbreaking proposals with the capacity to replace the use of fossil-carbon-based plastics from farm to fork and thereby support EU policy ambitions to move towards a more circular, resource efficient and climate neutral economy.

Proposals must deliver nature-inspired sustainable alternatives to fossil carbon derived plastics and associated production processes. These alternatives shall be circular, safe and sustainable by design and allow for reusability, recyclability and full biodegradability.

They must look to address one or more of the current uses of plastics in the food system (e.g., agricultural mulch, food packaging), and utilise bio-based sources and raw materials such as polymers extracted from nature (e.g., cellulose, chitin, lignin, keratin), natural polymers (e.g., microbial, fungal and plant materials), or synthetic polymers from biobased materials.

Attention should be paid to regulatory aspects in the development and incorporation of chemical additives that can deliver high sanitary standards for contact with food, formulated to meet biodegradability criteria and fully biodegrade in natural soil and aquatic environments across the EU.

All projects must demonstrate at least preliminary evidence of an improved cradle-to-gate and cradle-to-grave lifecycle assessment, when compared to fossil carbon derived plastics and current additives, accounting for environmental, social and economic considerations. Over their lifecycle, materials and processes must:

They must also include one or more enhanced functional characteristics for use in the food value chain while minimising or potentially eliminating harmful effects, with a view to:

This could include smart functionalities responding to environmental conditions and biodegradable electronic features. Projects with strong capacity for use beyond food and agriculture (e.g., packaging for pharmaceuticals) will also be encouraged and prioritised.

Irrespective of starting point, project outputs must be shown to be effective for their intended application with, at the very least, a lab-based demonstrator i.e., reach TRL 4 or above.

Expected outcomes and impacts

The projects are expected to collectively provide a portfolio of environmentally friendly materials and use cases informed by availability, efficiency and end functionality. Funded projects will work together to develop a robust approach to measure lifecycle impacts.

The successful implementation will lead to a paradigm shift in the food and agriculture sector, developing nature-inspired materials that are commercially viable, environmentally sound and support a more circular, resource efficient and environmentally sustainable economy, reducing pollution and contamination by micro and nano plastic particles and leeched additives.

Nanoelectronics for energy-efficient smart edge devices

Background and scope:

Power consumption and heat dissipation are the most urgent challenges in electronics ranging from mobile devices to large data centres and becomes especially relevant for smart edge devices. Advanced chip designs are lowering energy consumption while increasing performance such as speed, capacity, reliability and security.

Various strategies are being tested, but there is much room to improve energy consumption towards near-fundamental limits, through the co-design of geometry, materials, circuits, and integration in a holistic approach. The overall goal is to explore novel materials and beyond CMOS devices, non-von Neumann architectures and alternative information processing paradigms to drastically reduce energy consumption in order to meet application-specific needs of smart edge devices and circuits.

Specific objectives

Explore solutions (starting at TRL 1/2) that will drastically decrease the power consumption of any smart edge device, especially for Edge Processing and memories, Edge Sensing and Imaging, Edge Communication and Edge Power Management. Proposed solutions should start at TRL 1-2 and reach TRL 3-4.

Projects are expected to address one or more of the following aspects:

The proposed developments may cover (amongst others):

At Design level.

At Materials/Process levels:

At Device/Architecture levels:

Expected outcomes and impacts

The portfolio of projects is expected to collectively derive fundamental bounds for energy consumption and design practical scenarios to minimize energy costs of different processes, and harness energetic efficiencies as optimization tools to operate smart technological choices to build smart edge devices.

The expected impact is to open an unprecedented way for the reduction of power consumption in information processing and transmission by developing new fundamental technology solutions from advanced materials to advanced devices and circuits, allowing a drastic reduction of energy consumption of smart edge solutions.

Specific conditions

Applicants must describe in their proposal energy-based metrics for the technologies and methodologies to measure them and establish benchmarks. Stable, abundant and non-toxic materials which withstand device and circuit processing steps should be used.

Strengthening the sustainability and resilience of EU space infrastructure

Background and scope:

The ever-growing orbital population of satellites and space debris poses increasing challenges to space infrastructure. The density of space objects amplifies the risk of orbital collisions, unexpected fragmentation events and re-entries that may result in the degradation of space assets, hindering the services they deliver and making Earth orbits unusable.

Debris growth is escalating with more than 2,500 non-operational satellites, 36,500 space debris pieces bigger than 10 cm and 1 million pieces of debris between 1-10 cm in Earth’s orbits. Collision avoidance manoeuvres have doubled and are expected to grow.

Continuous trajectory changes of spacecraft will result in insufficient fuel for deorbiting and other critical end-of-life manoeuvres. In-space recycling of dysfunctional orbital assets will provide an opportunity for space assets re-utilisation and in-space refuelling.

This challenge addresses the long-term emerging need for green, compact and affordable de-orbiting solutions and in-space recycling of space debris. Space systems and services in the EU are critical infrastructures that need to be better protected.

The level of protection of space assets varies across Member States, and there is a need to expand the scope of EU actions. In this context, the need to protect EU space infrastructure and promote the preservation of a safe and secure space domain is essential.

Specific objectives

The overall goal is to support the development of innovations that will strengthen the protection of EU space infrastructure. The specific goals are: 1) technologies for space debris mitigation and active debris removal; 2) concepts for in-space recycling of dysfunctional orbital assets; 3) innovations for protecting EU space infrastructure.

Projects are expected to develop breakthrough concepts in one or more of the following areas:

Breakthrough ideas and concepts should be designed and validated in a laboratory environment. They should address “old” debris and active debris removal (ADR) including end-of-life (EoL) disposal, and may include debris mitigation measures integrated into the design of spacecrafts and launchers.

Expected outcomes and impacts

The portfolio will develop technologies for space debris mitigation and remediation using very little propellant, and in-space recycling and re-use techniques to generate basic materials and re-use components for structures and assets, thereby supporting the in-space assembly and manufacturing (ISAM) domain.

Innovations may result in: collision avoidance concepts providing accurate and timely detection and tracking of orbiting space objects; innovations for space situational awareness (SSA); development of algorithms and simulation tools for re-entry, close proximity operations, fragmentation; and innovative concepts for in-orbit spacecraft recognition and space debris detection.

This topic contributes to reinforcing the EU strategic autonomy and EU Space policy, notably regarding the EU Space Strategy for Security and Defence and the EU approach for Space Traffic Management. It will contribute to strengthening the European resilience by promoting a secure, sustainable and safe space domain.

Specific conditions

Submitted proposals must follow interdisciplinary and cross-sectorial approaches, looking for inspiration, ideas, and knowledge in a broad range of disciplines. Applicants are encouraged to develop synergies with relevant activities under Horizon Europe Cluster 4 Work Programme 2021–2022 and Work Programme 2023–2024.

Specific conditions

The submitted proposals must follow interdisciplinary and cross-sectorial approaches, looking for inspiration, ideas, and knowledge in a broad range of disciplines.

Applicants are encouraged to develop synergies with relevant activities under Horizon Europe Cluster 4 Work Programme 2021 – 2022 and Work Programme 2023 – 2024, destination Open Strategic Autonomy In Developing, Deploying And Using Global Space-Based Infrastructures, Services Applications And Data.

EIC Transition

Have you identified EU-funded project result(s) with promising commercial potential that could be the basis for ground-breaking innovations and promising new businesses?

If the answer to each and every of these questions is a clear ‘yes’, then EIC Transition may be the right call for you.

Why should you apply

EIC Transition funds innovation activities that go beyond the experimental proof of principle in laboratory. It supports both the maturation and validation of your novel technology from the lab to the relevant application environments (by making use of prototyping, formulation, models, user testing or other validation tests) as well as explorations and development of a sustainable business case and business model towards commercialisation into high potential markets.

Your proposed activities must include further technology development on the results achieved in a previous project and follow user-centric methodologies to increase chances of the innovation’s future commercial success in the market. EIC Transition projects should address, in a balanced way, both technology and market/business development, possibly including iterative learning processes based on early customer or user feedback.

These activities should include, subject to the level of maturity of the technology, a suitable mix of technology development and validation activities to increase the maturity of the technology beyond proof of concept to viable demonstrators of the technology in the intended field of application (i.e., from minimum TRL 3 or TRL 4 up to Technology Readiness Level 5 to 6).

The activities must in all cases address market readiness towards commercialisation and deployment (market research, value proposition, business case and business model, prospects for growth, intellectual property protection, competitor analysis etc.) and aspects of regulation, certification and standardisation (if relevant), aimed at getting both the technology and the business idea investment ready.

EIC Transition aims at maturing both your technology and business idea thus increasing its technology and market/commercial readiness. The expected outcomes of your EIC Transition project are a) a technology that is demonstrated to be effective for its intended application and b) a business model, its validation and a business plan for its development to market.

It is also expected that the intellectual property generated by your EIC Transition project is formally protected in an adequate way (Annex 6).

EIC Transition can support several different pathways beyond fundamental research, from technology development and product design to business modelling and commercialisation strategy to reach the market. Some non-exhaustive illustrative examples could be the following pathways:

Technology Transfer Offices are encouraged to actively participate in the EIC Transition project, as they play a key role in enabling and supporting researchers with the development and commercialisation of their results.

At the end of your EIC Transition project, you should be ready for the next stage, which can be to apply for EIC Accelerator (if you are a SME, including start-ups or spin-offs), and to seek other investors or sources of funding, to enter licensing or collaboration agreements with third parties, or other routes to market deployment.

In case your project is not led by an SME or commercial partner, the formation and spin out of a new company can be included as part of the activities. You will be expected to describe the intended pathway and route to market in your proposal and must include specific milestones together with concrete and verifiable KPIs during the implementation of your project to assess progress towards the market.

The EIC Transition project is expected to mature your innovation both in its TRL and market and business readiness since the beginning of the project and with both tracks going in parallel and interacting between them.

Applicants to EIC Transition can submit proposals through an EIC Transition Open call which has no predefined thematic priorities and is open to proposals in any field of science, technology or application. 36

Can you apply

In order to apply, your proposal must meet the general eligibility requirements (see Annex 2) as well as specific eligibility requirements described in this section.

Your proposal must build on results already achieved within an eligible project that are, at least, at experimental proof of concept (TRL 3) or, ideally, technology validated in the lab level (TRL 4). Proposals building on project results at TRLs other than TRL 3 or TRL 4 are not eligible.

EIC Transition is restricted to proposals based on results generated by the following eligible projects:

If you are applying on the basis of an eligible project for which the grant is still active, you may apply if the project has been active for at least 12 months (i.e., the start date of the grant is more than 12 months before the date of the selected EIC Transition call cut-off).

If you are applying on the basis of an eligible project which has already been completed, you may apply within 30 months of the completion of the project (i.e. the end date of the grant for the eligible project is less than 30 months from the date of the selected EIC Transition cut-off).

You do not need to be a participant, Principal Investigator or result owner of the previous projects; on the contrary, new participants including start-ups, SME or other innovation actors are welcome and encouraged to apply:

In all cases you need to specify in your application the grant project which generated the result together with reference to where the result has been reported (in the periodic reporting, the Horizon results platform, the Innovation Radar or CORDIS).

You can apply for EIC Transition either as:

Only one proposal can be submitted per eligible originating ERC Proof of Concept funded in Horizon 2020 or Horizon Europe and FET Innovation Launchpad project in the same call.

Consortia may for example include start-ups, SMEs, research organisations, or larger companies, user/customer organisations or potential end users (e.g., hospitals, utilities, industry, regulatory and standardisation bodies).

The applicant must specify which path to market will be explored and pursued during the execution of the EIC Transition project: direct exploitation by coordinator or beneficiary, creation of a spin-off company in a Member State or an Associated Country, licensing to an established company (not part of the consortium) or other path to be described.

What support will you receive if your proposal is funded

The total indicative budget for this call is EUR 94 million.

If successful, you will receive a grant for a Research and Innovation Action to cover the eligible costs necessary for the implementation of your project. For this call, the EIC considers proposals with a requested EU contribution of more than EUR 0.5 million and less than EUR 2.5 million and duration between 1 and 3 years as appropriate.

Nonetheless, in exceptional cases, this does not preclude you from requesting larger amounts, if very well motivated and duly explained. The funding rate of this grant will be 100% of the eligible costs.

Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum and the amount will be determined during the evaluation process. Applicants must therefore propose the amount of the lump sum based on their estimated project costs as defined in the Decision of 7 July 2021 authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2021-2027) – and in actions under the Research and Training Programme of the European Atomic Energy Community (2021-2025). 42

The projects funded through EIC Transition are eligible:

In addition to funding, projects will receive tailor-made access to a wide range of Business Acceleration Services and matchmaking events (see Section V). The Model Grant Agreement can be found on the Funding and Tenders Opportunities portal.

How do you apply; how long does it take

The deadline for submitting your proposal is 18 September 2024 at 17h00 Brussels local time. 43

You must submit your proposal via the Funding and Tender Opportunities Portal before the given deadline. Sections 1 to 3 and the cover page (that includes the information about the related project on which the current EIC Transition proposal is built on) of part B of your proposal must consist of a maximum of 22 format A4 pages.

Your proposal will be evaluated first by EIC expert evaluators, and you will be informed about the result of this evaluation, including feedback on your proposal, indicatively within 9 weeks after the deadline. If your proposal successfully passes this first evaluation phase, you will be invited for an interview approximately between 12–14 weeks after the deadline.

At the interview, you will be assessed by a panel of maximum 6 EIC Jury members, and you will be informed about the result of the interview indicatively within 4 weeks from the start of the interviews. If you are successful, you can expect your grant agreement to be signed within 6 months from the call deadline (indicative) and you are expected to start your project within 2 months after signing the grant agreement.

How does the EIC decide if your proposal will be funded

In a first step, at least three EIC expert evaluators will evaluate and score your proposal against each award criterion. The overall score for each evaluation criterion will be the average of the corresponding scores attributed by the individual evaluators.

The total score of your proposal will be the sum of the overall scores from the three evaluation criteria. Starting with the highest scoring proposal and in descending order, a pool of the best ranked proposals requesting an aggregated financial support equal to approximately the double of the budget available 44 will be invited to the next step.

All such applicants invited to interview must have met all evaluation criteria thresholds from the remote evaluation (Table 4). The Agency may seek assistance from the European Patent Office to analyse the technological novelty, the inventive merit and the proposed future strategy of EIC proposals shortlisted for Jury interview.

EPO experts will not participate directly in the evaluation process but will provide their assessment to the Jury as material ‘for information’. The assessment by the patent examiners will not be binding and the Jury appointed by the EIC will have complete freedom to decide on its relevance.

The second step is an interview with an EIC jury. At the interview your proposal may be represented by a maximum of five persons 46. Only individuals mentioned in the proposal and involved in the future project implementation can represent your proposal at the interview.

The EIC jury will be composed of between four and six members and may additionally include one EIC Programme Manager as observer. You should convincingly pitch your proposal to the jury, who will ask you questions aimed at clarifying various aspects of your proposal in line with the award criteria.

The jury will recommend your proposal for funding or not (‘GO’ or ‘NO GO’). Proposals will be assessed according to the following award criteria (Table 4). For the interviews, the jury may ask questions concerning any of the award criteria.

The following award criteria are applied coherently with the level of technological and business maturity expected from an EIC Transition proposal as described in this Work Programme.

You will receive as feedback of the evaluation an Evaluation Summary Report from the first evaluation step. If you have been invited for an interview, you will also receive feedback from the jury.

If you submit your proposal as an individual SME and it meets all evaluation criteria thresholds at the first step but is not selected for funding (including from a No-Go recommendation from the jury), it may be awarded a Seal of Excellence.

Already at submission stage you will also be asked to agree to share your relevant data with alternative funding bodies of your Member State or Associated Country should your proposal be awarded a Seal of Excellence.

EIC Accelerator

If your answers to the above questions are ‘yes’, then the EIC Accelerator may be the right funding scheme for you.

Why should you apply

The EIC Accelerator supports companies (principally SMEs, including start-ups) to scale up high impact innovations with the potential to create new markets or disrupt existing ones. The EIC Accelerator provides a unique combination of funding from EUR 0.5 to EUR 17.5 million and Business Acceleration Services (see Section V).

The EIC Accelerator focuses in particular on innovations building on scientific discovery or technological breakthroughs (‘deep tech’) and where significant funding is needed over a long timeframe before returns can be generated (‘patient capital’). Such innovations often struggle to attract financing because the risks and time period involved are too high.

Funding and support from the EIC Accelerator is designed to enable such innovators to attract the full investment amounts needed for scale up in a shorter timeframe. The EIC Accelerator supports the later stages of technology development as well as scale up.

The technology component of your innovation must therefore have been tested and validated in a laboratory and other relevant environment (e.g., at least Technology Readiness Level 5). The EIC Accelerator looks to support companies where the EIC support will act as a catalyst to crowd in other investors necessary for the scale up of the innovation.

Applicants to EIC Accelerator can submit proposals through:

Can you apply

To be an eligible applicant to EIC Accelerator, you must apply as one of the following eligible entities:

For the above ‘one or more natural persons (including individual entrepreneurs) or legal entities’ case, you must be either:

The standard admissibility and eligibility conditions are detailed in Annex 2. There are limitations on the number of times you can submit a proposal described in the section on application submission limits as explained below.

If you are currently a participant in an eligible project funded by Horizon Europe or Horizon 2020 then you may be able to apply through your existing project under the Fast Track scheme (see Annex 3). Applicants may also be able to apply if they have a project financed by an eligible programme managed by a Member State or an Associated Country under the pilot Plug-in scheme (see Annex 4).

What support will you receive if your proposal is funded

The total indicative budget for this call is EUR 675 million. EUR 375 million of the total indicative budget will be allocated to EIC Accelerator Open and EUR 300 million to EIC Accelerator Challenges.

The indicative budget for investment components is EUR 405 million and is managed by the EIC Fund. This budget may be increased by unused amounts allocated to the EIC Fund under previous EIC Work Programmes 49.

The EIC Accelerator provides:

All successful proposals will receive, in addition to funding, tailor-made access to a wide range of Business Acceleration Services (see Section V). The 30% co-funding of the work packages to be covered by the grant component has to be financed by the beneficiary through its own resources. The EIC Accelerator model grant agreement can be found on the Funding and Tender Portal 54.

EIC Accelerator investment component (for blended finance and equity only proposals)

The minimum investment component is EUR 0.5 million and the maximum is EUR 15 million 55. The investment component is intended to finance market deployment and scale up and it can be requested in parallel to the grant (and may be used for co-financing innovation activities) or at a later stage during the lifetime of the grant agreement.

Within the maximum budget awarded by the Commission, the terms of investment will be negotiated on a case-by-case basis 56 in accordance with the EIC Fund Investment Guidelines 57. The investment component of the EIC is designed to fill the funding gap for high-risk innovations to a stage where they can be co-financed or financed under the InvestEU programme or by private investors alone.

When implementing investments, the EIC Fund will ensure that supported companies keep most of their value, including their IP, in the EU or in the Associated Countries in order to contribute to their economic growth and job creation. Where necessary to protect European interests in strategic areas, the EIC Fund will be requested to take appropriate safeguard measures for individual companies on a case-by-case basis in order to protect European interests as defined in the Investment Guidelines (see Introduction, section on economic Security).

EIC Accelerator grant component (for blended finance and grant-only proposals)

Eligible costs for the grant component are reimbursed up to a maximum of 70% within the ceiling of the maximum grant amount (i.e. EUR 2 499 999), but may be for a higher amount in exceptional and well justified cases. 58

EIC Accelerator grant funding covers innovation activities, including demonstration of the technology in the relevant environment, prototyping and system level demonstration, R&D and testing required to meet regulatory and standardisation requirements, intellectual property management, and marketing approval (e.g., at least TRL 5 59 to 8).

Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum and the amount will be determined during the evaluation process. Applicants must therefore propose the amount of the lump sum based on their estimated project costs as defined in the Decision of 7 July 2021 authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2021-2027) – and in actions under the Research and Training Programme of the European Atomic Energy Community (2021-2025). 60

The innovation activities to be supported should normally be completed within 24 months but may be longer in well justified cases. The proposed duration should genuinely reflect your current TRL and the nature of the technology to be developed and demonstrated.

The grant component may be used for subcontracting including, only if justified, for activities which are essential for the objectives of the project. The granting authority may object to a transfer of ownership or the licensing of results under certain conditions in accordance with the provisions set out in the grant agreement.

How do you apply; how long does it take

The application process consists of a number of steps:

Submission of short proposals

You may submit a short proposal at any time as from the 1st January 2024 61 via the Funding and Tender Opportunities Portal 62. The short proposal consists of:

All personal data and information in your proposal will be kept strictly confidential 63. However, before submitting your full proposal, you will be offered the opportunity to share basic data and information with your Member State or Associated Country National Contact Point and other bodies such that they can provide additional support.

National Contact Points and other bodies are under strict confidentiality rules, and will only receive the basic information about your proposal (e.g., abstract, funding request, contact details). Within approximately 4–6 weeks, you will receive the evaluation result of your short proposal and feedback from four expert evaluators.

Submission of full proposals

If your short proposal is successful, then you will be entitled to receive coaching support to prepare a full proposal from one of the business coaches from the EIC Business Acceleration Services 64. The optional coaching support is designed to improve the value proposition, business plan and investor pitch, but the content of your proposal is your sole responsibility.

If you succeeded with your short application under the 2024 Work Programme, your full proposal can be submitted to any of the following cut-offs during 2024, and any of the cut-offs for 2025. The two cut-off dates for 2024 are: 65 13 March 2024 and 3 October 2024.

The full proposal consists of a full business plan and full information on the company’s finances and structure of the potential beneficiary/final recipient company. You will also need to propose a set of milestones to be used as a basis for the EIC to manage the funding for your innovation.

It also consists of a pitch-deck in pdf format 66 and a video pitch of up to three minutes. Once you submit your full proposal, it will be assessed remotely against award criteria evaluation elements by three EIC expert evaluators and within approximately six weeks 67 you will be informed about the result and, if successful, invited to an interview with an EIC Jury.

Interviews with an EIC Jury

All companies receiving a GO from the remote evaluation stage will be invited to the interviews. In case the number of applicants to invite exceeds the capacities of the initially planned interview sessions, a first batch of applicants will be invited according to the following prioritisation:

Interviews will be organised approximately three to four weeks after applicants are informed of the result of the remote evaluation (or longer if there is a need for a further set of interviews). At the interview, you will be assessed by a panel of maximum six jury members.

EIC Programme Managers and representatives from the EIB as Investment Advisor to the EIC Fund may participate as observers in the interview, but will not be members of the jury and will not take part in the jury’s deliberations. You will be informed about the result of the interview within approximately two weeks.

The Agency may reimburse the cost of applicants invited to attend on-site interviews during the evaluation of their proposals subject to the adoption of the decision authorising it. The Agency aims to complete the full process from submission of the full application to signature of the grant within 5 months in most cases.

Invitation to negotiate grant component and due diligence process for investment component

If you are selected for funding, the next steps are as follows depending on the type of support. For Grant Only: you will be invited to prepare the grant agreement and, once concluded, you will receive a first pre-financing payment on the grant component.

For Blended finance: a single award decision will be adopted by the Commission covering both grant and investment components. Following the award decision and completion of the grant preparations, you will be invited to sign a grant agreement.

The relevant information from your proposal will be passed to the EIC Fund and its investment advisor (the European Investment Bank), to structure the potential investment agreement (compliance checks 68, due diligence, syndication of potential co-investors, tranches of investment and related objectives and milestones, etc.). The investment amount decided by the EIC Fund will be within the maximum set by the Single Award Decision and within the total amount available to the EIC Fund for investments 69.

Should due diligence conclude that the innovation or your company is not yet mature for investment, the EIC Fund may recommend starting with the grant component first, with the investment component subject to milestones. If no investment decision is taken during the grant period or within one year after its end, you may subsequently apply for equity only support.

As an outcome of due diligence, the investment may be rejected, notably due to the results of due diligence, compliance checks, irregularities, misrepresentation, or other grounds listed in the EIC Accelerator grant agreement. The Agency may suspend and/or terminate your grant agreement if non-investment affects the implementation of the action or puts into question the award decision.

Equity Only

An award decision will be adopted by the Commission covering the investment in the same way as for blended finance. If your proposal is considered not mature for investment, it is not possible for the EIC Fund to recommend a grant financing.

How does the EIC decide if your proposal will be funded

Evaluation of short proposals

Short proposals will be evaluated by four EIC expert evaluators as soon as they are submitted. These evaluators’ competences will match the area of technology and market application of your innovation.

Each evaluator will assess whether your short proposal meets each of the evaluation elements (Table 6) and give a GO or NO GO. If at least three out of the four evaluators give a GO, then your short proposal will be successful and you will be invited to prepare a full proposal.

If at least two out of the four evaluators give a NO GO, then your proposal is considered unsuccessful. You may resubmit your proposal, according to applicant submission limits, and you will be expected to make improvements to your proposal.

Evaluation of full proposals: remote evaluation and interviews

Full proposals will be assessed following the cut-off dates. Three EIC expert evaluators whose expertise will be matched to your innovation will assess your proposal against award criteria evaluation elements.

If all three evaluators give a GO for all the evaluation elements, your full proposal will be successful and you will be invited to an interview with an EIC jury. If two evaluators give a GO for all elements, a consensus meeting will decide if you will be invited to an interview.

If two or more evaluators give a NO GO on any element then your proposal will be rejected. The EIC jury will have access to the remote evaluation results of your full proposal but not to your short proposal or previous submissions.

If the proposal receives a GO and is recommended for funding, the EIC jury may recommend lowering the grant amount and make observations for consideration by the EIC Fund. If your proposal receives a NO GO, it will normally be awarded a Seal of Excellence 71, unless the jury finds weaknesses not identified at the remote stage.

Indicatively, the budget for grant components will be allocated approximately equally between the cut-offs. Proposals will be assessed according to the following award criteria (Table 7).

Application submission limits

The EIC Accelerator applies limitations on the number of unsuccessful submissions of proposals by a single legal entity. After three unsuccessful submissions to the EIC Accelerator 72, an applicant may not apply again to the EIC Accelerator under the Horizon Europe Framework Programme.

This provision repeals the previous rules on resubmissions to the EIC Accelerator. In all cases, applicants are expected to take into account the feedback on their previous submission and only reapply if they have made significant improvements.

Approach for follow-on investment by the EIC Fund

The EIC Fund may provide follow-on investments in companies that have already been selected and awarded equity support, within a maximum of EUR 15 million and subject to availability of budget 73. Such follow-on investments will be subject to a project review by external experts, an amended Award Decision by the European Commission, and renewed due diligence by the EIB 73.

Such follow-on investments will be limited to the following exceptional categories of cases 74: 75

The EIC Fund may also provide investments to companies that received “Grant first” support under previous EIC Work Programmes, subject to these companies achieving the milestones set for proceeding with the investment component 76.

In line with Article 11(3) of Council Decision 2021/764/EU, the Commission has entrusted tasks related to the implementation and management of the investment component of the EIC Accelerator to the European Investment Bank as the implementing partner for an indicative budget for investment amounts as shown in Annex 1.

Approach in specific cases relating to a parent or holding company and an operating company 77

In some EIC Accelerator cases it may be necessary for the EIC Fund to invest in the parent or holding company and not in the company that applied for EIC Accelerator support and is the beneficiary of the grant component.

The EIC Fund may decide to invest not in the beneficiary but in its parent or holding company provided that it fulfils all eligibility criteria, including SME status, non-bankability for the purpose of the EIC Accelerator, establishment in an EU Member State or Associated Country, and in accordance with the EIC Fund Investment Guidelines.

In these cases, and where there is a grant component of support, the grant agreement with the beneficiary will include the parent or holding company as an affiliated entity in its role as investee 78.

EIC Accelerator Open

EIC Accelerator Open has no predefined thematic priorities and is open to proposals in any field of technology or application. If an application falls within the scope of the Challenges topics below, grant funding is subject to eligibility in accordance with the specific conditions applicable to those topics.

Furthermore, in case of an investment support for applications in the areas of AI, quantum, semiconductors and biotechnology, specific safeguards may be introduced in the investment agreement (see Introduction, section on Economic Security).

The EIC Accelerator supports the later stages of technology development as well as scale up. The technology component of your innovation must therefore have been tested and validated in a laboratory or other relevant environment (e.g., at least Technology Readiness Level 5 or higher).

The EIC Accelerator focuses on innovations building on scientific discovery or technological breakthroughs (‘deep tech’) and where significant funding is needed over a long timeframe before returns can be generated (‘patient capital’).

EIC Accelerator Challenges

The total indicative budget for EIC Accelerator Challenges is EUR 300 million. However, this amount is subject to the following conditions on budget flexibility and potential transfers to the EIC Accelerator Open: if there are insufficient applications selected for funding for a Challenge, the budget will be transferred to the other Challenges; in case there are insufficient applications selected for all the Challenges, the remaining budget will be transferred to the Accelerator Open 79.

The Accelerator Challenges have been identified in areas where breakthrough technologies or game-changing innovations developed by start-ups or SMEs can have a major impact on EU objectives. In 2024, these objectives include Net Zero Industry, Critical Raw Materials, RePower EU, HERA, the draft AI Act and the Chips Act.

All Challenge applicants are encouraged to develop synergies with relevant activities under Horizon Europe Work Programme 2021 – 2022 and Work Programme 2023 – 2024.

Generative AI is likely to revolutionise human-computer interaction, fostering more intuitive, conversational, and adaptive experiences. Nevertheless, these advantages are not without some limitations.

Current generative AI models function based on predictions rather than understanding, and their extensive capabilities and inherent risks are yet to be fully discovered. The aim of this Challenge is to foster a European, human-centric approach to AI, tackling prevalent issues like transparency deficit and trust inadequacy.

European AI start-ups have the potential to develop the next generation of generative AI models that embody EU values and guarantee Europe’s sovereignty in this critical field.

Specific objectives

This Challenge aims to support the development of:

It is expected that the developed models go beyond the current state of the art in a way suitable for overcoming the current difficulties and limitations of this kind of tools. Examples of areas in which there could be relevant technological improvements include:

The targeted applicants are primarily SMEs developing models themselves, but could also include SMEs providing innovative infrastructure, development tools, and critical support to the developers of generative AI solutions, in helping the efficient use of existing models while addressing specific issues such as hallucination or limited models knowledge.

The applicant must demonstrate a genuine commitment to developing and deploying “European-Value driven” AI. This European perspective should become a differentiating factor that will bring a competitive advantage to these companies, and also an important element to de-risk future investments.

Expected outcomes and impacts

This Challenge is expected to reinforce the development of foundation models which are “European-Value driven”, in line with trustworthy and ethical principles as well as the (draft) AI Act.

The AI models developed and deployed under this Challenge are expected to comply with the EU concept for Trustworthy AI 80 and the relevant ethical principles 81 as well as the (draft) AI Act. Besides performance, due attention should be paid to data quality, transparency, privacy, and security.

In the mid and long term, it is expected to reduce dependencies and support European companies in leveraging the advances in generative AI to enhance their products and develop new ones.

The selected beneficiaries will receive favourable access to European supercomputing resources for the training of their large foundation models in line with the access terms and conditions of the EuroHPC regulation. They may benefit from additional actions aimed at creating strategic partnerships with major industries or attracting further capital.

Opportunities may also be explored to provide the selected beneficiaries with access to scientific datasets through the European Open Science Cloud or to provide users of the European Open Science Cloud with access to the tools developed by the beneficiaries.

Specific conditions

Any technology under this Challenge must be developed in a robust manner, paying specific attention to safety, security and ethics considerations in future applications.

To safeguard the Union’s strategic assets, interests, autonomy, and security and avoid technological dependency on a non-EU source, beneficiaries of the grant component of Accelerator funding 82 must not be directly or indirectly controlled by a non-associated third country or a legal entity established in a non-associated third country other than such third countries or legal entities established in OECD member countries, Mercosur member countries, countries with which the EU cooperates under a Trade and Technology Council, and countries with which the EU has a Digital Partnership 83.

Furthermore, in case of an investment support, specific safeguards may be introduced in the investment agreement (see Introduction, section on Economic Security).

Indicative budget: EUR 50 million.

This Challenge aims at enabling the use of high-fidelity virtual worlds in high-impact markets and applications promoting Industry 5.0 principles of sustainability, human-centricity, and resilience by scaling up cutting-edge innovations for platforms, middleware, tools, and devices.

Although virtual worlds are not a new concept, they have only recently started to become feasible thanks to the maturity of a range of enablers and connectivity. However, technological advances need to be scaled-up for mainstream adoption of virtual worlds in industry with a human-centric approach, partnerships with industry, end-user involvement, and cross-sector cooperation.

Solutions should respond to industry needs for upskilled talent, resource efficiency and cost effectiveness, and lower carbon emissions to ensure that both industry and society reap the benefits of the technologies to the fullest potential.

Specific objectives

Support the development and deployment of advanced virtual worlds technology solutions for industry which are human centric, sustainable, and resilient in their design and/or user contexts. The introduction to the market of innovations in the following areas is encouraged:

Expected outcomes and impacts

Proposals should integrate high-risk innovations with state-of-the-art building blocks towards compelling in-situ demonstrations of clear added value from using virtual worlds in high-impact markets, supporting the realisation of Industry 5.0, with clear market uptake and scale-up exploitation.

Interoperability between solutions is key for the free movement of users and tools between virtual worlds and avoids the phenomenon of gate keepers.

Specific conditions

The AI models developed and/or applied under this Challenge must comply with the EU concept for Trustworthy AI 85 and the relevant ethical principles 86 as well as the (draft) AI Act. In addition to performance, due attention should be paid to data quality, transparency, privacy, and security.

Indicative budget: EUR 50 million.

By bringing intelligence closer to the data source, smart edge offers advantages such as real-time processing (reduced latency), bandwidth optimization, enhanced privacy and security, and real-time decision-making without reliance on cloud connectivity.

The potential market size for smart edge solutions is expected to be significant, driven by the increasing adoption of edge computing, IoT, and AI technologies across various industries, with an expected growth rate between 30% and 40% until 2023, according to market analysts 87.

Specific objectives

Promote the development of novel semiconductor components and integrated smart systems for next-generation edge devices with significant impact. Proposals should focus on smart integrated devices where the competitive advantage may lie in the system approach or in one of the key components or technologies:

Relevant examples include smart cameras, wearables, hearing aids, AR/VR gear, industrial automation devices, drones, network edge nodes, 5G/6G base stations, and autonomous vehicles. Proposals should show high potential for commercial deployment in key EU sectors such as industrial automation, ICT, mobility, health and well-being, agri-food, security, and energy.

Expected outcomes and impacts

This Challenge should lead to deep-tech innovations for next-generation edge and IoT semiconductor devices with important impact for the smart edge, including:

Specific conditions: In case of investment support, specific safeguards may be introduced in the investment agreement (see Introduction, section on Economic Security).

Quantum technologies represent a major paradigm shift at nanoscale, with significant effects on the European economy. The market is expected to grow from EUR 1.7 billion in 2021 to EUR 94 billion by 2040 in an aggressive disruption scenario.

This area focuses on emerging, fault-tolerant quantum computing hardware components, quantum sensors that work in real environments, and quantum communication devices deployable in real environments (e.g., quantum repeaters, devices for quantum-based encryption).

Specific objectives

Expected outcomes and impacts

Support the EU in taking a leading role in the development of cutting-edge quantum computing/simulation, quantum sensing and quantum communications that can be used in real environments and deployed in various areas.

In the mid and long term, expand the quantum capabilities of Europe, underpin its economic resilience and digital sovereignty, and pave the way for Europe to be at the cutting-edge of quantum capabilities by 2030 as envisioned by the 2030 Digital Compass.

Specific conditions 88

Any technology under this Challenge must be developed in a robust manner, paying specific attention to safety, security and ethics considerations in future applications.

To safeguard the Union’s strategic assets, interests, autonomy, and security and avoid technological dependency on a non-EU source, beneficiaries of the grant component of Accelerator funding 89 must not be directly or indirectly controlled by a non-associated third country or a legal entity established in a non-associated third country.

Furthermore, in case of an investment support, specific safeguards may be introduced in the investment agreement (see Introduction, section on Economic Security).

Indicative budget: EUR 50 million. At least 30% of this budget will be allocated to the Quantum technology components and at least 30% to the semiconductor chip development areas. The remainder will be flexibly allocated to either area in function of the successful submissions.

Soil degradation is further accelerated by climate change leading to significant greenhouse gas emissions and the release of nutrients. With net demand for food likely to increase by a further 60% 90, there is a clear rationale to explore complementary routes to food production that are efficient, resilient, and sustainable.

This Challenge supports the production of food from precision fermentation and algae that decouples food production from the soil and environmental conditions. It aims to support viable alternatives capable of producing foods rich in nutrients by bacteria, yeasts, fungi, and algae.

Benefits include independence from climate conditions, reduced pressure on natural resources, reduced hazards from pesticides/antibiotics, and cost-effectiveness. A shift from livestock production would also reduce dependency on feed imports, with beneficial effects on biodiversity.

Specific objectives

Support the EU Soil Mission, the EU Green Deal, Farm to Fork strategy, Fit for 55 and REPowerEU by producing sustainable and nutritious food from precision fermentation and algae.

Innovations must deliver energy and resource efficient, low-emission foods integral to a healthy diet. Approaches must be scalable and ensure closed circle production to prevent release of micro-organisms or contaminants, with lifecycle assessment covering environmental, social and economic considerations.

Proposals are expected to consider regulatory aspects and consumer acceptance and articulate strategies to support market entry within and beyond the EU.

Expected outcomes and impacts

Improve sustainability, efficiency, and resilience of the European food supply chain by decoupling food production from the soil and minimising environmental impacts. Support radical technological innovation with potential to disrupt existing markets and secure additional food sources while preserving the environment and supporting biodiversity.

Foster EU technological autonomy and leadership in scalable food production processes benefiting consumers in Europe and beyond. Provide healthier alternatives to decrease the incidence of food-related health conditions.

Indicative budget: EUR 50 million.

Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) can deliver targeted antiviral therapies and complement vaccination, including immediate protection for immunosuppressed individuals. Several mAbs received emergency use authorisations during the pandemic and their potential is being explored for multiple pathogens.

Despite increasing use, the emergence of variants of high concern remains a major challenge. This EIC Challenge will support the development of mAbs-based therapeutics against new variants of emerging pathogens of high concern, as a complementary line of defence to new vaccines.

Specific objectives

Expected outcomes and impacts

Enhance the EU’s response to future pandemics by providing solutions that complement rapid detection and analysis of variants (in coordination with systems like the HERA incubator), and ensure that new antiviral treatments target variants of highest concern.

Help develop a platform of approaches to ensure future treatment efficacy even if variants exhibit decreased susceptibility to current mAbs. Indicative budget: EUR 50 million.

RES such as solar thermal/photovoltaic, wind, hydro, geothermal, heat pumps, bio and renewable fuels, and their entire value chain from raw materials to recycling, are central to achieving energy transition and EU Green Deal goals.

The EU currently imports enabling components of RES, such as critical raw materials (CRM). To reach strategic net-zero manufacturing capacity and at least 40% of annual deployment energy needs by 2030, it is necessary to scale up manufacturing and the entire supply chain of clean technologies in the EU.

Specific objectives

Scale-up different RES and their supply chains to limit the EU’s dependency on imports of components (including CRM) and increase the EU’s energy strategic autonomy. This challenge contributes to the objectives of both Net-Zero Industry and Critical Raw Materials Acts and to the EU’s open strategic autonomy.

Technologies must be developed without using CRM or ensure maximised recycle/reuse to enable circular economy approaches. They must minimise environmental footprint measured through lifecycle analysis (including cost and social impact evaluation).

Expected outcomes and impacts

Indicative budget: EUR 50 million.

Expected outcomes and impacts

This Challenge should lead to deep-tech innovations for next-generation edge and IoT semiconductor chips devices that will have important impact for the smart edge, including:

Specific conditions

In case of an investment support, specific safeguards may be introduced in the investment agreement (see Introduction, section on Economic Security).

Background and scope

The focus of this Accelerator Challenge is on fostering innovation in the area of quantum information processing components. Europe is a global leader in research in quantum technologies. Translating this level of R&D excellence into market innovation is a strategic priority, but companies set up to do that mostly struggle to get the necessary funding to scale up. Supporting European deep tech start-ups in the development of hardware components, including specific components for quantum technologies, is key for strengthening Europe’s technological sovereignty and is critical for transitioning innovations from lab to market.

Quantum technologies represent a major paradigm shift in the way we develop devices at nanoscale. These novel technologies are expected to have significant effect on the entire European economy. Advancing innovation capabilities in the area of quantum technologies can increase the strategic innovation and engineering capacities of Europe, giving rise to a range of new products and business models. The latter will enable European companies to take a leading role in a market which is expected to grow from EUR 1.7 billion in 2021 to EUR 94 billion by 2040 in an aggressive disruption scenario.

This strategic area is particularly focused on the development of emerging, fault-tolerant quantum computing hardware components (e.g., by using different types of qubits and new methods for controlling them), quantum sensors that work in real environment, as well as quantum communication devices that can be deployed in a real environment for practical applications such as quantum repeaters and devices for quantum-based encryption. Innovation in any segment of the value chain for the development of quantum technology components is addressed.

Quantum computing (QC) and quantum simulation have already attracted investments from large multinational companies and governmental research and innovation programmes. Yet, QC hardware still suffers from large error rates during computation. In addition, none of today’s solutions, and even proposed solutions demonstrated on a small scale, come close to the need for a control system that scales to many thousands of qubits.

Quantum sensors have a very wide range of applications and have already made significant improvements in recent years in both quality and fabrication methods. However, a large number of them can only operate in tightly controlled environments such as laboratories or very specific testbeds.

Quantum communication is of crucial importance for ultra-secure communications and Europe needs to scale up the production of the underlying components and systems to deploy quantum-based infrastructures based on trusted European technology.

Specific objectives

The objective of this Challenge is to support ground-breaking innovations that have a high potential to develop:

Expected outcomes and impacts

This Challenge is expected to support the EU in taking a leading role in the development of cutting-edge quantum computing/simulation and quantum sensing and quantum communications that can be used in real environment and deployed in various areas.

In mid and long term, this Challenge is expected to expand the quantum capabilities of Europe, underpin its economic resilience and digital sovereignty. It should pave the way for Europe to be at the cutting edge of quantum capabilities by 2030 as envisioned by the 2030 Digital Compass: the European way for the Digital Decade Policy Programme.

Specific conditions 88

Any technology under this Challenge must be developed in a robust manner, paying specific attention to safety, security and ethics considerations in future applications.

While the European Union has done a lot to respond to major technological challenges in recent years, in light of the risks that certain economic dependencies and technical evolutions can present, it now needs a comprehensive strategic approach to economic security, de-risking and promoting its technological edge in critical sectors.

In order to achieve the expected outcomes, and safeguard the Union’s strategic assets, interests, autonomy, and security, it is important to avoid a situation of technological dependency on a non-EU source, in a global context that requires the EU to take action to build on its strengths, and to carefully assess and address any strategic weaknesses, vulnerabilities and high-risk dependencies which put at risk the attainment of its ambitions. For this reason, beneficiaries of the grant component of Accelerator funding 89 must not be directly or indirectly controlled by a non-associated third country or a legal entity established in a non-associated third country.

Furthermore, in case of an investment support, specific safeguards may be introduced in the investment agreement (see Introduction, section on Economic Security).

Indicative budget: EUR 50 million. At least 30% of this budget will be allocated to the Quantum technology components and at least 30% to the semiconductor chip development areas

The remainder will be flexibly allocated to either area in function of the successful submissions.

Food from precision fermentation and algae: Background and scope

Land-based agricultural production is the source of approximately 95% of human food nutrients (UN FAO). Intensive and often inappropriate practices in agriculture have however resulted in severe soil degradation, thereby reducing the capacity of soils to support food production and other important ecosystem services such as the regulation of water, nutrients and carbon cycles.

Soil degradation is further accelerated by the effects of climate change leading to significant greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the release of nutrients. When combined with an increasing human population, likely to increase net demand for food by a further 60% 90, there is a clear rationale to explore complementary routes to food production that are efficient, resilient, and sustainable, thereby helping the sector realise its net zero ambitions.

This Accelerator Challenge focuses on supporting the production of food from precision fermentation and algae that decouples food production from the soil and environmental conditions. It looks to support the development of viable alternatives that complement agriculture, and are capable of producing foods rich in proteins, fats, carbohydrates, dietary fibres, vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients by bacteria, yeasts, fungi, and algae in quantities that are comparable to, or even greater than, foods of traditional plant or animal origin.

Such foods may also deliver precision nutrition that provides consumers with healthier alternatives with regard to reference intakes of nutrients, thereby contributing to maintain the overall health of the general population. These foods could be produced from agricultural side streams and wastes instead of high-value crops, and used for human consumption, as a nutritional supplement, ingredient, or for animal feed.

The benefits of such a shift include ease of production, independence from climate conditions, reduced pressure on natural resources such as land and water, reduced hazards associated with the use of pesticides and antibiotics, and cost-effectiveness. A shift from the current livestock production system would also reduce dependency on feed imports, with beneficial effects on reducing global biodiversity losses.

Specific objectives

In support of the EU Soil Mission, the EU Green Deal, Farm to Fork strategy, Fit for 55 and REPowerEU policy actions, the key goal of this Challenge is to support the production of sustainable and nutritious food from precision fermentation and algae.

Innovations must go beyond incremental changes to the state of the art and deliver novel production processes that must deliver energy- and resource-efficient, low-emission foods that are integral to a healthy diet.

The approaches taken must be scalable based on a range of process parameters such as, but not limited to, light, temperature, and pressure to allow custom modification of the final product to a range of operating environments including those with high, or even extreme, resource constraints without compromising the potential gains from a shift to food from precision fermentation and algae.

Further, innovations must also ensure a closed-circle production process to prevent the release of micro-organisms or other contaminants through waste streams. All projects must therefore provide a lifecycle assessment taking into account environmental, social and economic considerations.

The specific objectives of this Challenge are the development and scaling up of interdisciplinary solutions in the areas of:

Proposals are expected to consider regulatory aspects alongside issues surrounding consumer acceptance and articulate suitable strategies to support market entry within and beyond the EU.

Expected outcomes and impacts

This Challenge aims to improve the sustainability, efficiency, and resilience of the European food supply chain through decoupling food production from the soil and minimising environmental impacts including water pollution.

It looks to support radical technological innovation with possible disruptive effects on existing markets to secure additional food sources while preserving the environment and supporting biodiversity at the same time. Viable alternatives are critical to address challenges linked to climate change and the environment including biodiversity loss and pollution.

In doing so, this Challenge will foster EU technological autonomy and leadership in delivering scalable food production processes that can generate benefits to consumers in Europe and beyond. Further, the development of novel foods and processes may also help provide consumers with healthier alternatives thereby decreasing the incidence of food-related health conditions amongst the general population.

Indicative budget: EUR 50 million

Monoclonal antibody-based therapeutics for new variants of emerging viruses

Background and scope

Pandemics and large-scale outbreaks can claim millions of lives and cause significant levels of social and economic disruption. mRNA-based prophylactic vaccines and therapeutics played a critical role in enabling a return to normalcy following the global SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

However, the pandemic exposed global vulnerabilities to future such events with the emergence of new variants of the virus of high concern. This calls for the development of variant-proof antiviral therapeutics that can maintain treatment efficacy even as viruses evolve.

Current evidence suggests that monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have the potential to deliver such targeted antiviral therapies that can complement vaccination in the event of future outbreaks. mAbs-based therapies can deliver high specificity in the treatment of viral infections and provide immediate protection, in the case of immunosuppressed individuals who are often at the highest risk of infection.

Several mAbs received emergency use authorisation (EUA) from regulatory agencies worldwide during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and work underway through the World Health Organisation (WHO) sees their potential being explored in areas such as HIV, influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) alongside their preventative potential in the case of HIV. Researchers are also exploring the use of mAbs for infections such as Malaria and Leishmaniasis.

Despite the increasing use of mAbs-based therapeutics for a wide range of diseases, the emergence of new variants of high concern for known or emerging pathogens remains a major challenge for humanity. To address this global challenge, this EIC Challenge will support the development of mAbs-based therapeutics against new variants of emerging pathogens of high concern, as a line of defence complementary to new vaccines.

Specific objectives

In the era of pandemic preparedness and precision medicine, the overall goal of this EIC Challenge is to support the development of strategic approaches leading to broad spectrum mAbs-based therapeutics against new variants of emerging pathogens of high concern. Applicants to the Challenge can address:

Expected outcomes and impacts

This Challenge aims to enhance the EU’s response to future pandemics. It will provide solutions that can complement efforts to deliver rapid detection and analysis of virus variants, in coordination with relevant international systems and networks (such as the HERA incubator) and will ensure that the development of new antiviral treatments target the variants of highest concern.

It will also help develop a platform of approaches that can ensure efficacy of future treatment in the event that new variants of high concern exhibit decreased susceptibility to current mAbs.

Indicative budget: EUR 50 million

Renewable energy sources and their whole value chain including materials development and recycling of components

Background and scope

In 2022 the global investments in renewable energy and fuels overtook the investment in fossil fuels. To transform the European Union (EU) into a resource-efficient economy while preserving Europe’s natural environment and tackling climate change it is crucial to develop renewable energy-based systems.

Renewable energy sources (RES), such as solar thermal and photovoltaic, wind, hydro, geothermal, heat pumps, bio and renewable fuels, and their whole value/supply chain from raw materials mining to components manufacturing and further recycling, are at the centre of the energy-based systems to reach energy transition and the EU Green Deal goals.

For Europe to drive such renewable energy transition, it is necessary to invest more in the development of RES and minimize both their environmental impact and levelized cost of energy (LCOE). Currently the EU is importing from third countries part of the enabling components of the RES, such as critical raw materials (CRM).

To make the EU reach the strategic net-zero manufacturing capacity and at least 40% of annual deployment energy needs by 2030 it is necessary to scale up the manufacturing, and the whole supply chain of clean technologies, such as RES, in the EU.

Specific objectives

This challenge aims at scaling up different RES and their supply chain to limit the EU’s significant dependency on imports of components including CRM to ultimately increase the EU’s energy strategic autonomy in the energy sector. This challenge contributes to the objectives of both Net-Zero Industry and Critical Raw Materials Acts and to the EU’s open strategic autonomy.

This challenge focuses on RES and its proposals can target one or more of the following objectives:

The abovementioned technologies (including materials) have to be developed without using CRM or ensuring the maximization of their recycle/reuse so ensuring a circular economy approach. As well they need to minimize the environmental footprint measured through a life-cycle analysis (including cost and social impact evaluation).

Expected outcomes and impacts

Indicative budget: EUR 50 million

EIC Business Acceleration Services

All EIC Awardees (from the EIC Accelerator, EIC Transition, EIC Pathfinder), Seal of Excellence holders 91, applicants to the EIC Accelerator who have succeeded at the short application stage, EIC Scale Up 100 participants and Women TechEU Awardees have access to EIC Business Acceleration Services (BAS).

These services are procured from external contractors or delivered by selected ecosystem partners and consist mainly of business coaching, business advice, networking opportunities to expand the client base and to find co-investors, and access to testing/scale-up facilities. The EIC BAS services are also part of the tools available to EIC Programme Managers, EIC Tech to Market Advisers and EIC Project Officers to proactively manage the EIC portfolios.

Since 2023, the EIC BAS services have been expanded through EIC Ecosystem Partners (see Glossary). EIC BAS services provided by EIC Ecosystem Partners include access to existing incubation and acceleration programmes, legal and IP expertise, testing and research infrastructure and many more as well as services specifically designed in collaboration with EIC.

These services are offered to EIC Awardees free of charge or on favorable conditions via a EIC service catalogue available in the EIC Community Platform. This approach allows EIC Awardees and Seals of Excellence to access the best services available across Europe while enabling EIC Ecosystem Partners to provide their services at European level.

The EIC also continues to directly manage a core set of business acceleration services which provide a clear added value, which include:

Additionally, the EIC Scale Up 100 action launched in 2023 will accelerate the scale-up of future tech champions from among the EIC companies and beyond.

The services provided by the EIC Ecosystem Partners as well as all other EIC BAS services are listed on and accessed through the EIC Community platform. 92 The EIC Community platform is a virtual meeting place, where EIC Awardees and Seal of Excellence can connect with each other and with other innovators, entrepreneurs, researchers, investors, corporates and procurers. It provides matching and collaboration features.

EIC BAS services are funded through multi-year procurement contracts and grants, some of which were financed through previous Work Programmes. The following actions pertaining to EIC BAS services will be funded in 2024.

EIC Tech to Market Entrepreneurship & Venture Building

The objective of this action is to support EIC Pathfinder and EIC Transition projects in their transition from lab to market by providing tailored services to entrepreneurial researchers for the market deployment of research results. The Agency will procure the provision of services such as:

Type of action: Public Procurement action | Indicative budget: EUR 4,500,000 | Indicative timetable: from Q4 2024

Access to EIC business coaches (direct EIC services)

The EIC will continue to directly provide three days of remote coaching to EIC Accelerator applicants invited to submit a full proposal. 93 EIC Awardees can have access to business coaching via a suitable EIC Ecosystem Partner; however, if such partner cannot be found, business coaching can be provided directly by the EIC.

In either case the EIC will request to the service provider a structured coaching report after the coaching has been provided, to ensure the services are of the highest quality.

Business coaching focuses on providing insights on business development and guidance to improve business performance. Coaching topics cover the entire entrepreneurial and innovation endeavour from challenging the value proposition and business model, IP management, data protection, improving strategy and investor business case, building the team and leadership, to international expansion

Three days of remote coaching 94 are offered to all EIC Awardees. 95 Additional coaching days for EIC Awardees (in principle up to 12 days) will depend on the project review and input from Project Officers and EIC Programme Managers.

When duly justified for exceptional cases (e.g., scaling up), the number of coaching days could be extended beyond the 12 days. Coaching support can exceptionally be offered to other EIC ecosystem beneficiaries and related Programmes.

The EIC coaching services are provided by highly qualified business coaches. The coaches register their profile and expertise in the Commission’s corporate database through a single Call for Expression of Interest published for experts across all EU programmes, as well as on the EIC Coach Platform.

The selection of the business coaches is made following a continuously open call in accordance with Article 237 of the Financial Regulation, and new coaches are selected at the beginning of every year. Applicants must have at least five years of professional experience as investor, board advisor or in managerial positions with responsibilities in developing business innovation; and at least five years of coaching experience supporting new business development within a corporate’s departments or with start-ups.

EIC business coaches have the task to support the recipients of EIC BAS depending on their needs, assess with them improvement opportunities and assist them in their process of learning and solving complex business development issues.

As highly qualified specialized business coaches, their remuneration will be proportionate to their high-level strategic support, and it will closely mirror the international level of remuneration for experts performing tasks of similar nature. EIC business coaches will receive EUR 1,000 per day of coaching (corresponding to EUR 500 per half day).

Type of action: Expert contracts action | Indicative budget: EUR 2,000,000 | Indicative timetable: from Q1 2024

EIC Prizes

The European Prize for Women Innovators

Objectives and scope

Facing fast-paced developing technologies and science, it is crucial to involve women and girls in the design, development and uptake of innovative solutions. Achieving gender equality and diversity benefits not only individuals, but also increases the performance of business, research and innovation.

Nevertheless, women continue to face multiple barriers in bringing new ideas to the market and raising capital for their companies. This negatively affects the success rate of women-founded businesses and perpetuates the lack of awareness about the systemic nature of gender inequality.

Hence, women’s efforts and contributions to science and innovation should be encouraged and supported. The European Commission put in place a Gender Equality Strategy 2020–2025 96, which sets out the Commission’s broader commitment to equality across all EU policies.

As outlined in the New European Innovation Agenda 97, supporting women innovators strengthens the European research and innovation system and creates gender-equal working environments where all talents can thrive. By integrating a gender dimension in projects, research quality is improved as well as the production of the knowledge, technologies and innovations.

The European Prize for Women Innovators celebrates the women entrepreneurs behind Europe’s game-changing innovations, so that they may inspire other women and girls to realise their full potential as the EU’s future scientists, innovators, and tech leaders.

This prize supports a culture within research and innovation organisations and companies allowing women to become the innovators and entrepreneurs of tomorrow. The prize is awarded every year to women from across the EU and countries associated to Horizon Europe, who have transformed their ideas into disruptive innovations to benefit people and the planet.

As for the previous edition, the 2025 European Prize for Women Innovators is organised jointly by the Agency and the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT). The winners are chosen by an independent expert jury.

There are two EIC prize categories funded under this Work Programme: Women Innovators and Rising Innovators. In the first category, three prizes of EUR 100,000, EUR 70,000 and EUR 50,000 are awarded to the three highest-ranked applications. In the second category, three prizes of EUR 50,000, EUR 30,000 and EUR 20,000 are awarded to the three highest-ranked applications from promising ‘Rising Innovators’ under the age of 35.

Eligibility criteria

In addition to the above, those applying for the Rising Innovators category must be aged under 35 at the start of the call year. 103 There is no age limit to apply for the Women Innovators category (or for the EIT Women Leadership category), though applicants eligible for several prize categories can only apply to one.

Applicants are expected to provide proof of eligibility upon request. Applicants must support their written application with an inspiring video message about themselves and their achievements, lasting no more than 90 seconds.

Award criteria

The jury will review and score all eligible applications, and invite the shortlisted applicants to an interview to defend their application. This interview may take place remotely.

Further details on the evaluation and award criteria will be specified in the rules for this contest published at the launch of the contest. For the common ‘Rules of Contest for Prizes’ please see the Funding and Tender Opportunities Portal.

Expected results

The prize will boost public awareness of the potential, importance and contribution of women to the EU innovation ecosystem and create strong role models, inspiring more women to become innovators themselves.

Type of Action: Recognition Prize | Indicative Timetable

Indicative Budget

The European Capital of Innovation Awards (iCapital)

Cities are faced with severe societal and sustainability challenges but also have the means to develop, promote, and apply effective innovative solutions. They are places where ideas, people, public and private actors meet and engage to improve the quality of life of citizens.

They are the natural playground where breakthrough innovations flourish and nourish. They provide ground to experiment new technologies and products in a real environment, their interaction with people and their added value.

Objectives and Scope

The traditional city innovation ecosystem is opening up to new models of innovation engaging citizens, ensuring their involvement in the decision-making process, and reinforcing democracy and rights. An increasing number of cities are acting as test beds for innovation and run people-driven initiatives to find solutions to societal challenges.

The New European Innovation Agenda 104 sets out a vision for harnessing the power of innovation to drive economic growth, social progress, and contribute to the green and digital transition in Europe.

For this reason, the European Capital of Innovation Awards will recognize the cities’ role as catalysers of the local innovation ecosystem and will stimulate new activities aimed at boosting game-changing innovation.

Categories

In 2024, the European Capital of Innovation Awards will feature two categories.

The European Capital of Innovation category includes cities with a population of minimum 250,000 inhabitants and, based on the cumulative criteria set out below, rewards the winner (ranked 1st) with EUR 1 million and two runners-up (ranked 2nd and 3rd) with EUR 100,000 each.

The European Rising Innovative City category includes towns and cities 105 with a population of 50,000 and up to 249,999 inhabitants; it rewards the winner (ranked 1st) with EUR 500,000 and two runners-up (ranked 2nd and 3rd) with EUR 50,000 each.

Each application has to contain a specific endorsement to apply signed by the city Mayor (or the equivalent highest political representative).

Eligibility criteria

Award criteria

Six prizes will be awarded after closure of the contest to the applicants who, in the opinion of the jury, best address the following cumulative criteria:

The jury will review and score eligible applications and invite the shortlisted applicants to a hearing to defend their application. This hearing may take place remotely.

Further details on the evaluation process and award criteria, as well as promotional activities, will be specified in the rules for this contest published at the launch of the yearly contest. Moreover, the winning cities (ranked 1st in each category) will be invited to sign a declaration of intent 107 to commit on a series of actions to promote iCapital during the year.

Expected results

A European prize to the most innovative city ecosystems. The award will raise the profile of the cities that have developed and implemented innovative policies; established frameworks that boost breakthrough innovation; enhanced the city attractiveness towards investors, industry, enterprises and talents; helped to open up connections and strengthen links with other cities; enhanced citizens’ involvement in the decision-making process; and supported cities’ resilience.

Type of Action: Recognition Prize

Indicative budget: the following 2024 budget will be allocated as follows

Indicative timetable of contest(s)

The European Innovation Procurement Awards

Objectives and scope

Innovation procurement boosts the process of transforming research results and ideas into innovative solutions and stimulates the demand for innovation. It can impact private spending on research and innovation activities and innovation commercialisation success.

The New European Innovation Agenda 108 emphasizes strategic investments in key technologies, including deep tech, and stronger collaboration between public and private sector actors to foster innovation and uptake of new solutions.

The 2025 societal challenge will focus on the theme of net-zero, in line with the EU's commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and the proposal for a Net-Zero Industry Act 109. The awards will recognize actors using innovation procurement to support the transition to a sustainable, net-zero economy across key sectors.

These Awards complement and encourage synergies with other EIC initiatives aimed at supporting and fostering innovation procurement in the European Union (e.g., EIC Business Acceleration Services Innovation Procurement Program).

Categories

Each category will reward the winner with EUR 75,000 (1st ranked), one runner-up (2nd) with EUR 50,000, and one runner-up (3rd) with EUR 25,000.

Eligibility criteria

Award criteria

The jury will review and score eligible applications and will invite the shortlisted applicants to a hearing to defend their application. This hearing may take place remotely.

Further details on the evaluation process and award criteria, as well as promotional activities, will be specified in the rules for this contest published at the launch of the yearly contest.

Expected results

Indicative timetable of the contest

Type of Action: Recognition prize

Indicative budget: the following 2024 budget will be allocated as follows

The European Social Innovation Competition 2024

The European Social Innovation Competition (EUSIC) aims at stimulating the potential of social innovation to provide solutions to societal challenges and to foster sustainable and inclusive growth in Europe.

This competition looks for new entrepreneurial solutions responding to the most burning social needs, creating social relationships and enabling new collaborations in an innovative way and bringing effective solutions to systemic social challenges.

This competition is open, among others, to non-profit and for-profit organisations, such as entrepreneurs and social enterprises, corporate responsibility departments of private companies, NGOs, CSOs, educational institutions and universities.

The competition will directly support the three solutions that best tackle the defined challenge with a prize of EUR 75,000, EUR 50,000 and EUR 25,000 for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd ranked winners.

Objectives and Scope

Digital Democracy

The Commission in its Decision: ‘2030 Digital Compass: European way for the Digital’ 110 highlighted its vision to empower citizens and businesses through digital transformation.

The Union’s path to the digital transformation of the economy and society should embrace respect for fundamental rights, the rule of law and democracy, inclusion, accessibility, equality, sustainability, resilience, security, improving quality of life, the availability of services and respect for citizens’ rights and aspirations 111.

The ‘Action Plan for the Social Economy’ 112 builds on the participatory and democratic principles of the social economy whose actors can also play a role in democratisation of the digital world.

The competition will showcase social innovators’ concrete ideas to promote civic engagement and mobilisation through innovative digital services promoting the general interest and democratic principles in the Union.

It will support innovative solutions to achieve the above aims in different ways (e.g., through new, scalable digital technologies or innovative use and commercialization of existing ones). Digital technologies and data are tools and assets for social innovators to build new sustainable and community-driven business models which will ultimately bring positive impacts to democracy and societal changes.

Three winners (ranked 1st, 2nd, and 3rd) would be rewarded with EUR 75,000, EUR 50,000 and EUR 25,000 respectively.

Eligibility criteria

Award criteria

The jury will review and score eligible applications and propose up to three winners (ranked 1st, 2nd, and 3rd). Each winner will receive EUR 75,000, EUR 50,000 and EUR 25,000 respectively.

Further details on the evaluation process and award criteria, as well as communication and dissemination activities, will be specified in the rules for this contest published at the launch of the yearly contest.

Expected results

The European Social Innovation Competition aims at raising awareness about social innovation across a wide audience, sparking the creation of new socially innovative ideas, creating a network of like-minded practitioners and supporting finalists to transform their ideas into structured businesses.

Indicative timetable of the competition

Type of Action: Recognition Prize

Indicative budget

Other Actions

Honoraria and expenses of the EIC Board

As highly qualified, specialised, independent advisors appointed following an open and transparent procedure, the members of the EIC Board will be remunerated for the services they offer from the budget of the EIC work programme.

Remuneration is justified on the grounds of the personal commitment of the members and their work providing high-level strategic advice to the Commission and bringing prestige and visibility to the EIC.

Remuneration will take the form of honoraria for their effective participation at the Board’s plenary meetings or any other additional meetings where EIC Board members are asked to attend, accompanied by a compensation for travel (‘travel allowance’) and other expenses (‘per diem’) for in-person meetings on location.

These amounts are adapted to high-level experts’ terms as performed by other entities for similar high-level work. Daily expenses other than plenary meetings shall be reimbursed based on time spent and at the request of the Agency, of a daily amount of EUR 1,000.

Type of action: Expert contract action | Indicative budget: EUR 500,000 | Indicative Opening: From Q1 2024

External expertise for monitoring, ethics and policy advice

The EIC uses external independent experts for monitoring of projects 115 and ethics compliance, for other compliance checks (including on Gender Equality Plans), for technology assessments (including where necessary on risks to economic security), for policy advice on the optimal achievement of the EIC objectives, as well as for scientific/technological/innovation intelligence, proactive management of EIC activities and project reviews for increases in Accelerator support 116.

The EIC could reimburse the costs of applicants invited to attend interviews during the evaluation of their proposals subject to the adoption of the decision authorising it and the IT tools readiness.

A special allowance of EUR 450/day will be paid to the experts appointed in their personal capacity who act independently and in the public interest.

Type of action: Expert contracts | Indicative budget: EUR 4,980,000 | Indicative opening: From Q1 2024

Communication, outreach, events

The success of the EIC lies in attracting highly innovative and diverse companies and researchers that can generate fast and high growth, as well as co-investors and global corporates that can further maximise the impact of EIC support.

This action covers maintenance and management of the EIC website and its social media channels; creation of informative content and materials; development of thematic communication campaigns; media relations and other outreach and stakeholder engagement activities.

It provides support to the organisation of the EIC Summit 2024 and 2025 and the EIC Awards Ceremonies as well as various communication activities around the EIC Prizes. It will also support a prominent EIC presence at key events to ensure high visibility of the EIC and selected beneficiaries.

Type of action: Public procurement actions | Indicative opening: from Q1 2024 | Indicative budget: EUR 4,500,000

EIC Data management and IT systems integration 117

The purpose of this action is to provide the EIC the means to achieve the EIC Programme objectives through IT developments and data integration.

This includes development of new functionalities, evolutive maintenance of existing IT components, cloud infrastructure provisioning, testing, helpdesk and user support while ensuring security and IT governance compliance.

Focus areas include consolidating data sources into a common data model, improving tools for daily operations and negotiation/monitoring of EIC Accelerator projects, updating the EIC Community platform, enhancing the EIC Coaching system, expanding event management tools, and supporting capacity development and learning for stakeholders.

Developments will follow open-source code and open data standards so that tools and data can be reused by other institutions, Member States, Associated Countries and relevant third parties.

Type of action: Public procurement action | Indicative budget: EUR 2.8 million | Indicative opening: From Q1 2024

Foresight and anticipatory data-driven intelligence

Foresight and anticipatory data-driven intelligence are key in the design and deployment of EIC funding, from structuring EIC Challenges to providing feedback to policy and supporting positive societal impacts.

Anticipation and monitoring of emerging technologies and breakthrough innovations

This action will extend the collaboration between EIC and the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) to acquire evidence-based, stakeholder-centric and future-oriented inputs on signals, trends, drivers and potential impacts of upcoming technologies and innovation domains.

It will support EIC internal strategic intelligence, with focus on identification and mapping of fields for EIC Challenges, proactive management of portfolios by EIC Programme Managers, and the EIC mandate on Feedback to Policy (F2P).

Type of action: Administrative Agreement with the JRC | Indicative timetable: Q3 2024 | Indicative budget: EUR 400,000

Data and analytical studies 118

This action will complement the current EIC exploitation of internal and external data and other research outputs, addressing analytical gaps in knowledge architectures, methodologies for strategic intelligence, and monitoring performance, impacts and trends among EIC beneficiaries.

Type of action: Public procurement action | Indicative timetable: Q4 2024 | Indicative budget: EUR 300,000

Financial Support under the EIC Booster Grant Scheme

The objective of this action is to organise and ensure the implementation of the EIC Booster Grant scheme. The project implementing this action must provide financial support in the form of grants of a fixed maximum amount not exceeding EUR 50,000 to a booster grant project linked to an EIC Pathfinder or EIC Transition funded project.

Scope of the action – financial support to third parties

EIC Awardees or other potential booster grant beneficiaries (Technology Transfer Offices, EIC Inventors and other third parties) can be invited to apply at any time for an EIC Booster grant following a positive recommendation from an EIC Programme Manager or a project review.

The selected CSA project will put in place a constantly open call for EIC booster grant applicants to submit a Booster Grant proposal and will organise evaluation by a committee composed of 3 evaluators. Proposals receiving at least two GO will be selected.

After signature of the booster grant agreement, the CSA project will ensure a pre-financing payment of 70% and a final payment at the end of the grant after approval of a final report. The CSA project will set up monitoring and reporting systems and collaborate closely with the Agency.

A maximum of three EIC Booster grants projects can be awarded for each EIC Pathfinder project (more than three in exceptional and duly justified cases). A maximum of one EIC Booster grant project can be awarded for each EIC Transition project.

At least 80% of the total budget to be funded by the EIC must be allocated to financial support to third parties (the EIC Booster grants projects). An effective duration of 2 years would enable the project to achieve the desired objectives 119.

Expected outcomes and impacts

The Key Performance Indicators (KPI) that will be used to monitor the action should include as a minimum: Time to inform; Time to sign; Time to pay; and further KPIs proposed in the action.

Type of action: Coordination and Support Action (CSA) | Number of projects expected to be funded: 1 | Call opening: 16 January 2024 | Deadline for applications: 17 April 2024 at 17:00 Brussels local time | Indicative budget: EUR 6 million

Annexes

Annex 1 Estimated Indicative Budget

(1) The budgets set out in the calls and topics are indicative. Unless otherwise stated, final budgets may change following evaluation. The final figures may change by up to 20% compared to the total budget indicated in this Work Programme.

(3) The Accelerator is a continuously open call and hence this amount may be increased by any amounts committed but not allocated under the cut-offs of the previous EIC annual Work Programme.

(4) The EIC Fund will receive an annual amount from the EIC Work Programme budget to cover administrative expenses and fees; this budget will on average not exceed 10% of the budget transferred for investments purposes.

(5) Amounts from EIC Accelerator calls, including amounts decommitted, may be used for follow-on investments within the same budgetary year to grant-first beneficiaries or under provisions in Article 48(12) of Horizon Europe Regulation.

(6) The reserve for follow-on financing is to provide additional amounts for follow-on investments to grant-first beneficiaries or under provisions in Article 48(12) of Horizon Europe Regulation.

Annex 2 General conditions for proposals

ADMISSIBILITY

Proposals must be submitted before the call deadline and electronically via the Funding and Tenders portal submission system (accessible via the call topic page in the Search Funding and Tenders), or indirectly via the EIC Community Platform.

Proposals must be readable, accessible, printable and complete and must be submitted using the forms provided inside the electronic submission system. The Application Form for EIC Pathfinder, EIC Transition and EIC Accelerator will have two parts: Part A (administrative information, summarised budget, ethics and security questions) and Part B (technical description/business plan).

Annexes and supporting documents must be uploaded as PDF files (or other formats allowed by the system). The page limits and sections subject to limits will be clearly shown in the application templates and must be respected. Excess pages will be automatically made invisible and will not be taken into consideration by the evaluators.

For lump sum grant proposals, the estimated budget must be described in a detailed budget table used for justifying/fixing the lump sum amount. Purchases and subcontracting must ensure best value for money and be free from conflicts of interest.

For the EIC Accelerator, the applicant must not be in a situation of concurrent submission/implementation 120. In no circumstances can the same costs be financed twice by the budget. Applicants will be asked at a later stage for further documents (legal entity validation, financial capacity check, bank account validation, etc.).

ELIGIBILITY

Entities eligible for participation

Any legal entity 121, regardless of its place of establishment, including legal entities from non-associated third countries or international organisations (including international European research organisations) 122 is eligible to participate, provided that the conditions laid down in the Horizon Europe Regulation and the specific call or topic are met.

A ‘legal entity’ means any natural or legal person created and recognised as such under national law, EU law or international law, which has legal personality and which may, acting in its own name, exercise rights and be subject to obligations, or an entity without legal personality 123.

Beneficiaries and affiliated entities must register in the Participant Register before submitting their application, in order to get a PIC and be validated by the Central Validation Service before signing the grant agreement.

Entities subject to EU restrictive measures are not eligible to participate in any capacity – see EU Sanctions Map. Applicants to the EIC Accelerator undertake that their Ultimate Beneficial Owners are not listed and do not make funds or economic resources available to sanctioned persons (Obligation of Result) – see EU Sanctions Map.

Legal entities established in Russia, Belarus, or in non-government-controlled territories of Ukraine are not eligible to participate in any capacity 124. Exceptions may be granted on a case-by-case basis for justified reasons.

Legal entities established in China are not eligible to participate in Horizon Europe Innovation Actions, including the EIC Accelerator, in any capacity, except where exceptions may be granted case-by-case. This exclusion is justified given concerns regarding use of intellectual property and ongoing discussions on the EU–China Joint Roadmap.

Entities eligible for funding

To become a beneficiary and be eligible for funding, applicants must be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.: Member States of the EU (including outermost regions); the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) linked to the Member States 125; or eligible non-EU countries (Associated Countries 126 and low- and middle-income countries 127).

Legal entities in other countries are eligible for funding if provided for in the specific call conditions, or if their participation is considered essential for implementing the action.

Affiliated entities are eligible for funding if they are established in one of the eligible countries. Legal entities created under EU law may also be eligible to receive funding, unless their basic act states otherwise. The JRC and international European research organisations are eligible to receive funding; other international organisations are not unless essential or otherwise provided.

Measures for the protection of the Union budget against breaches of the principles of the rule of law in Hungary apply (Council Implementing Decision (EU) 2022/2506).

Single legal entity (‘Mono-beneficiary’) and consortium (‘multi-beneficiary’) composition

Applicants for mono-beneficiary actions must be established in a Member State or Associated Country. For multi-beneficiary actions, proposals must be submitted by a consortium including at least three independent legal entities in different countries (at least one in a Member State and two in different Member States or Associated Countries).

Unless specified otherwise, proposals for EIC Pathfinder Challenge and EIC Transition may be submitted by two legal entities established in two different Member States or Associated Countries. Proposals for CSAs may be submitted by one or more legal entities established in a Member State, Associated Country, or in exceptional cases another third country.

‘Pre-commercial procurement’ and ‘Public procurement of innovative solutions’ actions must include a buyers’ group consisting of a minimum of two independent public procurers established in different Member States or Associated Countries (with at least one in a Member State).

Eligible activities

Eligible activities are those described in the call conditions. Projects must focus on civil applications and must not aim at human cloning for reproductive purposes; intend to modify the genetic heritage of human beings which could make such changes heritable; intend to create human embryos solely for the purpose of research or for the purpose of stem cell procurement; or lead to the destruction of human embryos.

Ethics

Projects must comply with ethical principles (including the highest standards of research integrity) and applicable EU, international and national law. Particular attention must be paid to proportionality, privacy, data protection, physical and mental integrity, non-discrimination, environment and human health protection.

Applicants must complete the Ethics issues table and Self-Assessment; see How to complete your ethics self-assessment. Projects involving ethics issues will undergo ethics screening/assessment and may be subject to requirements, checks, reviews and audits.

Do Not Significant Harm (DNSH) principle

Innovations that significantly harm the environment (contravening the ‘Do No Significant Harm’ principle of the EU Taxonomy Regulation 130), social welfare or that are primarily designed for military applications will not be funded.

In general, EIC funding will not be awarded to projects that contravene the objectives of the Green Deal. Exceptions might be established for activities aimed at reducing GHG emissions from certain fossil fuel-based energy sources, such as those covered by the Complementary Climate Delegated Act 131 132.

Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence

All AI-based systems or techniques need to be developed in a safe, secure and responsible manner, with identification and prevention of risks and in accordance with the AI Act. They should be technically robust, socially robust, reliable and explainable where significant impacts on people’s lives are possible.

All proposals involving AI must describe how they will uphold principles of human agency and oversight, fairness, diversity, non-discrimination, societal and environmental well-being, transparency and accountability.

Security — EU classified and sensitive information

Projects involving classified and/or security-sensitive information will go through a Security Appraisal and may be made subject to specific security rules. Projects involving information classified TRES SECRET UE/EU TOP SECRET cannot be funded. Handling of EU-classified information must follow the applicable rules (Commission Decision (EU, Euratom) 2015/444 133).

Subcontracting tasks involving EU-classified information is subject to prior approval by the European Commission and possible only to entities in an EU Member State or in a non-EU country with a security of information agreement with the EU. Disclosure of EU-classified information requires prior written approval.

Security-sensitive but unclassified results may require restricted disclosure or limited dissemination for security reasons. EIC Awardees must ensure their projects are not subject to national/third country security requirements that could affect implementation or award.

Use of Copernicus and Galileo/EGNOS

Projects involving earth observation, positioning, navigation or timing data, services or technologies must make use of at least Copernicus and Galileo/EGNOS data, services and technologies.

Gender Equality Plans and gender mainstreaming

To be eligible, each legal entity that is a public body, a research organisation or a higher education establishment must have a Gender Equality Plan meeting minimum requirements (publication, dedicated resources, data collection and monitoring, training), and address recommended areas (work-life balance, leadership balance, recruitment and career progression, gender dimension in research/teaching, measures against gender-based violence).

Relevant EIC Awardees must also take measures to promote equal opportunities and aim for gender balance at all levels of personnel assigned to the action.

Financial support to third parties

Where allowed, projects must publish open calls widely, adhere to EU standards of transparency, equal treatment, conflict of interest and confidentiality, and publish outcomes without delay. Calls must be on the Funding and Tenders Portal and remain open for at least 2 months.

Open Science and Data Management

For the EIC Pathfinder and Transition, projects must provide immediate open access to scientific publications; manage research data in line with FAIR principles; provide information and access to outputs needed to validate publications; and, in public emergencies, provide immediate open access to all research outputs or access under fair and reasonable conditions if exceptions apply.

Data Management

All EIC funded projects must develop and update a data management plan if they generate or reuse research data or other research outputs. Personal data must be managed in line with the GDPR 134 and relevant legal frameworks and must not be made public unless explicitly agreed by data subjects.

Granting authority right to object to transfers or licensing

For Horizon Europe EIC actions, the granting authority may, up to 4 years after the end of the action, object to a transfer of ownership or to the exclusive licensing of results (Horizon Europe Regulation, Article 40(4)) 135.

EIC investments

The EIC shall not enter into any contract or maintain a business relationship with any institution or individual listed on sanctions lists 136. The EIC applies EU rules addressing AML/CFT and tax avoidance requirements and complies with prohibitions to enter into new or renewed operations with entities incorporated in jurisdictions listed under the relevant Union policy on non-cooperative jurisdictions or identified as high-risk third countries 137.

Do No Significant Harm (DNSH) principle

Innovations that significantly harm the environment (and therefore contravene the ‘do no significant harm’ principle of the EU Taxonomy Regulation), 130 social welfare or that are primarily designed for military applications, or in other fields which are generally excluded from EU funding pursuant to Article 18 Horizon Europe Regulation, will not be funded.

In general, EIC funding will not be awarded to projects that contravene the objectives of the Green Deal, including for example proposals dedicated to enhancing the use of fossil fuels and related technologies. Exceptions might be established, however, for activities aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from certain fossil fuel-based energy sources, such as those covered by the Complementary Climate Delegated Act 131 under the Taxonomy Regulation.

For example, this delegated act recognises that, under strict conditions, specific fossil gas-related activities that can help accelerate the transition from high-emitting energy sources, such as coal, to renewable or low-carbon gases are in line with the EU's climate and environmental objectives. 132

Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence

All AI-based systems or techniques need to be developed in a safe, secure and responsible manner, with a clear identification of and preventative approach to risks and in accordance with the AI Act. Depending on the type of research being proposed (from basic to pre-competitive) and as appropriate, AI-based systems or techniques should be, or be developed to become, implicitly or explicitly contributing to the following objectives:

All proposals involving the development, use and/or deployment of AI-based systems/techniques must ensure that the proposed AI system/technique is technically robust (e.g., resilient to attack, safe and secure, having a fallback plan, accurate, reliable and reproducible) and safe. They must describe how they will uphold the principles of human agency and oversight, fairness, diversity, non-discrimination, societal and environmental well-being, transparency and accountability.

Security — EU classified and sensitive information

Projects involving classified and/or security sensitive information will have to go through the Security Appraisal process to authorise funding and may be made subject to specific security rules (detailed in a Security Section, which is annexed to the grant agreement). Specific provisions for EU-classified information (EUCI) and sensitive information (SEN) will be included in the grant agreement, as necessary and appropriate.

The rules for protecting EU-classified information (governed by Commission Decision (EU, Euratom) Commission Decision 2015/444/EU, Euratom — security rules for protecting EU classified information) 133 provide for instance that:

Please note that, depending on the type of activity, facility security clearance (FSC) may have to be provided before grant signature. The Agency will assess the need for clearances in each case and will establish their delivery date during grant preparation. In no circumstances can we sign any grant agreement until at least one of the beneficiaries in the consortium has an FSC.

In certain cases, the project results might not require classification but they might be security sensitive and consequently require restricted disclosure or limited dissemination due to security reasons, in accordance with the applicable security instructions in the Security Section. This means that, in principle, third parties should have no access to results subject to this type of restriction. Disclosure of this information is subject to prior written approval by the European Commission.

Further security recommendations may be added to the grant and contract agreement in the form of security deliverables (e.g., create a Security Advisory Board, appointment of a Project Security Officer, limit the level of detail, use a fake scenario, etc.).

In addition, EIC Awardees must ensure that their projects are not subject to national/third country security requirements that could affect the implementation or put into question the award of the grants (e.g., technology restrictions, national security classification, etc.). The Agency must be notified immediately of any potential security issues.

Use of Copernicus and Galileo/EGNOS

Projects involving earth observation, positioning, navigation or timing data, services or technologies must make use of at least Copernicus and Galileo/EGNOS data, services and technologies.

Gender Equality Plans and gender mainstreaming

To be eligible, each legal entity that is a public body, a research organisation or a higher education establishment must have a Gender Equality Plan, covering the following minimum process-related requirements:

A self-declaration will be requested at proposal stage, while the existence of the Gender Equality Plan is confirmed before grant signature. If all the above-mentioned mandatory requirements are met through another strategic document, such as a development plan or an inclusion or diversity strategy, it can be considered as an equivalent.

This eligibility criterion does not apply to other categories of legal entities, such as private for-profit organisations, including SMEs, non-governmental or civil society organisations. Relevant EIC Awardees must also take all measures to promote equal opportunities between men and women in implementing the action and, where applicable, in line with their Gender Equality Plan.

They must aim to achieve, to the extent possible, a gender balance at all levels of personnel assigned to the action, including at supervisory and managerial level.

Financial support to third parties

Where the specific call conditions allow for financial support to third parties, the applicants must clearly describe in their proposal the objectives and the expected results, including the elements listed in the application template. The following conditions must also be fulfilled:

Further conditions may be stipulated in the specific conditions for the topic.

Open Science and Data Management

For the EIC Pathfinder and Transition, the EIC funded projects must comply with the open science requirements as described in the Model Grant Agreement (article 17). This concerns:

Further, open science practices that are not mandatory but recommended, may be included in projects at the design phase, such as involving all relevant knowledge actors, including citizens, early and open sharing of research, output management beyond research data, open peer-review.

This is a non-exhaustive list of practices that proposers are expected to adopt when possible and appropriate for their projects. Recommended open science practices are incentivised through their evaluation at the proposal stage.

Data Management

All EIC funded projects must develop and update a data management plan in case they generate or reuse research data or any other research outputs (except for publications). All personal and non-personal data must be managed responsibly in line with the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable data), the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 134 and the respective European, international and national legal frameworks.

Personal data must not be made public unless explicitly agreed by the data subjects. Non-personal data will be open in principle but exceptions to open access apply (following the principle 'as open as possible, as closed as necessary').

Granting authority right to object to transfers or licensing

For Horizon Europe EIC actions, the granting authority may, up to 4 years after the end of the action, object to a transfer of ownership or to the exclusive licensing of results. The conditions for this opposition are set in the Horizon Europe Regulation (art 40.4 135).

EIC investments

The requirements concerning the list of non-cooperative jurisdictions (as amended from time to time) for tax purposes issued by the Council (OJ C 438, 19.12.2017, p. 5) (the "Council Conclusions") are applied by the EIC in respect of EIC Accelerator investments.

The EIC shall not enter into any contract or maintain a business relationship with any institution or individual listed on sanction lists, 136 and in particular shall not make any funds available directly or indirectly to any institution or individual listed in sanction lists.

The EIC applies the EU rules, policies and procedures addressing the requirements in respect of money laundering, terrorism financing, tax avoidance, tax fraud, tax evasion contained in Article 155(2)(a) of the Financial Regulation and complies with the prohibition to enter into new or renewed operations with entities incorporated or established in jurisdictions listed under the relevant Union policy on non-cooperative jurisdictions or that are identified as high-risk third countries 137 or that do not effectively comply with Union or internationally agreed tax standards on transparency and exchange of information.

There is also the possibility to derogate from this requirement when the action is physically implemented in one of those jurisdictions, contained in Article 155(2)(b) of the Financial Regulation. The breach of these obligations may lead to the interruption of the equity investment process.

FINANCIAL and OPERATIONAL CAPACITY

Financial capacity

In EIC actions, applicants must have stable and sufficient resources to successfully implement the projects and contribute their share. Organisations participating in several projects must have sufficient capacity to implement all these projects.

The financial capacity check will be done by the Agency on the basis of the documents you will be requested to upload in the Participant Register during grant preparation (e.g., profit and loss account and balance sheet, business plan, audit report produced by an approved external auditor, certifying the accounts for the last closed financial year, etc.).

The analysis will be based on neutral financial indicators, but will also take into account other aspects, such as dependency on EU funding and deficit and revenue in previous years. The check will normally only be done for the coordinator and if the requested grant amount is equal or greater than EUR 500 000, except for:

For more information, see Rules on Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment.

Operational capacity

Applicants to EIC Pathfinder and EIC Transition calls must have the know-how, qualifications and resources to successfully implement their tasks in the project and contribute their share (including, when appropriate, sufficient experience in EU/trans-national projects of comparable size).

This assessment of operational capacity will be carried out during the evaluation of the award criterion ‘quality and efficiency of the implementation’, on the basis of the competence and experience of the applicants and their project teams, including its operational resources (human, technical and other) or, exceptionally, the measures proposed to obtain it by the time of the implementation of the tasks.

If the evaluation of this award criterion leads to a score above the applicable threshold, then the applicants are considered to have sufficient operational capacity. Public bodies, Member State organisations and international organisations are exempted from the operational capacity check.

For the EIC Accelerator, the operational capacity of the applicant will be assessed during the evaluation of the award criterion ‘Level of risk, implementation, and need for Union support’. Experts will judge whether each participant has, or will have in due time thanks to EIC support, sufficient operational capacity to successfully carry out their tasks in the proposed work plan.

This assessment will be based on the competence and experience of the applicant, including their operational resources (human, technical, other) and the measures proposed to secure these resources by the time of the implementation of the tasks.

Exclusion

Applicants that are subject to EU administrative sanctions (i.e. exclusion) 138 or are in one of the following exclusion situations 139 banning them from receiving EU grants can NOT participate:

Applicants will also be refused if it turns out that: 140

AWARD CRITERIA

If admissible and eligible, the proposals for Coordination and Support Actions will be evaluated and ranked against the following three award criteria:

For full proposals, each criterion will be scored out of 5. The threshold for each individual criterion will be 3, and the overall threshold, applying to the sum of the three individual scores, will be 10.

For other types of actions, including ‘Research and Innovation Actions’ (EIC Pathfinder and EIC Transition) and ‘Innovation and Market Deployment Actions’ (EIC Accelerator), the award criteria are detailed in the relevant call sections.

EVALUATION REVIEW PROCEDURE

For EIC Pathfinder, EIC Transition and EIC Accelerator, EIC Prize winners and beneficiaries of other actions as described in this WP if the consortium believes that the evaluation procedure was flawed, the coordinator can submit a complaint (following the deadlines and procedures set out in the evaluation result letter).

Only the procedural aspects of an evaluation may be the subject of a request for an evaluation review. The evaluation of the merits of a proposal will not be the subject of an evaluation review. 142

A request for an evaluation review must relate to a specific proposal and must be submitted within 30 days after the beneficiary accesses the evaluation results. Notifications of evaluation results which have not been opened in the Funding and Tenders Portal within 10 days after sending are considered to have been accessed and deadlines will be counted from the date of opening/access.

See also Funding and Tender Opportunities Portal Terms and Conditions. An evaluation review committee will provide an opinion on the procedural aspects of the evaluation and may recommend a re-evaluation of the proposal or a confirmation of the initial evaluation.

Annex 3 Fast Track scheme to apply for the EIC Accelerator

The ‘Fast Track’ scheme is a specific process applicable to the EIC Accelerator. It provides for a specific treatment of proposals that result from existing Horizon Europe or Horizon 2020 projects.

Under the Fast Track scheme, applicants do not apply directly to the EIC Accelerator call (Section IV). Instead, a project review is carried out by the responsible funding body to assess the innovation or market deployment potential of an existing project, and to decide whether the project is suitable for support under the EIC Accelerator.

The project review – implemented by the funding body responsible for the programme – must be conducted using:

The responsible funding body can submit the outcome of the project review to the EIC Accelerator, if the project review concludes that the following conditions are met:

Fast Track applicants will then be invited to prepare a full proposal for the EIC Accelerator to one of the cut-off dates within the next 12 months following the notification about the successful result of the initial review. Applicants are free to decide to which cut-off date (within the next 12 months) they wish to apply.

They will receive coaching as specified in Section IV. Full proposals to the EIC Accelerator stemming from the Fast Track scheme will be assessed as set out in Section IV and will be treated in exactly the same way as all other full proposals.

In 2024, the funding bodies and schemes which are eligible for the Fast Track for EIC Accelerator cut-off dates are:

These funding bodies are responsible for implementing the Fast Track scheme in accordance with the above provisions. They may decide not to implement the scheme or to introduce it at a later stage.

Subject to experience with the Fast Track scheme in 2021-2023, the scheme may be opened to other parts of Horizon Europe and Horizon 2020, and to the funding bodies responsible for their implementation. The EIC website will provide up-to-date information about how the Fast Track scheme is being implemented by the relevant funding bodies.

Annex 4 Pilot Plug-in scheme to apply for the EIC Accelerator

The pilot Plug-in scheme is a specific process applicable to the EIC Accelerator only. Its process is equivalent to the Fast Track, as described under Annex 3. However, the Plug-in scheme applies to proposals that result from existing national or regional programmes.

Under the Plug-in scheme, applicants do not apply directly to the EIC Accelerator call (Section IV). Instead, a project review is carried out by the certified national or regional programme to assess the innovation or market deployment potential of an existing project supported by the programme, and to decide whether the project is suitable for support under the EIC Accelerator.

The project review — implemented by the funding/managing body responsible for the programme or by other appointed authority under the responsibility of the funding body — must be conducted using:

The responsible funding/managing body, or other appointed authority under the responsibility of the funding body, can submit the outcome of the project review to the EIC Accelerator, if the project review concludes that the following conditions are met:

Applicants will then be invited to prepare a full proposal for the EIC Accelerator to one of the cut-off dates within the next 12 months following initial review. Applicants may decide to which cut-off they apply. They will receive support through coaching as specified in Section IV.

Full proposals to the EIC Accelerator stemming from the Plug-in scheme will be assessed as set out in Section IV (above) and will be treated exactly the same way as all other full proposals.

The pilot Plug-in scheme will be implemented by programmes which have been assessed by a group of experts and certified by the Commission. To guarantee the effective implementation of this pilot, only public programmes – both national and regional – have been considered initially.

The experts assessed the programmes 144 submitted by the Member States and Associated Countries, their related national or regional evaluation procedures, and whether the project review is equivalent to the assessment of proposals under the EIC Accelerator. The Commission certifies the programmes that are deemed suitable for the Plug-in scheme based on the experts’ assessment.

The experts will collaborate with the EIC Plug-in contact points (representatives of Member States and Associated Countries) who will have to provide accurate information regarding the programmes. Only programmes for which all the key elements and information are provided by the EIC Plug-in contact points will be considered for the certification.

Following the results of a mapping of national and regional programmes, the first set of submission of programmes by Member States, and an independent assessment by experts, a first set of programmes have been certified to be compliant with the requirements of the Plug-in scheme. Further programmes may be assessed during 2023 and 2024 and, subject to this assessment, may also be certified to be compliant with the Plug-in scheme.

A full list of certified programmes for the Plug-in scheme is available on the EIC website. The Commission services 145 will be notified if any future changes in the criteria and/or evaluation of the regional or national programmes may impact the assessment and certification of those programmes.

The Commission may withdraw the certification, if it finds out that:

The funding/managing bodies in charge of these national/regional programmes, or other appointed authority under the responsibility of the funding body, are responsible for implementing the Plug-in scheme in accordance with the above provisions. They may decide not to implement the scheme or to introduce it at a later stage.

A coordination among the different national and regional funding bodies will have to be ensured at national level to avoid duplication of the proposals. After the certification process is concluded, the responsible funding/managing bodies, or other appointed authorities under the responsibility of the funding body, will be entitled to present the projects that have passed the project review and were funded under those certified programmes.

In the pilot phase, a limitation for the number of projects proposed by each programme and each Member State or Associated Country will be agreed. Plug-in proposals may be submitted by eligible programmes following the publication of this work programme and once programmes have been certified as eligible from at least two thirds of the Member States.

Once submitted to the Agency, Plug-in applicants will then be treated in the same way as other applicants who have passed the short proposal stage of the EIC Accelerator evaluation and may submit their full applications to any of the cut-offs in the 12-month period following the submission of their Plug-in application.

The pilot Plug-in scheme is subject to an assessment after the first implementation to verify the effectiveness of the process and the quality of the proposals, in view of the renewal of the Plug-in process under subsequent cut-offs and possibly the inclusion of other programmes.

Annex 5 EIC Booster grants for EIC Pathfinder and EIC Transition Awardees

In line with Article 47(2) of the Horizon Europe Regulation, 146 with the aim to implement Portfolio coordinating activities or to nurture innovation out of these, EIC Booster grants of a fixed amount not exceeding EUR 50 000 may be awarded outside any call for proposals to EIC Awardees, Technology Transfer Offices, EIC Inventors and other third parties linked to projects already selected under the Pathfinder or, where relevant, Transition calls (EIC Pathfinder projects including grants resulting from certain EIC pilot Pathfinder, FET-Open and FET-Proactive calls, see Section III, and of EIC Transition projects).

Additionally, and for the purpose of further assessing innovation potentialities and exploring potential pathways to commercialisation out of these projects’ results (preliminary or final), potential beneficiaries may also be EIC Awardees, Technology Transfer Offices, EIC Inventors and other third parties provided with the necessary access rights or entrusted with any such task by the concerned awardee.

Booster grants may in particular support the development of potential innovation stemming from the future EIC Market Place. Complementary activities to explore potential pathways to commercialisation (Innovation activities) could include, but are not limited to:

Portfolio activities could include, but are not limited to:

These EIC Booster grants do not fund research, or activities that were already foreseen in the original project or that are already funded by other EIC instruments. A maximum of three EIC Booster grants can be awarded for each EIC Pathfinder project and more than three may be awarded in exceptional and duly justified cases.

A maximum of one EIC Booster grant can be awarded for each EIC Transition project. Any such EIC Booster grant can be awarded to an individual EIC Awardee or a group of EIC Awardees. 147

EIC Awardees or other potential booster grant beneficiaries as indicated above can be invited to apply at any time for an EIC Booster grant following a positive recommendation from an EIC Programme Manager or a project review. Each proposal will be assessed in accordance with Article 29(2) of the Horizon Europe Regulation taking into account the following considerations (award criteria):

For activities to explore potential pathways to commercialisation:

For portfolio activities:

Each proposal will be evaluated by a mixed committee composed of:

The evaluation committee will assess whether the proposal meets each of the award criteria and will give a GO or NO GO. Proposals receiving at least two GO will be selected, and proposals not receiving at least two GO will be rejected.

The evaluation committee may invite a rejected applicant to resubmit an adjusted proposal. The final decision will be motivated and communicated to the applicant within 6 weeks and the Programme Committee will be informed.

Successful applicants will be invited for grant agreement preparation (GAP), which might take into account adjustments proposed by the EIC Programme Manager. Following successful grant preparation, and for Innovation activities until a Financial support to third parties under a CSA is set up, the Agency will award the EIC Booster grants (in the form of a Coordination and Support Action) 148 to cover the eligible costs necessary for the implementation of the proposed activities.

The funding rate of this grant will be 100% of the eligible costs. Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum as defined in the Decision of 7 July 2021 authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme and in actions under the Research and Training Programme of the European Atomic Energy Community (2021-2025).

Once a Financial support to third parties under a CSA is launched as described in section VII.6, the implementation of Booster grants for Innovation activities will be performed by the CSA beneficiary.

Annex 6 Additional provisions concerning Intellectual Property for EIC Pathfinder and EIC Transition

In accordance with the Horizon Europe Regulation, 149 the current Work Programme provides for additional dissemination and exploitation obligations in particular to facilitate the exploitation of results, and to enable a more pro-active role to the Commission and EISMEA in identifying and maximising exploitation opportunities in the Union.

Together with specific intellectual property rules provided for under Annex 5 of the Model Grant Agreement, the following rules will apply to EIC Pathfinder and EIC Transition actions.

Definitions

The following definition is complementing those provided in the Glossary in the introductory section of this Work Programme for the purpose of this Annex.

With reference to information and results owned by any EIC Awardee that is a not-for-profit legal entity, EIC Inventors are any of their employees and subcontractors, established in a Member State or an Associated Country, and appearing or entitled to appear as inventor in any corresponding patent filing and according to the definition of inventor for the relevant patent jurisdiction.

Exchange of information for the purpose of EIC portfolio activities

Access to information about results 150

At any time and without prejudice to the EIC Awardee’s ownership of results, the EIC Programme Manager may request any EIC Awardee to facilitate information on results (preliminary or final) generated by the action, with the aim to probe their potential for further innovation.

Where any such result (preliminary or final) was not already made public through agreed dissemination activities or a patent or protection by any other intellectual property right, that information shall be earmarked and treated by the Agency as confidential and disseminated only to: other EIC Awardees bound by an EIC grant agreement or an EIC contract that refers to or includes the obligations detailed under section 2.2 below; EIC Inventors having signed a non-disclosure agreement with the Agency, providing for the obligations detailed under section 2.2 below; or other members of the EIC Community platform established in a Member State or an Associated Country and having signed a non-disclosure agreement with the Agency, providing for the obligations detailed under section 2.2.

Where based on that confidential information any of the above-mentioned entities request disclosure or access to the underlying detailed data and results, the EIC Awardee may refuse it based on its legitimate interests, including commercial exploitation and any other constraints, such as data protection rules, privacy, confidentiality, trade secrets, Union competitive interests, security rules or intellectual property rights.

EIC Awardees may object to the obligation provided for above when committing to either publish or patent or protect by any other intellectual property right without unreasonable delays, or by demonstrating concrete exploitation of the said preliminary findings and results, subject to initial discussion with and final agreement of the Agency on the corresponding update of the Plan for dissemination and exploitation referred to in Section 3.1.

Non-disclosure obligations

Where EIC Awardees are informed of or given access or disclosure to any preliminary findings, results or other intellectual property generated by other EIC actions, and where this information is earmarked as confidential in accordance with section 2.1, they must keep it strictly confidential; not disclose it to any person without the prior written consent of the owner and only under equal confidentiality conditions; use the same degree of care to protect its confidentiality as they use to protect their own confidential information of a similar nature; act in good faith at all times; and not use any of it for any purpose other than assessing opportunities to propose other research or innovation activities to the EIC, or any other initiative agreed by the owner.

EIC Awardees may disclose any such information to their employees and, with the prior authorisation of the owner, to their subcontractors established in a Member State or an Associated Country if these subcontractors need to access it for the performance of their work with respect to the permitted purpose and are bound by a written agreement or professional obligation to protect its confidentiality in the way described in this section.

No obligations are imposed where such information is already known to the EIC Awardee before and is not subject to any other obligation of confidentiality; is or becomes publicly known through no act or default of the EIC Awardee; or is obtained by the EIC Awardee from a third party in circumstances where the EIC Awardee has no reason to believe that there has been a breach of an obligation of confidentiality.

The restrictions in this section do not apply if such information is required to be disclosed by any law or regulation, by any judicial or governmental order or request, or pursuant to disclosure requirements relating to the listing of the stock of the EIC Awardee on any recognised stock exchange.

Upon the end or termination of the grant agreement or of the participation of the EIC Awardee, it must immediately cease to use the said information, except if otherwise directly agreed with the owner, or if the EIC Awardee remains a member of the EIC Community referred to above. The provisions of this section will be in force for a period of 60 months following the end or the termination of the grant agreement or of the participation of the EIC Awardee, at the end of which period they will cease to have effect.

Specific provisions on intellectual property and related dissemination and exploitation activities

Plan for exploitation and dissemination

EIC Awardees must report to the Agency on their exploitation and dissemination activities in accordance with the grant agreement, together with any updated version of the plan for exploitation and dissemination, and within 30 days upon request from the EIC Programme Manager for the purpose of EIC portfolio activities.

The Agency may also request an update of the plan for exploitation and dissemination of the results at any time during the implementation of the action. EIC Awardees must address and agree in their Consortium Agreement on all related intellectual property issues, from ownership and co-ownership of results to the consortium’s internal approval process for their dissemination.

EIC Awardees must also identify therein any pre-existing technology fitting the action’s needs and objectives and try to reach appropriate licensing agreements between them to prevent research funding redundancy. The EIC Awardees are deemed to have signed the Consortium Agreement at the date of the signature of the grant agreement, and the Agency may require a copy at any time in accordance with the grant agreement.

Dissemination activities

Each EIC Awardee will propose and undertake dissemination activities of the plan for exploitation and dissemination agreed by the Agency with the aim of supporting innovation in the European Union and fostering the development of the EIC Community, opting for publications as a main route to bring technical and scientific knowledge to the public.

When approving the plan for exploitation and dissemination of the results or any update, the Agency may subject any proposed dissemination activity to one or a combination of the following conditions: the prior assessment of any innovation potential of the results to be disseminated; and the prior protection of the result to be disseminated, in accordance with the grant agreement, the cost being eligible.

Where the Agency disagrees to a dissemination activity, it will actively assist the EIC Awardees to achieve compliance with the required conditions, without unreasonable delay and in due time, notably by proposing complementary EIC support for exploitation or support of the EIC Business Acceleration Services, as detailed and referred to under section 3.5. Where the Agency agrees to a dissemination activity, it will abide by the grant agreement.

The Agency is hereby entrusted with the right to also disseminate and promote the exploitation of any results that are made public by the EIC Awardee or with its assent.

Exploitation of results

EIC Awardees must use their best efforts to exploit their results or have them exploited by a third party, in priority those established in a Member State or an Associated Country, including through transfer or licensing. The Agency may object to a transfer of ownership or the licensing of results under certain conditions as detailed in the EIC grant agreement.

EIC Awardees must report on any exploitation operation at the reporting periods provided for in the grant agreement, with the periodicity agreed at the end of the action together with the final exploitation and dissemination plan, and within 30 days upon request from the Agency, within 4 years after final payment.

Each EIC Awardee agrees upon signature of the grant agreement to ensure the necessary support or access rights for the further development and exploitation of results that any of its EIC Inventors have contributed to (respecting the transfer rule). If the EIC Awardee provides financial or other support to the EIC Inventor for any such exploitation, royalties or other returns may be shared with the EIC Awardee on mutually beneficial terms, provided this does not prevent the EIC Inventor(s) from exercising their rights.

Such financial support should include as a minimum the full or partial funding of the costs of relevant intellectual property right protection in major jurisdictions. Other support includes expertise, access to infrastructure and facilities, or other forms of support. The royalties and other returns to the EIC Awardee should be fair and proportionate to the financial and other support provided.

If the EIC Awardee does not commit to provide support within a maximum period of 6 months from the date of the first formal request from the EIC Inventor, or that support is manifestly inadequate, then the EIC Awardee must entrust sufficient access rights to allow the EIC Inventor to further develop and exploit the result. If the EIC Awardee does not provide support for exploitation, then by default the access rights to the EIC Inventor are royalty-free.

The EIC Inventor must inform the EIC Awardee in due time before any exploitation activity they intend to undertake, and report to the EIC Awardee on the implementation of the exploitation activity.

If the EIC Awardee considers that the exploitation activity could negatively affect its own exploitation activities, then in the absence of any approved exploitation and dissemination plan, the EIC Awardee may request the Agency to suspend the access rights of a given EIC Inventor, by demonstrating that their use would negatively affect their future strategy or ongoing valorisation activities.

Where an exploitation and dissemination plan has been approved, the EIC Awardee may directly suspend the access rights of a given EIC Inventor if this would negatively affect the implementation of the approved plan. The EIC Inventor may request the Agency to lift that suspension by demonstrating that the exercise of the access rights does not affect the said plan.

Failure to exploit or disseminate

The Agency is entrusted with the right to disseminate and promote the exploitation of results that have not been made public through dissemination activities or patent or protection by any other IPR, where the EIC Awardee owning it does not provide any information regarding exploitation or dissemination of those results; neither intends to exploit nor disseminate those results; declares to continue research activities on those results but without a view of their subsequent exploitation; or where, despite its best efforts, no exploitation or dissemination takes place within the delays provided in the final exploitation and dissemination plan and in the absence of any demonstrated alternative exploitation or dissemination opportunity.

Where the EIC Awardee continues to oppose the dissemination by the Agency or refuses to provide any data or document necessary for the said dissemination, the Agency will impose penalties in accordance with the grant agreement.