European Commission Research & Innovation Initiatives and Programme Opportunities

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European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator

Snapshot overview

The European Innovation Council (EIC) supports innovations with breakthrough and market-creating potential. It provides funding through open calls with no defined thematic priorities or a challenge-driven approach, focusing on a specific thematic breakthrough. EIC is divided into three different schemes: EIC Pathfinder, EIC Transition and EIC Accelerator. EIC Accelerator supports smaller actors in developing innovative solutions that would allow them to scale up.

Under the 2024 work programme, two types of calls for proposals opened : EIC Accelerator Open for projects in any field of science, technology or application without predefined thematic priorities, and EIC Accelerator Challenges for projects that match any of the predefined thematic areas of the Accelerator Challenges. All the calls are now closed.

Under the 2025 work programme, the same calls are now open for the short application until December 2025.

Name

European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator

Institution/ DG/ Agency responsible at EU-level

European Innovation Council

Work programme

EIC Work Programme 2025

Programme

EIC is a programme under Horizon Europe covering 2021-2027

Programme budget

The total indicative budget for 2025 is EUR 634 million, including:

  • EIC Accelerator Open: 384 million
  • EIC Accelerator Challenges: 250 million
Call budget

Investment component (EUR 0.5 – 15 million) and grant component (up to EUR 2.5 million)

Type of funding

Blended financing, consisting of an investment component (equity) such as loans and a grant component. EIC Awardees will also be provided with access to a range of externally contracted, bespoke EIC Business Acceleration Services (BAS) at any stage of development of their activities.

Target participants

Single start-ups and SMEs (including spin-offs), individuals (intending to launch a start-up/ SME) and in exceptional cases small mid-caps (fewer than 499 employees).

Programme scope

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’). It supports the later stages of technology development as well as scale up.

Participant criteria

Both single entities and consortia are eligible for funding. Single entities need to be: (i) a single company classified as an SME and established within a Member State or an Associated Country; or (ii) a single company classified as a small mid-cap (up to 499 employees) established in an EU Member State or an Associated Country, but only for exceptional cases for rapid scale up purposes.

Project duration

Depending on the specific project

Average time from submission to project kick-off

Once the applicants succeeded with the short application under the 2025 Work programme, the full proposal can be submitted to any of the following cut-offs during 2025, and any of the cut-offs for 2026. Applicants who succeeded with a positive evaluation of their short proposal under the 2023 or 2024 EIC Work Programme may apply to any of the following cut-offs in 2025.

Once you submit your full proposal, it will be assessed remotely against award criteria evaluation elements (set out in the next section) by three EIC expert evaluators. Within approximately six-weeks you will be informed about the result of the remote evaluation and will receive feedback. If successful, you will be invited to attend an interview (which may be in person or online) with an EIC Jury. 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. You will be informed about the result of the interview within approximately two weeks.

If selected for (potential)funding, you will be invited to negotiate a grant agreement for the requested grant component (if you have applied for it) and to start the due diligence for the investment component (if you have applied for it).

R&D stage

Later stages and scale-up

Intellectual property

Unknown

Call-specific resources

EIC Accelerator Open and Challenges: Overview here, Call for proposals here

Call Status

EIC Accelerator Open and Challenges: Open

  • Publication of call: 29 October 2024
  • Short application submission deadline: Continuous, up to 18 December 2025
  • Full application submission deadline: First cut-off 12 March 2025, Second cut-off 1 October 2025
Contact details & more information
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This tool was created by FTI Consulting for GSK and EFPIA.
For all enquiries please contact niro@fticonsulting.com
Privacy policy

This tool was created by FTI Consulting
for GSK and EFPIA.
For all enquiries please contact niro@fticonsulting.com
Privacy policy

What type of funding are you looking for?

  • Grant:
    Grants are direct financial contributions from the European Union budget awarded by way of a donation to third-party beneficiaries (usually non-profit-making organisations) engaged in activities that serve EU policies.
  • Loan:
    Loans are measures of financial support provided on a complementary basis from the budget in order to address specific policy objectives of the European Union. Such instruments are implemented in partnership with public and private institutions such as banks, venture capitalists or angel investors.

What stage of development are you seeking R&I funding for?

  • Basic science: Basic science covers the various exploratory steps even prior to discovery
  • Discovery: Drug discovery aims to find potential disease-altering targets, such as a gene or a protein in humans. Prior to testing candidate compounds for safety
  • Preclinical development: Preclinical development concerns the testing of candidate compounds for safety in specific indications or disease conditions. Introduction of candidate compound in living biological systems (animals)
  • Phase 1 clinical trials: These are the first clinical trials on humans(usually 20-80 volunteers) testing the safety, side effects, best dose, and timing of a new treatment
  • Phase 21/2b clinical trials: This is the follow-up trial with roughly 100 to 500 patients to analyse efficacy and safety
  • Phase 3 clinical trials: These trials usually involve several hundreds to many thousands patients and tests the results of earlier clinical trials on larger populations to generate robust data on safety, efficacy and benefit-risk relationships of the medicine. Comparison to placebo and/or active comparator (best standard treatment)
  • Registration & launch: This concerns post-study, prior to launch, activities related to market launch. That can include, among others, marketing authorisation, regulatory activities, post-study communication or HTA
  • Introduction & delivery: This concerns all post-launch activities

What do you want to develop?

  • Treatment or vaccine:
    Refers to a drug or vaccine
  • Diagnostic or medical device:
    Refers to diagnostics and medical devices
  • Platform:
    Refers to a digital health platform or medical app
  • Knowledge:
    Refers to conducting research to help build our understanding on a topic
  • Standards:
    Refers to creating a benchmark for a specific issue

What type of organisation are you?

  • Small & medium-sized enterprises:
    <250 employees, annual revenue <EUR 50,000,000) or balance sheet < EUR43 million. This applies to individual firms only. If part of larger group, check the User Guide: https://ec.europa.eu/docsroom/documents/42921
  • Large enterprises:
    >250 employees or annual revenue > EUR 50,000,000. Non-profit organisation (non-governmental organisations that are recognised with a non-profit status)
  • Non-profit organisations:
    Non-governmental organisations that are recognised with a non-profit status
  • Academic:
    Linked to a university or equivalent
  • Public:
    Local, regional, federal government representative

What stage of diagnostics development does your research aim to cover?

  • Development:
    Product development
  • Validation:
    Lab and clinical validation
  • Evaluation & Authorisation:
    Regulatory approvals
  • Access:
    Monitoring

What stage of medicine or vaccine development does your research aim to cover?

  • Discovery and development:
    Identification of promising compounds for development and initial experiments to gather information
  • Preclinical research:
    Laboratory and animal testing to answer basic questions about safety
  • Phase 0 (clinical):
    Testing on limited number of subjects at subtherapeutic doses
  • Phase I (clinical):
    Testing on <100 healthy subjects with the disease/condition
  • Phase II (clinical):
    Testing on up to several hundred subjects with the disease/condition
  • Phase III (clinical):
    Testing on 300 to 3,000 volunteers with the disease/condition
  • Preregistration / Phase IV (clinical):
    Testing on several thousand volunteers with the disease/condition
  • Clinical (unspecified):
    Clinical phase unknown
  • Evaluation & Authorisation:
    Activities relating to marketing authorisation
  • Access:
    Monitoring

Where are you based?

  • Africa : Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, Comoros, Congo (Democratic Republic of the), Congo (Republic of the), Cote d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe
  • America (non-US & Canada) : Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, Venezuela
  • Asia-Pacific : Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, Brunei, Cambodia, China (including special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau), Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kiribati, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Nepal, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niue, North Korea, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Vietnam
  • Europe (non-EU) : Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Iceland, Kosovo, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom
  • European Union (EU) : Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden
  • Middle East : Cyprus, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Yemen
  • United States (US) & Canada : United States, Canada

What type of organisation are you?

  • Small and medium-sized enterprise (SME):
    Staff headcount 50 < and turnover ≤ EUR 10 m or balance sheet total ≤ EUR 10 m (small); Staff headcount 250 < and turnover ≤ EUR 50 m or balance sheet total ≤ EUR 43 m (medium)
  • Large enterprise:
    Staff headcount > 250
  • Non-profit organisation:
    Association, foundation, or equivalent
  • Academic:
    University, research institute, or equivalent
  • Individual:
    Private citizen
  • Public sector:
    Local, regional, federal government representative
  • Other:
    None of the above or uncertain