European Innovation Council

The overall objective of the EIC is to identify, develop and deploy high risk innovations of all kind with a particular focus on breakthrough, market-creating and deep-tech innovations. It aims to support the rapid scale up of innovative technologies and companies (mainly start-ups and SMEs) at EU and international level along the pathway from ideas to market.

EIC Pathfinder - EIC Pathfinder supports early stage development of such future technologies (e.g. various activities at low Technology Readiness Levels 1-4), 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. The EIC Pathfinder aims at creating breakthrough technologies by encouraging interdisciplinary collaboration. Diverse areas of R&I are brought together with different perspectives and methodologies. The support consists of a grant component of up to EUR 3 million for the open calls and EUR 4 million for the challenge calls. Successful applicants have access to a range of Business Acceleration Services.

EIC Transition - 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 in the lab and in relevant application environments (by making use of prototyping, formulation, models, user testing or other validation tests) as well as the development of a business case and business model towards the innovation’s future commercialisation. The support consists of a grant component of up to EUR 2.5 million.  Successful applicants have access to a range of Business Acceleration Services.

EIC Accelerator - The EIC Accelerator is a funding instrument/tool for empowering individual SMEs to develop and scale up breakthrough innovations with high risk and high impact. The support consists of a grant component of up to EUR 2.5 million and an investment component in the form of equity financing or guarantees between EUR 0.5 million and EUR 15 million. Successful applicants have access to a range of Business Acceleration Services.