FAST TRACK SCHEME AND PILOT PLUG-IN SCHEME TO APPLY FOR THE EIC ACCELERATOR
Under the Fast Track and Plug In schemes, applicants do not apply directly to the EIC Accelerator call. Instead, the responsible funding bodies decide whether an existing project is suitable for support under the EIC Accelerator based on a project review to assess the innovation or market deployment potential of such project.
The Fast Track is being implemented by a number of the Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) and further information can be found on their websites. The Fast Track is also available for: ongoing EIC Pathfinder and EIC Transition projects (including pilot Pathfinder/ FET projects funded under Horizon 2020); Funding schemes for SMEs supported under the Eurostars-2 Joint Programme and the Partnership on Innovative SMEs managed by the Eureka secretariat and relevant national bodies; and companies awarded a grant only project under the Horizon 2020 EIC pilot Accelerator and the Horizon Europe EIC Accelerator (given the level of technological maturity that Accelerator projects have, only beneficiaries of ongoing projects (i.e. ending date of the project not expired yet) will be considered eligible). Eligible projects can contact their project officers for further information. If a project is deemed suitable for the Fast track, a first assessment shall take place at least 5 months before the project's ending date in order to have the time to organise the project review.
The Plug In scheme is implemented by a number of Member States and Associated countries and applies to eligible companies that are supported by the programmes that have been certified. The funding body managing the programme implements the project review and decides which applicants to submit to the EIC Accelerator. A list of all the programmes certified for the Plug In is available on the EIC website.
Applicants that are submitted via a Fast Track or Plug In Scheme are invited immediately to prepare a full application to the EIC Accelerator and are not required to pass the short proposal stage. They are treated equally to other applicants at the full application stage and are also eligible to receive coaching support. Fast track and Plug In applications are subject to the same rules on submission and resubmission as the short proposals.
The Fast Track scheme referred to in Annex 3 to the Work Programme 2026 and the Fast Track to Research and Innovation (FTRI) referred to in Horizon Europe Regulation are two different things.
On the one hand, the FTRI is a procedure that may be applied to allow a faster, bottom-up access to funds for small collaborative consortia covering actions from fundamental research to market application. To this end, the FTRI may be proposed under some of the calls for proposals dedicated to select research and / or innovation actions Under the Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness and the European Innovation Council Pathfinder parts of the Framework Programme.
On the other hand, the Fast Track scheme stems from Article 43(5) of Horizon Europe Regulation. Its purpose is to allow eligible funding bodies to directly submit for evaluation under the last award criterion (Article 43(4)(c)) a proposal for an innovation and market deployment action which already fulfils the first two criteria, provided that cumulative conditions as set out in the Regulation, in the Specific Programme, and in the Work Programme are met.