GENERAL CONDITIONS AND ELIGIBILITY
Proposals must be submitted electronically directly via the Funding and Tender portal electronic submission system (accessible via the call topic page in the Search Funding & Tenders section); or indirectly via the EIC Community Platform where applicants will be redirected to the Portal. Paper submissions are NOT possible.
Proposals must be readable, accessible, printable and complete (contain all the requested information and all required annexes and supporting documents) and must be submitted using the forms provided inside the electronic submission system.
The Application Form for EIC Pathfinder, EIC Transition, EIC Accelerator and EIC Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP) Scale Up calls will have two parts:
Part A (to be filled in directly online) — contains administrative information about the applicant organisations (future coordinator and beneficiaries and affiliated entities), the summarised budget for the proposal and ethics and security specific questions.
Part B (to be downloaded from the Portal Submission System, completed and then assembled and re-uploaded as PDF in the system) — contains the technical description of the project. For the EIC Accelerator, Part B will consist of the questionnaire which replies to the evaluation criteria.
Annexes and supporting documents will be directly available in the Submission System and must be uploaded as PDF and excel files (or other formats allowed by the system).
No. In line with the Horizon Europe legal base, there are no geographical criteria or quotas used by the EIC in selecting projects and companies for funding. The evaluation criteria are specified in the relevant call texts. At the same time the EIC encourages high quality applications from all EU countries and associated countries. To this end, the EIC works with the National Contact Points, the Enterprise Europe Networks and others to promote EIC funding opportunities across all regions and that potential applicants have support available.
You may apply to several EIC calls at the same time, but if the same proposal is successfully evaluated under different calls, only one will be selected. Please note however, that each call may have its own specific conditions (eligibility and award criteria, objectives, etc.) and each proposal should respond to the specific conditions of the call under which it is submitted. The EIC Accelerator and STEP scale up call have specific concurrent submission rules:
• If you decide to apply to both EIC Pathfinder Open and Challenge calls, please make sure to adapt your proposals in line with the different eligibility conditions, objectives and Award criteria of the relevant call.
• For the EIC Accelerator, you can only apply to one call at a time and must choose between the Open and the Challenges. You may apply to another EIC Accelerator call once you have received the evaluation results of the first submission. You may not apply to the Accelerator and STEP calls at the same time. In the event of multiple submissions, only the proposal submitted most recently will be evaluated, and it will be assessed according to the merits and evaluation criteria of its respective call (Accelerator or STEP)
You can apply for EIC funding if you have an ongoing grant as long as the new proposal does not include activities already supported by ongoing financial support.
• For EIC Pathfinder, please make sure that you explain in your proposal how your ongoing H2020 grant(s) relate to your current application.
• For EIC Transition, please make sure to fulfil the eligibility conditions described in the Work Programme (e.g. applications should be based on results generated by eligible projects specified in the Work Programme).
• For the EIC Accelerator beneficiaries of ongoing or finalised grant-only projects selected under a Horizon 2020 EIC pilot Accelerator or under Horizon Europe EIC Accelerator call may be eligible to submit a proposal for a blended finance or an equity-only support under an EIC Accelerator call. Companies awarded a grant only under the Horizon 2020 EIC pilot Accelerator and the Horizon Europe EIC Accelerator may be eligible for fast track., Other eligible applicants will have to submit a new proposal via the short application stage of the evaluation procedure for the EIC Accelerator.
A list of countries associated to Horizon Europe is available on the Funding & Tenders portal. In addition, legal entities based in a third country which is currently negotiating the association to Horizon Europe are in principle eligible provided that the Horizon Europe association agreement (including Pillar III) with the third country concerned is in force at the time of signature of the grant agreement. Such an association agreement will be made public on the European Commission's Horizon Europe website.
A legal entity based in a third country which is not currently negotiating the association to Horizon Europe can apply as part of a consortium in which the minimum number of EU or Associated Country partners is met. This applies to EIC Pathfinder and EIC Transition calls which are open for consortia.
A legal entity based in a third country which is not currently negotiating the association to Horizon Europe can apply at the short application stage for the EIC Accelerator but must relocate an existing SME or establish an SME in an EU Member State or Associated Country before receiving any support the company established in an EU Member State or Associated Country to Horizon Europe (including to the EIC Fund in the case of blended finance). Your company must prove its effective establishment in a Member State or an Associated Country at the time of submission of the full proposal.
Foreign interference occurs when activities are carried out by, or on behalf of, a foreign state-level actor, which are coercive, covert, deceptive, or corrupting and are contrary to the sovereignty, values, and interests of the European Union (EU).
The EU is a front-runner of international openness in R&I, at the same time, international cooperation can involve risks and challenges that must be taken into account. To support R&I actors in mitigating such risks, the European Commission has published a toolkit for tackling foreign interference in R&I*. Applicants are strongly recommended to familiarise themselves with this publication and to consider its relevance for the proposals they intend to submit.
* European Commission, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, Tackling R&I foreign interference: staff working document, 2022, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2777/513746
As from 1 January 2024, UK entities may apply to calls of the EIC for grant funding implementing budget for the year 2024 onwards including the EIC Pathfinder scheme, EIC Transition activities, and the grant only part of the EIC Accelerator.
For the EIC Accelerator, this means that UK start-ups and SMEs will be able to apply for the calls, but solely to request a “grant-only” support. UK entities will not be eligible to apply for “blended finance” (which combines a grant with an investment component) and UK entities already awarded a “grant-only” support will not be eligible for follow up equity investments from the EIC.
UK entities may apply for EIC Accelerator funding at the short proposal phase but will need to relocate to an EU Member State or eligible Associated Country by the time of submitting a full application for support (other than “grant only”).
UK entities that are selected for EIC funding will also be eligible to receive Business Acceleration Services (coaching, mentoring, events, etc.), except these relating to access to investors.
Further information: International cooperation with the United Kingdom in research and innovation
Applicants may use generative AI tools when preparing proposals in relation to both the structure of the proposal (e.g. generation of graphs/charts) and its substance (e.g. language review, development of narratives from a set of ideas, search for background information). Considering that applicants bear the legal responsibility for their proposal, applicants must be fully transparent towards the granting authority and declare the use of generative AI tools and the way the tools have been utilised.
In particular, in the Horizon Europe proposal application form, applicants are provided with specific guidance on the use of generative AI tools for the preparation of proposals.
Applicants are reminded: -
- to exercise caution and careful consideration while using generative AI tools;
- to review and validate thoroughly any AI-generated content to ensure its appropriateness and accuracy, as well as its compliance with intellectual property regulations;
- that they remain fully responsible for the content of the proposal (including the parts produced by the AI tool);
- to be transparent in disclosing which AI tools were used and how they were utilised