The EIC Accelerator supports individual small and medium  enterprises (SMEs), in particular startups and spinout companies to develop and scaleup game-changing innovations. In some cases small mid-caps (up to 500 employees) are supported.

The EIC Accelerator provides substantial financial support with:

• grant funding (non-dilutive) of up to €2.5 million for innovation development costs, 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 5/6 to 8).
• investments (direct equity investments or quasi-equity such as convertible loans) of up to €15 million managed by the EIC Fund for scale up and other relevant costs. Companies working on technologies of strategic European interest can apply for EIC investments of more than €15 million. 

Visit the EIC Fund page for more information

In addition, EIC selected companies receive coaching, mentoring, access to investors and corporates, and many other opportunities as part of the EIC community.

The EIC welcomes applications from innovators in all EU Member States and countries associated to the Horizon Europe programme. It particularly welcomes applications from startups and SMEs with female CEOs.

The EIC Work Programme  opens funding opportunities worth over €1.6 billion in 2023. For EIC Accelerator, the funding is worth €1.13 billion.

Learn more & check the factsheets

The EIC Accelerator provides support in two modes: the EIC Accelerator Open and the EIC Accelerator Challenges

EIC Accelerator Challenges 

Overall budget (2023): €524.7 million
Topics:

• Biomarkers for cancer
• Decontamination for pandemic management
• Energy storage
• New European Bauhaus
• Quantum or semiconductor components
• Resilient agriculture
• Space technologies and services

Short applications: no deadline - continuous

You can apply for EIC Accelerator funding at any time through the EIC Platform. You will need a video pitch, a slide deck and respond to a short set of questions about your innovation and your team.

You will normally receive feedback within 4 weeks. If your application meets the basic criteria for EIC Accelerator funding, you will be invited to prepare a full application to submit to one of the periodic cut-off dates for Accelerator Open or Accelerator Challenge funding.

Your full application will be assessed by our experts against the full criteria for EIC Accelerator funding. If your application meets all of the criteria, will be invited to the face to face interviews with an EIC jury as the final step in the selection process.

Applications that meet all the criteria at the remote evaluation stage and are assessed positively by the EIC jury but not recommended for funding, will be awarded a Seal of Excellence to help them secure funding from other sources. Companies with a Seal of Excellence can also get support from EIC Business Acceleration Services. To be eligible for a Seal of Excellence you must give consent to sharing some basic information about your application with other funding and support organisations.

In EIC Accelerator proposals are assessed by independent evaluators with different profiles.

All experts are carefully chosen to guarantee that each proposal is evaluated by professionals with the adequate technology and/or sector expertise, as well as business and finance competence. 

In the first two stages of the selection process, proposals are evaluated by remote experts. Later on, the projects are assessed by the EIC jury members. 

List of EIC jury members