The current European Innovation Council (EIC) has been established under the Horizon Europe programme. It is one of the flagship innovation programmes that helps identify, develop and scale up groundbreaking technologies and game changing innovations. It has a budget of € 10.1 billion to support innovations throughout the entire lifecycle: from early stage research, to proof of concept, technology transfer and the financing and scale up of start-ups and SMEs.

Origins

The programme was originally piloted in 2018. It incorporated existing instruments, in particular the SME Instrument and the Future & Emerging Technology (FET) programme, under the Horizon 2020 programme. These schemes were brought together to provide direct support to innovators throughout Europe.

The European Innovation Council (EIC) grants

The programme consists of the following funding opportunities:

EIC Pathfinder

This instrument supports research teams in researching or developing emerging breakthrough technologies or innovations.

Read more about EIC Pathfinder.

EIC Transition

Innovators can get support in maturing a novel technology and develop a business case to bring it to market.

Read more about EIC Transition.

EIC Accelerator

This instrument can be used to stimulate, scale up and roll out marketable innovations. Additionally, it financially covers the timeframe before returns can be generated.

Read more about EIC Accelerator.

Additional EIC opportunities

EIC Business Acceleration Services

The EIC offers services through its platform, the EIC Fund or partner organisations to EIC supported researchers, innovators or entrepreneurs. The support is structured around three main pillars:

• Access to coaches, mentors, expertise and training;
• Access to global partners (leading corporates, investors, procurers, distributors, clients);
• Access to innovation ecosystem and peers.

Read more about the Business Acceleration Services.

European Innovation Ecosystems

The EU aims to create a more connected and efficient innovation ecosystem to encourage innovation, support the scaling of companies and stimulate cooperation among national, regional and local innovation actors.

Read more about European Innovation Ecosystems.

Get in touch!

Learn more about the EIC funding instruments (Pathfinder, Transition or Accelerator) or any of the other opportunities EIC has to offer. Our specialists have extensive experience in supporting universities and companies with acquiring grants, some of which under the previous European Framework Programmes (Horizon 2020 and FP7), including FET-Open. They are able to support you throughout every phase of the grant acquisition process: identification of grant opportunities, feasibility check, application writing and reviewing, and project management.

Contact us via 088 495 20 00 or info@hezelburcht.com for an introductory meeting.