The EIC Accelerator program is an excellent opportunity for high-tech or deep-tech companies to make their technology, which is already functioning as a prototype (TRL 6), ready for the market. In addition, high subsidies and a capital contribution can be claimed. Only suitable for absolute top projects: Only 3-6% of applications are approved.

  • Maximum grant per company: Up to EUR 2,500,000 grant + “Blended Finance” with additional equity participation of up to EUR 15 million

  • Flat rate: 25 % on personnel costs

  • Subsidy: 70 %

  • Funding provider: EU -> EIC – European Innovation Council

  • Program budget: approx. 800 million euros

  • Funding topics: Open technology calls and specific challenges

  • Eligible to apply: SMES

  • Formats: In-house

  • Application: Multi-stage, 3 cut-off dates per year

  • Requirements: Radically new ideas, business plan, innovative concepts and ambitious scale-up.

  • Difficulty level: Difficult

Application procedure

Your innovation should already have a TRL of 5-6 (what is a TRL?). With the EIC Accelerator program, you can then reach TRL 8 (grant) or even TRL 9 (blended finance). The application process consists of several stages:

  • Diagnostic Tool
  • Short Proposal incl. pitch deck and short video
  • Full Proposal.

Procedure: Register on the application platform of the EIC Accelerator. Enter the contents of your project step by step. If you have received a “Go” in stages 1 and 2, you can submit the “Full Proposal”. In the very detailed full proposal, the platform’s AI creates a business plan from your input, which you can then submit together with other documents. Deadlines: You can submit at any time. At the 3-4 annual cut-off dates, all applications submitted up to that point are evaluated.

The EIC Accelerator funding program of the current Horizon Europe funding period is the successor of the popular SME Instrument (Phase 1 and Phase 2) of the Horizon 2020 (H2020) funding period.

If you have any further questions, please contact our EIC Accelerator consulting team.