The European Innovation Council (EIC) was established to identify, develop and scale up breakthrough technologies and companies, to achieve the green and digital transition. The EIC supports game changing innovations throughout the lifecycle from early stage research to proof of concept, technology transfer, and the financing and scale up of start-ups and SMEs.

The EIC work programme 2026 is available here. The EIC work programme 2026 details the funding in five main schemes:

EIC Pathfinder for multi-disciplinary research teams to undertake visionary research with the potential to lead to technology breakthroughs advanced research to develop the scientific basis to underpin breakthrough technologies.

EIC Transition to turn research results into innovation opportunities, following up on results generated by EIC Pathfinder, European Research Council Proof of Concept, Horizon Europe Pillar 2 collaborative projects, and Research Infrastructures projects.

Advanced Innovation Challenges to support high-risk, demand-driven deep tech innovation with transformative potential especially in areas where there is extensive research but lack of commercial uptake.

EIC Accelerator for start-ups and SMEs to develop and scale up innovations with the potential to create new markets or disrupt existing ones.

The EIC Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP) Scale Up to support to promising companies (SMEs, start-ups, spin-offs and in exceptional cases small mid-caps) in critical areas to help them secure larger funding rounds for scaling their businesses.

In each case, the direct financial support to innovators is complemented with access to a wide range of Business Acceleration Services providing access to leading expertise, corporates, investors and ecosystem actors.

Pathfinder, Transition and Accelerator provide for “Open” funding which can support technologies and innovations in any field without any predefined priority areas. In the case of Pathfinder and Accelerator, the Open funding call is complemented by a set of “Challenges” which target specific technologies and innovations of strategic interest for the EU.

EIC Pathfinder Call Details

The overall objective of the EIC Pathfinder for advanced research is to develop the scientific basis to underpin breakthrough technologies. It provides support for the earliest stages of scientific, technological or deep tech research and development. Pathfinder projects aim to build on new, cutting-edge directions in science and technology to disrupt a field and a market or create new opportunities by realising innovative technological solutions.

EIC Pathfinder Open, open to support projects in any field of science, technology or application without predefined thematic priorities.

EIC Pathfinder Challenges to support coherent portfolios of projects within predefined thematic areas with the aim to achieve specific objectives for each Challenge.

Strategic Challenges 2026 for EIC Pathfinder

• II.2.1 Advanced Materials for Miniaturised Energy Harvesting Systems
• II.2.2 Biotechnology for Healthy Ageing
• II.2.3 DeepRAP: Deep Reasoning, Abstraction and Planning towards trustworthy Cognitive AI Systems

Applicants

• Open call: only consortia of at least three different independent legal entities established in at least three different eligible countries can apply
• Challenges call: smaller consortia (minimum two eligible entities), single applicants as well as larger consortia

Deadlines

• EIC Pathfinder Open - 12 May 2026
• EIC Pathfinder Challenge - 28 October 2026

Requirements

• Ambitions long-term vision for a radically new technology that has the potential to create new market and provide solutions for global challenges
• High-risk/high-gain breakthrough research that provides the foundations of the technology that you envisioning

Evaluation

• Peer review, proposals are evaluated, scored, and ranked by experts based on weighted criteria and thresholds
• The Evaluation Summary Report will comprise of the final score, a collation of the comments from individual reports, a comment that summarises the assessment by the evaluation committee as well as any additional comments
• The EIC Pathfinder Challenges evaluation process includes two steps: 1) assessment of each proposal separately; 2) considerations of each proposal’s contribution to setting up a consistent Challenge Portfolio of projects

Project scope

• RIA (starting from early TRLs aiming at achieving TRL 3 or 4), to achieve the proof of principle and validate the scientific basis of breakthrough technology

Funding

• EIC Pathfinder Open: grants of up to EUR 4 million (higher amounts if duly justified)
• EIC Pathfinder Challenge: grants of up to EUR 4 million (higher amounts if duly justified)
• 100% funding rate
• Pathfinder projects can also receive additional funding for testing the innovation potential of research outputs

EIC Transition Call Details

Applicants

• Single applicants (SMEs, spin-offs, start-ups, research organisations, universities) or small consortia (two partners) or small consortia (minimum 2, maximum 5 eligible entities)
• EIC Transition is restricted to proposals based on resulted generated by the eligible projects (refer to the 2026 Work Programme for detailed information)

Deadlines

• EIC Transition - 16 September 2026

Evaluation

• Full proposal + interview: proposals are peer-reviewed, evaluated, scored, and ranked by experts based on weighted criteria and thresholds. Top-ranked proposals, which are invited to the interview, will be further assessed by a panel of 4-6 EIC jury members and one EIC Programme Manager as an observer with expertise in the specific area

Project scope

• IA (starting at TRL 3/4 aiming at achieving TRL 5/6), to validate and demonstrate technology in application-relevant environment and develop business and market readiness

Funding

• Grants of up to EUR 2.5 million
• 100% funding rate

Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) provide a guide to the stage of development. TRLs are used in the work programme for guidance, but do not preclude support for non-technological innovations. A strong degree of importance will also be given to market readiness and business readiness, as described in the evaluation criteria of the call texts.

The following definitions of TRLs apply, recognising that there are important differences between technological fields:

• TRL1 - basic principles observed
• TRL2 - technology concept formulated
• TRL3 - experimental proof of concept
• TRL4 - technology validated in lab
• TRL5 - technology validated in relevant environment (industrially relevant environment in the case of key enabling technologies)
• TRL6 - technology demonstrated in relevant environment (industrially relevant environment in the case of key enabling technologies)
• TRL7 - system prototype demonstration in operational environment
• TRL8 - system complete and qualified
• TRL9 - actual system proven in operational environment (competitive manufacturing in the case of key enabling technologies, or in space)