EIC Accelerator

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The EIC Accelerator supports companies, principally SMEs including startups, to scale up high-impact innovations with the potential to create new markets or disrupt existing ones. It provides a unique combination of funding ranging from EUR 0.5 to EUR 17.5 million and Business Acceleration Services (see Section V). The EIC Accelerator focuses particularly on innovations built on scientific discoveries or technological breakthroughs (‘deep tech’), where significant funding is required over a long timeframe before returns can be generated (‘patient capital’). Such innovations often struggle to attract financing due to the high risks and lengthy time periods involved. Funding and support from the EIC Accelerator are designed to enable innovators to attract the full investment amounts needed for scale-up in a shorter timeframe.

The EIC Accelerator supports the later stages of technology development as well as scale-up. Therefore, the technology component of your innovation must have been tested and validated in a laboratory and other relevant environments (e.g., at least Technology Readiness Level 5). The EIC Accelerator seeks to support companies where the EIC support will act as a catalyst to attract other investors necessary for the scale-up of the innovation.

The EIC Accelerator provides:

  1. a) grant component only (‘Grant Only’) that will take the form of a lump sum contribution50 via a grant agreement. Grant only shall be provided only once to any legal entity for the duration of the Horizon Europe programme (2021- 27)
  2. b) blended finance support which is composed of:
  • An investment component usually in the form of direct equity or quasi-equity such as convertible loans via an investment agreement.
  • A grant component, that will take the form of a lump sum contribution via a grant agreement.
  1. c) investment component only (Equity-Only) support to non-bankable SMEs, including start-ups, which have already received an eligible grant support, via an investment agreement.

The application process consists of a number of steps:

  1. Short proposals which may be submitted at any time and which will be evaluated remotely by EIC expert evaluators on a first come, first served basis;
  2. If successful, you will be invited to prepare a full proposal, where you will have access to support from EIC business coaches to develop your business plan;
  3. Full proposals will first be assessed remotely by EIC expert evaluators. If successful, you will be invited to an interview with an EIC jury as the final step in the selection process;
  4. If selected for (potential)funding, you will be invited to negotiate a grant agreement for the requested grant component (if you have applied for it) and to start the due diligence for the investment component (if you have applied for it).

Submission of short proposals

You may submit a short proposal at any time as from the 1st January 2024 via the Funding and Tender Opportunities Portal. The short proposal consists of:

  • A short form where you summarise your proposal and respond to questions on your company and team, your innovation and the potential market;
  • A pitch-deck of up to ten slides in pdf format;
  • A video pitch of up to three minutes where the core members of your team (up to three people) should provide the motivation for your proposal.

Submission of full proposals

If you succeeded with your short application under the 2024 Work programme, your full proposal can be submitted to any of the following cut-offs during 2024, and any of the cut-offs for 2025. Applicants who succeeded with a positive evaluation of their short proposal under the 2023 EIC Work Programme may apply to any of the following cut-offs in 2024. You may decide which cut-off to apply to. The two cut-off dates for 2024 are:

  • 13 March 2024
  • 3 October 2024

The full proposal consists of

  • a full business plan and full information on the company’s finances and structure of the potential beneficiary/final recipient company. You will also need to propose a set of milestones to be used as a basis for the EIC to manage the funding for your innovation.
  • a pitch-deck in pdf format and a video pitch of up to three minutes. You may decide to reuse or update the pitch-deck and video pitch submitted with your short proposal.

Interviews with an EIC Jury

All companies receiving a GO from the remote evaluation stage will be invited to the interviews. In case the number of applicants to invite exceeds the capacities of the initially planned interview sessions, a first batch of applicants will be invited according to the following prioritisation, starting with category ‘a’ below, proceeding to the next:

  1. Gender balance: women-led companies (until 40% of invited companies is reached);
  2. Submission date and time: any remaining companies will be prioritised based on the date and time submission of their short proposal.

The remaining batch of applicants to interview will be invited to a further set of interviews to be organised before the interviews of the next cut-off date. Interviews will be organised approximately three to four weeks after applicants are informed of the result of the remote evaluation (or longer if there is a need for a further set of interviews).