The EIC Accelerator Open call focuses particularly, on innovations building on scientific discovery or technological breakthroughs and where significant funding is needed over a long timeframe before returns can be generated. Funding and support from the EIC Accelerator Open call is designed to enable such innovators to attract the full investment amounts needed for scale up in a shorter timeframe.

The call supports the later stages of technology development as well as scale up.

The technology component of the innovation must have been tested and validated in a laboratory or other relevant environment. For an applicant to be able to apply, they must meet one of the following eligibility conditions:

• A single company classified as an SME and established within a Member State or an Associated Country.
• A single company classified as a ‘Small mid-cap’ (up to 500 employees) established in a Member State or an Associated Country, but the application can only be for rapid scale up purposes and only for the  investment component.

Or

• One or more natural persons (including individual entrepreneurs) or legal entities, intending to establish an SME or small mid-cap, intending to invest in an SME or small mid- cap, from a non-associated third country intending to establish an SME (including start-ups) or to relocate an existing SME to a Member State or an Associated Country, by the time of submitting a full application. Τhe company must prove its effective establishment in a Member State or an Associated Country.

The EIC Accelerator Open call is open to innovations in any field of technology or application. But any innovations that harm the environment, social welfare or that are designed primarily for military applications will not be supported.

The EIC Accelerator provides blended finance which is composed of:

• An investment component usually in the form of direct equity or quasi-equity such as convertible loans. The minimum investment component is €0.5 million and the maximum is €15 million.
• A grant component.