Programme Category
Programme Name
Programme Description
Horizon Europe is the European Union (EU) funding programme for the period 2021 – 2027, which targets the sectors of research and innovation. The programme’s budget is around € 95.5 billion, of which € 5.4 billion is from NextGenerationEU to stimulate recovery and strengthen the EU’s resilience in the future, and € 4.5 billion is additional aid.
Identifier Code
Call
Summary
The EIC Accelerator focuses in particular on innovations building on scientific discovery or technological breakthroughs (‘deep tech’) and where significant funding is needed over a long timeframe before returns can be generated (‘patient capital’).
The EIC Accelerator supports companies (principally SMEs, including start-ups) to scale up high impact innovations with the potential to create new markets or disrupt existing ones.
Detailed Call Description
Innovations often struggle to attract financing because the risks and time period involved are too high. Funding and support from the EIC Accelerator is designed to enable such 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. The technology component of your innovation must therefore have been tested and validated in a laboratory and other relevant environment (e.g., at least Technology Readiness Level 5). The EIC Accelerator looks to support companies where the EIC support will act as a catalyst to crowd in other investors necessary for the scale up of the innovation.
Applicants to EIC Accelerator can submit proposals through the following topics:
- EIC Accelerator Open, which has no predefined thematic priorities and is open to proposals in any field of technology or application;
- EIC Accelerator Challenges in predefined areas of emerging and strategic technologies
For further information please see the EIC Work Programme 2025.
Financing percentage by EU or other bodies / Level of Subsidy or Loan
The EIC Accelerator provides a unique combination of funding from €0.5 to €12.5 million and Business Acceleration Services (see Section VI of the EIC Work Programme 2025).
Thematic Categories
- New Entrepreneurship
- Research, Technological Development and Innovation
Eligibility for Participation
- Other Beneficiaries
- Researchers/Research Centers/Institutions
- Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
Eligibility For Participation Notes
To be an eligible applicant to EIC Accelerator, you must apply as one of the following eligible entities:
- a single company classified as a SME, and established within a Member State or an Associated Country (see Annex 2 of the EIC Work Programme 2025); or
- a single company classified as a small mid-cap (up to 499 employees) established in a Member State or an Associated Country, but only for exceptional cases for rapid scale up purposes; or
- one or more natural persons (including individual entrepreneurs) or legal entities, which are either:
- from a Member State or an Associated Country intending to establish an SME or small mid-cap (as defined above) in a Member State or Associated Country by the time of signing the EIC Accelerator grant agreement or, in case the equity only is awarded, at the latest at the date of signature of the agreement on its investment component;
- intending to invest in an SME or small mid-cap established in a Member State or an Associated Country and may submit a proposal on behalf of that SME or small mid-cap, provided that a prior agreement exists with the company. The grant agreement and/or the investment agreement will be signed with the beneficiary/final recipient of funding company only; or
- 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. Your company must prove its effective establishment in a Member State or an Associated Country at the time of submission of the full proposal.
The standard admissibility and eligibility conditions are detailed in Annex 2 of the EIC Work Programme 2025
Call Opening Date
Call Closing Date
National Contact Point(s)
Research and Innovation Foundation
29a Andrea Michalakopoulou, 1075 Nicosia,
P.B. 23422, 1683 Nicosia
Telephone: +357 22205000
Fax: +357 22205001
Email: support@research.org.cy
Website: https://www.research.org.cy/en/
Contact Persons:
George Christou
Scientific Officer
Email: gchristou@research.org.cy
Nedi Kaffa
Scientific Officer
Email: nkaffa@research.org.cy