EIC Pathfinder

The EIC Pathfinder funding programme is dedicated to supporting early-stage, innovative, groundbreaking technologies. In this programme, you can get support to promote promising ideas and initial work up to a proof-of-concept and validation in a controlled environment. The EIC Pathfinder is suitable for any high-risk and high-gain science-towards-technology projects looking to take the initial steps toward market. The EIC Pathfinder offers two funding schemes, EIC Pathfinder Open (for all types of technology) and EIC Pathfinder Challenges (a challenge-driven call with specific calls for action, changing every year).

EIC Pathfinder Open

The EIC Pathfinder Open is a call for bottom-up proposals that have all the following characteristics:

Convincing long-term vision of a radically new deep-tech that has the potential to transform our economy and society in a positive way
Concrete, novel and ambitious science-towards-technology breakthrough, providing advancements towards the envisioned goal
High-risk/high-gain research approach and methodology, with concrete and plausible objectives

Who can apply?

A consortium of at least three independent legal entities (“beneficiaries”), each established in a different EU member state or Horizon Europe associated country (e.g. Israel); at least one member of the consortium must come from an EU member state.

Funding

Grants of up to EUR 3 million (or more if properly justified) to achieve the proof of concept and validate the scientific basis of breakthrough technology (TRL 1-4)
The funding rate of this grant will be 100% of the eligible costs + 25% overhead

Additionally, funded projects are eligible to:

Receive EIC booster grants with fixed amounts of up to EUR 50,000 to undertake complementary activities to explore potential pathways to commercialisation
Submit an EIC Transition proposal
Submit an EIC Accelerator proposal via the Fast-Track scheme

Submission

In 2025 there will be one submission deadline: 11 March 2025 at 17:00 Brussels time. Proposals are limited to 20 pages and must follow the provided template.

Evaluation Process

Your proposal will be first evaluated and scored remotely by 3 EIC expert evaluators, each giving a grade of up to 5 on the three evaluation criteria: Excellence, Impact, and Implementation.
The evaluators will convene at an evaluation committee that will decide on the final score, taking into consideration the comments of the evaluators.
The evaluation process is expected to take 5 months after the deadline.

EIC Pathfinder Challenges

The EIC Pathfinder Challenges call is for proposals in specific fields that have all the following characteristics:

Convincing long-term vision of a radically new deep-tech that has the potential to transform our economy and society in a positive way;
Concrete, novel and ambitious science-towards-technology breakthrough, providing advancements towards the envisioned goal
High-risk/high-gain research approach and methodology, with concrete and plausible objectives

For 2024, the EIC Pathfinder challenges are:

Portfolio approach

For every challenge, a variety of required solutions is mentioned. Every proposal must select one area to focus on. Every solution type will be represented in the list of selected projects, and the projects are required to collaborate on shared activities such as conferences, webinars, website, cross-promotion and more. Proposals should consider the expenses and person-months required for portfolio activities when creating a budget.

Application requirements

Application is available in 3 different formats:

A mono-beneficiary project in which a single entity is submitting alone
A 2 party-project consisting of 2 entities from 2 countries in Horizon Europe
A consortium of at least three independent legal entities (“beneficiaries”), each established in a different EU member state or Horizon Europe associated country (e.g. Israel); at least one member of the consortium must come from an EU member state.

Funding

Up to EUR 4 million (or more if properly justified) to achieve the proof of concept and validate the scientific basis of breakthrough technology (TRL 1-4)
The funding rate of this grant will be 100% of the eligible costs + 25% overhead

Additionally, funded projects are eligible to:

Receive EIC booster grants with fixed amounts of up to EUR 50,000 to undertake complementary activities to explore potential pathways to commercialisation
Submit an EIC Transition proposal
Submit an EIC Accelerator proposal via the Fast-Track scheme

Submission

In 2024 there will be one submission deadline: 16 October 2024 at 17:00 Brussels time. Proposals are limited to 30 pages and must follow the provided template.

Evaluation Process

Your proposal will be first evaluated and scored remotely by 4 EIC expert evaluators, each giving a grade of up to 5 on the three evaluation criteria: Excellence, Impact, and Implementation.
The evaluators will convene at an evaluation committee that will decide on the final score, taking into consideration the comments of the evaluators. The committee will consider the portfolio of projects when making the final decision, making sure that each area of the challenge is covered in the selected projects’ portfolio
The evaluation process is expected to take 5 months afterthe deadline

The EIC Pathfinder work programme 2024

The EIC Pathfinder Open proposal template

The EIC Pathfinder Open Annotated template

The EIC Challenges proposal template

For ISERD support.

For questions and more information: yotam@iserd.org.il