What is the EIC programme?

The EIC (European Innovation Council), is a part of the Horizon Europe programme that supports the development and scale-up of market-creating and disruptive high-risk deep technologies, on any theme and in any field. The programme is divided into three sub-programmes, according to technology maturity and readiness level:

1. EIC Pathfinder: Supports early-stage research and innovation to achieve proof of concept (POC). Open for submission by both academia and industry.
2. EIC Transition: Supports projects that have already reached POC and now wish to further develop the technology and demonstrate it in a relevant environment towards commercialization. Open for submission by both academia and industry only for proposals built on results already achieved in a funded EU project.
3. EIC Accelerator: Supports start-ups and SMEs that have already validated their technology in the lab and are now ready to demonstrate it in a real environment (TRL5-6). It provides substantial funding, including grant and equity investment, to bring the technology to market deployment and scale-up.