EIC Accelerator
European Innovation Council (European Commission) · Innovation grant + equity
$2.7MGrant below €2.5M (TRL 6–8, ≤24 months) plus optional €1–10M equity/quasi-equity via the EIC Fund (blended finance)
Europe's flagship deep-tech funding for single startups/SMEs with breakthrough innovations: grant for development plus optional EIC Fund investment for scale-up.
Key terms
- Single startups/SMEs (incl. spin-outs) from EU Member States or Horizon Europe associated countries; individuals planning to found an SME may apply
- Grant-only companies get the grant once during Horizon Europe; equity component (if chosen) is dilutive
- Three-step process: short proposal (anytime) → full proposal → jury interview
- Only one EIC Accelerator application at a time; UK applicants grant-only
- 2026 budgets: €414M Accelerator Open, €220M Challenges
Eligibility
- Where
- EU
- Stages
- seed, series-a, growth
- Needs VC/accelerator backing
- No
- Needs partner referral code
- No
- Must be incorporated
- Yes
- AI focus required
- No
- Students / researchers
- Not eligible
- Nonprofits
- Not eligible
Also required
- Horizon Europe associated countries also eligible (e.g., Norway, Iceland, Türkiye, Ukraine, Switzerland per Commission list); UK grant-only
- Third-country applicants may relocate before Step 2
- Small mid-caps up to 499 employees eligible for investment-only
How to apply
Submit a short proposal (≤12 pages, ≤10-slide deck, ≤3-min video) on the EU Funding & Tenders portal; if GO, prepare the full proposal for the next cut-off.
- Benefit
- mixed
- Equity-free
- Yes
- Decision time
- —
- Credit validity
- —
- Deadline
- Short proposals anytime (batched 1st Tue monthly); full-proposal cut-off 2026-11-04, then 2027 dates TBA
- Status
- Open
Verified 2026-10-23 · source