- Do you have a high-impact innovative product, service or business model that could create new markets or disrupt existing ones in Europe and even worldwide?
Are you a start-up or a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) with the ambition and commitment to scale up?
Are you looking for substantial funding but the risks involved are too high for private investors alone to invest?
If your answers to the above questions are ‘yes’, then the EIC Accelerator may be the right funding scheme for you.
Why should you apply?
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. The EIC Accelerator provides a unique combination of funding from EUR 0.5 to EUR 17.5 million and Business Acceleration Services
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’). Such 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.
Applicants to EIC Accelerator can submit proposals through:
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 thematic topics in areas of emerging and strategic technologies.
Can you apply?
to be an eligible applicant to EIC Accelerator, you must apply as one of the following eligibile entities:
- a single company classified as a SME and established within a Member State or an Associated Country; or
- a single company classified as a small mid-cap (up to 499 employees) established in a Member State or an Associated Country, but your proposal can only be for rapid scale up purposes (e.g. Technology Readiness Level 9) and only for the investment component; or
- one or more natural persons (including individual entrepreneurs) or legal entities, which are either:
- from a Member State or a 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 contract or, in case the equity only is awarded, at the latest when agreeing on its investment component;
- intending to invest in an SME or small mid-cap in a Member State or an Associated Country and who may submit a proposal on behalf of the SME or small mid-cap, provided that a prior agreement exist with the company. The contract will be signed with the beneficiary 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 County at the time of submission of the full proposal.
What support will you receive if your proposol is funded?
The total indicative budget for this call is EUR 675 million. EUR 375 million of the total indicative budget will be allocated to EIC Accelerator Open and EUR 300 million to EIC Accelerator Challenges.
The indicative budget for investment components is EUR 405 million and is managed by the EIC Fund. This budget may be increased by unused amounts allocated to the EIC Fund under previous EIC Work Programmes.
How do you apply?
The application process consists of a number of steps:
Short proposals which may be submitted at any time and which will be evaluated remotely by EIC expert evaluators on a first come, first served basis;
If successful, you will be invited to prepare a full proposal, where you will have access to support through the EIC artificial intelligence-based IT platform and from EIC business coaches to develop a detailed business plan;
Full proposals will first be assessed remotely by EIC expert evaluators. If successful, you will be invited to a face to face interview with an EIC jury as the final step in the selection process;
If selected for funding, you will be invited to negotiate an initial contract for the grant component and to start the due diligence for the investment component.
Submission of short proposal
You may submit a short proposal at any time via the Funding and Tender Opportunities Portal. The short proposal consists of:
- A short form where you summarise your proposal and respond to questions on your company and team, your innovation and the potential market;
- A pitch-deck of up to ten slides in pdf format;
- A video pitch of up to three minutes where the core members of your team(up to three people) should provide the motivation for your proposal.
Submission of full proposals
If your short proposal is successful then you will be entitled to receive coaching support to prepare a full proposal which can be submitted to one of the cut-off dates within the next 12 months from the date of the response to your short proposal. You may decide which cut-off to apply to. The cut-off dates for 2024 are:
- 13 March 2024 at 17h00 Brussels local time;
- 3 October 2024 at 17h00 Brussels local time;
You must prepare your full proposal on the EIC AI-based platform, which includes methodology to help you to develop your detailed business-plan and a number of automatic checks and feedback to guide you through the process. The full proposal consists of that full business plan and full information on you company’s finances and structure. You will also need to propose a set of milestones to be used as a basis for the EIC to manage the funding for your innovation.
