EIC Accelerator
Grants and investment for companies taking breakthrough technologies from validated prototypes towards commercial deployment and growth, including clean energy and climate adaptation.
Deze mogelijkheid is momenteel in het Engels beschikbaar.
EIC Accelerator helps companies develop and scale innovations that could create or reshape markets, where the risk and time needed make private finance alone insufficient. Your technology must already have completed validation in a relevant environment, known as Technology Readiness Level 5. Support then helps demonstrate, test and prepare it for market, and finance commercial deployment and growth.
Accelerator Open accepts any technology field. The 2026 Challenges include advanced materials for renewable energy and storage, fusion technologies, biotechnology for agricultural soils, critical raw materials, and climate adaptation. Choose the route matching your project and its specific conditions; these are routes within the same programme.
For both grant-only and blended-finance proposals, the grant covers up to 70% of eligible costs for the grant-funded work packages. Your company must finance the remaining 30% from its own resources.
You can request one of three forms of support:
- Grant only: a lump sum based on eligible innovation costs, up to €2,499,999. Innovation activities normally finish within 24 months, with longer periods allowed when justified. Grant-only support is available once per beneficiary during Horizon Europe 2021–2027, and you must demonstrate the resources to commercialise and scale the innovation.
- Blended finance: a grant plus investment. Only in this route may the grant exceed the normal €2,499,999 amount ceiling in exceptional, well-justified cases; the 70% funding ceiling still applies. Its innovation activities normally take up to 24 months, with longer periods allowed when justified. The grant and investment are linked: rejection of the investment or refusal of the Fund’s offer can put the grant at risk.
- Investment only: normally €1–10 million requested from the EIC Fund for deployment and growth. The same investment range applies within blended finance. Direct equity means the Fund becomes a part-owner; a convertible loan is debt that can turn into company shares under the agreed terms. Investment terms are negotiated. Exceptionally, the final investment may be up to €2 million above the request to reflect company developments and attract a larger round, subject to available Fund resources and a case-by-case decision.
The Fund normally targets minority ownership. To protect EU or associated-country interests identified in the Commission’s award decision, it may exceptionally acquire enough ownership to block company decisions, through a minority or majority stake. Coaching and business-development support accompany successful applications.
Eligibility
Apply as a single small or medium-sized enterprise (SME), including a startup. An SME has fewer than 250 employees and either turnover no higher than €50 million or a balance-sheet total no higher than €43 million; companies in a group may have to count group staff and finances. Small mid-caps with up to 499 employees can normally request investment only, or blended finance exceptionally for rapid scale-up.
The company must be established in an EU country or an eligible Horizon Europe associated country. The relevant fully associated non-EU countries are Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Egypt, the Faroe Islands, Georgia, Iceland, Israel, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland, Tunisia, Türkiye, Ukraine and the United Kingdom. Canada, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea are associated only to a different part of Horizon Europe and are not included in this route.
UK companies can seek grants. Under transitional arrangements for 2026 and later EU budgets, they can also apply for EIC Fund investment, but any investment decision depends on the UK association amendment covering the Fund being applicable at that time.
Individuals or legal entities from the EU or an associated country may apply while forming a company, provided it exists by signing the grant agreement, or the investment agreement for investment-only support. Applicants from a non-associated country intending to establish or relocate an SME must prove effective establishment in an eligible country when submitting the full proposal. Investors may apply for a company with its prior agreement; funding agreements are with the company, subject to the Fund’s specific holding-company rules.
For Fund investment, most company value, including intellectual property, must remain in the EU or eligible associated countries. Israeli companies must be established within Israel’s pre-1967 borders and not operate in the Golan Heights, Gaza or the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. The guidelines allow activities there benefiting protected persons under international humanitarian law or promoting the Middle East peace process in line with EU policy.
Civilian innovations and innovations with a credible business case in both civilian and defence markets can apply. Purely defence technologies use the separate STEP Scale Up Defence call.
For grant-only proposals within the critical raw materials Challenge’s scope, including proposals submitted to Open, direct or indirect control from a non-associated country is restricted. The permitted categories include OECD countries, African Union members, MERCOSUR, CARIFORUM, the Andean Community, and countries with EU strategic raw-materials partnerships or relevant trade agreements containing raw-materials cooperation provisions. EU and associated-country control is permitted. Read the specific conditions on page 101 and provide the ownership-control declaration where required.
The Fund’s excluded-activities list, sections 1.66–1.67, also applies to investment. Climate-related exclusions include destruction of critical habitats, new palm-oil plantations and logging in tropical natural forest. Cross-border waste trade must comply with the Basel Convention and national and EU rules; using waste as fuel for district heating is not itself excluded.
Do not submit concurrent Accelerator, STEP Scale Up or STEP Defence proposals before receiving evaluation feedback; only the latest would be evaluated. Three unsuccessful submissions of the same or improved proposal by the same legal entity, counted from 1 January 2024 at any stage and across support types, prevent further Accelerator applications under Horizon Europe.
How to apply
- Status
- sluit 4 nov 2026
- Sluit
- Voorwaarden voor deze aanvraagronde
- Remaining 2026 full-proposal batch: 4 November at 17:00 Brussels time. A qualifying short-proposal GO or Fast Track/Plug-in invitation is required.
Start in the EU Funding & Tenders Portal with a short proposal of up to 12 pages, a pitch deck of up to 10 slides and a video of up to 3 minutes featuring up to three core team members. Submissions are grouped for evaluation on the first Tuesday of each month at 17:00 Brussels time. A successful short proposal gives access to the full application; eligible Fast Track or Plug-in projects can enter through their funding body’s approved route.
The full proposal is up to 20 pages, with a pitch deck, video, financial and ownership information, intellectual-property strategy and the required annexes. Grant-only and blended applications need an implementation plan and lump-sum budget. Supply a freedom-to-operate analysis, which checks whether you can use the technology without infringing others’ rights; if unavailable, submit a note of up to 2 pages, or a statement if it is irrelevant. Include the required letters of intent and, for grant-only critical-raw-materials proposals, the ownership-control declaration.
Full proposals undergo technology assessment, an evaluation panel and, if selected, a jury interview. Grant funding requires a signed grant agreement. Investment then undergoes detailed legal, financial and compliance checks before the Fund decides whether to invest and on what terms; selection does not guarantee that investment. If the company is not yet ready, the Fund can link investment to later milestones.