SME Market Expansion for urban mobility
A €60,000 grant for SMEs to test new or substantially improved urban-mobility solutions with a committed end-client. Mandatory commercial fees apply; the 2026 round is closed.
Ta możliwość jest obecnie dostępna po angielsku.
EIT Urban Mobility’s SME Market Expansion programme helps a single SME bring a new product or service to an existing client, or substantially improve an existing offer to enter a new sector or geographical market. It funds real-world testing with a public or private end-client and aims to help proven innovations reach the European market.
The five topics are urban logistics, public transport, mobility data management, transport electrification and alternative fuels, and health and mobility. Climate-relevant projects include lower-emission deliveries, shifts from private cars to public transport or active travel, zero-emission vehicles and charging, and data supporting low-emission mobility. The broader call also covers safety, accessibility and health; those themes do not automatically establish a climate benefit.
The documented 2026 call offers a fixed €60,000 lump-sum grant per selected project. Its application instructions enter €60,000 and 100% EIT funding for one work package. The award depends on delivery and approved results, rather than being an unconditional payment. Budget additional resources for costs outside the award and the separate commercial fees.
Every selected SME must sign a separate sales-pathway commercial agreement: pay €8,000 during the project for sales support and community access, using its own funds rather than the project budget. A further 5% success fee applies only to qualified leads supplied by EIT Urban Mobility when an agreement with the new paying client is signed. The FAQ specifies a 12-month service contract and a success-fee period covering those 12 months plus the following 24 months. This is not a fee on every customer the SME finds itself. Optional service upgrades carry additional prices.
A realistic, task-based cost estimate must meet the underlying cost-eligibility rules. Eligible categories include personnel, limited competitively selected subcontracting, travel, services and equipment depreciation attributable to the project, rather than the full purchase price. Overheads use a 25% flat rate excluding subcontracting, onward financial support and internally invoiced goods/services. Free in-kind contributions, recoverable VAT, debt charges and costs already claimed under another EU grant are ineligible. Onward grants to third parties are allowed only when explicitly authorised by a call; this manual provides no such route. Declare other funding and project income and avoid duplicate EU financing.
Eligibility
Apply as one SME, not a consortium. The company must have been legally registered before the deadline in an EU Member State or a Horizon Europe associated country eligible for this EIT activity. The EU SME definition generally requires fewer than 250 staff and annual turnover no more than €50 million or a balance sheet total no more than €43 million; relevant partner or linked-company figures must also be counted. The call requires at least three full-time-equivalent staff in the EU or associated countries. The FAQ explains that their combined availability must amount to three full-time people working on the project; part-time staff and a meaningfully contributing freelancer can count.
The United Kingdom and Switzerland are included. The manual’s Swiss transitional condition required association before an award; the current Commission list confirms association covering 2025 awards onwards. EIT sits in Horizon Europe Pillar III; association limited to Pillar II does not establish access to EIT support. SMEs funded through the 2025 SME Market Expansion call are excluded from this 2026 round; the FAQ confirms that RAPTOR 2025 and SME Market Expansion 2024 recipients are not excluded on that ground. Multiple proposals are permitted, but only one award per SME.
Choose one primary topic and identify which of the two project options you propose. A previously EIT-funded solution needs substantial new innovation or added value, not repeat funding for the same development. Start from technology readiness level 7 or above: a system prototype demonstrated in an operational environment. Complete testing with the end-client within the maximum seven-month April–October 2026 project period. Demonstrate a track record of product development, innovation and sales that increased revenue, or be a spin-off with committed mentoring from an experienced backer; a university backer needs a multiyear commitment from its research-commercialisation function.
Include one independent end-client. Neither the SME nor the end-client may own shares in the other. The end-client may be in the same country, elsewhere in Europe or outside the EU. Its signed English letter on headed paper must explain the need, plans to test and demonstrate the solution, and interest in continued cooperation. It need not promise to buy: the required sales can be made to other clients.
Plan at least one marketed innovation with documented sales of €10,000 or more, and at least one designed/tested innovation with the required supporting evidence. The latter can demonstrate IP protection, progress toward commercialisation or testing through a testbed under the detailed KPI definition. An additional startup-created indicator can strengthen a proposal that plans to expand into a new geographical region and open an entity abroad: the new entity must be linked to the project and demonstrate either €10,000 in sales or €200,000 in private equity investment. It does not remove the two mandatory proposal targets.
Have a strategy for intellectual property—the rights protecting inventions, designs, software and other creative work—and show that commercialisation will not infringe others’ rights. Selected applicants must sign a declaration identifying the intellectual-property rights brought into the project (background) and those arising from its work (foreground). Address gender and diversity in the solution and team, and specify measurable impacts, a testing plan, risks, sales strategy and replication potential.
Insolvency, final tax/social-security breaches, serious misconduct, fraud, EU exclusion, serious failures on earlier grants, misrepresentation or interference with the competition can disqualify an applicant. EU sanctions apply. Hungarian public-interest trusts established under Act IX of 2021 and entities they maintain cannot receive the covered funding or subcontracts.
Israeli companies must be registered at a physical address within Israel’s pre-1967 borders. Their grant-funded activities must not take place, even partly, in the Golan Heights, Gaza Strip or West Bank, including East Jerusalem, except activities benefiting protected persons under international humanitarian law and/or promoting the Middle East peace process in line with EU policy. Unrelated activity there does not by itself exclude a company. These are territorial restrictions, not a blanket exclusion of Israeli SMEs.
How to apply
- Status
- zamknięte
- Otwiera się
- Zamyka się
- Warunki naboru
- Closed round for April–October2026 projects; no later intake implied.
The 2026 round opened on 1 October 2025 and closed on 1 December 2025 at 17:00 CET. Use the official call page for subsequent published opportunities; the documented round is not accepting new applications.
For that round, obtain an EU Participant Identification Code (PIC), register through EIT Urban Mobility’s Partner Information Form and submit in NetSuite. Allow up to two working days for registration. Submit the completed English application and signed end-client letter; late or incomplete applications can be rejected. The application guidance requires one work package with a realistic explanation of the tasks, resources and lump-sum budget.
Selection combines eligibility checks, independent quality evaluation and an online panel hearing. Normally the top 25 proposals scoring at least 50/70 progress, with no more than two from one SME; the combined score must reach at least 70/100 for funding consideration. Preselection can carry conditions and does not guarantee a contract. PIC validation and a possible financial-capacity check precede contracting; inadequate capacity can prevent an award or change advance arrangements.
Payment requires the funding contract and commercial agreement. The balance depends on approved performance. Submit branding/communications evidence and the end-client’s signed confirmation of completed objectives and demonstration, alongside the mandatory KPI evidence. The call allocates potential grant reductions of up to 30% to the commercial agreement, 10% to branding, 20% to the client confirmation, 35% to marketed/startup-created results and 5% to designed/tested results. Missing or incomplete items can delay or reduce payment, and amounts already paid may have to be returned. Request approval for justified project changes before the final report; do not assume that missed outputs will be waived.
Successful completion may open a separate fast-track opportunity for scaling, subject to its own rules; it is not an automatic additional award.