EIC Accelerator

The European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator is an EU initiative that supports individual companies in developing and scaling breakthrough innovations. It offers financial support in the form of grants and/or equity investments, as well as coaching and networking opportunities.

The EIC Accelerator targets high-risk, high-impact innovations with the potential to create new markets or fundamentally change existing ones.

Funding from the EIC Accelerator can amount to:

• €2.5 million (70%) – duration: 12–24 months;
• Equity: €500,000 to €10 million – aimed at a shareholding between 10% and 25%.

Be sure to explore the options for European funding through Interreg, Eurostars and Horizon Europe as well. Interreg promotes regional cooperation, Eurostars encourages R&D at SMEs, and Horizon Europe funds ground-breaking innovation. Alongside the EIC Accelerator, these programmes offer networks, funding and knowledge sharing to accelerate your projects and enter new markets. Take the step towards European cooperation and strengthen your position at the forefront of innovation.

The EIC Accelerator focuses on high-risk, high-impact innovations with the potential to create new markets or radically transform existing ones.

Characteristics of high-risk, high-impact innovations are:

• Disruptive potential: these innovations can disrupt existing markets or create new ones. They can render existing business models obsolete and lead to a significant restructuring of industries;
• Uncertainty: there is often considerable uncertainty about the technical feasibility, market acceptance and regulatory aspects of these innovations, which makes success hard to predict;
• High investment: they usually require substantial investment in research and development (R&D), infrastructure, and sometimes in creating market awareness and acceptance;
• Long development time: it can take years or even decades before these innovations are commercially viable, which raises the risk because of the long wait for a return on investment;
• Regulatory challenges: high-risk, high-impact innovations may require new regulation or changes to existing rules, which adds an uncertain factor to the innovation process;
• Societal and ethical considerations: these innovations can have far-reaching ethical, societal and environmental implications, leading to public debate and the need for socially responsible innovation.

Examples of high-risk, high-impact innovations are:

• Artificial intelligence (AI): AI has the potential to transform many industries, but also brings risks such as ethical questions, job losses and security issues;
• Genetic modification and CRISPR technology: these can lead to breakthroughs in medicine and agriculture, but also raise questions about ethics and biosafety;
• Quantum computing: this could revolutionise how we process data, but it is technically very demanding and may render existing encryption methods obsolete;

Space technologies: the commercialisation of spaceflight offers enormous opportunities, but requires large investments and carries technical and operational risks.

To qualify for EIC funding, you have to meet a number of conditions:

• You must be a start-up, SME or mid-cap established in an EU member state or an associated country;
• Your project must aim to develop an innovative product, service or process with high market potential;
• You must be able to present a clear plan for developing and commercialising your innovation;
• You must be willing to work with the EIC and its network of partners.

The EIC Accelerator can be applied for by individual SMEs for innovative products or services at an advanced stage of development. It is not intended for partnerships; other organisations such as knowledge institutions and other companies can only take part through subcontracting. A rejected proposal may in principle be resubmitted once.

Applications for the first stage of the EIC Accelerator can be submitted all year round. The second stage (full application) has two deadlines, normally in spring and autumn.

The EIC application procedure consists of 3 steps:

• Short applications have no deadline and can be submitted all year round. A short application is assessed within roughly 4 weeks, and on a positive recommendation a full proposal may be submitted within 12 months;
• Full applications have several deadlines a year, and you can choose to submit to a specific ‘Challenge’ (a set theme, varying per year) or to the ‘Open’ call, where all innovations are welcome.
• After submission an assessment follows within roughly 5 weeks, and on a positive recommendation you are invited to present and be interviewed by the evaluation panel in Brussels.
• The presentation and interview before a panel of 4–6 people follows roughly 9 weeks after the full proposal is submitted.
• The panel ultimately decides on the award based on the interview and on the short and full applications.

Want to know whether you qualify for this programme? Get in touch. For every theme we have a team of specialists available whom we can deploy to suit your project.

Thanks to our 25 years of experience, we can optimise your funding process, take it almost entirely off your hands and improve your chances of a positive outcome.