The EIC Accelerator supports companies (esp. SMEs and start-ups) to scale up high impact innovations with the potential to create new markets or disrupt existing ones. ItThe EIC Accelerator focuses in particular on innovations, building on scientific discovery or technological breakthroughs (‘deep tech’).
The cut-off dates for 2022 are:
- 23/03/2022
- 15/06/2022
- 05/10/2022
Financing type: Action grant
Main objective: 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. The EIC Accelerator supports the later stages of technology development as well as scale up. The technology component of your innovation must therefore have been tested and validated in a laboratory or other relevant environment (e.g. at least Technology Readiness Level 5/6 or higher and have fully completed Technology Readiness Level 4). The EIC Accelerator looks to support companies where the EIC support will act as a catalyst to crowd in other investors necessary for the scale up of the innovation.
Programme: Horizon Europe Framework Programme (HORIZON)
Expected results and impact:
- 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. The EIC Accelerator Challenges supports companies (principally SMEs, including start-ups) to scale up high impact innovations with the potential to create new markets or disrupt existing ones in identified areas of strategic relevance. Like EIC Accelerator Open, the EIC Accelerator Challenges focus 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’). The EIC Accelerator Challenges is open to innovations in the specific fields of technology or application described by the specific challenges more (see webpage below)
The investment component is intended to finance market deployment and scale up but may also be used for other purposes (including co-financing or even fully financing innovation activities).
Who is eligible:
- a single company classified as a SME and established within a Member State or an Associated Country (see Annex 3); 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 an 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 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 Country at the time of submission of the full proposal. The Commission may set specific conditions and milestones in the contract to ensure that the interest of the Union is met.