The European Innovation Council (EIC), part of the research and innovation programme Horizon Europe, will support European deep tech research and high-potential start-ups with €1.4 billion of funding next year. On October 29, the Commission adopted the EIC Work Programme 2025, which sees an increase of nearly €200 million in comparison with 2024. 

Next to the bigger budget, the Commission presented more improvements. The main highlights include the following:

• A new Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP) scale-up scheme, with a budget of €300 million in 2025 to provide larger investments in companies aiming to bring strategic technologies to the EU market and avoid strategic dependencies. Through the fund, STEP will provide investment amounts ranging from €10 to €30 million per company to attract private co-investment, addressing Europe’s gap in deep-tech scale-up funding. Priority areas include digital, clean and resource-efficient, and biotechnologies.
• An updated set of ‘EIC Challenges': €120 million will be allocated to companies working on innovative solutions in fields like autonomous robotics, climate-resilient crops, waste-to-input material conversion, and medical diagnostics. Additionally, €250 million will support early-stage companies focusing on generative AI, new space, agri-tech, and future mobility.
• Increasing access to Business Acceleration Services for emerging companies from ‘widening countries’, referring to countries with lower levels of research and innovation performance. 
• Under the Transition and Accelerator calls, as well as through the new STEP Scale-up scheme and Accelerator Challenge calls, Seals of Excellence will be awarded. These Seals aim to open pathways to additional funding sources, such as Cohesion Policy Funds, and to EIC Business Acceleration Services.

The EIC Work Programme 2025 is organised around three primary funding schemes:

• EIC Pathfinder: Allocating €262 million to support multi-disciplinary research teams engaged in early-stage technology R&D with the potential to lead to technology breakthroughs. Grants of up to €4 million will be available.
• EIC Transition: With a budget of €98 million, this scheme aims to transform research results into viable innovation opportunities. It offers grants of up to €2.5 million.
• EIC Accelerator: Targeted at start-ups and SMEs, this €634 million scheme supports the development, commercialization, and scaling of innovations with the potential to create new markets or disrupt existing ones. Funding includes grants below €2.5 million and investments from €500,000 to €10 million.

In addition to financial support, the EIC offers access to a comprehensive array of business acceleration services, providing expertise and connections with corporates, investors, and ecosystem stakeholders.

The European Innovation Council was launched in March 2021 under the Horizon Europe programme, building on a pilot phase from 2018-2020. It has a budget of over €10 billion between 2021-2027. So far, under Horizon Europe, the EIC has supported more than 630 companies and more than 450 research projects.

B2EU closely follows any developments on the EIC and other EU funding instruments to guide our clients and help secure funding. Keep an eye on our website and LinkedIn page.