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European Innovation Council

EIC Transition

What for
Technology validation and spin-out
Validate technologies and develop business plans for specific applications (TRL 3-6).
Who can apply
SMEs and organisations
Single applicants (SMEs, spin-offs, start-ups, research organisations, universities) or small consortia (minimum 2, maximum 5 eligible entities).
What you get
Non-dilutive support (grants), extensive tailor-made support
Up to EUR 2.5 million of grants and additional booster grants for ongoing projects. Access to a wide range of tailor-made Business Acceleration Services (BAS)

What is the EIC Transition ?

The EIC Transition is a funding programme under Horizon Europe targeting innovation activities that goes beyond the experimental proof of principle in laboratory. It supports both the maturation and validation of novel technologies from the lab to the relevant application environments.

The EIC Transition offers support to SMEs, start-ups and organisations that:

  • have identified EU-funded project result(s) with promising commercial potential that could be the basis for innovation and promising new businesses
  • envision novel promising technology that is ready for the next steps towards its maturation and validation, to be further developed and validated for some specific, high potential, commercial applications
  • have conducted a preliminary market research to identify potential markets for their innovation and explored potential competitors
  • envisage building a motivated and entrepreneurial team with a mix of skills, including researchers, business people, marketers etc. to develop and drive the idea towards commercial success
  • Grant funding 
    • Grants of up to EUR 2.5 million to validate and demonstrate technology in application-relevant environment (starting at TRL 3/ 4 aiming to achieve TRL 5/ 6) and develop business and market readiness.
    • Booster grants of a fixed amount not exceeding EUR 50 000 to undertake complementary activities to explore potential pathways to commercialisation or for portfolio activities
  • Extensive support

    Early stage business support services 

    Access to a range of tailor-made Business Acceleration Services (BAS) for beneficiaries:

    • Access to global partners 
    • Access to coaches, mentors, expertise and training
    • Access to innovation ecosystem and peers
  • EIC Transition Open

    The EIC Transition Open has no predefined thematic priorities and is open to proposals in any field of science, technology or application. 

    The overall budget for the EIC Transition Open in 2025 is EUR 98 million.

  • Streamlined application process

    EIC Transition selection process comprises 3 steps. Each step passed successfully give access to the next step:

    • Writing your proposal
    • Evaluation by an EIC Jury
    • Face to face interview with the EIC Jury
EIC Work Programe 2025
  • General publications
  • 29 October 2024
EIC work programme 2025
English
(1.42 MB - PDF)
Download

 

Who can apply?

  • Single legal entities established in a Member State or an Associated Country (‘mono-beneficiary’) if you are a start-up, SME or research performing organisation (university, research or technology organisation, including teams, individual Principal Investigators and inventors in such institutions who intend to form a spin-off company). Larger companies (i.e. which do not qualify as SMEs) are not eligible to apply as a single legal entity
  • Small consortia of two independent legal entities from two different Member States or Associated Countries
  • Consortia of minimum three and maximum five independent legal entities (‘multi-beneficiary’) following standard rules i.e. must include at least one legal entity established in a Member State and at least two other independent legal entities, each established in different Member States or Associated Countries

Your proposal must build on results already achieved within an eligible project that are, at least, at experimental proof of concept (TRL 3) or, ideally, technology validated in the lab level (TRL 4). Proposals building on project results at TRLs other than TRL3 or TRL4 are not eligible.

EIC Transition is restricted to proposals based on results generated by the following eligible projects:

  • EIC Pathfinder projects (including projects funded under the Horizon 2020 EIC pilot Pathfinder, FET-Open, FET-Proactive, CSA and CSA Lump sum FET Innovation Launchpad, and FET Flagships calls.)
  • European Research Council Proof of Concept projects funded Horizon 2020 or Horizon Europe.
  • Research and Innovation Actions funded under Horizon 2020 Societal challenges and Leadership in Industrial Technologies and under Horizon Europe pillar II, with an eligible TRL 
  • European Defence Fund (EDF), including the Preparatory Action on Defence Research, research projects, but only for proposals which are focused on civil applications (including dual use).

How to apply for the EIC Transition?

The application process consists of 3 steps:

  1. Step 1
    Write your proposal

    Submit your proposal via the Funding and Tender Opportunities Portal before the given deadline.

    Sections 1 to 3 and the cover page (that includes the information about the related project on which the current EIC Transition proposal is built on) of part B of your proposal must consist of a maximum of 22 format A4 pages.

  2. Step 2
    Evaluation by an EIC Jury

    Your proposal will be evaluated first by EIC expert evaluators. You will be informed about the result of this evaluation, including feedback on your proposal, indicatively within 9 weeks after the deadline. If your proposal successfully passes this first evaluation phase (see details below), you will be invited for an interview, which will be organised approximately between 12-14 weeks after the deadline.

  3. Step 3
    Interview

    At the interview, you will be assessed by a panel of maximum 6 EIC Jury Members. You will be informed about the result of the interview indicatively within 4 weeks from the start of the interviews.

Timeline for submissions and evaluation in 2024:

  1. 17/09 at 17:00 CET
    Deadline for submissions
  2. tbc
    Evaluation
  3. tbc
    Interviews

Applications that meet all the criteria at the remote evaluation stage and assessed positively by the EIC jury but are not recommended for funding will be awarded a Seal of Excellence to help them secure funding from other sources. 

Apply for the EIC Transition

Do you need help ?

Transition plan

Each Transition project is encouraged and offered support to come up with a Transition plan to support them in their transition journey to the market. The Transition plan will be discussed during the progress meeting(s). We are offering as a starting point, a guide and a template, to help EIC Transition projects but these documents are available for anybody who is interested in transitioning research results and deeptech to the market. 

Do you have any feedback? Do not hesitate to leave it EISMEA-EIC-TRANSITION-CALLSatec [dot] europa [dot] eu (here).

Direct submissions

  • Fast Track scheme

    The Fast Track scheme allows specific treatment of proposals that result from existing Horizon Europe or Horizon 2020 projects. Such projects can submit projects directly to the full application stage of the EIC Accelerator subject to a review of the ongoing project.

  • Plug-In scheme

    The Plug-In scheme is equivalent to the Fast Track, except that it applies to proposals that result from existing national or regional programmes. So far, 50 programmes have been certified  for the scheme.

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