Looking for an amenable beach read? Do not look into the EIC 2026 work programme!!
It’s not an easy reading for the summer but while reading “The long walk to freedom” by Nelson Mandela and “Shoe Dog: a memoir by the creator of Nike”, by Phil Knight, I found some spare time to skim through the pages of the working draft of the EIC 2026 Work Programme. Yes, I am such a miserable person.
As usual, the EIC follows its continuistic approach but implements some worth mentioning novelties in this new work programme.
In particular, these changes are especially relevant for future applicants:
EIC Accelerator
- There will be 6 calls closing in January, March, May, July, September and November. However, only three interview rounds are expected.
- The draft programme claims that the second step application will be simplified (to be seen if this is really true).
- The evaluation of the full proposal includes important changes as it will implement for the first a technical due diligence carried out by an external expert and will be based on an evaluation committee composed by three experts together with EIC staff. It is worth noting that the involvement of EIC staff in the evaluation committee is marked in yellow in the draft, probably because this is a sensitive decision that involves (too much?) control by the EIC. My recommendation would be removing the EIC staff from the evaluation committee as this could endanger the evaluation objectivity.
EIC Advanced Research Challenges
The EIC will introduce for the first time in 2026 this ARPA-like programme aiming to foster research and innovation as well as facilitate user update in specific challenges following a two-stage scheme. The first stage will provide up to €300,000 lump sum for up to nine months to prepare and benchmark breakthrough solutions and explore their viability; the second stage will provide up to €2.5 million lump sum for up to 2.5 years to prototype solutions and test them in real world environments and with the involvement of users.
EIC Pathfinder
In 2026, an increase in the indicative budget size of EIC Pathfinder projects to €4.5 million to enable progress to the proof of concept stage will be implemented, along with further introduction of lump-sum together with some minor improvements to the evaluation process.
EIC Pathfinder will again have 2 calls, an open one in May and one call for challenges in October.
EIC STEP
The EIC STEP programme will have 4 deadlines, one per quarter and closing in February, May, September and November.
Business Acceleration Services
Reinforced Business Acceleration Services for internationalisation and engaging with corporates to prototype and user test selected solutions
The released document is still in draft mode and therefore it still lacks details on the budget, deadlines and technology challenges. Apart from these details, other changes may also be implemented before the final version is released. From my point of view, no dramatic changes should be expected though.
And now… let’s continue with a REAL summer reading!
#eic #horizoneurope #grants #eufunding
Article written by David Arias and first published on LinkedIn.
