#EUeic Work Programme 2025 announced!
The European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA) (EIC) is ramping up support for cutting-edge innovation across Europe with a €1.4 billion budget earmarked for 2025 to scale strategic technologies and support deep tech research & innovation.
Here are our key takeaways:
🚀 Increased funding? The €200 million overall increase from 2024 brings total funding to €1.4 billion. However, this figure includes the new EIC STEP scale-up scheme, which will allocate €300 million to help later-stage companies with ticket sizes of €10–30 million. In practice, the regular programme budget will decrease by €100 million, so expect increased competition and lower success rates throughout 2025!
🔍 New EIC Challenges: €120 million will support emerging tech, including autonomous robots, climate-resilient crops, waste recycling, and medical diagnostics in the Pathfinder instrument, while €250 million is set aside for generative AI, new space tech, agritech, and future mobility solutions in the Accelerator instrument. For the first time, challenge selection follows a framework proposed by the EIC board, ensuring a focus on deep tech and strategic European priorities, aligning funding impact with the development stage of the ecosystem.
🌍 Stronger support for widening countries: The new EIC Pre-Accelerator will offer support services and grant funding to early-stage companies in widening countries to develop their technology, business, and investor readiness. This is excellent news for emerging tech startups in these regions, which may have hesitated to engage with the Accelerator program!
🏅 Enhanced support: Seals of Excellence will be awarded under the Accelerator and Transition calls, along with a new Sovereignty Seal under STEP, helping startups access additional regional or national funding. Time will tell if Member States make full use of the Seal of Excellence and the possibility to transfer budgets into additional EIC support to their countries…
For innovators and startups aiming to scale in 2025, the EIC is hosting information days on November 5 (general session: https://bit.ly/EICgeneral) and November 6 (focused on Accelerator Challenges: https://lnkd.in/dkpy3U39).
Are you a #deeptech startup or scale-up interested in funding opportunities in Europe?
Contact Zaz Ventures today!
#Innovation #HorizonEurope #EIC Xavier Aubry Fiona Wong(王 立 俊)Eduardo Alvarez Saralegui ֍ Vladimir Bataev Clement Matyuhov Stephan Decher Florian Schlehuber