SME Grant Funding for Your Innovative R&D Activities in 2024

1 December 2023

The upcoming deadlines in spring 2024 are an opportune moment for SMEs to gear up for securing grant funding. This is the ideal time to lay the groundwork for your EIC Pathfinder Open, Eurostars, and EIC Accelerator Open applications.

EIC Pathfinder Open

For who: Collaboration takes centre stage in the EIC Pathfinder. It calls for a multi-disciplinary consortium of minimum three partners from academia and industry from at least three EU member states. The legal entities may be universities, research organizations, SMEs, start-ups, industrial partners, or natural persons.
Funding type: Grant
Total program budget: €136M
Max project budget and funding rate: The EIC considers proposals with a requested EU contribution of up to €3M. Nonetheless, this does not preclude you from requesting larger amounts, if properly justified to achieve the proof-of-principle and validate scientific basis of breakthrough technology.
Upcoming deadlines: March 7, 2024
Project duration: Most projects funded have a duration between 3 and 4 years.

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Eurostars

For who: Eurostars is a collaborative grant scheme. The project consortium must be led by an innovative SME from a Eurostars country and must be composed of at least two entities that are independent from each other and from at least two participating countries with a minimum of one organisation from an EU or Horizon Europe Associated Country
Funding type: Grant
Total program budget: €1.75B public/private investment since 2014. The program budget is decentralized.
Max project budget and funding rate: The amount of funding an organisation is managed by national funding bodies. Funding rules vary from country to country. The maximum funding amount for the Dutch project partner(s) is 500,000 euros per project, with the funding rate of 50%.
Upcoming deadlines: 14 March 2024
Project duration: The project duration is up to 36 months

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EIC Accelerator Open

For who: The EIC Accelerator supports SMEs to scale up high impact innovations with the potential to create new markets or disrupt existing ones.
Funding type: Grant, equity or blended finance
Total program budget: €613M for Open, €524M for Challenges (2023)
Max project budget and funding rate: You can apply for a grant between EUR 0.5 million and EUR 2.5 million for a project duration between 1-3 years. The funding rate is 70% of the eligible costs for innovation developments. There is also a blended financing option through a € 0.5 – 15 million investment component for scaling up and market deployment activities. It is possible to outsource costs.
Upcoming deadlines: February/March 2023.
Eligibility: Single SMEs in the EU

>>More about EIC Accelerator Open

How can we help?

ttopstart specializes in supporting European startups to propel their innovative R&D to market readiness. We uniquely positioned to leverage our expertise and extensive experience to assist you in navigating the complex process of applying for the EIC Pathfinder Open, Eurostars and EIC Accelerator Open. With our guidance, you can harness the full potential of this funding opportunity to significantly increase your chances of securing the necessary financial resources to advance your technology, gain a competitive edge, and penetrate the market. Contact us, by filling out the form below, to discover the possibilities these programs offer for you.