EIC Pre-accelerator - Widening
European Commission · Horizon Europe Framework Programme (HORIZON)
Posted 5 May 2027 · About 14 months left
Summary
Expected Outcome:
This call will increase the innovation potential of deep-tech startups in the Widening countries and enable them to better attract private investments and scale up. It will further strengthen the innovation dimension of the widening component and increase the overall competitiveness of these countries.
The specific outcome expected of this action is increased business, investor, and technology readiness of high potential deep-tech startups in Widening countries to a level where they will:
be successful in applying and attracting the EIC Accelerator funding and/or;
manage to secure other private investment and/or;
attract successfully national or regional funding as alternative funding sources (e.g. through Seal of Excellence programmes).
Scope:
This action focuses on early-stage deep-tech startups which 1) have high-impact innovation technology, product, service, or business model that could create new markets or disrupt existing ones, and 2) have the ambition and commitments to scale up.
The successful applicants need to work on deep tech innovation. Such companies often struggle to attract financing because the technology and investment risks are too high.
In…
Excerpt from the donor's page. The full text, annexes and forms are on the original call.
Eligibility and conditions
Show the eligibility text from the source
">General conditions
1. Admissibility Conditions: Proposal page limit and layout
described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes.
Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System.
Part B of your proposal, corresponding to the evaluation criteria Excellence, Impact, and Quality and Efficiency of the Implementation, must consist of a maximum of 22 A4 pages. Excess pages will be automatically made invisible, and will not be taken into consideration by the evaluators.
2. Eligible Countries
described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes.
A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide.
In WIDERA calls, the countries eligible for hosting coordinators of widening actions are Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and all Associated Countries with equivalent characteristics in terms of R&I performance (Albania, Armenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Faroe Islands, Georgia, Kosovo7 , Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Tunisia, Türkiye, Ukraine, and once associated Morocco and Egypt), as well as the Outermost Regions (defined in Art. 349 TFEU). Hereinafter, these countries, including the Outermost Regions, will be named 'Widening countries'.
3. Other Eligible Conditions
Applications may only be submitted by one legal entity (mono-beneficiary).
The following additional eligibility criteria apply:
Beneficiaries must be a small and medium enterprise (SME) established in a Horizon Europe Widening country.
described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes.
4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion
described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes.
5a. Evaluation and award: Award criteria, scoring and thresholds
Seals of Excellence will be awarded to applications exceeding all of the evaluation thresholds set out in this work programme but which cannot be funded due to lack of budget available to the call.
are described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes.
5b. Evaluation and award: Submission and evaluation processes
The following additions to the general award criteria apply:
The proposals will be evaluated by 3 independent evaluators following the award criteria for EIC Transition Open at first evaluation step, EIC Work Programme 2027. These are:
Excellence (Threshold: 4/5)
Technological breakthrough: Does the technology have a high degree of novelty and higher performance compared to other technologies available or in development? Does the technology indicate high commercial potential?
Objectives: How credible and feasible are the objectives for the planned technology development and maturation? How credible and feasible are the objectives and KPIs for the planned business development process?
Methodology: Is the timing right for this technology/innovation (i.g. feasibility, minimum technological readiness level (TRL), unique selling points)?
Impact (Threshold: 4/5)
Credibility of the impacts: To what extent the expected commercial impact(s) described in the proposal are credible and substantial within the project and beyond (e.g. one or several sectors, setting new standards, etc.)?
Economic and/or societal benefits: To what extent does the proposed innovation have scale up potential including high capacity to gain or create new European or global markets? To what extent is the proposed innovation expected to generate positive impacts for the European Union, Member States or Associated Countries (e.g. strategic autonomy, employment etc.)? To what extent does the proposal contribute (beyond the establishment of the beneficiary in a widening country) to enhancing the innovation…