The European Innovation Council (EIC) is a flagship initiative of the European Commission striving to turn disruptive European science into groundbreaking commercial propositions and accelerate the scale- up of game-changing innovations. With a budget of over EUR 10 billion under the Horizon Europe Programme (2021 – 2027), it seeks to position Europe as a global leader in the current wave of deep tech innovation: innovation that is rooted in cutting edge science, technology and engineering.

The EIC provides integrated support at all stages of technological maturity for innovators across Europe and looks to ensure that we turn excellent European deep tech research into innovations and also industrialise and deploy radical deep tech innovations at scale. Support from idea generation by researchers through to their commercialisation and market entry by start-ups and SMEs is delivered through following schemes: EIC Pathfinder (€262 million), EIC Transition (€98 million), EIC Pre-Accelerator (Lump sum from €300K to €500K), EIC Accelerator (€634 million). The EIC Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP) Scale Up (€300 million).