The European Innovation Council published its 2027 funding opportunities on 5 November 2026, expanding its challenge-based innovation programme while reducing the budget for its main startup Accelerator. The new programme overview puts the overall opportunities at more than €1.8 billion. Advanced Innovation Challenges rise to €25 million from €6 million, while the Accelerator drops to €578 million from €634 million. For research teams and young companies, the programme changes some routes into funding as well as the amounts available.
Key facts
- The EIC plans a two-stage Pathfinder evaluation with interviews for shortlisted proposals.
- Transition will focus on single teams and companies instead of consortia.
- The STEP Scale Up Defence call again has a €100 million budget.
- The EIC’s next information days are on 19 and 20 November 2026.
How research and startup budgets compare
The table selects five like-for-like funding lines from the EIC’s 2026 overview and its 2027 programme overview. Figures are programme budgets in millions of euros. Individual awards have separate limits, and the figures do not record money already paid to recipients.
| Funding line | 2026 budget (€m) | 2027 budget (€m) |
|---|---|---|
| Pathfinder | 262 | 248 |
| Transition | 100 | 92 |
| Advanced Innovation Challenges | 6 | 25 |
| Accelerator | 634 | 578 |
| STEP Scale Up | 300 | 290 |
Pathfinder is for multidisciplinary research teams working on early technologies with breakthrough potential. The EIC still lists grants of up to €4 million. Transition comes later, when teams are developing existing research results into innovations. The EIC identifies results from sources including Pathfinder, the European Research Council’s Proof of Concept scheme and certain collaborative Horizon Europe projects. The overview still lists grants of up to €2.5 million, while the move to single teams and companies changes who can apply together.
Advanced Innovation Challenges address a different bottleneck. The EIC describes them as a way to back high-risk projects in fields with substantial research but limited commercial uptake. Its 2026 overview describes that approach as a pilot. The 2027 overview gives a €300,000 lump sum and a larger budget for the scheme. The Accelerator offers a broader route for startups and small and medium-sized companies. Its published terms include grants below €2.5 million and investments ranging from €500,000 to €10 million.
Where equity funding fits
STEP Scale Up targets larger financing rounds. Investments from €10 million to €30 million are intended to help eligible startups, SMEs, spinouts and small mid-caps secure private co-investment in rounds of €50 million or more. The EIC separately lists €400 million for the Scaleup Europe Fund. That fund, managed by EQT, can invest above €30 million. The two instruments therefore address different financing needs and investment sizes.
Defence funding continues a line introduced in 2026. The previous overview records that the Accelerator and STEP Scale Up opened to dual-use technologies on 17 June 2026. A separate 2027 defence call provides for direct equity investments of up to €30 million in areas such as drones, counter-drone systems and air and missile defence. The executive agency’s announcement also identifies public procurement as a route to first customers. The programme overview says EIC-backed companies will be helped to test technologies with public and private procurers.
The next general information day is on 19 November 2026, followed by a session on Accelerator Challenges on 20 November. These events explain the funding routes. Submission dates are set by the individual calls.
