1. EIC Accelerator Programme
The EIC Accelerator is one of a number of funding opportunities provided by the European Innovation Council (EIC) to support breakthrough technology and scale-up disruptive innovation across Europe.
- Purpose of the funding
EIC Accelerator supports companies (principally start-ups and SMEs) to scale up high impact innovations with the potential to create new markets or disrupt existing ones.
- Funding Calls
EIC Accelerator funding calls are structured in Open and Challenge driven calls.
– Open call. This call is for innovations in any field of technology and innovations that cut across different scientific, technological sectoral and application fields or represent novel combinations.
– Challenge driven calls. These calls focus on EU priorities for transitioning to a green, digital and healthy society, as well as the overall strategic planning for Horizon Europe.
The identified areas of strategic relevance for both application cut-off dates in 2021 are:
– Strategic Digital and Health Technologies
– Green Deal innovations for the Economic Recovery
2. Funding Opportunities & Support
The EIC Accelerator provides mostly blended finance to support development (TRL 5/6 to 8), deployment and scale-up (TRL9). The blended finance is composed of a grant and an investment component.
The grant component is provided on a grant only/grant first basis depending on certain conditions. The investment component is only provided for small mid-caps or as follow up to grant only (i.e. for SMEs, including start-ups).
- Grant component
Up to EUR 2.5 million grant component for technology development and validation (TRL 5/6 to 8). Eligible costs are reimbursed up to a maximum of 70%.
- Investment component
EUR 0.5 – 15 million investment component for scaling up and other activities – usually in the form of direct equity or quasi equity.
- Grant first / Grant only / Investment only
Depending on your particular requirements, stage of development, and funding history, you can request Grant first, Grant only, or Investment only options.
- Mentoring Support
All successful applications will receive, in addition to funding, free access to a wide range of Business Acceleration Services.
3. Eligibility criteria for applicants
The EIC Accelerator can support your company to scale up if you:
– Develop high risk/high impact innovations
– Have the potential to create new markets or disrupt existing ones
– Build on scientific discovery or technological breakthroughs (‘deep tech’)
– Require significant funding over a long timeframe before returns can be generated (‘patient capital’)
- SME Classification
Single Start-ups and SMEs (including spin-outs), individuals (intending to launch a start-up/SME) and in exceptional cases small mid-caps (fewer than 500 employees)
- Geographic Location
The EIC welcomes applications from innovators in all EU Member States and countries associated to the Horizon Europe programme.
Applicants from the United Kingdom can apply for to the Accelerator, but can only request and receive funding in the form of “grant only”. The signature of any grant agreement will be subject to the positive conclusion of the association negotiation with the United Kingdom.
- Technology development, TRL, and scale-up
The EIC Accelerator provides mostly blended finance to support development (TRL 5/6 to 8), deployment and scale-up (TRL9). The blended finance is composed of an investment and grant component:
4. Application process
The application process for the EIC Accelerator Programme is conducted through the EIC artificial intelligence-based IT platform. The application process consists of the following steps:
- Discovery and Diagnostic Modules
The Discovery module will allow you to search for the best available funding opportunities at regional, national and EU level.
The Diagnostic module (mandatory before starting the submission) will provide you with an assessment of your concept/idea against a large number of scientific publications, patents and successful European projects.
At this step, you will have to answer a series of questions regarding the problem you want to solve, the solution you have, its features and the targeted market.
- Short application process and requirements
After registering on the Funding and Tenders Portal and obtaining a 9 digit Participant Identification Code (PIC) you can complete the Short Application step in the AI-based platform.
The application consists of the following sections:
– Proposal Information
– Company and CEO information
– A pitch-deck of maximum 10 slides
– A video of maximum 3 minutes
– A series of questions (describing your innovation, potential market, and team)
Within approximately 4 weeks of submission, you will receive the outcome of the evaluation.
If your short application is successful, you will be invited to prepare a full application.
- Full application process and requirements
You have 12 months to prepare a full application in the EIC AI-based IT platform from the date of notification of a successful short application. To help draft your full application, you will be entitled to receive three days of free remote coaching from the EIC Business Acceleration Services.
While the final details of the information to be included in the full application are not yet available, it is envisaged that the following will be required:
– Business Plan
– On-line questionnaire
– Define type of funding applied for
– Propose a set of project milestones
– Pitch Deck (will also be used for the interview process if application progresses to that stage)
The results of the evaluation of your proposal will be communicated to you within approximately 5 weeks from the cut-off date. If your full application is successful, you will be invited to a face to face interview.
- Interview
The face to face interviews will be organised approximately 8-9 weeks after the cut-off date.
For 2021 interviews will most probably take place in September and December.
At the interview, you will be assessed by a panel of maximum 6 jury members.
The interview will last no longer than 40 minutes, and includes:
– 10 minutes (maximum) presentation supported by the pitch pdf document submitted with your full proposal.
– 30 minutes of questions and answers to clarify aspects of the proposal. There will be no pre-set questions.
- Application deadlines
Short applications can be submitted at any time.
Full application deadlines for current calls are 16th June 2021 and 6th October 2021.
- Limitations on resubmissions
If your short application is not successful, you may resubmit based on the following rules:
After a first rejection, you may resubmit an improved short application at any time or an improved full application in one of the next two cut-offs.
After a second rejection, you will not be allowed to resubmit a short application for 12 months. Your short application will have to be a new or significantly improved proposal.
Resubmission to the short application step will be available by creating a new short application or cloning your previous one and modifying it.
5. Evaluation Criteria
Your application will be assessed against the evaluation criteria below using a binary system of Go/No Go per criterion.
- Excellence
Short application: Degree of novelty, timing for the innovation.
Full Application – above plus: Technological feasibility (TRL 5/6 min), Intellectual Property Rights.
- Impact
Short application: Scale-up potential, financial needs, broader impact.
Full Application – above plus: Market analysis including competitive analysis, commercialisation strategy, key partners.
- Level of risk, implementation, and need for EU support
Short application: Team capability and motivation.
Full Application – above plus: Clear implementation plan, high investment risk, market risks assessed and mitigated.
A detailed description of the evaluation criteria applied for short and full applications is available in the Work Programme.
6. Evaluation process
Full applications will be assessed after the set cut-off dates.
- Remote evaluation
Your application will be assessed remotely by three remote experts, matched against the area of technology and application of your innovation.
Each evaluator will assess whether your full application meets each of the above criteria and will give a Go or No Go per criterion.
If the three remote experts award a Go for all the criteria, your application is deemed successful, and you will receive an invitation to a face-to-face interview with the EIC jury.
- EIC Jury interview
After the interview, the six jury members collectively prepare an Evaluation Summary Report (ESR) for the project proposal that includes: the evaluation outcome, and specific comments related to the three award criteria.
Jury members will decide based on your interview and their overall assessment whether your proposal should be funded or not.
You will be informed of the result of the interviews approximately 2-3 weeks after your interview.
- Grant component negotiation and due diligence
If your proposal is recommended for funding, you will be invited to negotiate and then sign an initial contract that will initially provide for the grant component, which will include a first pre-financing payment on the grant component.
In parallel, if your application included an investment component, the EIC Fund will start the negotiation process to structure the potential investment agreement (compliance checks, due diligence, syndication of potential co-investors, tranches of investment and related objectives and milestones, etc.).
7. Links and supports available
- Link to EIC Accelerator page on EC site
- Link to EIC AI Platform
- Link to EIC Accelerator Work Programme
- Link to EIC Applicants Day video
8. Contact MedVie
For further details and information about MedVie can help you apply for EIC Accelerator funding, please email your enquiry to: info@medvie.ie
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