Applications flood in for first EIC Advanced Innovation Challenge call

A new funding stream opened up by the European Innovation Council (EIC) has received so much interest from applicants that only 2.8% of bids are likely to be funded. 

The EIC Advanced Innovation Challenge is modelled on the approach of the US Advanced Research Projects Agencies (ARPAs). It offers academic teams and start-ups lump-sum funding in several stages to accelerate the path to market for high-risk deep-tech innovations. 

The pilot call closed on February 26, with 709 proposals across two challenges, requesting a total of €130.7 million in EU funding, according to the EIC. But the budget for this first round is just €6 million, for 20 grants of up to €300,000 each.

The deluge of proposals follows a spike in applications across the Horizon Europe programme, of which the EIC is a part. Success rates for some calls in the past year have dipped as low as 1%. Even well-established Horizon Europe funding schemes have seen huge spikes in proposals. The long-running Cost researcher networking programme saw applications increase by 29% in 2025, while the European Research Council’s success rates for some calls have fallen as low as 5%.

With national funders also experiencing an increase in demand, some speculate that generative AI may be to blame, enabling researchers and innovators to produce proposals faster and cheaper than before.

Others blame decreasing funding for research and innovation across Europe. “There are fewer resources available for research at national levels, and almost everywhere in the world they are reducing research funding,” Marta Molinas, a researcher at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and a Horizon Europe evaluator, told Science|Business last year.

On LinkedIn, one expert speculated that the broad nature of the calls might be a factor. The two pilot challenges called for projects accelerating physical AI, which attracted 425 proposals, and translating disruptive “new approach methodologies” to replace animal experiments in biomedical research into practice, with 284 proposals.

“If you put out calls in the most hyped areas, as they are doing, of course you get mountains of bandwagon jumpers, success rates therefore fall,” one funding expert commented.

Alternative funds

The interest in the pilot call also reflects the growing appetite for disruptive innovation funding across Europe, fed by initiatives such as Sprind in Germany and the UK Advanced Research and Invention Agency. 

Now, the new Dutch government has promised to create a National Agency for Disruptive Innovation, putting aside €500 million. France is also considering creating a similar agency.

Related articles

• Explained: the EIC advanced innovation challenges pilot
• Horizon Europe applications are skyrocketing. Is AI to blame? 

The EIC has been encouraging EU governments to pick up unfunded EIC proposals by awarding a Seal of Excellence to highly ranked proposals that could not be funded due to limited budgets. In the last EIC Accelerator call, 60 companies received the Seal, while another 23 were awarded the Step Seal, which also signals the projects address strategic EU objectives. 

These consolation prizes are meant to help the awardees secure alternative funding, but so far only five EU governments have set up Seal of Excellence funding schemes.