Trial run anticipates European Innovation Council reforms expected in next Horizon Europe programme and budget hike to €34.5 billion
Photo credits: Mauro Bottaro / European Union
The European Innovation Council (EIC) will pilot a new funding instrument next year based on the US Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) model, according to a draft 2026 work programme.
Called advanced innovation challenges, the idea is to test ARPA-style mechanisms ahead of changes to the EIC proposed by the European Commission under the post-2027 Horizon Europe programme. These would also see the EIC’s budget more than tripled to €34.5 billion.
Next year’s pilot challenges will aim to support high-risk, deep-tech innovation with a two-stage funding model. In 2026, an open call for stage one will be launched, with successful applicants receiving a lump sum of up to €300,000 to undertake a feasibility study. The stage two call, in 2027, will be open only to stage one beneficiaries, and will be worth up to €2.5 million in lump sum funding to prototype solutions and test them in real world environments.
The total budget will be €4 million for stage one, and €25 million for stage two under the 2027 work programme, according to the draft document. The calls will be open to single entities or small consortia.
Programme managers will be involved in identifying and overseeing the challenges, as they prepare for an expanded role in the next Framework Programme. The selection of challenges will also take into consideration “continuation of co-funding with Pillar 2” of Horizon Europe, which funds collaborative research and innovation projects.
The draft does not specify which topics will be targeted by the innovation challenges, nor the topics for future Pathfinder and Accelerator challenges.
Further pilots and changes may be introduced in 2027 to transition towards the future EIC under the successor to Horizon Europe, according to the text.
Budgets missing
The Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (Step) scale-up call, introduced in 2025 for digital, cleantech and biotech projects, is also set for an additional €300 million in 2026. The call is open on a rolling basis with applications assessed at least once every three months. Successful companies will receive equity investments of €10-30 million, intended to catalyse funding rounds of up to €150 million.
Last year’s changes also saw the investment cap in the rest of the EIC Accelerator programme reduced from €15 million to €10 million.
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Apart from the advanced innovation challenges and the Step call, the draft work programme does not give indicative budgets for the EIC Pathfinder, Transition or Accelerator calls.
It does however state that the ceiling for Pathfinder grants, which support early-stage technology development, will increase to €4.5 million. It is currently €3 million for open calls and €4 million for challenge calls. Lump sum funding, already required across all other EIC instruments, will also be extended to Pathfinder open calls.
Also absent from the draft work programme is the Scaleup Europe Fund, which the Commission has proposed deploying under the EIC Fund as part of its start-up and scale-up strategy. In its proposal for the next long-term EU budget for 2028-34, the Commission says scale-up financing in the next budget period should take place under the European Competitiveness Fund.
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