EU to announce €20M for Widening start-ups in 2025

The European Commission is planning to launch the first European Innovation Council (EIC) pre-accelerator calls in 2025 for start-ups in Widening countries, according to a leaked document detailing Horizon Europe calls next year in the Widening programme.

The Widening programme, aimed at reducing the research and innovation gap between richer and poorer EU member states, has multiple funding instruments for individual scientists and research institutions. But there has previously been little focus on start-ups aiming to scale up, or get into the exclusive club of EIC grantees.

Widening countries as a whole have had a hard time accessing EIC start-up finance. From 2020 - 2023, the success rate for the 15 EU Widening countries was a lowly 10.8%. Member states including Germany, France and Spain all individually have a higher participation rate in EIC programmes than the 15 Widening countries combined. 

The Commission has set a target of increasing participation rates across all three of the EIC’s programmes to 15%, and has been looking into creating a pre-accelerator programme to help start-ups and entrepreneurs from Widening countries shape up to win funding from the EIC Accelerator programme. 

Now, the leaked work programme for next year is proposing that start-ups in Widening countries will have access to a €20 million EIC pre-accelerator call, which will help to build the business case and to secure funding from the EIC Accelerator or other sources.

“The goal is to increase the competitiveness and investment appeal of these start-ups, facilitating their scale-up and market entry,” the Commission document says.

The first call will open on 6 May 2025 with a deadline for submissions on 16 September. Proposals will be assessed in a single stage by three independent EIC evaluators following the award criteria for EIC Transition Open, a programme that supports the translation of novel technologies from the lab towards commercialisation.

Successful applicants will be awarded a €300.000 - €500.000 lump sum for a period of up to two years. The grants will cover 70% of costs, with the start-ups covering the rest.

The scheme is open to companies that have “a high-impact innovation technology, product, service, or business model that could create new markets or disrupt existing ones, and have the ambition and commitments to scale up,” the document says.

The draft programme for next year’s Widening programme is a work in progress between the Commission and member states, with the Commission gathering feedback until this Friday.

Elsewhere in the 2025 Widening plan

• The Commission will launch a pilot call for action plans “for connected regional innovation valleys” in Widening countries.
• The Hop-on Facility will allow new participants from Widening countries to join ongoing research and innovation actions under Pillar II of Horizon Europe and EIC pathfinder projects that do not have a partner from a Widening country.
• The Policy Platform for enlargement countries that are seeking to join the EU will continue to provide policy support to the Western Balkan countries and extend its geographical scope to other enlargement countries.

The draft work programme is here.

Science|Business is keeping the full history of the drafting process publicly available in our Horizon Papers database. We think it is important to maintain a public record of how the programme evolves, in successive rounds of drafting between the Commission and member states. It is a political process – which, so far, the Commission refuses to make transparent. You can share anonymously other draft work programmes at [email protected].