EIC Transition, the best Horizon Europe funding opportunity to pursue your research

If you are successfully completing a research project and are willing to continue the research to reach a higher TRL, but your area of work is too specific to fit into one of the Horizon Europe programme topics, you are in luck. The EIC Transition programme funds innovation activities that go beyond experimental testing in the lab to support both the maturation and validation of your technology in relevant application environments (with TRL from 3 or 4 to reach level 5 or 6) and the development of the business model for the future commercialisation of the innovation. The deadline for submission is 18 September 2024.

“EIC Transition is an exceptional opportunity because it offers funding to projects in any field of science, technology or application,” says Sara Mateo, leader of the Entrepreneurship knowledge area at Zabala Innovation. “In addition, individual applicants or small consortia are welcome, and grants can reach up to 2.5 million euros and cover the entire budget,” adds Mateo. The total indicative budget for this call is 94 million euros and some 38 projects are expected to be funded.

“In these projects, the strategy to be followed to bring the innovation or result to the market and validate it with potential customers or users is critical,” says Javier Uranga, consultant in the Entrepreneurship area of European Projects. “This call not only finances the increase in technological maturity but also its market readiness,” Uranga insists. “To be clear and detailed about these two types of activities is necessary for a Transition project. The lack of a strategy for reaching the market, an aspect that researchers are not usually experts in, is the main reason for the rejection of proposals in this call,” he warns. “Therefore, at Zabala Innovation we analyse their ideas and strategies with the innovators to assess their fit with the call and then help them to prepare their proposals.”

Who can apply to EIC Transition?

A first case of potential beneficiaries of the EIC Transition is a single legal entity established in a Member State or associated country, if it is a start-up company, an SME or a research organisation, i.e. a university, research or technological organisation (including teams, individual principal investigators and inventors from these institutions intending to form a spin-off company). Larger companies, which do not qualify as SMEs, are not eligible to apply as a single legal entity.

However, small consortia, consisting of two independent legal entities from two different Member States or associated countries, or consortia consisting of a minimum of three and a maximum of five independent legal entities, are also eligible. These projects must follow the standard rules, i.e. their consortia must include at least one legal entity established in one Member State and at least two other independent legal entities, each established in different Member States or associated countries.

What are the requirements that projects must fulfil?

Applications are restricted to projects that exploit results generated in previous projects funded under the following programmes:

• Research and Innovation Actions funded directly under Horizon 2020 Societal Challenges and Leadership in Industrial Technologies, and under Horizon Europe Pillar 2, with a TRL 3 or 4 at completion.
• EIC Pathfinder projects, including projects funded under the Horizon 2020 pilot calls EIC Pathfinder, FET-Open, FET-Proactive, CSA and CSA Lump sum FET Innovation Launchpad and FET Flagships.
• European Research Council (ERC) Proofs of Concept funded by Horizon 2020 or Horizon Europe.
• European Defence Fund (EDF), including the Preparatory Action on Defence Research, research projects, but only for proposals focusing on civil applications.

What are the deadlines for submitting projects?

On the one hand, if your application is based on an eligible project whose grant is still active, you may apply if the project has been active for at least 12 months. Or, in other words, if the start date of the grant is more than 12 months before the cut-off date of the EIC Transition call (18 September 2024).

On the other hand, if the application concerns an eligible project that has already ended, you may apply within 30 months after the end of the project. In other words, the end date of the grant for the eligible project is less than 30 months before the cut-off date of the EIC Transition call.