The European Innovation Council may work with a budget of 1.4 billion euros next year. That amount will serve to support innovation and research projects and should prepare Europe for tomorrow’s technological challenges.
The European Innovation Council (EIC) announces with a press release the work program for 2025, with a budget of 1.4 billion euros. This represents an increase of almost 200 million euros compared to 2024. The program focuses on European deep tech research and promising start-ups.
Four programs
The budget will be divided among four programs, one of which was newly added to the work program:
- EIC Pathfinder: With a budget of 262 million euros, this program targets multidisciplinary research teams developing breakthrough technologies. Each grant can reach up to 4 million euros per organization.
- EIC Transition: This program, with a budget of 98 million euros, helps research teams translate research results into innovation opportunities. Here, grants can reach up to 2.5 million euros per organization.
- EIC Accelerator: This €634 million scheme supports start-ups and SMEs in scaling up innovative technologies, with grants of up to €2.5 million and investments between €500,000 and €10 million.
- STEP Scale-up Scheme: In addition to the above schemes, this program provides additional investments of up to €30 million for promising companies developing strategic technologies.
EIC already considers the Scale-Up Scheme an important addition. Its budget could even reach 900 million euros in the coming years. The program aims to enable greater investment in companies that want to bring strategic technologies to the EU market in order to reduce strategic dependencies. The focus is on digital technologies, biotechnologies and clean technologies, including net-zero solutions.
Furthermore, the work program provides 120 million euros for emerging technologies such as autonomous robots and climate-resilient crops. 250 million is also available for young companies in targeted sectors, including generative AI and new mobility solutions.
The EIC was officially launched in 2021. Since its inception, it has already supported more than 630 companies and 450 research projects.