The European Innovation Council (EIC) has amended its 2023 Work Programme to include two new Coordination and Support Actions and other minor changes.
New calls for proposals
Next generation innovation talents scheme
This new scheme has been set up by EIC to allow eligible EU-funded researchers to conduct an innovation internship in an EIC or EIT-funded company.
The scheme will:
- Enable EU-funded researchers to gain direct experience in the complex process of taking innovation beyond invention and help them develop their entrepreneurial mindset.
- Provide innovative start-ups with access to talents from the forefront of research, thus accelerating the development of their breakthrough products and services.
Eligible EU-funded researchers will include PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers funded by the EIC Pathfinder, European Research Council, EIT, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions and Research Infrastructures programmes.
The call, which has an indicative budget of €4 million, opens on 16 August and has a deadline of 4 October 2023.
Financial support to access services from ecosystem partners
The cost of specialised services can constitute a barrier for researchers and innovators as they are rarely covered or foreseen within the EIC grant funding and their own resources are often scarce. This coordination and support action aims to provide EIC beneficiaries with financial support to access those services from excellent ecosystem partners from Europe and beyond and meet their specific needs in terms of sectorial knowledge, networks, R&I infrastructure, access to markets or business development.
The action will:
- Increase access of EIC awardees to new partners and services with sector-specific knowledge, expertise, equipment/R&I infrastructure, networks, or markets.
- Enable faster transition of innovations from lab to market and scale up of EIC companies, increasing the chances for return on EIC investments.
- Create synergies and further spread excellence within the European Innovation Ecosystem
- Allow EIC ecosystem partners access to a deal flow of top-level European innovators (i.e., EIC awardees).
The call, which has an indicative budget of €4.5 million, opens on 16 August and has a deadline of 14 November 2023.
Other changes affecting the EIC
EIC Accelerator October deadline
The deadline for the last EIC Accelerator cut-off for full (Step 2) proposals this year has been changed from 4 October to 19 October 2023. This change is to allow applicants additional time to complete their full proposals taking into account the temporary issues with the EIC Artificial Intelligence Platform that affected the short (Step 1) proposals from 2 June to 3 July 2023.
At the same time, the 12-month limit to submit a full application following the successful evaluation of a short (Step 1) proposal is extended so that successful Step 1 applicants who pass(ed) the maximum 12 months for submitting a full (Step 2) proposal between 7 June 2023 cut-off date and 19 October 2023 cut-off date, are allowed to submit a full (Step 2) proposal to the 19 October cut-off date.
New platform for submission of short EIC Accelerator proposals
Small and Medium-sized Enterprises can once again submit short (Step 1) applications for EIC Accelerator funding, using a new IT platform developed for this purpose by the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA).
The submission of short applications was put on hold for a short period after the former EIC Artificial Intelligence Platform for applying to the EIC Accelerator was discontinued on 2 June 2023, due to a contractual dispute with the company that developed it. As a result, the EIC has restructured the EIC Accelerator application process.
Full (Step 2) EIC Accelerator applications must now be submitted via the Horizon Europe Funding & Tenders Portal (like all other Horizon Europe applications), while a separate IT platform for short proposals is used due to its specific requirements (a short form, slide deck and video pitch).
The evaluation of all Step 1 applications is typically completed within four weeks, after which successful applicants have up to one year to prepare their full application. As stated above, the next EIC Accelerator cut-off date is on 19 October 2023.