Following the recent publication of the 2023 European Innovation Council (EIC) Work Programme, the eligibility criteria for the 2023 EIC Transition Open and Challenges calls have been changed to allow the results from many more types of EU-funded projects to be used as the basis for applications. This opens the funding opportunity up to researchers who previously would have been ineligible as applicants.
Wider eligibility criteria
Before the 2023 Work Programme, the EIC Transition scheme (both Open and Challenges) was restricted to proposals based on results generated by the following project types:
- EIC Pathfinder projects, including projects funded under EIC pilot Pathfinder, Horizon 2020 FET-Open, FET-Proactive;
- FET Flagships calls, including ERA-NET calls under the FET Work Programme (QuantERA, FLAG-ERA and ChistERA); and
- European Research Council Proof of Concept projects.
Results from projects funded by these schemes still provide a basis for EIC Transition eligibility in the 2023 calls.
With the updated eligibility criteria for 2023, results which have been generated by these additional project types will provide a basis for eligibility:
- For EIC Transition Open and Challenges:
- European Defence Fund (including the Preparatory Action on Defence Research) research projects, but only for proposals which are exclusively focused on civil applications (including dual use) and
- For EIC Transition Challenges ONLY:
- Any project funded under Horizon 2020 or Horizon Europe
Other than the type of past project, the results used as the basis for applications to the 2023 EIC Transition calls must fulfil the other general eligibility criteria mentioned on p.48-49 of the 2023 EIC Work Programme (e.g. TRL 3-4 as the starting point, project active for at least 12 months, etc.)
Further information on the EIC Transitions Scheme
As a reminder for subscribers, the EIC Transition Open and Challenges calls are two separate calls, with different budgets and scopes. The former allows applications in any research area to be submitted by the applicants, while the latter responds to specific EU priorities and is typically limited to selected thematic areas. The three EIC Transition Challenges topics for 2023 are:
- Full-scale Micro-Nano-Bio devices for medical and medical research applications
- Environmental intelligence
- Chip-scale optical frequency combs
The cut-off dates for both calls in 2023 are as follows:
- 12 April 2023 (17:00 Brussels local time)
- 27 September 2023 (17:00 Brussels local time)
Guidance about the EIC Transition scheme is available in the 2023 EIC Work Programme. Furthermore, the Commission recently presented a dedicated information day on the 2023 EIC calls and the video recording is now available online.
For an overview of the European Innovation Council and its schemes see UKRO’s dedicated factsheet.