How To Improve Your Chances of Getting Funded

To find out if your project is suitable for funding, please read What Types of Industries Receive Funding?.

Three of the four evaluators that will review the proposal have a business background and only one will have a technical or scientific background. While it is impossible to know what the specific evaluators will focus on and look for, there are some general things that make the project look more suitable for investments:

• You have financial backing other than the SME Instrument (Own revenues, parent company, private investors)
• You have been acknowledged for your innovation (prices, funds, awards, features on blogs, TV or magazines)
• You address a promising market segment (market growth, market size, small competition)
• You have Letters of Recommendation from key partners and stakeholders (regulatory agencies, decision makers, relevant authorities, thought leaders)
• You have Letters of Intent from Suppliers, Customers or Distributors
• You have a highly experienced and capable team (work experience, relevant projects, education, extensive support network)
• Your project brings not only financial but also social benefits to the EU
• Your project has more potential than just the Phase 2 developments and can be expanded further within the next decade

It is not necessary to fill all the boxes but we should be able to address as many points as possible.

These tips are not only useful for European startups, professional writers, consultants and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SME) but are generally recommended when writing a business plan or investor documents.

Deadlines: Post-Horizon 2020, the EIC Accelerator accepts Step 1 submissions now while the deadlines for the full applications (Step 2) under Horizon Europe are:

The Step 1 applications must be submitted weeks in advance of Step 2. The next EIC Accelerator cut-off for Step 2 (full proposal) can be found here. After Brexit, UK companies can still apply to the EIC Accelerator under Horizon Europe albeit with non-dilutive grant applications only - thereby excluding equity-financing.

Contact: You can reach out to us via this contact form to work with a professional consultant.

AI Grant Writer: ChatEIC is a fully automated EIC Accelerator grant proposal writer: Get it here.

EU, UK & US Startups: Alternative financing options for EU, UK and US innovation startups are the EIC Pathfinder (combining Future and Emerging Technologies - FET Open & FET Proactive) with €4M per project, Thematic Priorities, European Innovation Partnerships (EIP), Innovate UK with £3M (for UK-companies only) as well as the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grants with $1M (for US-companies only).

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