My Proposal Has a High Score But Was Rejected, What Now?

The Score

All proposals above a threshold of 13 receive the "Seal of Excellence" and are eligible for funding. Unfortunately, the budget of the SME Topics is limited and the higher the number of applicants, the lower the chances to receive funding.

Usually, proposals will get funded starting at a score of 13.5 - 14. Once your proposal has been evaluated (1-2 months after the submission deadline), you will receive:

The Evaluation Report

An evaluation report: This contained the mean evaluations of 4 different evaluators regarding all aspects of the proposal and grading "Impact", "Excellence" and "Quality" as

Very Good to Excellent (4.5 – 5) Good to Very Good (3.5 – 4.49) Fair to Good (2.5 – 3.49) Insufficient to Fair (1.5 – 2.49) Insufficient (0-1.49)

The maximum score would be 3 x 5 = 15.

The Good News

• You can resubmit the proposal indefinitely and improve it with every submission.

• Depending on the country you live in, you can use your "Seal of Excellence" and directly receive national funding (please read the conditions and deadlines carefully - calls might be closed or getting reinstated soon). This is currently possible in Sweden (VINNOVA), Cyprus (Research Promotion Foundation), Czech Republic (Technology agency), France (French Association of Innovative Clusters), Norway and Slovenia.

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).

Any more questions? View the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section.

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