The official (leaked) European Innovation Council Work Program for 2026 has found its way into my hands so let me give you a short summary of the things that I found noticeable and what the big changes are going to be next year.

You probably already know that the work program is renewed every single year, meaning that the EIC publishes a new version every year, and this new version outlines the rules of the game for that particular year. This relates to the EIC Accelerator, Pathfinder, Transition, STEP Scale-Up, and new programs that have been snuck into the new version.

Yes, there is a new grant program, and I highly recommend that companies check it out!

Please note that all of the changes are currently still in the draft stage, so they are preliminary until the full publication at the end of the year.

EIC Accelerator

Give the people what they asked for: Another stage to the evaluation

It's not a big surprise, but the EIC Accelerator is seeing the biggest changes this year. As I have already hinted at in my previous newsletters, there's a change happening for Step 2 of the process. It is becoming more of a due diligence process, meaning that it is more of a conversation and assessment of the technology rather than pure essay-type grading.

At least that was the idea. But here's what's going on:

Step 2 will still be an extension of Step 1, but there will be a remote assessment by an external expert who is doing technical due diligence. Interestingly, the EIC already used external consultants for technical due diligence, but this was after funding approval had been given and was a post-funding due diligence. Now, the due diligence is going to happen at Step 2 for every single Step 2 applicant.

What is no surprise is that the EIC introduced yet another step which is part of Step 2. There might also be another remote interview dedicated to the Step 2 technical due diligence that is separate from the actual Step 3 interview. Let's call them Step 2A (technical due diligence & interview) and 2B (regular remote evaluation).

In short, the Step 2 proposal is going to change with a different template that is likely going to be shorter, albeit much of what should be in the Step 2 proposal might actually end up in new annexes, so let's see if it actually gets shorter. But there is a new stage for the external consultant, and this is then followed by the regular remote evaluators. This is still roughly the same, but there's an additional stage, and it could be more work.

Let's see how this is going to unfold.

EIC Accelerator Deadlines

One extremely positive change is that the EIC is using more deadlines for Step 2 next year, which is going to be pretty great. Instead of having just two deadlines throughout the year, they're going to have six deadlines, always on the first Wednesday of every second month. Unfortunately, the interviews for Step 3 will only be after every second deadline, meaning only three interview weeks per year. But still, it is a big improvement.

Other EIC Accelerator Changes

• There will be a ranking process again instead of just the GO / NO GO approach which will reduce the number of interviewees and increase interview success rates. This is a very positive change and quite necessary.
• The interview invitations will represent 2-2.5x of the available budget which results in success rates of 50-40%!
• All new EIC Deadlines are here

EIC Pathfinder

EIC Pathfinder is now offering larger grant amounts of up to €4.5 million, which is great for future applicants!

New Program: EIC Advanced Innovation Challenges (EICAIC)

This is a very interesting development: a new (US-borrowed) concept being piloted by the EIC to specifically fund technological innovations in the early stages that are aligned with the technology interests of the EIC. The idea is to have one funding round with a relatively small grant of €300,000 for a viability assessment and then €2.5 million for prototyping.

This will be split between 2026 and 2027 because the idea is that to move to the second stage, you must first execute the first stage. That means the entire 2026 budget of €4 million (i.e., 13 winners if maximum grants are given) will be for the first stage. This budget will increase to €25 million in 2027, which will be shared among all the Stage Two winners and the new Stage One winners in 2027.

The exact technologies funded under this program aren't published yet, and there isn't a lot of information on the type of company they're looking for. But it will be a 10-page proposal with a deadline in April 2026.

Interestingly, the EIC Program Managers who are in charge of the technical challenges that the EIC always publishes are going to be part of the evaluation process. This might be a bad decision because the EIC has always steered away from giving one person too much power. Even the EIC leadership is not able to jump in and make funding decisions; it has outsourced all responsibility to the evaluators, jury members, and even the EIB for investment decisions. So, it might be a bad idea for them to turn around and give program managers the power to steer evaluations.

But since this is still preliminary, this might not be what will be implemented in 2026.

I will publish some articles on the topic soon, but this should suffice as a summary for now.

And of course: Need help with the EIC Accelerator? Here are some options:

• Starter Pack (lowest-risk entry with AI writer): The Starter Pack contains all the templates you will need and detailed instructional modules in video and text form. This is a very comprehensive package that will tell you everything you need to know based on previously successful applications. This includes ChatEIC .
• Advisory (personalized support): You write in-house but receive personal 1-on-1 support from me, templates, instructions, and reviews of all documents. Personal strategy calls and reviews to perfect every section. This also includes an AI tool for Step 1 as well as guidance on using AI for the proposal writing. Strategy calls cover the specific templates as well as the EIC criteria and use of AI tools.
• Writing (complete end-to-end service): All proposal sections are written for you.

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