SME Instrument Grant Writing Tips (EIC Accelerator)

October 12, 2019 • By Stephan Segler, PhD

EIC Accelerator Funding Horizon Europe SME Instrument / EIC Accelerator

I frequently get asked about the application process for the SME Instrument Funding by the EU, so here is a brief overview for every startup that wants to apply:

Proposal writing is the most important part but I am covering this in another post

Choosing an Acronym and Tagline: Each proposal has a short Acronym that is used as a project identifier and a tagline which gives a quick overview of the project. The Acronym does not actually need to have any meaning at all and you can be creative. Here is an example of a fictional health project ("ACRONYM - Tagline"):

PATIENT NETWORK - Smart & Secure Software for Hospitals to Automate Essential Patient Data Processing and Create a Unified Patient Network in the EU

Abstract: Next to the Acronym and Tagline, you will also need to provide an abstract which is 2000 characters long and should give a brief summary of the project. If funded, the Abstract, Acronym and Tagline will be published by the EU. Make sure that every sentence is packed with information and that all information given here counts. Follow the general way scientific work is presented:

Problem > Market Pain Point & Competitors > Your Solution > Your Current State > Your Commercial & Market Impact > EU Benefits Keywords: When you create the draft for the submission, you will be asked to select up to 3 keywords with respective sub-keywords from a drop-down list. You can then also add some manual keywords to better describe your project. These keywords will determine the background of our 4 evaluators.

Excluding Evaluators: The EU is regularly publishing a list of all evaluators for the SME Instrument and if you suspect a conflict of interest, you can exclude specific reviewers.

There are many more small things to consider such as legal/financial data and the overall company registration but the points above cover most of the writing parts for the proposal submission.

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:

EIC Accelerator Step 1 Deadline 2025

Days

Hours

Minutes

Seconds

EIC Accelerator Step 2 Deadline 2025

March

October

EIC Accelerator Step 2 Deadlines: March 12^th 2025 and October 1^st 2025

EIC Accelerator Step 3 Deadline 2025

June

January

EIC Accelerator Step 3 Interview Dates: Week of June 2^nd 2025 and January 2026

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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