European Innovation Council: EIC Transition

Overview

The EIC Transition is a funding programme under Horizon Europe targeting innovation activities that goes beyond the experimental proof of principle in laboratory. It supports both the maturation and validation of novel technologies from the lab to the relevant application environments.

The EIC Transition offers support to SMEs, start-ups and organisations that:

• have identified EU-funded project result(s) with promising commercial potential that could be the basis for innovation and promising new businesses
• envision novel promising technology that is ready for the next steps towards its maturation and validation, to be further developed and validated for some specific, high potential, commercial applications
• have conducted a preliminary market research to identify potential markets for their innovation and explored potential competitors
• envisage building a motivated and entrepreneurial team with a mix of skills, including researchers, business people, marketers etc. to develop and drive the idea towards commercial success

What for

Technology validation and spin-out

Validate technologies and develop business plans for specific applications (TRL 3-6).

Who can apply

• Single legal entities established in a Member State or an Associated Country (‘mono-beneficiary’) if you are a start-up, SME or research performing organisation (university, research or technology organisation, including teams, individual Principal Investigators and inventors in such institutions who intend to form a spin-off company). Larger companies (i.e. which do not qualify as SMEs) are not eligible to apply as a single legal entity
• Small consortia of two independent legal entities from two different Member States or Associated Countries
• Consortia of minimum three and maximum five independent legal entities (‘multi-beneficiary’) following standard rules i.e. must include at least one legal entity established in a Member State and at least two other independent legal entities, each established in different Member States or Associated Countries

Your proposal must build on results already achieved within an eligible project that are, at least, at experimental proof of concept (TRL 3) or, ideally, technology validated in the lab level (TRL 4). Proposals building on project results at TRLs other than TRL3 or TRL4 are not eligible.

EIC Transition is restricted to proposals based on results generated by the following eligible projects:

• EIC Pathfinder projects (including projects funded under the Horizon 2020 EIC pilot Pathfinder, FET-Open, FET-Proactive, CSA and CSA Lump sum FET Innovation Launchpad.)
• European Research Council Proof of Concept projects funded Horizon 2020 or Horizon Europe.
• Research and Innovation Actions funded under Horizon 2020 Societal challenges and Leadership in Industrial Technologies and under Horizon Europe pillar II, with an eligible TRL 
• European Defence Fund (EDF), including the Preparatory Action on Defence Research, research projects, but only for proposals which are focused on civil applications (including dual use).

The EIC Transition Open has no predefined thematic priorities and is open to proposals in any field of science, technology or application. 

The overall budget for the EIC Transition Open in 2025 is EUR 98 million.

Grant funding 

• Grants of up to EUR 2.5 million to validate and demonstrate technology in application-relevant environment (starting at TRL 3/ 4 aiming to achieve TRL 5/ 6) and develop business and market readiness.
• Booster grants of a fixed amount not exceeding EUR 50 000 to undertake complementary activities to explore potential pathways to commercialisation or for portfolio activities

Successful applicants also receive:

• Early stage business support services 

Access to a range of tailor-made Business Acceleration Services (BAS) for beneficiaries:

• Access to global partners 
• Access to coaches, mentors, expertise and training
• Access to innovation ecosystem and peers