EIC Accelerator 2026 - Short proposal

Topic descriptionTopic updatesConditions and documentsBudget overviewPartner search announcementsStart submissionTopic Q&AsGet supportGeneral informationProgramme Horizon Europe (HORIZON) Call EIC Accelerator 2026 - Short application (HORIZON-EIC-2026-ACCELERATOR-01) Type of actionHORIZON-EIC-ACC HORIZON EIC AcceleratorType of MGAHORIZON Lump Sum Grant [HORIZON-AG-LS]Open For SubmissionDeadline modelOpening date06 November 2025Deadline date 17 December 2026 17:00:00 Brussels time Topic descriptionScope:The EIC Accelerator supports companies (principally SMEs, including start-ups) to scale up high impact innovations with the potential to create new markets or disrupt existing ones. The EIC Accelerator provides a unique combination of grant and investment funding and Business Acceleration Services (see Section VII of EIC Work Programme 2026).The EIC Accelerator focuses in particular on innovations building on scientific discovery or technological breakthroughs (‘deep tech’) and where significant funding is needed over a long timeframe before returns can be generated (‘patient capital’). Such innovations often struggle to attract financing because the risks and time period involved are too high. Funding and support from the EIC Accelerator is designed to enable such innovators to attract the full investment amounts needed for scale up in a shorter timeframe.The EIC Accelerator supports the later stages of technology development as well as scale up. The technology component of your innovation must therefore have been tested and validated in a laboratory and other relevant environment (e.g., at least Technology Readiness Level 5 completed). The EIC Accelerator looks to support companies where the EIC support will act as a catalyst to crowd in other investors necessary for the scale up of the innovation.Applicants to EIC Accelerator can submit proposals through:EIC Accelerator Open - which has no predefined thematic priorities and is open to proposals in any field of technology or applicationEIC Accelerator Challenges - in predefined areas of emerging and strategic technologies. For further information please see the EIC Work Programme 2026.Show moreTopic updates07 November 2025The submission session is now available for: HORIZON-EIC-2026-ACCELERATOR-01Show moreTopic conditions and documentsGeneral conditions1. Admissibility Conditions: Proposal page limit and layoutTo be an eligible applicant to EIC Accelerator, you must apply as one of the following eligible entities:a single company classified as a SME, and established within a Member State or an Associated Country (see Annex 2 of the EIC Work Programme 2026); ora single company classified as a small mid-cap (up to 499 employees) established in a Member State or an Associated Country, but only for exceptional cases for rapid scale up purposes; orone or more natural persons (including individual entrepreneurs) or legal entities, which are either:a. from a Member State or an Associated Country intending to establish an SME or small mid-cap (as defined above) in a Member State or Associated Country by the time of signing the EIC Accelerator grant agreement or, in case the equity only is awarded, at the latest at the date of signature of the agreement on its investment component;b. intending to invest in an SME or small mid-cap established in a Member State or an Associated Country and may submit a proposal on behalf of that SME or small mid-cap, provided that a prior agreement exists with the company. The grant agreement and/or the investment agreement will be signed with the beneficiary/final recipient of funding company only; orc. from a non-associated third country intending to establish an SME (including start-ups) or to relocate an existing SME to a Member State or an Associated Country. Your company must prove its effective establishment in a Member State or an Associated Country at the time of submission of the full proposal.The standard admissibility and eligibility conditio