The European Commission has published the new European Innovation Council (EIC) Work Programme for 2022. With the funding opportunities of the EIC programme amounting to over €1.7 billion in 2022, this is the highest yearly budget so far. On Tuesday February 22th an information day about the EIC and 2022 novelties will take place, for everyone who is interested in applying.

Just like the previous programme, the EIC provides different funding opportunities:

• EIC Pathfinder: Worth €350 million, aims to support multi-disciplinary research teams to research or develop emerging breakthrough technology. Teams can apply for up to €3 or €4 million in grants. The funding is mostly awarded through open calls.
• EIC Transition: Worth €131 million, with the aim of turning research results into innovation opportunities and bring these to the market. Consortia can apply for grants of €2.5 million (or more if justified).
• EIC Accelerator: Worth €1.16 billion, supports SMEs to develop game-changing innovations.

The EIC has aimed to make their processes smoother for applications, by introducing certain novelties in the 2022 Work Programme. The Seal of Excellence-process has been simplified, making it easier for excellent proposals who cannot be funded due to bduget constraints, to receive the quality label. Furthermore, more frequent application deadlines will be introduced for EIC Transition and Accelerator. Applicants who apply to Accelerator for the second time will get the opportunity to describe and defend how they improved their resubmitted proposal.

Another novelty in 2022 is the introduction of the ‘EIC Scale-up 100 initiative’ with which the EIC wants to identify and support deep tech EU companies that could become so-called ‘unicorns’ (companies that are valued at over 1 billion). Furthermore, through the EIC Accelerator, companies working on technologies of strategic interest to the EU will be able to apply for EIC investments of more than €15 million. Lastly, the EIC wants to give stronger support to women innovators. They will do this by developing a gender and diversity index that is supposed to encourage diversity, and by adding prices to the 2022 edition of the EU Prize for Women Innovators, specifically for women under 35.

Read more about the 2022 EIC Work Programme here.