A quality label and funding funnel that has mobilised €29bn for Europe's strategic tech
STEP — Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform
Coordinating platform across 11 EU programmes + STEP Seal quality label + EIC STEP Scale Up equity (€10-30m)
What is STEP Platform?
STEP — the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform — is not a grant you apply to. It is the EU's umbrella for steering money toward four strategic sectors: digital and deep-tech, clean and resource-efficient tech, biotech, and (since December 2025) defence. Launched in March 2024, STEP coordinates eleven existing EU funding streams — Horizon Europe (which includes the European Innovation Council), the Innovation Fund, the Digital Europe Programme, the European Defence Fund, EU4Health, plus the big cohesion funds (ERDF, ESF+, Just Transition Fund, Cohesion Fund), the Recovery and Resilience Facility, and InvestEU — rather than creating a fourteenth pot. By its second anniversary in March 2026, STEP had mobilised €29 billion: close to €14 billion from Commission-managed programmes and over €15 billion redirected by 20 Member States from their cohesion allocations. Its signature instrument for companies is the STEP Seal (formerly the Sovereignty Seal): a quality label awarded automatically to projects that clear the excellence threshold in a STEP-relevant call but cannot be funded, opening doors to alternative public and private money. The one genuinely new cash instrument under STEP is the EIC STEP Scale Up — equity tickets of €10-30 million for deep-tech scale-ups, with a €300 million budget in 2026.
- €29bn mobilised across 11 EU funding programmes by March 2026
- STEP Seal: automatic quality label for excellent-but-unfunded projects in STEP-relevant calls
- EIC STEP Scale Up: €10-30m equity tickets, €300m budget in 2026
- Four strategic sectors: digital/deep-tech, clean-tech, biotech, defence
- Seal unlocks cohesion funds (ERDF/JTF/ESF+), RRF priority, Modernisation Fund and InvestEU visibility
Is this for you?
This is built for EU-based companies and consortia already pushing into one of STEP's four strategic sectors — digital and deep-tech, clean and resource-efficient tech, biotech, or defence — who are applying to the underlying EU calls. The STEP Seal can be awarded through five programmes: Horizon Europe (which contains the European Innovation Council, the EIC), the Digital Europe Programme, the Innovation Fund, the European Defence Fund and EU4Health. If you score above the excellence threshold in one of those calls but miss out on cash because the budget ran out, the STEP Seal is for you: it certifies your quality and routes you toward cohesion funds, the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the Modernisation Fund and InvestEU investors. Separately, if you are a deep-tech scale-up raising a €50-150 million round and can show a qualified investor is already committed to at least 20% of it, the EIC STEP Scale Up equity ticket (€10-30m) is built for you. If you are looking for a single new grant to apply to with its own form and budget line, look elsewhere — STEP is a coordinating layer, not a standalone fund, and the Seal is awarded automatically rather than requested.
What STEP funnels
The headline instrument unique to STEP: direct equity of €10-30 million per company, managed by the EIC Fund, aimed at deep-tech scale-ups that private investors will not fully back alone. It targets a €50-150 million-plus financing round per company by crowding in co-investors. The facility opened with a €300 million budget in 2025, repeated in 2026, on a projected path toward €900 million across 2025-2027.
Equity tickets of €10-30m for start-ups, SMEs and small mid-caps in digital, clean/net-zero and biotechnologies
A quality label the Commission awards automatically to projects that clear the evaluation threshold under STEP-relevant calls but miss out on funding, with no separate application. The Seal is a portable mark of excellence: it gives access to alternative public and private money, tags the project on the InvestEU Portal for investor matchmaking, and lists it on Dealroom's STEP Seals page. Since March 2024 the Commission has run more than 88 STEP calls and recognised over 800 projects.
No cash itself: a credibility label opening doors to cumulative funding and investor visibility
The EU's €95.5 billion research and innovation programme is a STEP host: relevant calls (notably in Cluster 4, Digital, Industry and Space, and via the European Innovation Council) can carry STEP funding and award the Seal. A STEP-sealed Horizon project gains a recognised excellence stamp it can take to national authorities and private investors. The EIC alone holds €10.1 billion across 2021-2027.
Grants, equity and coaching for R&I and deep-tech in strategic technologies
Financed by Emissions Trading System revenues, the Innovation Fund is one of the largest STEP hosts at around €40 billion to 2030. It backs clean and net-zero technologies, covering up to 60% of relevant costs (up to 100% under competitive bidding). STEP-sealed Innovation Fund projects signal bankable clean-tech to co-financiers.
Grants for clean, resource-efficient and net-zero technologies; up to 60-100% of costs
The EU's €8 billion-plus digital-capacity programme hosts STEP calls in areas such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, advanced computing and digital skills. Grants typically cover 50% of eligible costs, rising to 100% in some calls. A STEP Seal here flags a project as strategically important to Europe's digital sovereignty.
Grants for AI, cybersecurity, advanced computing and digital skills (50-100% of costs)
The €7.3 billion defence R&D fund was topped up by €1.5 billion specifically for STEP actions, making defence and dual-use technologies a core STEP pillar. Grants can cover up to 100% of eligible costs. STEP-sealed defence projects carry the Commission's strategic-autonomy endorsement.
Grants for defence and dual-use technology R&D; up to 100% of costs
EU4Health (€4.6 billion) hosts STEP calls in biotechnology and health-critical technologies, with grants up to 60% of costs. InvestEU underpins the Seal's investor side: its €26.2 billion EU guarantee mobilises private capital, and the InvestEU Portal carries dedicated tags identifying STEP-sealed projects to financiers. Together they cover the bio and finance ends of STEP's strategic-technology map.
EU4Health: grants for biotech/health tech. InvestEU: guarantee-backed private capital plus STEP investor matchmaking
Who wins — funded examples
The honest picture
Be clear-eyed about what STEP actually gives you. The STEP Seal is a certificate, not a cheque — almost 800 had been handed out by March 2026, and a Seal only matters if a downstream funder (a regional cohesion authority, an RRF programme, an InvestEU-backed investor) chooses to act on it. Plenty of Seal holders never convert it into money. The Seal is best understood as a credibility signal that shortens the queue, not a guarantee. The real cash instrument, EIC STEP Scale Up, is brutally competitive and brutally large: in its first cohort, 44 companies applied, 28 reached interview, and just 8 cleared every criterion — roughly an 18% success rate, and that is before due diligence, which can still kill a deal. The tickets are €10-30m of equity, so this is venture-scale dilution, not soft money; you need a €50-150m round already taking shape and a qualified investor pre-committed to 20% of it before you even apply. Most rejections here are not bad companies — they are good companies that could not show the private co-investment and scale-up readiness the EIC Fund demands. If you have neither a near-miss in a STEP call nor a real institutional round forming, STEP will not manufacture either for you.
EIC STEP Scale Up — the only public scoreboard
| Results announced | Applied | Interviewed | Selected | Combined equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 2025 | 51 | 36 | 8 | €171M |
| April 2026 | 44 | 28 | 8 | €146.5M |
⚠ Selection is budget-limited, not quality-limited: in the November 2025 round, 21 further companies were judged excellent but unfunded — all 29 above-threshold finalists received the STEP Seal. Platform-wide, just under 800 projects held a STEP Seal and more than 220 STEP calls had been listed by March 2026.