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How the EU Funding & Tenders Portal works: finding a call, reading a topic page, the PIC, partner search, submission and the calls EU projects run for startups.
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The EU Funding & Tenders Portal is the single entry point the European Commission uses for grants and tenders it manages directly. Horizon Europe, the European Innovation Council, Digital Europe, LIFE, the Single Market Programme, Creative Europe and most other EU programmes publish their calls, accept proposals and manage signed grants there.
It is a working tool, not a brochure. You use it three times: to find a call, to submit a proposal, and, if you win, to sign and report on the grant. Regional and national money that comes from EU cohesion funds is not on the portal; your national or regional managing authority runs those calls.
A call is a set of topics published together. The topic is what you apply to, and its identifier tells you what you are looking at. HORIZON-CL4-2027-01-MAT-PROD-61, for example, reads as programme (Horizon Europe), part (Cluster 4), year, call number, and the topic within it. That code is the fastest way to find a call again, on the portal or on EUACC.
Each topic has a status: forthcoming (announced, not yet open), open for submission, or closed. Forthcoming topics are worth watching because the full text, budget and deadline are usually published weeks before the call opens, which is when serious applicants start writing.
Read the topic page in this order. First the expected outcome and scope: if your project does not deliver what is listed, the rest does not matter. Then the type of action (Research and Innovation Action, Innovation Action, Coordination and Support Action, or a lump-sum variant), because it sets the funding rate and the evaluation thresholds. Then the budget per project and the number of projects the Commission expects to fund, which tells you how competitive it is.
Finally, open the linked documents: the work programme section, the standard application form and any topic conditions. Eligibility rules that are specific to a topic, such as a minimum consortium or a required partner type, live there and not in the headline.
To apply you need an EU Login account and a Participant Identification Code (PIC), the nine-digit number that identifies your organisation in every EU grant. You register the organisation once in the Participant Register; the Commission later validates it with legal and financial documents, usually when a grant is in preparation.
Every partner in a consortium needs its own PIC before submission. Register early: a missing or duplicated PIC is one of the most common last-week problems, and the coordinator cannot submit without the partners' codes.
The portal has a partner search where organisations publish their profile or a request linked to a specific topic. It is useful when you need a missing partner type, such as an end user or a research organisation in another country. EUACC's organisation pages show who already won in a topic area, which is often a better shortlist.
The portal also lists calls run by EU-funded projects themselves, often called cascade funding or financial support to third parties. These are smaller grants, typically tens of thousands of euros, aimed at startups and SMEs, with short applications and no consortium. They are easy to miss and among the best entry points for a first EU grant.
Proposals are written in the online submission system: part A (administrative forms and budget) is filled in online, part B (the technical description) is uploaded as a document using the template for that action type. You can submit as often as you like before the deadline; only the last version counts, so submit a complete draft early.
Independent experts score each proposal against excellence, impact and quality of implementation. Results usually arrive about five months after the deadline, followed by grant preparation. If you miss the threshold or the budget, the evaluation summary report is the most useful document you will get for the resubmission.
It is the European Commission's single website for the grants and tenders it manages directly, including Horizon Europe, the EIC, Digital Europe and LIFE. You use it to find calls, submit proposals and manage signed grants.
The Participant Identification Code is the nine-digit number that identifies your organisation in EU grants. You get it by registering your organisation in the Participant Register on the portal, and every consortium partner needs one before submission.
Yes, for single-applicant schemes such as the EIC Accelerator and for most cascade funding calls run by EU projects. Most collaborative Horizon Europe topics require a consortium of at least three independent organisations from three different eligible countries.
The topic is announced but not open for submission yet. The text, budget and deadline are usually already published, so it is the right moment to start preparing.
Every open and forthcoming Horizon Europe call by cluster, with the next deadlines, rebuilt from the EU Funding & Tenders Portal whenever the calls change.
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Use EUACC to explore “EU Funding & Tenders Portal Explained (2026)” (https://www.euacc.ai/guides/funding-tenders-portal-explained). Help me apply this guide to my startup. What information do you need from me? Cite the available sources and flag missing or outdated information.