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Overview
The European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT) is the EU's innovation arm inside Horizon Europe's Pillar 3 ("Innovative Europe"). It does not run one grant; it organises a network of pan-European partnerships called Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs). As of July 2026, nine KICs are active: Climate-KIC, 28DIGITAL (formerly EIT Digital, rebranded October 2025) and InnoEnergy — the three founding communities that completed their original 15-year EIT Partnership Agreements in December 2024 and now operate under Memoranda of Cooperation with the EIT — plus EIT Health, EIT RawMaterials, EIT Food, EIT Urban Mobility, EIT Culture & Creativity and EIT Water (designated November 2025, in startup phase with a grant of up to €5M, targeting full operations in 2027). A tenth KIC, EIT Manufacturing, filed for liquidation in March 2026 following an OLAF investigation into serious financial irregularities and ceased all operations on 10 April 2026. Each active KIC owns a sector and runs its own accelerators, venture-building programmes and open calls. For a founder, "applying to EIT" really means applying to the KIC that matches your sector. The money is typically modest — €15,000 to €100,000 in cash, services and sometimes SAFEs (simple agreements for future equity — a deferred-equity instrument), wrapped in mentoring, market access and a network of 2,420+ partners across 70+ innovation hubs. Most accelerator support is equity-free, but not all of it — a few investment-style calls (notably EIT Urban Mobility's up-to-EUR-2.5M co-investment) do take an equity stake. EIT's 2021-2027 budget is around €3 billion, and in 2026 the Governing Board approved €978 million for 2026-2028, its largest funding round ever. The EIT-supported portfolio of over 10,000 ventures is collectively valued at around €71 billion (for the 5,500+ subset tracked on Dealroom, as of May 2024).
The honest picture is that "EIT funding" is not one thing and the numbers are smaller than founders expect.
Is this for you?
- Startup or founding team in a KIC sector — food, health, manufacturing, urban mobility, raw materials, culture & creativity, climate, energy, digital, water
- Pre-seed to Series A with a prototype, pilot or MVP (minimum viable product)
- Registered in an EU member state or a Horizon Europe-associated country
- Pre-company teams — EIT Jumpstarter takes ideas, not just legal entities
- Universities, research institutes and corporates wanting to join a KIC partnership
- Lone deep-tech firm needing a €2.5M non-dilutive grant → EIC Accelerator
- R&D consortium chasing a multi-million collaborative project → Horizon Europe cluster calls
- First-of-a-kind clean-industry plant needing tens of millions → Innovation Fund
- Lab-stage science at TRL 1–3 (technology readiness level) → EIC Pathfinder
"Applying to EIT" really means applying to one Knowledge and Innovation Community's (KIC's) own call — each of the nine-plus communities sets its own deadlines, amounts and terms. Teams from EIT RIS countries (the Regional Innovation Scheme covering central, eastern and southern Europe plus outermost regions) get reserved slots and extra prizes.
Knowledge & Innovation Communities
The EIT's life-sciences community, spanning medical technology, digital health, biotech and healthcare delivery. It runs accelerators, fellowships and matching grants that move clinical ideas toward market.
Health start-ups, scale-up acceleration, and innovation projects linking hospitals, universities and industry.
Europe's largest public-private partnership focused on climate innovation, working to accelerate the transition to a net-zero, climate-resilient economy. It backs ventures and city- and region-scale 'deep demonstration' projects.
Climate start-ups, systems-change pilots, and entrepreneurial education on decarbonisation.
The community driving Europe's digital transformation across software, AI, cybersecurity, digital industry and digital cities. Rebranded from EIT Digital to 28DIGITAL in October 2025. Financially autonomous since January 2025, operating under a Memorandum of Cooperation with the EIT.
Deep-tech digital start-ups via the 28DIGITAL Accelerator, plus innovation and education activities.
The sustainable-energy community and one of the most active venture investors in the network, backing battery, renewable and clean-energy companies. Since 2010 it reports having invested roughly €560 million across more than 380 companies. Financially autonomous since January 2025 under a Memorandum of Cooperation with the EIT.
Equity and grant support for energy start-ups and scale-ups, from cleantech storage to renewables.
EIT Manufacturing filed for liquidation in March 2026 following OLAF findings of serious financial irregularities, and ceased all operations on 10 April 2026. It is no longer accepting applications. Founders in advanced manufacturing should consider Horizon Europe Cluster 4 or national funding schemes instead.
No longer operational.
The community leading innovation across the agri-food value chain, from farming and ingredients to sustainable and healthier diets. It runs accelerators, mission-driven projects and entrepreneurship programmes.
Agri-food start-ups, food-system innovation projects, and food-entrepreneurship training.
The community for smart, green and integrated urban transport, partnering with cities to test and deploy new mobility solutions. It blends start-up support with live city pilots.
Mobility start-ups, city-based innovation pilots, and demonstration projects in public space.
The community building secure, sustainable supply of raw and advanced materials for Europe, covering mining, processing, recycling and substitution. It is central to the EU's critical-raw-materials agenda.
Materials start-ups, supply-chain innovation projects, and skills programmes across the value chain.
The community strengthening Europe's cultural and creative sectors and industries, from design and media to heritage and the creative economy. It connects creatives with entrepreneurship support.
Creative-industry start-ups, cross-sector innovation projects, and creative-entrepreneurship education.
The EIT's tenth Knowledge and Innovation Community, designated November 2025 and led by the 50-partner Allwaters consortium spanning 24 countries. It takes an integrated approach across freshwater, marine and maritime environments. European headquarters in Aarhus, Denmark. In startup phase in 2026 with a grant of up to €5M; targeting full operations in 2027.
Water, marine and maritime start-ups, innovation projects, and skills development as the community ramps to full operation in 2027.
Success rates — the honest picture
| Recipient | Allocation 2026–28 |
|---|---|
| EIT Urban Mobility | €206.9M |
| EIT Manufacturing | €163.2M |
| EIT Culture & Creativity | €131.6M |
| EIT Higher Education Initiative | €130M |
| EIT Food | €125.3M |
| Cross-KIC activities | €79.3M |
| EIT RawMaterials | €74.8M |
| EIT Health | €67.3M |
Climate-KIC, 28DIGITAL (formerly EIT Digital) and InnoEnergy get no direct line: EIT funding stops after a maximum of 15 years, so the three oldest KICs now run as financially autonomous organisations and only share the cross-KIC pot. Application caps exist too — EIT Urban Mobility's investment call allows at most two consecutive cut-off attempts before you must skip one.
Eligibility
- 1You must operate in the thematic area of one of the nine active KICs -- there is no generic EIT track, only sector communities (agrifood, health, mobility, cleantech, raw materials, energy, digital, creative, water). EIT Manufacturing is no longer accepting applicants following its liquidation in April 2026.
- 2Your company or team must be established in an EU Member State or a Horizon Europe-associated country; many calls additionally welcome EIT Regional Innovation Scheme (RIS) countries to widen geographic reach.
- 3Most accelerators require an early-stage venture (pre-seed to Series A) with a working prototype, pilot or near-MVP demonstrating early traction.
- 4Select investment-style calls impose financial criteria -- for example EIT Urban Mobility's 2026 Financial Support to Startups call requires active fundraising (pre-seed, seed or Series A), a pre-money valuation not exceeding €50M, and founders or executives jointly holding 40%+ of equity; this call co-invests for an equity stake rather than offering an equity-free grant.
- 5Each KIC sets its own eligibility, so a company eligible for one community may not be for another -- you must read the specific call manual rather than assume EIT-wide rules.
The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) is not a grant office for startups. Its budget is channelled through Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) — EIT Health, EIT Urban Mobility, EIT Food, EIT RawMaterials and the rest — which run their own open calls, accelerators and investment instruments under their own call manuals. The EIT centrally runs only a handful of calls (the Higher Education Initiative, calls for entirely new KICs such as EIT Water). Founders should target a KIC call; most are open to non-partners as well as KIC members, though selected projects are contracted and monitored by the KIC acting as intermediary grant authority under Horizon Europe rules.
KIC calls are open to legal entities established in EU member states or in third countries associated to Horizon Europe, the EU's research framework programme. The UK participates in all parts of Horizon Europe except the European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund, so UK entities are eligible for EIT activity. Switzerland signed its association agreement on 10 November 2025, restoring Swiss eligibility across the programme. One trap that survives: Hungarian public-interest trusts and their affiliated universities face participation and funding restrictions under the Council's budget-protection measures of December 2022 — check the call's eligibility-of-expenditure annex.
EIT Urban Mobility's Financial Support to Startups call (up to €2.5m per company, the EIT community's flagship startup-funding instrument for 2026–2028) requires that you are in an active equity or equity-linked fundraising round at pre-seed, seed or Series A; a round consisting solely of non-dilutive money (grants, revenue-based financing) does not qualify. Pre-money valuation must not exceed €50m, founders or executives must jointly hold more than 40% of equity before the round, you must have at least a prototype or minimum viable product, and you must not already be in the KIC's equity portfolio. Applicants are classified as SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) under the call.
By Governing Board decisions (35/2015 and 13/2021), every KIC must wean itself off EIT money over time. In practice KICs fund this through membership fees, ecosystem services and financial-sustainability contributions attached to startup support — including, under EIT Urban Mobility's startup call, the option of the KIC becoming a shareholder via an investment agreement or SAFE (simple agreement for future equity). The call manual frames this as voluntary and not a precondition for the grant, but expect the conversation during contract negotiation, and budget for it when modelling dilution.
Under the multi-cut-off startup call you may not apply to three consecutive cut-offs: after two consecutive attempts you must skip at least one before trying again. Separately, the standard EU Financial Regulation exclusion grounds — bankruptcy, fraud, breach of a prior EU grant agreement, administrative sanctions, or involvement in preparing the call in a way that distorts competition — can knock an applicant out at any point: assessment, contracting or implementation.
Roughly €4.5m of the €14m 2026–2028 startup-funding pot is earmarked for innovations developed in countries covered by the EIT Regional Innovation Scheme (RIS), which channels support to Europe's moderate and emerging innovator countries. Fine print: for this call Spain and Israel are explicitly excluded from RIS classification because of the maturity of their startup ecosystems, so companies there compete under the non-RIS framework despite appearing on general RIS lists.
Where you need to be
Your project should sit at TRL 4–8 when you apply. The eligible band is highlighted below.
- 1Basic principles observedThe core scientific idea is first observed and reported.
- 2Technology concept formulatedA practical application for the idea is proposed.
- 3Experimental proof of conceptEarly lab experiments show the concept could work.
- 4Technology validated in labComponents are tested together and work in the lab.
- 5Technology validated in relevant environmentThe technology is tested in conditions close to real use.
- 6Technology demonstrated in relevant environmentA working prototype is demonstrated in a realistic setting.
- 7System prototype demonstration in operational environmentA near-final prototype is proven in the real operating environment.
- 8System complete and qualifiedThe technology is finished, tested and certified for use.
- 9Actual system proven in operational environmentThe product is fully commercial and operating at scale.
The money — a network of sector funds, not one grant
The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) sits inside Horizon Europe's Pillar 3 and channels its budget to Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) through grant agreements — Food, Health, Manufacturing, Urban Mobility, RawMaterials, Culture & Creativity, plus a new EIT Water community starting up in 2026 with an indicative €5M start-up grant. Founders never apply to EIT headquarters in Budapest; they apply to the KIC that owns their sector, on that KIC's own calendar and terms.
Most KIC startup support is equity-free and modest in cash terms. EIT Jumpstarter, the pan-EIT pre-acceleration programme, pays €10,000, €5,000 and €3,000 to the top three in each of five active thematic categories (the Advanced & Green Manufacturing cohort was cancelled for the 2026 edition), with €2,500 special prizes (Western Balkans, EU outermost regions, Ukraine rebuild, New European Bauhaus) from a total pool of over €240,000. The real value is the wrapper: training, coaching and market access through a community of 2,420+ partner organisations in 70+ innovation hubs.
Not everything is a grant. EIT Urban Mobility's Financial Support to Startups call invests up to €2.5M per company as equity co-investment — it joins your pre-seed, seed or Series A round alongside private investors and never leads. Conditions: pre-money valuation under €50M, founders and executives still holding over 40% of equity before the round, and an MVP in hand. EIT InnoEnergy likewise takes a minority equity stake in exchange for its acceleration support.
By design, EIT's contribution cannot exceed 25% of a KIC's overall resources averaged over its lifetime, and direct funding ends after at most 15 years. KICs must therefore earn their keep — which is why the older, financially autonomous communities increasingly behave like commercial investors and why investment-style terms creep into the larger programmes. Read each call's conditions; "EIT money" ranges from a free prize to a priced equity round.
How to apply — step by step
- 1Pick the right KIC and its open call1-2 weeks to map calls
The EIT (European Institute of Innovation and Technology) does not fund startups centrally. Money and support flow through its Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) — thematic networks such as EIT Health, EIT Digital, EIT Manufacturing, EIT Climate-KIC, EIT Food, EIT Urban Mobility and EIT InnoEnergy. A founder identifies the KIC matching their sector, then finds its currently open business-creation or acceleration call (e.g. EIT Manufacturing BoostUp!, EIT Health Catapult, Climate-KIC ClimAccelerator, EIT Jumpstarter). Each KIC runs its own calendar and portal; there is no single EIT-wide startup application.
Browse the KICs - 2Submit the application to the chosen KIC programme2-4 weeks to prepare
Through the specific KIC's platform the applicant submits company, team and product/solution details, the innovation and its market, traction (some calls, e.g. EIT Health Catapult, require prior private investment such as ≥€500k or equivalent revenue), and a pitch. Eligibility is typically a micro/small enterprise (<50 staff) incorporated in an EU or Horizon-Europe-associated country; programmes are usually structured into competition tracks (e.g. BoostUp!'s CREATE / ACCELERATE / TRANSFORM categories). Evaluation is run by the KIC's own selection committee of experts and investors.
Example: EIT Health Catapult - 3Selection, acceleration and pitch competition3-9 months programme
Shortlisted ventures enter the programme: structured training, mentoring from industry executives, and access to the EIT network of corporates, universities and investors. Most business-creation programmes culminate in semifinal and final pitch rounds before investor juries. Winners receive cash prizes (e.g. up to €30k per category in EIT Health Catapult; up to €10k in EIT Jumpstarter), equity-free or blended support, in-kind prizes and investor visibility. Selection and ranking are done by the KIC's expert and investor jury.
- 4(Separate consortium route) Apply to become a new KIC4-6 months to prepare
When the EIT opens a call for a NEW KIC in a designated field (e.g. the 2025 EIT Water call), a consortium — not a startup — applies. Eligibility: minimum 3 independent partners from 3+ Member States, including at least one higher-education institution, one research organisation and one company, up to 50 partners. The consortium submits a full proposal via the EU Funding & Tenders submission system. This route is for institutions building a community, not for an individual founder seeking funding.
EIT call for new KICs - 5(Consortium route) Evaluation, designation, Start-up Plan and Partnership AgreementSeveral months evaluationpass rate ≥70% to reach Governing Board Hearing
New-KIC proposals are scored by an independent Panel of Experts against Horizon Europe award criteria (Excellence; Quality and efficiency of the implementation; Impact). Proposals reaching the 70% overall threshold are invited to a Governing Board Hearing. The winning consortium is then designated, develops a detailed Start-up Plan (itself evaluated against the same three criteria), and signs a multi-year Partnership Agreement with the EIT — typically a €5m start-up grant followed by €20-35m per year for the first Business Plan.
What evaluators look for
Excellence
For the new-KIC consortium route, evaluators assess the soundness and ambition of the proposed innovation strategy, the quality of the Knowledge Triangle integration (research, education, business), and the credibility of the approach. Scored under Horizon Europe's standard Excellence criterion.
- Clarity and ambition of the innovation strategy
- Integration of research, higher education and business (Knowledge Triangle)
- Soundness of the proposed concept and methodology
Impact
Evaluates the scale of expected societal, economic and innovation impact — new ventures and jobs created, market-ready products and services, EU-wide reach including the Regional Innovation Scheme, and a credible path to financial sustainability beyond EIT funding.
- Expected societal and economic impact across the EU
- Venture creation, jobs and market deployment potential
- Pathway to financial sustainability and EU-wide geographic balance
Quality and efficiency of the implementation
Assesses the realism and coherence of the work plan, governance and management structure, the consortium's composition and complementarity, and the appropriateness of resources and budget allocation.
- Coherence and effectiveness of the work plan
- Quality and complementarity of the consortium
- Appropriateness of governance, management and resources
Documents you'll need
Lists every KIC and its thematic focus; the starting point for choosing which community to apply to and finding its co-location centres.
View documentOfficial EIT directory of the accelerators, incubators and business-creation services each KIC runs — the menu of startup-facing entry points.
View documentEIT's hub page directing founders to KIC acceleration and business-creation support; explains the support is delivered KIC-by-KIC, not centrally.
View documentThe formal call document for forming a new KIC: consortium rules, proposal structure, award criteria, the 70% threshold, Panel of Experts and Governing Board hearing.
View documentThe Horizon Europe call through which designated KICs and cross-KIC/HEI activities draw their multi-year grants; useful for understanding how EIT money is allocated downstream.
View documentEIT's running list of open opportunities across all KICs — the place to catch current BoostUp!, accelerator and new-KIC calls before deadlines.
View documentTypical Budget Breakdown
2026 Deadlines
- 23 Dec 202523 Dec 2025Multi-cut-off startup call opens
EIT Urban Mobility's Financial Support to Startups call (up to €2.5m per company) opens on a rolling basis, running until 13 March 2028 with roughly quarterly cut-offs.
- 31 Aug 2026, 17:00 CET31 Aug 2026, 17:00 CETNext cut-off (3rd of 10)
Submit via the KIC's platform while in an active pre-seed/seed/Series A round; if you miss it, the 4th cut-off follows on 16 November 2026.
- T+1 weekT+1 weekAdmissibility and eligibility check
The KIC screens country, fundraising-round, valuation and cap-table criteria; ineligible applications stop here.
- T+4 weeksT+4 weeksWritten evaluation and pitch invitations
External evaluators score strategic fit, innovation, impact and implementation; shortlisted startups are invited to a live pitch.
- T+6–7 weeksT+6–7 weeksLive pitch session
Online pitch roughly 2–3 weeks after invitation, assessed on team, product, market, financials and return-on-investment potential.
- T+9–11 weeksT+9–11 weeksC-level committee decision and results letters
The KIC's executive committee confirms selections roughly 3–4 weeks after the pitch and communicates results.
- T+4–5 monthsT+4–5 monthsFunding terms negotiated, agreement signed, project starts
Conditional winners negotiate final terms (including any voluntary equity arrangement) and sign the Financial Support Agreement; projects start approximately 8 weeks after results, with payments under Horizon Europe cost rules.
After you're funded
KIC support comes bundled with coaching, entrepreneurship training and introductions to pilot customers and investors across the EIT Community's 2,420+ partner organisations and 70+ innovation hubs — the network that has supported over 9,900 ventures which went on to attract €15.7B in external investment.
Beneficiaries of an EIT Community Business Creation Programme can be put forward by their KIC for the European Innovation Council (EIC) Fast Track: they skip the EIC Accelerator's Step 1 short proposal entirely, get three days of tailored coaching, and have up to one year to submit a full Step 2 proposal at any cut-off.
Where a KIC invests rather than grants, expect shareholder obligations. EIT Urban Mobility takes a minority stake by co-investing in your round (it never leads); EIT InnoEnergy takes dilutive minority equity in exchange for acceleration delivered against a mutually agreed roadmap.
The money is EU money: EIT funds KICs via Horizon Europe grant agreements, and cash passed to startups is financial support to third parties — so you report to the KIC, and grant information is published annually under the EU's Framework Financial Regulation. Prize-style awards (Jumpstarter) carry the lightest obligations; equity deals carry investor governance instead.
Practical notes
The HORIZON-EIT-2026-2028-KIC call on the Funding & Tenders Portal (launched 14 July 2025, deadline 3 September 2025) can only be submitted by the KICs themselves — startups, SMEs and universities are not eligible applicants there. As a founder you instead apply to the individual KIC (e.g. EIT Food, EIT Urban Mobility, EIT Manufacturing, EIT Culture & Creativity) for its accelerator, innovation or business-creation open calls, usually via that KIC's own portal (e.g. MyEITFood, the EIT Urban Mobility Programmes Portal), not the EU portal.
Instead of a generic partner-search database, the EIT publishes an interactive Ecosystem Map (eit.europa.eu/eit-ecosystem-map) to find your nearest co-location centre, innovation hub or RIS hub and the contact who runs it. The EIT Community RIS Hubs (in countries including Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia, Hungary, Latvia, Malta, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Spain and Ukraine) act as a one-stop shop to ease access to KIC support — talk to the hub before applying, as KIC-run calls (like EIT FAN) are partly scouted through these local hub networks.
Under the EIT Regional Innovation Scheme, applicants from 'moderate' or 'modest' innovator countries (incl. Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain — plus Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Israel since 1 Jan 2025) can be eligible for a reduced co-funding rate of 25% instead of the 35% for others, plus dedicated RIS training, events and promotion. Flagship RIS routes for founders include EIT Jumpstarter and the EIT Regional Innovation Booster for pre-acceleration.
Each country's Horizon Europe National Contact Point network includes an NCP responsible for EIT/KICs (find yours via horizoneuropencpportal.eu); they advise stakeholders for free on the EIT and on KIC calls for proposals. In practice the deepest, most current guidance and brokerage tends to come from the relevant KIC's own open-call team and your local hub rather than the NCP, so use the NCP for orientation and the KIC contact (named in each call, e.g. an EIT Food open-call manager) for the actual application.
Who's been funded
A Swedish start-up developing sodium-ion batteries using a proprietary cobalt-free, lithium-free Prussian White cathode — a more sustainable cell chemistry that avoids the supply-chain risks of lithium-ion. EIT InnoEnergy invested as part of its €7.3 million funding round closed in November 2025, and Altris was selected for the 2026 EIC Accelerator programme.
An Estonian maker of high-power ultracapacitors for energy storage, backed by EIT InnoEnergy alongside private investors.
An indoor-localisation start-up, launched in the EIT Digital Open Innovation Factory, that anonymously analyses footfall using smartphone signals far more precisely than GPS.
A Swedish digital medical-translation service, supported through EIT Health’s GoGlobal acceleration programme, that helps clinicians and patients communicate across dozens of languages.
A German industrial-IoT scale-up that monitors railway switches for operators like Deutsche Bahn, accelerated through EIT Digital after winning its Idea Challenge.
Key Features
Official links & resources
- EIT — official site
- EIT funding model (the 25% rule)
- EIT Jumpstarter 2026 — pre-acceleration call
- EIT Urban Mobility — Financial Support to Startups Open Call 2026
- EIT joins the EIC Accelerator Fast Track scheme
- €978M approved for 2026–28 (Governing Board decision)
- EIT Water — the new KIC from 2026
- EIT Regional Innovation Scheme (RIS)
Frequently Asked Questions
No. The EIT funds ten Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs), and each runs its own accelerators and open calls. You apply to the KIC that matches your sector, not to the EIT centrally.
Most KIC accelerators give equity-free amounts of €15,000-100,000 in cash, cash-equivalent services and SAFEs. EIT Food's Accelerator Network, for example, awards €50,000, €30,000 and €20,000 to the top three startups in each hub, all delivered equity-free through a SAFE. A few investment-style calls go higher and take equity -- EIT Urban Mobility's 2026 Financial Support to Startups call offers up to €2.5M per company as a co-investment.
Most accelerator support is equity-free, although some programmes use SAFEs (simple agreements for future equity, a deferred-equity instrument) and a few investment-style calls -- such as EIT Urban Mobility's up-to-EUR-2.5M call -- take a direct equity stake by co-investing alongside private investors. Equity terms vary by KIC and by call, so check the specific call manual.
Climate-KIC, 28DIGITAL (formerly EIT Digital), InnoEnergy, EIT Health, EIT RawMaterials, EIT Food, EIT Manufacturing, EIT Urban Mobility, EIT Culture & Creativity and EIT Water -- ten communities covering cleantech, digital, energy, health, raw materials, agrifood, manufacturing, mobility, creative industries and water.
The EIC Accelerator gives large non-dilutive grants (up to €2.5M) plus optional equity through one highly competitive process. The EIT gives smaller, mostly equity-free amounts paired with structured acceleration, pilots and network access across ten sector communities.
Generally early-stage startups (pre-seed to Series A) operating in a KIC's theme, with a prototype, pilot or MVP, and established in an EU Member State or Horizon Europe-associated country. Many calls also include EIT Regional Innovation Scheme (RIS) countries. Each KIC sets its own precise rules.
The EIT has roughly €3 billion for 2021-2027 under Horizon Europe. In 2026 the Governing Board approved €978 million for 2026-2028 -- the largest funding round in its history.
Related Programmes
EIC Accelerator
Up to €12.5M blended (up to €30M equity-only via STEP Scale-Up)
View programme →Horizon Cluster 4
€2M–5M per project
View programme →Innovation Fund
€1.8M to €216M per project
View programme →STEP Platform
EIC STEP Scale Up: €10-30m per company (equity only); EIC STEP Defence Scale Up: €10-30m per company (equity only, deadline 28 Oct 2026)
View programme →InvestEU
Around €400bn already mobilised across the EU economy (2021-2026)
View programme →Explore Further
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