STEP: Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform

STEP's direct startup route, the EIC STEP Scale Up call, pays out only as equity from the EIC Fund (the European Innovation Council's investment arm) — there is no grant component. That wipes out the United Kingdom: the UK is associated to all of Horizon Europe except the EIC Fund investment component, so UK companies cannot apply to an equity-only call. Switzerland signed the EU Programmes Association Agreement on 10 November 2025, which associates it to the entire Horizon Europe programme — including Pillar III and the EIC Fund — for award procedures from the 2025 budget onwards; Swiss companies apply for the STEP Scale Up equity call on equal terms with EU member states (source: EU Grants Participating Countries list v3.9, 10 July 2026; confirmed by Euresearch, the Swiss NCP). You must be established in an EU member state (outermost regions and Overseas Countries and Territories count) or a Pillar III associated country — Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, Israel, Ukraine, Türkiye and the Western Balkans qualify.

The call takes a single SME (small or medium-sized enterprise) or "small mid-cap" of up to 499 employees. If you use a holding entity for the investment, that holding company must itself be established in a member state or associated country — a structure with a Delaware or Cayman TopCo fails eligibility. An investor may submit the proposal on your behalf with your prior agreement, but the investment agreement is signed with the company. Applicants from associated countries face an extra hurdle in the STEP Impact criterion: they must demonstrate a contribution to the EU internal market or to reducing the Union's strategic dependencies.

You must arrive with a pre-commitment for an equity investment covering at least 20% of your target round from a single "qualified investor" — public or private, with demonstrable know-how in your market, technology and jurisdiction, and able to pass know-your-customer (KYC) screening by the EIC Fund or the European Investment Fund; investors flagged high-risk disqualify except in duly justified cases. The round itself must sit between €50m and €150m and be at least three to five times the EIC ticket you request (€10m–30m). The pre-commitment is non-binding in nature but is checked at the eligibility stage, using the official template — proposals without it are rejected before any expert sees them.

Concurrent submissions to the EIC Accelerator and the STEP Scale Up call are not permitted — if you file both, only the most recently submitted proposal is evaluated, under that call's criteria. And since 1 January 2026 a hard resubmission cap applies: after three unsuccessful submissions of the same or an improved proposal by the same legal entity — failure at any stage counts, including the eligibility check or the interview — you may not apply to the STEP Scale Up call again for the remainder of Horizon Europe.

Standard exclusions apply — entities under EU sanctions, those established in Russia, Belarus or non-government-controlled Ukraine, and entities more than 50% Russian-owned cannot participate in any capacity; applicants also undertake that their ultimate beneficial owners are not sanctions-listed. Beyond that, STEP Scale Up sits squarely in the EU's economic-security regime: a KYC/"red flag" report precedes any EIC Fund investment, and where the Commission's award decision identifies the need — mandatory consideration for the four critical-technology areas of advanced semiconductors, artificial intelligence, quantum and biotech — the Fund must write at least one safeguard measure into the investment agreement. Investees are also expected to keep most of their value, including intellectual property, inside the EU or associated countries.

You cannot apply "to STEP". The Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform channels existing programmes (Horizon Europe, the Digital Europe Programme, the European Defence Fund, the Innovation Fund, InvestEU and cohesion-policy money) toward digital/deep tech, clean tech and biotech — each keeping its own eligibility rulebook. STEP money routed through cohesion funds is dispensed by national and regional managing authorities under their domestic rules. The connective tissue is the Sovereignty (STEP) Seal: awarded to proposals that meet the evaluation thresholds even when budget runs out (the "NO GO and Seal" outcome), it unlocks Business Acceleration Services and can route your file to InvestEU implementing partners for venture debt — if you opted in at submission.

The Defence Scale Up call is limited to eligible SMEs/small mid-caps in the EU, Horizon-associated EEA countries or Ukraine. Third-country control can exclude an applicant unless the required guarantees are approved. The standard Scale Up call has different eligibility rules.

The Seal is available to qualifying funded as well as unfunded proposals under relevant calls. It is a quality label and may help attract complementary finance, not an award of cash or a guarantee of another grant.