EIC Accelerator Challenges 2025

The EIC Accelerator is a funding program under Horizon Europe that offers support to start-ups and SMEs that:

• Have an innovative, game changing product, service or business model that could create new markets or disrupt existing ones in Europe and even worldwide.
• Have the ambition and commitment to scale up.
• They are looking for substantial funding, but the risks involved are too high for private investors alone to invest.

The EIC Accelerator Challenges calls are open to proposals in predefined topics that have been identified in areas where breakthrough technologies or game-changing innovations developed by start-ups or SMEs can have a major impact on EU objectives.

In 2025 support for start-ups in semiconductor technologies and quantum technologies will be pursued in particular through STEP Scale Up. The total budget for EIC Accelerator Challenges for 2025 is EUR 250 million.

Acceleration of advanced materials development and upscaling along the value chain

Scaling SMEs belonging to the whole value chain of advanced materials and addressing one or more of these four key application areas: energy, mobility, electronics, construction.

Biotechnology driven low emission food and feed production systems

The objectives of the challenge are, among others, replace fossil fuels in the production of pesticides and fertilizers used in agriculture, support the implementation of climate smart agriculture, mitigate methane emissions, and expand conventional food and feed production.

GenAI4EU: Creating European Champions in Generative AI

To support start-ups and SMEs committed to bringing transformative AI-driven solutions to market, to safeguard human autonomy and enhance human expertise thus providing significant added value to decision-making processes, services or industrial workflows.

Innovative in-space servicing, operations, robotics and technologies for resilient EU space infrastructure

To support companies developing cost-effective, scalable and resilient solutions to service and/or augment satellite capabilities, perform in-orbit refueling, contribute to space debris reduction, and protect EU space infrastructure

Breakthrough innovations for future mobility

To support cost-effective and scalable deep tech breakthroughs that will help deliver reductions in mobility-related emissions.

Deadline: 12 March 2025 and 1 October 2025.