European Innovation Council selects cutting edge research projects for high impact portfolios

The Commission selected 44 new projects under the 2022 EIC Pathfinder call for cutting edge research projects to achieve breakthroughs in six strategic areas. The successful projects were chosen among 436 submitted eligible proposals and will receive up to €167 million of EU funding (on average €3.8 million per project). 

EIC Programme Managers were directly involved in setting the challenges and selecting portfolios of projects from among the best applications, and they will now pro-actively manage these portfolios to increase impact.

Most applicants come from universities and research organisations, 16% of participants are SMEs. The applicants could submit their proposals in six Challenges:

 

With each specific Challenge, the EIC will establish a portfolio of projects that explores different perspectives, competing approaches or complementary aspects of the Challenge. Selected projects will receive not only grants, but also access to tailored-made coaching under the EIC Business Acceleration Services and potential fast track access to the EIC Accelerator.

Next steps

Grant agreements for the selected projects are now being prepared and the projects will start in summer 2023. Programme Managers will work with selected projects to develop a common roadmap for implementation.

The 2023 EIC Pathfinder Challenges call, with new challenges, will open for applications on 20 June with a deadline of 18 October 2023, 17.00 CET.