The EIC Work Programme 2024 has funding opportunities worth over €1.2 billion for strategic technology development and scaling up companies. Funding again encompasses the 3 main EIC schemes - Pathfinder, Transition, and Accelerator.

A summary of the main changes in 2024 is set out below along with some pointers to increase chances of a successful proposal and project.  

General:   

• The introduction of the lump sum cost model in most EIC main calls (except Pathfinder Open) will remove financial reporting requirements for beneficiaries (see below for detailed guidance on writing lump sum proposals).   

• Measures to protect against economic security risks have been reinforced (see EIC Work Programme).  

EIC Pathfinder:   

• The rebuttal pilot has been removed from the EIC Pathfinder evaluation process as it was deemed that the rebuttal did not improve proposal evaluation outcome success rates. 

• The specific rules on Intellectual Property have been updated following the recommendations of the EIC Board (see below).  

EIC Transition:  

• There are no Challenge topics under the Transition call.   

• The eligibility of the EIC Transition Open has been extended to also include results stemming from Horizon 2020 Societal challenges and Leadership in Industrial Technologies and from Horizon Europe Pillar II projects, fulfilling the eligibility criteria (see call text).

• The EIC Transition Open has a single deadline (18 September 2024). 

EIC Accelerator:   

• There is no longer the “grant first” form of support, but beneficiaries of “blended finance” may start with grant-only funding with the investment component provided at a later stage.   

• More stringent application resubmission limits apply (see below).

• The criteria to pass the short application stage require a minimum of three approvals from the expert evaluators.  

• Consensus meetings for the evaluation of full applications have been introduced if there are divergent views among evaluators.  

• The evaluation criteria for excellence includes an explicit evaluation element to assess excellence of the company.    

More stringent application submission limits for the EIC Accelerator and a higher bar in 2024 for Short Proposal approval  

Two related changes* outlined above that companies really need to be mindful of relate to the resubmission limits and evaluation criteria. Taken together, our strong advice to companies is to carefully prepare the EIC Accelerator short proposal so that it is approved first time. EIC NCPs will support you by reviewing proposals and providing feedback on the proposal prior to submission. 

*From 2024 onward, after three unsuccessful submissions to the EIC Accelerator, which can be at any stage of the process (Short Proposal, Full Proposal, or jury interview) and for any form of support (Challenge, Open, Grant only, Blended finance, Equity only), an applicant may not apply again to the EIC Accelerator under the Horizon Europe Framework Programme (that is until the end of 2027). 

In addition, to be invited to prepare a full proposal, the EIC now requires that the short proposal (step 1) be approved by at least three out of the four evaluators. This is a higher bar than in 2023.   

Update of specific rules on Intellectual Property for EIC Pathfinder and EIC Transition (see Annex 6 in the EIC Work Programme for additional information)  

Technology/Knowledge transfer office and other relevant support is expected to be provided by universities and research organisations for exploiting the results of EIC projects. Further details are in Annex 6 of the EIC Work programme.   

Lump Sum proposals in EIC:

Lump sum funding in most EIC calls will now be introduced in 2024 with the purpose of removing financial reporting requirements for beneficiaries.  

Applicants must therefore propose the amount of the lump sum based on their estimated project costs covering the grant-based estimated costs only.  

Writing a lump sum proposal:   

As from the 2024 EIC Work Programme, detailed costs regarding lump sums are collected in a new annex called “lump sum detailed budget” and the data supporting your business plan and your investment needs are shown in a simplified version of the previous financial annex now named “Financial plan and equity needed”.  

To write a lump sum proposal, you –  

• Use the standard Horizon Europe application form.  

• Present the objectives, methodology and address the expected outcomes and impacts as in any Horizon Europe proposal.  

• Describe in detail the activities covered by each work package.  

To define and justify the lump sum, you need to provide a detailed budget table with estimated costs. This Budget table is an Excel file. You download it from the online submission system, fill it in and submit it as an annex to Part B of your application form.  

Practicalities of working with Lump sum estimations:  

For lump sum grant proposals, the estimated budget must be described in a detailed budget table. This will be used as a basis for justifying and/or fixing the lump sum amount. As the lump sum must be an approximation of the costs actually incurred, the costs included in this detailed budget table must comply with the basic eligibility conditions for EU actual cost grants (see AGA — Annotated Grant Agreement, Article 6). This is particularly important for purchases and subcontracting, which must ensure best value for money (or, if appropriate, the lowest price) and be free from any conflicts of interest.   

Note 1: If the budget table contains ineligible costs, the grants may be reduced (even later on during implementation of the project or after they end). Exceptionally, the Decision authorising the use of lump sum funding for a specific action might specify that a detailed budget table is not required.  

Note 2: Evaluation feedback from the Commission - Comments on the detailed lump sum budget table will be provided in the Evaluation Summary Report only for proposals invited to grant agreement preparation (or placed in the reserve list) and ones rejected (in part) due to significant overestimation or underestimation of costs.  

Note 3: The requested forecast only goes until year N+4. If you project needs a further year eg. To complete clinical trials, etc you can add extra columns to the lump sum budget sheet because your timeline to market is longer.  Also adapt the worksheet on equity needed, adding a line for each column added in the financial plan worksheet.   

Note 4: The EIC Booster grant will also take the form of a lump sum grant (applicable to EIC Pathfinder and EIC Transition projects only).  See video on Lump sum applications in Horizon Europe (30) Lump Sum Funding in Horizon Europe: How does it work? How to write a proposal? - YouTube