Open Call: EIT Digital SpeedLauncher Program 2025

EIT Digital is seeking for entrepreneurial education providers like incubators, accelerators, university entrepreneurship centers, university TTOs, venture builders, industry associations, science and tech parks, VC funds or similar organizations with capacity and expertise to support the program delivery.

The SpeedLauncher is EIT Digital’s initiative for supporting the innovators and aspiring entrepreneurs in development of entrepreneurial skills through a 12-week-long structured education, designed to equip participants with practical knowledge in problem identification, ideation, validation, technology adoption, business planning, and go-to-market strategies. The program provides a safe environment for aspiring founders to explore entrepreneurship, upskill, and gain the confidence to launch their ventures.

The SpeedLauncher of EIT Digital, which is the subject of this open call, focuses on personal growth, upskilling, and reskilling, and is designed to empower aspiring founders and individuals from RIS countries curious about entrepreneurship. By allowing participants to explore and learn essential entrepreneurial skills, this part of the program instills in them the confidence and gives them the tools to take the leap toward becoming successful entrepreneurs. To that sense, EIT Digital SpeedLauncher is supporting a competitive, knowledge-based economy capable of sustainable growth requires integration of the two sides of the so-called Knowledge Triangle: education and innovation achieved by industry. The SpeedLauncher is executed and delivered in collaboration with EIT Digital Innovation Partners in order to facilitate connecting the teams to EIT Digital’s ecosystem, offering access to expert mentors, investors, and partners across Europe, focusing on Regional Innovation Scheme (RIS) countries, ensuring that individuals from less innovative regions benefit from EIT Digital’s reach and full range of activities.

Focus Areas

• Digital Tech, Digital Industry, Digital Cities, Digital Wellbeing and Digital Finance.

Funding Information

• The maximum EIT funding amount is 25,000 € per program edition, while the maximum budget for this call is 75,000 €. The co-funding requirement for the Partner at the Activity level, in line with the EIT Digital financial sustainability strategy, is minimally 50% of the total budget of the KIC Added Value Activity (KAVA).
• Type of Financial Support: The financial support offered by EIT Digital is structured in the form of reimbursement of actual costs declared in the activity proposal budget. The funds are released in several tranches during a time frame of 9-12 months. The pre-financing tranche (25%) is due upon completion of signatures of Grant and Partnership Agreements (expected July – September 2025). The remaining amount (max 75%), linked to evaluation report is due April – June 2026.

Project Support Duration

• Duration of project support is until the end of 2025.

Eligibility Criteria

• Eligible countries are the Member States (MS) of the European Union (EU) including their outermost regions and countries which associated to Horizon Europe.
• The proposal requests a maximum of €25,000 of EIT funding.
• The activity partners own contribution (co-funding) must be at least 50% of the activity’s budget.

Evaluation Process

• Each eligible submitted application shall be evaluated by experts (minimum 2 external and 1 internal expert). The main selection criteria are the demonstration of capabilities to deliver a local edition of SpeedLauncher that in the view of the evaluators holds the most promise to be successful.

Evaluation Criteria

• The assessment by EIT Digital experts will be based on the questions below. Internal reviewers will be asked to provide an assessment for each question, as well as an assessment and comments of the whole proposal

Evaluation Stages

• Eligibility Check: Verification of basic eligibility criteria compliance;
• Expert Review: Detailed assessment by independent experts based on specific criteria;
• Consensus Meeting: Final discussion and scoring by a panel to decide on the selected proposals.

Scoring Methodology

• Proposals are evaluated on a scale of 0 to 5:
  • 0 – Proposal fails to address the criterion or cannot be assessed due to mission or incomplete information.
  • 1 – Poor. The criterion is inadequately addressed or there are serious inherent weaknesses.
  • 2 – Fair. The proposal broadly addresses the criterion, but there are significant weaknesses.
  • 3 – Good. The proposal addresses the criterion well, but a number of shortcomings are present.
  • 4 – Very good. The proposal addresses the criterion very well, but a small number of shortcomings are present.
  • 5 – Excellent. The proposal successfully addresses all relevant aspects of the criterion. Any shortcomings are minor.

For more information, visit EIT Digital.