Permanently Open Call for Financial Support to Startups: Accelerate

Accelerate programme supports and grants financing to startups and scaleups with innovative solutions and technologies, that address critical challenges in the manufacturing sector, and are helping the European manufacturing sector to become more efficient, resilient, green, and globally competitive.

Strategic Objectives

• EIT Manufacturing’s strategic objectives (SOs), as set out in the Strategic Agenda 2021-2027, steer the activities and ambitions, and respond to major challenges shared by the manufacturing industry and society.
  • Put people at the centre of manufacturing.
  • Accelerate green manufacturing.
  • Foster sovereignty and competitiveness.
• The primary objectives of the EIT Manufacturing in 2023-2025 are to support, scale, and accelerate innovative ventures and small businesses into impactful technology suppliers. In this context, they will foster activities supporting the growth of scale-ups and start-ups, taking them beyond the regional and national borders of the European ecosystems. This will be accomplished by Access-to-Market and Access-to-Finance support services.
• The EIT Manufacturing Accelerate programme has a primary objective to support, scale and accelerate industry start-ups into impactful players in the European manufacturing ecosystem. Accelerate programme supports and grants financing to start-ups and scale-ups with innovative solutions and technologies, which address critical challenges in the manufacturing sector, and are helping the European manufacturing sector to become more efficient, resilient, green, and globally competitive. EIT Manufacturing aims to build European industry start-ups that demonstrate high growth and high impact.

Purpose, Thematic Areas and Priorities

• EIT Manufacturing accelerates start-ups and scale-ups that address critical challenges in manufacturing sector, building European high growth industrial scale-ups. The goal of the Accelerate Call is to support growth in start-ups and scale-ups that offer innovative technologies, strong business models, and societal impact. Tailored internationalisation and financing support services are provided to start-ups and scale-ups from across Europe to support their product development and go to market capabilities.
• Through the Accelerate Call, EIT Manufacturing aims to tackle critical industrial challenges identified across following thematic areas:
  • Digitalisation and Automation, Net Zero Industry, Renewable Energy, and Circular Economy.
• Including any of the following priority technologies, products and/or solutions: Industrial AI, Robotics, Additive Manufacturing, Advanced Materials, Critical Components, Electronics, Semiconductors, Photonics, Quantum Computing, Renewables, Energy Storage, Carbon Capture.

Budget and Funding 

• The total maximum EIT funding allocated to this call is 8,800,000 EUR. The available financial support (also known as “sub-grant”) is starting from 50,000 EUR and can be up to 500,000 EUR per company to pursue activities which are in line with the overall EIT Manufacturing Strategic Objectives.

Applicants Profile 

• The Accelerate Call is open to start-ups and scale-ups with the following characteristics:
  • developing new products/services/solutions for manufacturing customers, and have a business-to-business (B2B) business model;
  • have a solution at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6 or higher;
  • currently fundraising or preferably already in an ongoing funding round;
  • have an innovative product/service contributing to at least one of the EIT Manufacturing Strategic Objectives, thematic areas, and priority technologies, products and/or solutions;
  • have relevant business and technical expertise available in the team.
  • demonstrating sound business planning
• This Call for Proposals is open to private businesses (legal entities) with at least 2 team members and with headquarters in any Member State (MS) of the European Union (EU), and in any country associated with Horizon Europe programme.
• Applicants that embrace gender equality and diversity are encouraged to participate in this Call, and this will be taken into consideration in the evaluation of proposals.
• Applicants that have participated and successfully completed EIT Manufacturing’s Venture Building 2024 program and meet the general proposal criteria are eligible for the Simplified evaluation procedure to this Call.

For more information, visit EIT Manufacturing.