Grants for Small business in European Union

Expected Impact: The action under this topic is expected to achieve the following impacts and contribute to the following EU policies/initiatives: deliver innovative, early technology solutions that contribute to addressing strategic unmet public health needs across multiple therapy areas to improve prevention, early diagnosis, and treatment; leverage the unique network and scale of IHI JU members to create a pipeline to support innovative startups in the health industry, fully integrated into European initiatives in support of start-ups and entrepreneurship; drive early cross-sector health R&D and innovation to strengthen the European healthcare industry’s global competitiveness, contributing to the EU Industrial Strategy and Pharmaceutical Strategy objectives; create a sustainable network of European healthcare incubators to guide and support highly talented and innovative early-stage companies; harness digital health and data-sharing technologies (e.g., AI and big data) to enable interoperable health solutions, contributing to the European Health Data Space (EHDS) and improved evidence based care;- the action should generate a portfolio of early‑stage companies that have…

Expected Outcome: Projects should contribute to all of the following expected outcomes: Deepened knowledge of specific factors favouring the growth of creative startups [1] , in particular those with potential for disruptive innovation [2] and/or cross-sectorial innovation impacts, is made available and promoted to policymakers, investors, funding- and enterprise support bodies. Effective methods to favour the growth of creative startups, in particular those with potential for disruptive innovation and/or cross-sectorial innovation impacts, are developed, tested and put in practice by industry, investors, funding- and enterprise support bodies, and relevant decision makers. Examples of creative startups scaling up and/or engaging in disruptive innovation are made available, with a view to increase the visibility and recognition of the innovative power of Europe’s creative startups. In addition, proposals should contribute to at least one of the following expected outcomes, depending on the option chosen (a or b below): The effectiveness of the methods developed is demonstrated by at least one creative startup supported via the action becoming a scaleup [3] in a Member State or an…

Expected Outcome: Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes: land managers, farmers, foresters, agri-businesses (including SMEs), and policy makers gain access to practical knowledge of clear demonstrations of benefits and trade-offs associated with biologically diversifying their agroecosystem; farmers, land managers and foresters are incentivised and rewarded for implementing practices that improve agrobiodiversity, leading to higher incomes and long-term sustainability and resilience of agriculture, greater food security, competitiveness, and healthier ecosystems; enhanced capabilities for farmers to store, process, and market their diverse raw materials and products, derived from greater agrobiodiversity, while improving their market access and strengthening their position within the value chain. Scope: Genetic erosion poses a significant threat to agricultural resilience, as genetic diversity is crucial for crops to withstand environmental stresses such as climate variations, pests, and diseases. As the global population grows, the demand for increased food production often drives large-scale agriculture, which compromises…

Expected Outcome: This action will strengthen Europe's leadership and strategic autonomy in quantum technologies by advancing experimental pilot line capacities as a vital stepping stone toward future industrial-scale quantum hardware production. Qu-Pilot serves as the critical intermediary between academic research and the stable pilot lines under the Chips Joint Undertaking, offering a testbed for technological innovation, reproducibility, and manufacturability. Expected outcomes include: Deployment of experimental quantum pilot lines addressing diverse platforms and materials, laying the groundwork for broader integration into Chips JU pilot lines. Establishment of scalable and reproducible quantum fabrication processes, advancing TRL 4–6 technologies and addressing early-stage certification, standardisation, and quality control. Reinforcement of a pan-European quantum hardware ecosystem through shared infrastructure and open-access models, fostering participation from SMEs, startups, and research institutes. Demonstrated ability to accelerate technology maturity and feed critical feedback loops into future Chips JU stability pilot lines. Enhanced synergies with testing…

Expected Outcome: This action will establish a pan-European open-access testing and experimentation infrastructure for quantum technologies, enabling systematic validation and certification of quantum components and systems. Expected outcomes include: Deployment of distributed quantum testing facilities accessible across Europe, including remote access and standardized test protocols. Provision of certification services aligned with future standardisation efforts, ensuring trust, quality, and interoperability of quantum technologies. Support for SMEs, start-ups, and research institutions in validating quantum components and sub-systems. Strengthening of Europe’s competitiveness by ensuring robust quality assurance mechanisms and accelerating the time-to-market of emerging quantum products. Scope: The proposal should implement the testing-related part of the action plan established under the Framework Partnership Agreement for Qu-Test. The action must include: Expansion and interconnection of open-access testing facilities in multiple Member States, covering a range of quantum technologies (e.g., processors, sensors, photonics, control systems). Development and deployment of…

Expected Outcome: Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes: environment and society at large benefit from recyclable food packaging which can be recycled and reused back into food packaging while keeping the quality, value and extending the material lifetime; industrial value chains including primary and secondary raw material producers, polymer suppliers, additives suppliers, converters, brand owners and retailers (SMEs and large companies), agri-food suppliers, waste managers and recyclers introduce sustainable food packaging on the market through enhanced design for recycling and solutions for effective sorting and recycling on an industrial scale, in line with the safe-and-sustainable-by-design principles [1] ; consumers and civil society are sufficiently informed about appropriate ways of disposal of used food packaging to enable its circularity. Scope: Plastic food packaging represents a significant part of all plastic packaging put on the EU market. Flexible films composed of multiple layers are commonly difficult to recycle. And to date, there is no market at scale for closing the loop and establish recycling systems from food…

Expected Outcome: Project results are expected to contribute to some or all of the following expected outcomes: A community of EU civil security practitioners with common user/functional needs for innovative technology solutions is identified, supported by an industrial base, in particular SMEs and Startups, to access the public procurement market and scale up their business; Procurers facilitated the commercialisation of the innovative solutions developed by their successful suppliers by providing them with first customer references for the validation and first pilot deployment; Tested and validated capacity of EU technology and industrial base to develop and produce technology prototypes that meet the diverse needs of the EU user community, regardless of their gender, age and ability; Improved delineation of the EU market (including demand and supply) for innovative civil security systems that can articulate alternative options for uptake in function of different industrialisation needs, commercialisation needs, acquisition needs, deployment needs and additional funding needs (beyond R&I funding). Scope: As past experience shows that pre-commercial procurement opens up the…

Expected Outcome: This action will support and accelerate the development and adoption of European and international standards for quantum technologies, enhancing interoperability quality/reliability assurance, and trust in quantum systems. It will strengthen Europe's leadership in the global quantum standardisation landscape and ensure that European industrial and research priorities are well represented and integrated into emerging standards. Expected outcomes include: Delivery of concrete, EU-relevant pre-normative standards and technical specifications across quantum computing, communication, and sensing. Substantial contribution of European stakeholders, notably SMEs and start-ups in international standardisation bodies (e.g., ISO/IEC, ITU-T, ETSI), with alignment to EU industrial strategies. Promotion of cross-sectoral interoperability through standardised interfaces, control protocols, reliability in operating conditions and benchmarking methodologies, reducing market fragmentation and technical barriers. Creation of practical support tools such as user guidelines, training modules, and best practices to accelerate the uptake and implementation of quantum…

Expected Impact: The developed solutions should demonstrate their potential in concrete terms through the execution of a first roll-out stage during the project life-cycle, with a strong uptake strategy guiding their future adoption after the end of the project. The sustainability of the results and their continued benefits to users is a key ambition of this call for proposals. The project is furthermore expected to make a strong impact for the wider ecosystem of European decentralised social media. The insights gained on youth needs and desires on mental-health and inclusivity friendly social media should benefit the wider community of stakeholders in this space, and wherever possible developed technology should contribute to the software stacks of the ActivityPub and ATProtocol communities. Finally, the project should generate insights on the opportunities and challenges for decentralised social media as a genuine and widely used alternative to non-decentralised services, and contribute to the understanding of the key factors that would allow EU tech start-ups in the space to scale and succeed. Through the specific focus on youth audiences, the project may also provide use cases…

Expected Outcome: Proposals are expected to contribute to the following outcomes: Steer a European agenda to catalyse the development of a full software defined and hardware-enabled vehicle AD stack “built in Europe”, from onboard-compute architecture up to software in-vehicle up to the cloud. Establish structured intersectoral linkages between software, AI/data, hardware and deployment actors, ensuring that architectural decisions in the European AD stack are aligned across computing platforms, AI models, validation frameworks and real-world deployment environments. Promote a European R&I roadmap establishing pathways for the accelerated development of a European AI-powered AD stack, notably in close liaison with the relevant ECAVA Working Groups and relevant OSS initiatives. Ensure the engagement of key stakeholders across the Automotive value chain (including relevant OSS initiatives) toward an open-source software autonomous driving stack, including required industrial partners (such as OEMs, suppliers, tool-providers), and innovative R&I stakeholders (RTOs, universities, start-ups. If useful, already existing OSS AD stack initiatives together with the reference stacks (as…

Expected Outcome: Project results are expected to contribute to the following outcomes: Increased commercialisation of academic research results, by facilitating access for industry, startups and scaleups to the intellectual assets of academic research; Strengthened collaboration between industry and academia, reflected in an increased number of technology transfer deals and joint R&D projects resulting in market-ready innovations; Introduced more startup friendly intellectual asset transfer/licensing policies in universities/research and higher education institutions/RTOs; Increased number of spinoffs by enabling researchers to overcome the barriers to commercialising their intellectual assets; Reduced transaction costs related to Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) negotiations by establishing more standardised asset transfer policies across universities/research and higher education institutions/RTOs; Optimised transfer/licensing processes by universities/research and higher education institutions/RTOs based on grouping intellectual assets in portfolios that can be commercialised in package deals that are more attractive for industry and investors. Scope: Academic knowledge…

Expected Outcome: One or more of the following should be covered: Implementation of guidelines, standardised processes, or manuals – in the EU or multiple EU MS – concerning the most challenging issues, supporting specific stakeholders and sectors addressed by cybersecurity legislation. Develop and implement tools, raise awareness and encourage and facilitate industry uptake, with a focus on SMEs, of conformity assessments of essential cybersecurity requirements for products with digital elements (hardware and software) under the CRA. Support for mechanisms reducing the administrative burden for entities, like single entry point for incident notification. Establish secure communication channels allowing for cooperation and information sharing initiatives. Support the organisation of regular meetings/workshops to identify good practices within specific sectors or emerging areas and facilitate collaborative efforts between different sectors. Support the development of training courses, on the basis of the ECSF and exercises that promote capacity building and internal awareness. Contribution to CR standardisation: Training materials and training actions on cybersecurity certification…

Expected Outcome: Support the adoption of market-ready innovative AI-powered cybersecurity solutions, including solutions developed in the framework of EU-supported research and innovation projects. Provide and deploy up to date AI-powered tools and services to organisations (in particular SMEs) to prepare, protect and respond to cybersecurity threats. Integrate AI technologies into cybersecurity processes to improve the security of ICT solutions, including providing innovative approaches to training employees to use AI solutions for cybersecurity. Deployment of cybersecure tools and technologies relying on trustworthy AI; AI driven cybersecurity tools; Integration of tools to protect and secure AI solutions. Objective: To support the market uptake and dissemination of innovative AI-powered cybersecurity solutions (notably in SMEs, possibly using results stemming from Horizon Europe projects or similar) and improve knowledge and auditing of cybersecurity preparedness. SMEs often lack the resources to assess cyber risks, develop cybersecurity strategies and implement solutions, leaving them vulnerable to cyberattacks. The resilience of organisations that fall into this category is…

Scope: The proposals must address innovative defence products, solutions and technologies, including those that can improve readiness, deployability, reliability, safety and sustainability of forces in defence tasks and missions, for example in terms of operations, equipment, infrastructure, energy solutions, surveillance systems or digital solutions. Proposals must address disruptive knowledge, products and technologies in any area of defence interest( [1] ) from TRL 4 and above( [1] ). In addition, to best complement R&D efforts that already target civil applications and encourage the efficient spinning-in of knowledge, innovation and technological development to the defence sector, this call topic also welcomes proposals for add-on development actions to adapt solutions originally developed for civil applications and previously not applied in the defence sector. Management mode: Action implemented in indirect management by the European Defence Agency. Form of funding: Contribution Agreement. Entrusted tasks : Implementation of lump sum grants , as decided by the Commission at the time of the awards following the competitive call EDF-2026-LS-DA-SME-NT. Targeted types of…

Expected Outcome: Deliverables: ​​​​​​ Three open calls for pilots (at least one call per year) launched and managed providing financial support to third parties to at least 20 EdTech start-ups/SMEs from across Member States and eligible countries. A minimum of 60% of the total budget should be spent on Financial Support for Third Parties (FSTP) and the maximum amount per third party can amount up to 150.000 EUR to allow short pilots testing in real education or training environments; Developed and implemented a yearly 12-months incubation and acceleration programme providing a mix of mentoring, networking services, consultancy, training and/or business and access-to-market support to the selected companies; Short pilots implemented in real education and training environments to gather impact assessment data of the selected solutions. Human-centric design methods involving users and strong linkages with learning design methodologies are recommended for the piloting phase. European-wide communication and awareness raising activities; At least one big event per year organised to reach a large number of investors, market partners, ministries of education (or other ministries),…

Expected Impact: Proposals should present the concrete results which will be delivered by the activities and demonstrate how these results will contribute to the topic-specific impacts. This demonstration should rely on a solid analysis of the current situation, realistic assumptions and baselines, and establish clear causality links between activities, results and impacts. In terms of qualitative impact, proposals under this topic should demonstrate how they will contribute to the following outcomes: Integrated services fully implemented, operational and tested before the end of the project evidenced, for example, by established infrastructure, formalised partnerships, recruited staff, and launched outreach activities. During a pilot phase, proposals must trigger the first investments that validate the service concept, with the understanding that actual delivery at the worksites, comprehensive scaling of activities and subsequent investments will continue beyond the project’s completion. Strong and trustworthy partnerships with local actors, such as SMEs, architects, engineers, energy service companies (ESCOs), financial institutions, chambers of commerce, professional…

Expected Impact: FOR ALL THREE THEMATIC PRIORITIES: Expected impact at the closure of the project (non-exhaustive list): Innovative technologies tested and adopted by the market; Innovative solutions deployed improving businesses confidence, competences and means to digitalise and grow; Contribution to digitisation and health systems transformation, through various types of innovation and the supply of IT services; Uptake of technologically/economically reliable and viable solutions on the market; Deployment of new technologies fostering the growth of Europe’s manufacturing sector; Innovative technologies adopted by SMEs; Identification of possible sources of funding/funding mix, to cover the residual investment needs (public-private partnerships for the deployment of innovation, the collaboration with venture capitals, EIB group loans etc); Strengthening innovation diffusion channels; Reinforcing the capacity of regions to co-invest together, joining forces on common S3 investment priorities (interregional investments). Long-term impact (non-exhaustive list): Increased companies’ productivity and efficiency; Improved user-friendly, accessible and interoperable public…

Expected Impact: FOR ALL THREE THEMATIC PRIORITIES: Expected impact at the closure of the project (non-exhaustive list): Creation of new value chains in less developed regions and transition regions; Application and deployment of innovative technologies and solutions (new to the region) in less developed and transition regions (innovation diffusion); Exploitation of project results; Innovative technologies tested and adopted by the market; Innovative solutions deployed improving businesses confidence, competences and means to digitalise and grow; Contribution to digitisation and health systems transformation, through various types of innovation and the supply of IT services; Uptake of technologically/economically reliable and viable solutions on the market; Deployment of new technologies fostering the growth of Europe’s manufacturing sector; Innovative technologies adopted by SMEs; Identification of possible sources of funding/funding mix, to cover the residual investment needs (public-private partnerships for the deployment of innovation, the collaboration with venture capitals, EIB group loans etc); Strengthening innovation diffusion channels; Reinforcing the capacity of regions…

Expected Outcome: Project results are expected to contribute to the following outcomes: For supported doctoral candidates New research and transferable skills and competences, leading to improved employability and career prospects within and outside academia; New knowledge allowing the conversion of ideas into products and services, where relevant; Enhanced networking and communication capacities with scientific peers, as well as with the general public that will increase and broaden the research and innovation impact. For participating organisations Improved quality, relevance and sustainability of doctoral training programmes and supervision arrangements; Enhanced cooperation and transfer of knowledge between sectors and disciplines; Increased integration of training and research activities between participating organisations; Boosted R&I capacity; Increased internationalisation and attractiveness; Regular feedback of research results into teaching and education at participating organisations. Scope: MSCA Doctoral Networks will implement doctoral programmes, by partnerships of universities, research institutions and research infrastructures, businesses including SMEs, and other…

Scope: The EIC Accelerator supports companies (principally SMEs, including start-ups) to scale up high impact innovations with the potential to create new markets or disrupt existing ones. The EIC Accelerator provides a unique combination of grant and investment funding and Business Acceleration Services (see Section VII of EIC Work Programme 2026). The EIC Accelerator focuses in particular on innovations building on scientific discovery or technological breakthroughs (‘deep tech’) and where significant funding is needed over a long timeframe before returns can be generated (‘patient capital’). Such innovations often struggle to attract financing because the risks and time period involved are too high. Funding and support from the EIC Accelerator is designed to enable such innovators to attract the full investment amounts needed for scale up in a shorter timeframe. The EIC Accelerator supports the later stages of technology development as well as scale up. The technology component of your innovation must therefore have been tested and validated in a laboratory and other relevant environment (e.g., at least Technology Readiness Level 5 completed). The EIC Accelerator looks to…