Funds & Grants

The European Innovation Council's 2027 work programme also includes €400 million for the Scaleup Europe Fund The European Innovation Council (EIC) is set to open calls worth €1.3 billion in grants and equity next year, according to the latest draft of its 2027 work programme, which is due to be adopted in the coming weeks. Below, we summarise the key details of the 2027 calls, as well as changes made to application rules for the final year of the current programme. EIC Transition The EIC Transition, which helps to mature and further validate the results of previous EU-funded projects, is set to receive €92 million, slightly down on this year's €100 million. EIC Advanced Innovation Challenges pilot Next year will also see the launch of Stage 2 of the EIC's Advanced Innovation Challenges, a pilot initiative modelled on the approach of the US Advanced Research Projects Agencies launched with an eye on the post-2027 Horizon Europe programme.

The call is offering up to €1.25 million per project over 18 months, with a total budget of €40 million, to strengthen innovation and entrepreneurship capacity in higher education, focusing on manufacturing and deep tech. Projects will focus on three key areas: STEM talent for innovation and entrepreneurship: Developing innovation, entrepreneurship and intellectual property skills among students and staff in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and related fields. To be eligible, consortia must meet the following requirements: Consortium composition: Each consortium must include at least five funded partners: at least three HEIs (from three different Horizon Europe-eligible countries, including at least one EU Member State) and at least two business/industry partners and/or business/industry representative organisations (e.g. SMEs, startups, larger enterprises and industry associations). How to apply Consortia of higher education institutions, businesses, research organisations, public bodies and other non-academic partners can prepare their applications by consulting the full call text and finding potential partners through the matchmaking platform.

Han är bland annat känd för sin innovation inom sedelhantering i bankomater och för att ha grundat Entrepreneurship and Small Business Research Institute i syfte att stärka kunskapen om och förutsättningarna för entreprenörskap i Sverige. – Det gläder mig att kunna hedra min fars livsgärning genom att stödja Forska!Sveriges verksamhet, och med den nya utmärkelsen uppmärksamma personer som gjort det möjligt för patienter att få del av de senaste forskningsframstegen, säger Ulrika Lundblad. – Vi på Forska!Sverige är mycket tacksamma över stödet och ser fram emot att än mer lyfta värdet av entreprenörer som tar avancerade idéer hela vägen från forskning och innovation till lösningar som skapar hälsa och välstånd. Utmärkelsen ska uppmärksamma personer som vågar och lyckas utveckla avancerade projekt till en framgångsrik affär som bidrar till ökad hälsa och Sveriges välstånd och som framstår som en förebild och inspiration för andra.

Caribou's announcement triggered speculation that it could become the target of a reverse merger — a type of deal that allows private companies to pair with public shell companies, which can allow them to raise funds on the public market while bypassing a traditional IPO process. Then, in late September, Mineva announced on LinkedIn that because the fundraising environment was hesitant to back new therapeutic targets without clinical data," Adecto had hit the end of its financial runway and "officially closed its doors." "We remain deeply convinced that ADAM8-targeted therapies and diagnostics will one day be an essential part of the cancer standard of care. Leveraging machine learning techniques and what it described as the "largest database of nascent-RNA sequences in the world," the startup created a platform to screen drug libraries for their effects on "thousands of gene and non-coding transcripts." The approach allowed "for the first time, the design of molecules to modulate not just a single target, but a cell's entire transcriptome," according to Arpeggio's founder and CEO Joey Azofeifa in a statement. After an initial $3.2 million seed funding round in 2020, Arpeggio announced a $17 million series A haul in 2022, saying it had contracted with more than 40 pharma companies to "assess the impact of diverse classes of molecules on cellular transcription." But after its lead program for a small molecule NRF2 degrader in non-small-cell lung cancer began to "unravel," Azofeifa posted on LinkedIn in August that Arpeggio had decided the previous month to "wind down." "Drug discovery is hard," Azofeifa wrote in his post, explaining that the startup was ultimately "unable to separate the molecule's efficacy from an off-target liability."

While maintaining a public governance model involving European and African countries, it brings together actors from the public and private sectors, investment, and expertise to advance infectious disease clinical research and strengthen research capacity. As a former member of Global Health EDCTP3's Stakeholders Group, IAVI's contribution extends beyond individual projects, from providing input on the scientific, strategic, and technological priorities of the programme, to supporting clinical development and planning for access, supply and eventual introduction of new products. In malaria, the WANECAM 3 project points to how a pharmaceutical company can bring its drug development expertise and research assets into a partnership with African and European researchers to advance a potential new treatment. For Novartis, a long-standing co-investor of the EDCTP programmes, this project partnership builds on decades of experience in malaria and gives the company an opportunity to put its research assets and development capabilities to work alongside academic and clinical partners.