EIC Work Programme 2027: what changes for applicants

I am a Verified Expert Evaluator. I have reviewed more than 3,700 companies and proposals, and I help companies apply. This article is based on the adopted Work Programme 2027 and on the 2026 text. Where I add a calculation or an opinion, I label it as "my calculation" or "my read".

2026 and 2027 side by side

The Director-General may delay a cut-off by up to two months, and the Guide for Applicants v6.0 and the templates online are still the 2026 ones. The 2027 versions are not published yet. Confirm every date on the Funding & Tenders Portal, and see the EU funding deadlines page for the wider calendar.

EIC Accelerator

Fewer cut-offs, two interview sessions

The full-proposal cut-offs are 20 January, 17 March, 1 September and 4 November 2027, all at 17:00 Brussels time. There is nothing between 17 March and 1 September. Interviews are grouped into two jury sessions, each after two batches, where 2026 had three. The short application is unchanged in logic: you can submit at any time, proposals are batched on the first Tuesday of each month, and results take about four to six weeks. It is a 12-page form, a deck of up to 10 slides and a video of up to 3 minutes. A GO on a short proposal under the 2026 Work Programme can go to the 2027 batches.

My read: the practical effect is timing. If you miss 17 March, the next date is more than five months away. The short application is the part you control, so I would not leave it to the last quarter. The Guide for Applicants for 2027 is not out, so I cannot tell you how long a GO stays valid under the new rules. Check that point when it appears.

What stays the same

The full proposal is up to 20 pages. The threshold is still 13/15 overall and 4/5 per criterion. TRL 5 must be completed at the time of application. Grants stay below EUR 2.5 million, covering 70% of eligible costs, and equity investments run from EUR 1 million to 10 million.

The money

The Accelerator budget is EUR 578 million: Open EUR 428 million and Challenges EUR 150 million. In 2026 it was EUR 634 million, of which Open 414 and Challenges 220. The grant part is EUR 231 million (171 + 60) against EUR 253 million in 2026. The Work Programme says the budget is split roughly equally across interview sessions. My calculation: that gives about EUR 115 million of grant budget per session in 2027, against about EUR 84 million per session in 2026. It says nothing about how many companies will be funded or about your chances.

Challenges and the GO Reserve

The 2027 Challenges and their budgets are in-situ ocean observation (EUR 30 million), climate-neutral and smart cities (EUR 50 million), alternative concepts for fusion power plants (EUR 20 million), and carbon removal and utilisation (EUR 50 million). The 2026 Challenges on materials for renewables and storage, soil biotech, critical raw materials and climate adaptation do not return. Unused Challenge budget moves to Open proposals aligned with the Challenge scope.

There is a new reserve list called "GO Reserve", used in the second interview session only. A proposal on it is funded only if budget becomes available after the 2027 selected proposals. It is not a promise of funding, and I would not plan cash around it.

Smaller changes that can matter

• Dual-use is allowed in the Accelerator, with no preferential treatment.
• Medical devices: the status of "breakthrough" devices (the MDCG/EMA pilot) is taken into consideration.
• EIC Fund cooperation: lack of cooperation with the EIC Fund (KYC/AML checks, information, co-investor talks that are within the company's control) can lead to suspended payments or to the end of the grant. If you plan blended finance, treat these as obligations, not formalities.

The three-attempts rule: a wording change, not a new rule

The limit is not new: three unsuccessful submissions, at any stage, in any form of support, for the rest of Horizon Europe. What changes is the wording. The 2026 Work Programme said "three unsuccessful submissions of the same/improved proposal by the same legal entity". The Guide for Applicants v6.0 (November 2025) already said "three unsuccessful submissions to the EIC Accelerator" without that qualifier. The 2027 text says "three unsuccessful submissions by the same legal entity", and the Work Programme calls this "simplified resubmission rules". A company can no longer argue that a different proposal restarts the count. For a single-project start-up nothing changes in practice. Whether earlier attempts with a different proposal count is not stated, so it is unclear. Ask at the Info Day. Withdrawing a proposal before you receive the evaluation result does not count towards the limit (Guide v6.0).

EIC Pathfinder

Pathfinder Open has EUR 166 million, grants up to EUR 4 million at 100%, and is for consortia only (at least three entities from three countries). It is now two stages. The call opens on 25 November 2026.

• Stage 1, 25 February 2027: Excellence and Impact only, up to 10 pages, threshold 4/5 on both, weights 60/40. Letters of commitment are required from every organisation, otherwise the proposal is ineligible. Proposals are invited to Stage 2 from the top until the requested funding reaches 2.5 times the budget.
• Stage 2, 16 September 2027: up to 23 pages. Thresholds are Excellence 4/5, Impact 4/5 (3.5/5 in 2026) and Implementation 3/5. There is an interview with a 10-minute pitch, about 10 to 14 weeks after the deadline.

2026 was a single stage of 22 pages with no interview. Pathfinder Challenges has EUR 82 million, opens on 27 May 2027 and closes on 29 September 2027. The themes are advanced materials for electricity generation, storage and transmission, safe continual learning for reliable AI agents (CLOWAI), and quantum energetics.

My read: the new first stage lowers the cost of trying, since you write 10 pages before 23. The consortium still has to be assembled and the letters of commitment collected before 25 February, which is where I would expect the time to go.

EIC Transition

The budget is EUR 92 million (EUR 100 million in 2026). The call opens on 30 April 2027. The deadline is 16 September 2027 in the call text and 14 September in the Work Programme summary table, so confirm it on the Funding & Tenders Portal. The rules are tighter.

• Who: single applicants only (SME, start-up, research organisation). Larger companies are not eligible. Partners of the original project can take part only as affiliated entities, associated partners or subcontractors.
• Letter of intent from a potential customer or user is an admissibility requirement. It must not be paid for and may be verified. A video pitch of 3 to 5 minutes is required.
• Grant: above EUR 0.5 million and below EUR 2.5 million, 1 to 3 years, 100%.
• Starting point: results must come from eligible projects, at TRL 3 completed and not beyond TRL 4, aiming to complete TRL 5 or beyond. ERC Proof of Concept and Research Infrastructures projects under Horizon 2020, and FET Innovation Launchpad, are out in 2027. Results of a Transition project cannot reapply.
• Evaluation: the Implementation threshold rises to 4/5 (3/5 in 2026). Up to 2.5 times the budget is invited to interview, against about 2.2 in 2026.
• First-year KPIs: a review can stop the project. The Work Programme calls it a "fail fast" strategy.

Other schemes

Advanced Innovation Challenges is Stage 2 only, on 15 June 2027, with EUR 25 million, restricted to Stage 1 projects. It is not a door for new applicants. STEP Scale Up has EUR 290 million for equity of EUR 10 to 30 million, with batches on 25 November 2026 and then 28 January, 29 April, 6 September and 24 November 2027. The fourth batch does not take place if the budget is fully allocated by the third. STEP Defence has EUR 100 million in a single batch on 1 June 2027. STEP and STEP Defence share the limit of three. The Scaleup Europe Fund is EUR 400 million in 2027, within EUR 1 billion in total from the EIC, aiming at about EUR 5 billion. For Women TechEU the grant rises from EUR 75,000 to EUR 150,000 per start-up.

What I would do if I were applying in 2027

1. Decide which scheme you are, not which is largest. Pathfinder is consortia only, Transition needs results from an eligible project, and the Accelerator needs TRL 5 completed. If none fits, look at alternatives to the EIC Accelerator.
2. For the Accelerator, work backwards from the cut-offs. Pick the full-proposal date you can honestly hit, count four to six weeks for the short-application result, and do not try to catch 17 March with a draft. A proposal that needs another quarter belongs at 1 September.
3. Check where you stand before you spend an attempt. You have three unsuccessful submissions in total, so a rushed one has a real cost. The EIC readiness check is free, and the EUR 650 EIC Fit Assessment reads your project the way an evaluator would.
4. Look at the Challenges only if your project truly sits in scope. My read: with Challenges at EUR 150 million instead of 220, and unused Challenge budget moving to Open proposals aligned with the scope, a forced fit to a theme is a weaker bet than a strong Open proposal.
5. For Transition and Pathfinder, start with the paperwork. Letters of intent, letters of commitment and the consortium take longer than the writing.
6. Use the Info Days. General on 19 November 2026, Accelerator Challenges on 20 November 2026. Bring the question about earlier attempts and the validity of a GO.

For the full process, read my article on the 2026 changes and the EIC Accelerator application guide.

Questions