EIC Accelerator timeline: from application to first payment

I am a Verified Expert Evaluator. I have reviewed more than 3,700 companies and proposals, and I help companies apply. This article uses the adopted EIC Work Programme 2027 and the Guide for Applicants v6.0. The Guide was written for 2026, so I say so each time I cite it. Where I add a calculation or an opinion, I label it as "my calculation" or "my read".

The process step by step

This table lists each step with the timing the EIC gives. Nothing in the third column is mine. If a step has no published timing, the table says so.

Stage 1: the short proposal

You may submit a short proposal at any time. There is no cut-off for this stage. The EIC batches what has arrived on the first Tuesday of every month at 17:00 Brussels time and sends the batch to four evaluators. You are told the result within approximately 4 to 6 weeks of that batching date. Note that the clock starts at the batching date, not the day you press submit. A proposal submitted the day after a batching date waits for the next first Tuesday before it is even sent out.

A GO needs at least three of the four evaluators. After a GO you may get 3 days of remote coaching, once per proposal. A GO obtained under the 2026 or 2027 Work Programme can go to any of the 2027 full-proposal batches. For how evaluators score, see my article on how EIC evaluators assign scores.

Stage 2: the full proposal and the technology expert

The full proposal goes into a batch. In 2027 the batches are 20 January, 17 March, 1 September and 4 November, all at 17:00 Brussels time. The Director-General responsible may delay a cut-off by up to two months, so a date on this page is a plan, not a promise.

About 3 to 4 weeks after the batching date you have an online interview with the technology expert. It lasts one hour, at most three people from your side can join, and consultants are not allowed. This interval comes from the Guide for Applicants v6.0, written for 2026. The Work Programme 2027 confirms that there is an online meeting with the technology expert but does not repeat the interval, so check it when the 2027 Guide is published.

Approximately 8 to 9 weeks after the batching date you are told the result of the evaluation panels. Both the Work Programme 2027 and the Guide give this interval. My EIC Accelerator application guide covers what the panels look at.

Stage 3: the jury interview session

The work programme says an interview session is organised after each second batch, and that interview sessions with EIC juries take place two times per year. Dates are published on the EIC website, and for 2027 they are not out yet. You are invited at least two weeks in advance (the Guide says approximately three weeks). The Guide, written for 2026, says the interview is face to face in Brussels. I explain how to prepare in my article on the Step 3 jury interview.

The jury result comes approximately 2 to 3 weeks after the end of the interview session (the Guide says approximately 3 weeks). In the second session of the year, there may be a "GO Reserve" list. A proposal on it is funded only if budget becomes available after all the 2027 cut-offs are funded.

After a GO: grant agreement and first payment

After selection, the grant agreement is prepared. In exceptional cases there are prerequisites to meet before signature. The Work Programme gives no duration for this, and it does not set a time-to-grant target for the Accelerator. Other EIC calls have one; the Accelerator text does not, and I will not borrow those figures.

When the agreement is signed, you receive a first pre-financing payment under its provisions. The Work Programme does not say how soon after signature that payment arrives. It does say how big it normally is, and two rules matter for planning:

• The 160% rule. Pre-financing is normally 160% of the average EU funding per reporting period, which is the maximum grant divided by the number of reporting periods. It is less if there is only one reporting period, and exceptionally less or none. My read: with several reporting periods this means the first payment is a part of the grant, not the whole of it.
• The mutual insurance deduction. An amount between 5% and 8% of the maximum grant is deducted from the pre-financing for the mutual insurance mechanism. So the first transfer is smaller than the pre-financing figure.

If the financial capacity check is not satisfactory, the pre-financing can be paid in instalments or not at all. Do not build a cash plan that depends on the first payment landing on a given day.

The equity component

If you were selected for blended finance, the grant and the investment come from a single award decision. The EIC Fund and the EIB carry out due diligence on the investment. The Work Programme says this is usually approximately two to six months since the selection for funding.

Two further rules matter. If no investment round is foreseen within six months, the company is taken out of the investment process and can re-enter within the grant period plus 12 months. For equity-only support, that is 12 months from the award decision. And due diligence may conclude that the company is not yet mature. Then the grant goes first and the investment depends on milestones, with a decision during the project or within one year after it ends. The project itself should normally be completed within 24 months, but may be longer in well justified cases.

The 2027 calendar

The table below puts the 2027 batches next to the panel result window. The window is my calculation: the batching date plus the official 8 to 9 weeks. It is not an EIC date, and a delayed cut-off moves it. The last column is my read of the pairing.

The gap between 17 March and 1 September is a fact of the calendar. For the wider picture of dates and what changed from 2026, see my article on the EIC Work Programme 2027 and the EU funding deadlines page.

How to plan backwards

The short proposal batches on the first Tuesday of the month. In 2027 those dates are 5 January, 2 February, 2 March, 6 April, 4 May, 1 June, 6 July, 3 August, 7 September, 5 October, 2 November and 7 December. Take the batching date, add the official 4 to 6 weeks, and you know when you can start the full proposal. My calculation for one case: a short proposal batched on 5 January gets its result in roughly the first half of February. My read: that leaves little time to write 20 pages and annexes before 17 March.

My read, and it is judgement, not a rule: if you are starting from nothing, do not aim at the nearest full-proposal batch. Pick the batch you can hit with a proposal you would be proud of, and work back from there. If you already hold a GO from 2026, you have no short-proposal wait at all, so the real question is only how much preparation time you need. Because of the pairing I described, the later batch of a pair costs you nothing in interview timing and buys you preparation. The free EIC readiness check shows where you stand before you spend an attempt, and the cost of an application is worth reading before you commit.

What nobody publishes

These gaps are where founders get surprised, so I list them plainly:

• No total duration. The EIC gives no end-to-end figure from short proposal to money. Any total you read is someone adding intervals, and it is only as good as the missing ones.
• No grant agreement preparation time. The Accelerator text sets no duration and no time-to-grant target.
• No payment date for the first pre-financing. The Work Programme says you receive it under the grant agreement, with no number of days after signature.
• No 2027 interview session dates. They are to be published on the EIC website.
• No 2027 Guide for Applicants yet. The Guide I cite, v6.0, was written for 2026, so the technology expert interval and the invitation period may change.

The honest summary is that you can add up the official steps up to the jury result, and after that you are planning around gaps. Ask the EIC at the Info Days about the missing intervals, and ask your own company what it needs in cash while it waits.

If you want me to look at whether your project is ready to enter this process, and in which batch, that is what the fit assessment is for.

Questions