European Innovation Council (EIC) 2024 Work Programme
This comprehensive document details the EIC’s strategic approach, funding opportunities, and support services for groundbreaking innovations and technologies in various fields.
- Introduction and Overview (Pages 5-6): Start with the introduction and overview sections to gain a foundational understanding of the EIC’s goals, key performance indicators, and an outline of the 2024 Work Programme. This will provide context for the rest of the document.
- EIC Pathfinder (Pages 22-49): If you’re interested in advanced research with the potential to develop breakthrough technologies, the EIC Pathfinder section is essential. It covers the EIC Pathfinder Open and Pathfinder Challenges, offering insights into the types of projects supported, application criteria, and support available.
- EIC Transition (Pages 49-60): For those looking to translate advanced technologies into marketable innovations, the EIC Transition section is highly relevant. It details support for bringing these technologies closer to market readiness.
- EIC Accelerator (Pages 60-96): If you’re focused on start-ups or SMEs with innovative technologies ready for scaling, the EIC Accelerator section is crucial. It provides information on how the EIC supports market-creating innovations, including funding and investment details.
- EIC Business Acceleration Services (Pages 96-100): This section is valuable for understanding the additional support offered by the EIC, including coaching, mentoring, and networking opportunities.
- EIC Prizes (Pages 100-113): This part details various innovation prizes, providing opportunities for additional recognition and funding.
- Glossary (Pages 16, 806-835): Finally, the glossary offers clear definitions of terms and concepts used throughout the document, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of the content.
Each of these sections offers unique insights and information depending on your specific interests, whether it’s in deep-tech research, transitioning technologies to the market, scaling up innovative startups, or understanding the broader EIC ecosystem.
What exactly are the EIC Challenges about?
The EIC Challenges in the 2024 Work Programme are focused initiatives aimed at solving specific, high-impact problems through breakthrough technologies and innovations. They are part of the EIC Pathfinder scheme, designed to support interdisciplinary research and development at the cutting edge of science and technology. Here are the key details of the EIC Challenges:
- Specific Objectives: Each EIC Challenge has a distinct objective addressing critical societal, environmental, or economic issues. These objectives are formulated based on their potential to create significant impacts and foster pioneering innovations.
- Targeted Research Areas: The challenges are aligned with specific research areas that require novel approaches and innovative solutions. These areas are carefully chosen based on current technological gaps and future potential.
- Interdisciplinary Approach: The challenges encourage a cross-disciplinary approach, combining expertise from different scientific and technological fields. This is essential for tackling complex problems that cannot be addressed through a single discipline.
- Funding and Support: The EIC provides substantial funding and support to selected projects. This includes financial support for research activities, as well as access to a range of innovation support services and networking opportunities.
- Collaboration and Consortia: Applicants are often encouraged to form consortia, bringing together diverse teams from academia, industry, and other sectors. This collaborative approach is key to driving innovation and ensuring the applicability of research outcomes.
- Expected Outcomes: The EIC Challenges aim for tangible, high-impact outcomes that can lead to breakthroughs in their respective fields. This could include the development of new technologies, processes, or products that have the potential for significant societal or economic benefits.
- Application and Evaluation Process: The challenges have a specific application process, where proposals are evaluated based on their innovative potential, the capability of the team, and the potential impact of the project.
- Long-Term Vision: Beyond immediate research goals, the challenges are part of the EIC’s broader vision to foster a vibrant European innovation ecosystem and maintain Europe’s competitive edge in strategic technology sectors.
These challenges represent an opportunity for researchers and innovators to contribute to transformative projects with the potential for far-reaching impacts.
What are the EIC Accelerator Challenges?
The EIC Accelerator Challenges for 2024 are focused on supporting high-impact innovations in several key areas. Here’s a detailed look at each of these challenges:
- Human Centric Generative AI Made in Europe: This challenge emphasizes the development of artificial intelligence technologies that prioritize ethical considerations and human-centric principles, ensuring that AI development aligns with European values and standards.
- Enabling Virtual Worlds and Augmented Interaction in High-Impact Applications to Support the Realisation of Industry 5.0: This challenge aims to advance technologies in virtual and augmented reality, contributing to the evolution of Industry 5.0. It focuses on applications that can significantly impact various sectors, including manufacturing, healthcare, and education.
- Enabling the Smart Edge and Quantum Technology Components: This challenge is centered around the development of advanced technologies in the realm of edge computing and quantum computing. It seeks to foster innovations that can enhance computational power and efficiency, especially in applications requiring rapid data processing and analysis.
- Food from Precision Fermentation and Algae: Here, the focus is on innovative methods for food production, particularly through precision fermentation and algae-based systems. This challenge addresses the need for sustainable and scalable food production techniques, which are crucial for meeting global food demand and reducing environmental impact.
- Monoclonal Antibody-Based Therapeutics for New Variants of Emerging Viruses: This challenge is in the field of biomedicine, specifically the development of monoclonal antibody treatments for emerging viral diseases. It aims to accelerate the creation of effective therapies to combat new variants of viruses, enhancing pandemic preparedness and response.
- Renewable Energy Sources and Their Whole Value Chain Including Materials Development and Recycling of Components: This challenge focuses on the entire value chain of renewable energy, from materials development to the recycling of components. It seeks to promote innovations that can improve the efficiency, sustainability, and scalability of renewable energy sources.
Each of these challenges is designed to address critical areas where innovation can have a profound impact on society, the environment, and the economy.
EIC Accelerator Challenge 1: Human Centric Generative AI made in Europe
The “Human Centric Generative AI made in Europe” challenge, as part of the EIC Accelerator 2024 Work Programme, addresses the rapidly evolving field of generative AI and its potential to revolutionize various sectors. Here’s a detailed breakdown of this challenge:
Background and Scope
- Rise of Generative AI: Acknowledges the significant advancements in AI that enhance human capabilities, potentially boosting productivity across sectors and leading to socio-economic changes.
- Revolution in Human-Computer Interaction: Emphasizes the potential of generative AI to create more intuitive, conversational, and adaptive experiences.
- Current Limitations: Recognizes that current generative AI models operate more on prediction than understanding and that their full capabilities and risks are not yet completely known.
Specific Objectives
- Development Goals: The challenge aims to support:
- Foundation Language and Multimodal ‘Frontier’ Models: These are expected to perform equivalently or better than current state-of-the-art large generative models, addressing the needs of the European user industry, scientists, public sector, and citizens.
- Smaller Foundation Models: Targeted for high performance in specific domains, competing with larger models.
- Technological Improvements: Encourages developments in areas like reliable content generation (minimizing fictional elements) and enhancing transparency and traceability.
Targeted Applicants
- Primary Applicants: Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) developing these AI models.
- Secondary Applicants: SMEs providing infrastructure development tools and support to AI developers, focusing on efficient use of existing models and addressing issues like hallucination or limited knowledge.
Commitment to European Values
- European-Value Driven AI: Applicants are expected to demonstrate a commitment to developing AI that aligns with European values, ensuring a competitive advantage and de-risking future investments.
Expected Outcomes and Impacts
- Compliance with EU Standards: The developed AI models should comply with the EU concept for Trustworthy AI and the (draft) AI Act, focusing on data quality, transparency, privacy, and security.
- Long-Term Expectations: The challenge seeks to reduce dependencies, support European companies, enhance products, and develop new ones.
Access and Support
- Supercomputing Resources: Beneficiaries will have access to European supercomputing resources for training large foundation models.
- Strategic Partnerships and Capital: Opportunities to create partnerships with major industries and attract further capital.
Specific Conditions
- Robust Development: Emphasis on safety, security, and ethics in future applications.
- Safeguarding EU Interests: Avoiding technological dependency on non-EU sources, in line with EU’s strategic assets, interests, autonomy, and security.
Budget
- Allocated Funding: An indicative budget of EUR 50 million for this challenge.
EIC Accelerator Challenge 2: Enabling Virtual Worlds and Augmented Interaction in High-Impact Applications to Support the Realisation of Industry 5.0
The “Enabling Virtual Worlds and Augmented Interaction in High-Impact Applications to Support the Realisation of Industry 5.0” challenge is part of the EIC Accelerator 2024 Work Programme. This challenge is focused on harnessing the potential of virtual worlds and augmented interaction for industrial applications, aligning with the principles of Industry 5.0. Here’s a detailed overview:
Background and Scope
- Digital Decade Impact: Virtual worlds are poised to significantly influence Europe’s Digital Decade, transforming business operations, innovation, production, and customer interactions.
- Principles of Industry 5.0: The challenge emphasizes sustainability, human-centric approaches, and resilience, aiming to scale up innovations for platforms, middleware, tools, and devices.
- Technical Viability: It acknowledges the recent feasibility of virtual worlds due to technological advancements and improved connectivity infrastructure.
- Human-Centric and Cross-Sector Approach: Emphasizes the need for a human-centric design and deployment, involving end-users and fostering cross-sector cooperation.
Specific Objectives
- Advanced Virtual Worlds Technology Solutions: Development and deployment of solutions that are human-centric, sustainable, and resilient. Key areas include:
- Artificial Intelligence: Intelligent agents for creating adaptive virtual worlds, enhancing immersive experiences in contexts like innovation management, remote working, etc.
- Distributed Ledger Technology: For secure transactions and digital asset management in industrial applications.
- Spatial Computing and Location Mapping: For spatially aware applications, positioning, and realistic simulations.
- Digital Twins: For transport technologies, urban mobility systems, and industrial performance optimization.
- Wearables and Smart Objects: To enhance interactions in virtual worlds, focusing on immersive experiences and ergonomics.
- AR/VR Solutions: For worker augmentation, learning, remote assistance, and skills training.
Expected Outcomes and Impacts
- Integration of Innovations: Proposals should integrate high-risk innovations with state-of-the-art technologies for demonstrable added value in high-impact markets.
- Enhancing Skills, Well-Being, and Industry Efficiency: Aims to improve skills, talent attraction, employee well-being, knowledge retention, cost-effectiveness, and resource efficiency in industry.
- Interoperability: Focuses on the free movement of users and tools between virtual worlds to avoid gatekeeping phenomena.
Specific Conditions
- Compliance with EU Standards: All AI models and tools developed or applied must comply with the EU concept for Trustworthy AI, ethical principles, and the (draft) AI Act. They must also adhere to human-centricity principles.
- Budget: An indicative budget of EUR 50 million is allocated for this challenge.
EIC Accelerator Challenge 3: Enabling the Smart Edge
The “Enabling the Smart Edge” challenge, as part of the EIC Accelerator 2024 Work Programme, focuses on advancing semiconductor components and integrated systems for next-generation smart edge devices. This challenge seeks to address the limitations of centralized cloud-based processing by bringing intelligence closer to the data source. Here’s an in-depth look at this challenge:
Background and Scope
- Concept of Smart Edge: Involves a range of devices situated near where data is acquired or generated.
- Advantages of Smart Edge: Includes reduced latency for real-time processing, bandwidth optimization, enhanced privacy and security by keeping sensitive data locally, and real-time decision-making without cloud or remote server reliance.
- Market Potential: Smart edge solutions are expected to grow significantly, driven by edge computing, IoT, and AI technologies.
Specific Objectives
- Development of Novel Components: Focus on semiconductor components and smart systems for edge devices. The challenge covers several key areas:
- Edge Processing: Design/integration of low-power processors, open-source cores, embedded SoCs, FPGAs, AI accelerators, and neuromorphic processors. Emphasis on low-latency, non-volatile memory, and security.
- Edge Sensing and Imaging: Development of components for data acquisition like optical sensors, Lidars, Radars, ToF sensing, biometric, environmental, chemical, and gas sensing, and MEMS.
- Edge Communication: Design/integration of connectivity technologies, including 5G/6G, low-power wireless communication, optical connectivity, mesh networking, and security protocols.
- Edge Power Management: Efficient power management components, dynamic power management, sleep mode optimization, and energy harvesting.
- Integrated Smart Edge Devices: Focus on System-on-Chip integration, System-in-Package, heterogeneous integration, and modular design for customized edge devices.
Expected Outcomes and Impacts
- Commercial Deployment: Proposals should show potential for deployment in key sectors like industrial automation, mobility, health, agri-food, security, and energy.
- Deep-Tech Innovations: Aim to create innovations that significantly impact smart edge applications, including:
- Industrial Automation: Enhancing productivity, reducing downtime, and improving safety.
- Mobility: Intelligent transportation systems, new mobility services, and models like automated vehicles.
- Smart Cities: Real-time monitoring of traffic, energy usage, and air quality.
- Health and Well-being: Remote patient monitoring and real-time medical data analysis.
- Agriculture: Enabling precision farming for efficiency and sustainability.
EIC Accelerator Challenge 4: Food from Precision Fermentation and Algae
The EIC Accelerator Challenge “Food from Precision Fermentation and Algae” focuses on innovative approaches to food production, addressing environmental and sustainability concerns. Here’s a detailed overview:
Background and Scope
- Current Agricultural Challenges: Intensive agricultural practices have led to severe soil degradation, affecting food production and ecosystem services. Climate change exacerbates these effects, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions and nutrient release.
- Growing Food Demand: With the human population increasing, there’s an estimated 60% rise in net food demand expected by 2050. This challenge aims to explore efficient, resilient, and sustainable complementary routes to food production.
Focus of the Challenge
- Decoupling Food Production from Soil: This challenge supports the production of food using precision fermentation and algae, independent of soil and environmental conditions.
- Viable Alternatives to Traditional Agriculture: It aims to develop foods rich in essential nutrients produced by bacteria, yeasts, fungi, and algae. These foods could offer comparable or superior nutritional value to traditional plant or animal-based foods.
Specific Objectives
- Sustainable and Nutritious Food Production: The challenge supports the production of sustainable and nutritious food that aligns with EU policies like the Soil Mission, Green Deal, Farm to Fork, Fit for 55, and REPowerEU.
- Innovative Production Processes: It focuses on novel production processes that are energy and resource-efficient, low-emission, and scalable. The innovations should allow customization of the final product to suit various environments, including those with extreme resource constraints.
- Interdisciplinary Solutions: Development and scaling up of solutions in areas like bacteria, yeast, or fungi-based fermentation systems, and macro- and micro-algae based novel aquaculture systems.
Expected Outcomes and Impacts
- Enhanced Sustainability and Efficiency: The challenge aims to improve the sustainability, efficiency, and resilience of the European food supply chain by minimizing environmental impacts and decoupling food production from soil.
- Technological Innovation and Market Disruption: Support for radical technological innovation with potential disruptive effects on existing markets to secure additional food sources.
- Addressing Climate Change and Environmental Challenges: Fosters EU leadership in scalable food production processes, offering healthier food alternatives and addressing biodiversity loss and pollution.
- Healthier Food Alternatives: Development of novel foods and processes may provide healthier options, potentially decreasing the incidence of food-related health conditions.
Budget
- Funding Allocation: An indicative budget of EUR 50 million is allocated for this challenge.
EIC Accelerator Challenge 5: Monoclonal Antibody-Based Therapeutics for New Variants of Emerging Viruses
The “Monoclonal Antibody-Based Therapeutics for New Variants of Emerging Viruses” challenge, part of the EIC Accelerator 2024 Work Programme, focuses on developing innovative therapies to combat emerging viral threats. This challenge is crucial in light of recent global health crises, like the COVID-19 pandemic, and the need for effective treatments against evolving viral variants. Here are the key aspects:
Background and Scope
- Pandemic Impact: Recognizes the disruptive impact of pandemics and the critical role of mRNA-based vaccines and therapeutics in response.
- Need for Variant-Proof Therapeutics: Highlights the necessity for developing therapeutics that remain effective against evolving virus variants.
- Monoclonal Antibodies (mAbs): Identifies mAbs as a promising solution for targeted antiviral therapy, especially beneficial for immunosuppressed individuals.
Specific Objectives
The challenge aims to develop strategic approaches for broad-spectrum mAbs-based therapeutics, specifically targeting new variants of emerging pathogens. The objectives include:
- Broad-Spectrum mAbs-Based Therapies: Developing therapies effective against a wide range of viral variants.
- Effective mAbs Therapies: Addressing issues like inter-individual variability in response to these therapies.
- Clinical Administration: Focusing on the administration of mAbs to outpatients, especially in overwhelmed healthcare settings.
- Rapid Production: Innovating in the production process to enable quick response to outbreaks.
- Administration Technologies: Developing new methods for easier and more effective administration of mAbs.
Expected Outcomes and Impacts
- Enhancing EU’s Pandemic Response: The challenge aims to strengthen the EU’s capability to respond to future pandemics by providing rapid solutions for virus detection and treatment development.
- Platform Development: Aiming to create a platform that ensures the efficacy of treatments against new variants that might be resistant to current mAbs.
- Budget: An indicative budget of EUR 50 million is allocated for this challenge.
This initiative is vital for advancing medical science in the face of evolving viral threats and ensuring preparedness for future pandemics.
EIC Accelerator Challenge 6: Renewable Energy Sources and Their Whole Value Chain Including Materials Development and Recycling of Components
The “Renewable Energy Sources and Their Whole Value Chain Including Materials Development and Recycling of Components” challenge, part of the EIC Accelerator 2024 Work Programme, focuses on advancing renewable energy systems to support the EU’s transition to a resource-efficient economy and address climate change. Here are the detailed aspects of this challenge:
Background and Scope
- Global Shift in Investments: In 2022, global investments in renewable energy and fuels surpassed those in fossil fuels.
- Renewable Energy Sources (RES): Includes solar thermal, photovoltaic, wind, hydro, geothermal, heat pumps, bio, and renewable fuels.
- Value/Supply Chain: Emphasizes the entire chain, from raw materials mining to component manufacturing and recycling.
Specific Objectives
- Scaling-Up RES: Aims to scale up different RES and their supply chains to reduce the EU’s dependency on imports, especially critical raw materials (CRM).
- Strategic Net-Zero Manufacturing: Targets to achieve strategic net-zero manufacturing capacity and meet at least 40% of annual energy needs with RES by 2030.
- Key Focus Areas:
- Manufacturing of RES: Enhancing the production of heat and electricity from renewable sources at various scales and locations.
- Exploring, Mining, Processing Synthesizing Materials: Excludes CRM, focusing on other essential materials in RES.
- Recycling or Re-Use of RES Components: Involves technologies for converting RES components into usable materials.
Expected Outcomes and Impacts
- Strengthening the European Value Chain: Aims to reinforce the production of RES within Europe.
- Reducing Dependency on Imports: Focuses on limiting the EU’s dependency on CRM and other components critical for the renewable energy transition.
- Diversifying the Value Chain: Encourages a more diversified and risk-aware configuration of the European RES value chain.
Circular Economy Approach
- Sustainable Development: The technologies must avoid using CRM or ensure their maximum recycle/reuse to support a circular economy approach.
- Environmental Footprint: Projects need to minimize environmental impact, assessed through life-cycle analysis.
Budget
- Allocated Funds: The indicative budget for this challenge is EUR 50 million.
EIC Accelerator Deadlines 2024
The deadlines for submitting proposals for the EIC Accelerator in 2024 are:
- 13 March 2024
- 3 October 2024
The deadlines for 2025 will be announced in the 2025 Work Programme, which is expected to be adopted in Autumn 2024.
See also: Updates.
EIC Accelerator Budget
The total indicative budget for the EIC Accelerator in the 2024 Work Programme is EUR 675 million. This budget is divided into two main parts:
- EUR 375 million is allocated to the EIC Accelerator Open, which has no predefined thematic priorities and is open to proposals in any field of technology or application.
- EUR 300 million is allocated to the EIC Accelerator Challenges, which are targeted initiatives in predefined areas of emerging and strategic technologies.
The articles found on Rasph.com reflect the opinions of Rasph or its respective authors and in no way reflect opinions held by the European Commission (EC) or the European Innovation Council (EIC). The provided information aims to share perspectives that are valuable and can potentially inform applicants regarding grant funding schemes such as the EIC Accelerator, EIC Pathfinder, EIC Transition or related programs such as Innovate UK in the United Kingdom or the Small Business Innovation and Research grant (SBIR) in the United States.
The articles can also be a useful resource for other consultancies in the grant space as well as professional grant writers who are hired as freelancers or are part of a Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME). The EIC Accelerator is part of Horizon Europe (2021-2027) which has recently replaced the previous framework program Horizon 2020.
This article was written by ChatEIC. ChatEIC is an EIC Accelerator assistant that can advise on the writing of proposals, discuss current trends and create insightful articles on a variety of topics. The articles written by ChatEIC can contain inaccurate or outdated information.
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