HORIZON-EIC-2027-PATHFINDEROPEN-two-stage
Forthcoming
This is the status published by the official source.
Expected Impact:
The deep-tech approach is problem oriented. Its starting point is an important and fundamental issue, that will be tackled, e.g. related to the UN’s sustainable development goals or an economic, environmental, or societal problem. It relies on the joint efforts of a multitude of different experts, e.g., scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs. Deep-tech employs the convergence of existing and emergent technologies, rooted in science and advanced engineering, and powered by the design-build-test-learn cycle. The novelty of technologies and the ways in which they are used make the deep-tech approach very powerful and may lead to the solution of global societal or environmental problems or to the creation of new markets and the disruption of existing industries.
The deep-tech journey needs time to move from basic science to applications to actual use cases. The amount of time required varies substantially for various cases, but it almost always takes longer than an innovation based on an available technology or existing engineering approach. EIC Pathfinder Open supports the initial phase of this journey. The projects funded by EIC Pathfinder Open work towards development of novel technologies when no existing technology fully solves the problem at hand. In some instances, a novel technology provides directly a solution, in others, success depends on combining novel and existing technologies or on developing new applications of established technologies. Sometimes the solution built will not work as desired and then again, the process will return to the technology development.
We do not expect that your project will deliver the final solution and even the prototype is not among the expected outputs. However, we want that all the steps an EIC Pathfinder Open project undertakes, from the breakthrough research to the validation in the lab and eventually further, are aligned towards the solution to the problem, which represents the ultimate goal.
The expected output of your project is at least an experimental proof of concept or a validation in a lab of the technology, which is the main focus of your project, proving its feasibility. You must do the validation through integrated use cases, , where relevant and appropriate to the maturity of the technology, clearly showing that the technology provides relevant steps toward the envisioned ultimate solution. Project results should include top-level scientific publications in open access. You are expected also to take the necessary measures in the course of the project to allow future uptake of the main results to take place. This includes: an adequate formal protection of the generated Intellectual Property (IP) [1], a well thought trough plan for future exploitation, and an assessment of relevant aspects related to regulation, certification, and standardisation. We are confident that in order to succeed in delivering a technology, which will contribute to the envisioned solution, your project team from the beginning should include also the actors needed to guide the scientific and technological development. Any ambitions to further develop the validated technology, including potential support under EIC Transition and subsequently EIC Accelerator support or VC investment, would strongly benefit from a clear and well-structured ownership and management of intellectual property rights (IPR).
Expected outcome and impact:
The deep-tech approach is problem oriented. Its starting point is an important and fundamental issue, that will be tackled, e.g. related to the UN’s sustainable development goals or an economic, environmental, or societal problem. It relies on the joint efforts of a multitude of different experts, e.g., scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs. Deep-tech employs the convergence of existing and emergent technologies, rooted in science and advanced engineering, and powered by the design-build-test-learn cycle. The novelty of technologies and the ways in which they are used make the deep-tech approach very powerful and may lead to the solution of global societal or environmental problems or to the creation of new markets and the disruption of existing industries.
The deep-tech journey needs time to move from basic science to applications to actual use cases. The amount of time required varies substantially for various cases, but it almost always takes longer than an innovation based on an available technology or existing engineering approach. EIC Pathfinder Open supports the initial phase of this journey. The projects funded by EIC Pathfinder Open work towards development of novel technologies when no existing technology fully solves the problem at hand. In some instances, a novel technology provides directly a solution, in others, success depends on combining novel and existing technologies or on developing new applications of established technologies. Sometimes the solution built will not work as desired and then again, the process will return to the technology development.
We do not expect that your project will deliver the final solution and even the prototype is not among the expected outputs. However, we want that all the steps an EIC Pathfinder Open project undertakes, from the breakthrough research to the validation in the lab and eventually further, are aligned towards the solution to the problem, which represents the ultimate goal.
The expected output of your project is at least an experimental proof of concept or a validation in a lab of the technology, which is the main focus of your project, proving its feasibility. You must do the validation through integrated use cases, , where relevant and appropriate to the maturity of the technology, clearly showing that the technology provides relevant steps toward the envisioned ultimate solution. Project results should include top-level scientific publications in open access. You are expected also to take the necessary measures in the course of the project to allow future uptake of the main results to take place. This includes: an adequate formal protection of the generated Intellectual Property (IP) [1], a well thought trough plan for future exploitation, and an assessment of relevant aspects related to regulation, certification, and standardisation. We are confident that in order to succeed in delivering a technology, which will contribute to the envisioned solution, your project team from the beginning should include also the actors needed to guide the scientific and technological development. Any ambitions to further develop the validated technology, including potential support under EIC Transition and subsequently EIC Accelerator support or VC investment, would strongly benefit from a clear and well-structured ownership and management of intellectual property rights (IPR)
Scope:
You should apply if you are looking for support from EIC Pathfinder Open to realise an ambitious vision for a scientific breakthrough, which will provide the foundations of a radically new technology, with the potential to create new markets, respond to societal needs and/or to provide solutions to global challenges. EIC Pathfinder Open supports early-stage development of such future or emerging technologies (e.g., various activities starting from establishing basic principles and reaching at least a proof of concept or a technology validation in a lab), based on high-risk/high-gain science-towards-technology breakthrough research.
EIC Pathfinder Open may support your work, especially if it is highly risky: you may set out to try things that will not work; you may be faced with questions that nobody has the slightest idea about how they should answered; you may realise that there are many aspects of the problem at hand that you do not master initially. All this may make your application stronger. On the contrary, if the approach you want to follow is incremental by nature or known, or if you have already validated your technology in the lab and are looking just for funding its implementation, EIC Pathfinder Open will not support you.
EIC Pathfinder Open supports interdisciplinary research and development to explore and validate novel technological concepts, advancing breakthrough technologies towards validation.
By bringing diverse areas of research together, often with different perspectives, terminologies and methodologies, within individual projects and within a portfolio of projects, really new things can be generated, and entirely new areas of research can be opened up. It is up to you to compose the team that you need, that you can learn from, and that you can move forward with.
You are encouraged to involve and empower in your team key actors that have the potential to become future leaders in their field such as excellent early-career researchers or promising high-tech SMEs, including start-ups. Your project should reinforce their mind-set for targeted research and development aimed at high impact applied results. This will strengthen Europe’s capacity for exploiting the scientific discoveries made in Europe throughout the steps to market success or for solving global challenges. You are particularly encouraged to empower female researchers in your project and to achieve gender balance among your work package leaders.
EIC Pathfinder Open supports the early-stage research and development component of the deep-tech approach to provide solutions for global challenges, create new markets, or in general to improve our lives. Before applying to this call, you should ensure that your proposal meets all the following essential characteristics (the Gatekeepers):
• You present a convincing long-term vision of a radically new, future or emerging technology that has the potential to have a transformative positive effect on our lives and commit within the project to achieve an experimental proof of concept or validation in a lab.
• You have a plausible idea for a concrete, novel and ambitious scientific breakthrough, providing the underpinning of the envisioned technology, and the knowledge and expertise within your team to realise it.
• You provide a convincing argument for a high-risk/high-gain research approach and methodology, to achieve this scientific breakthrough in an interdisciplinary collaboration of researchers and innovators, with concrete and plausible objectives.
• Your proposal addresses an important global challenge or an unsolved specific problem affecting our economy, society, or environment, and your novel technology, if successfully developed and validated, has the potential to contribute to solving it either on its own or in combination with other technologies. You present a high-level vision of how your research could enable future solutions, while recognising that the Pathfinder project itself is not expected to deliver the final solution. Why should you apply?
You should apply if you are looking for support from EIC Pathfinder Open to realise an ambitious vision for a scientific breakthrough, which will provide the foundations of a radically new technology, with the potential to create new markets, respond to societal needs and/or to provide solutions to global challenges. EIC Pathfinder Open supports early-stage development of such future or emerging technologies (e.g., various activities starting from establishing basic principles and reaching at least a proof of concept or a technology validation in a lab), based on high-risk/high-gain science-towards-technology breakthrough research.
EIC Pathfinder Open may support your work, especially if it is highly risky: you may set out to try things that will not work; you may be faced with questions that nobody has the slightest idea about how they should answered; you may realise that there are many aspects of the problem at hand that you do not master initially. All this may make your application stronger. On the contrary, if the approach you want to follow is incremental by nature or known, or if you have already validated your technology in the lab and are looking just for funding its implementation, EIC Pathfinder Open will not support you.
EIC Pathfinder Open supports interdisciplinary research and development to explore and validate novel technological concepts, advancing breakthrough technologies towards validation.
By bringing diverse areas of research together, often with different perspectives, terminologies and methodologies, within individual projects and within a portfolio of projects, really new things can be generated, and entirely new areas of research can be opened up. It is up to you to compose the team that you need, that you can learn from, and that you can move forward with.
You are encouraged to involve and empower in your team key actors that have the potential to become future leaders in their field such as excellent early-career researchers or promising high-tech SMEs, including start-ups. Your project should reinforce their mind-set for targeted research and development aimed at high impact applied results. This will strengthen Europe’s capacity for exploiting the scientific discoveries made in Europe throughout the steps to market success or for solving global challenges. You are particularly encouraged to empower female researchers in your project and to achieve gender balance among your work package leaders
[1] IP includes industrial property (patents, trademarks, designs and geographic indications of source) and copyright. See also Section I and Annex 6 for more information on the EIC policy of Open Access and IP rights.
[2] IP includes industrial property (patents, trademarks, designs and geographic indications of source) and copyright. See also Section I and Annex 6 for more information on the EIC policy of Open Access and IP rights.
- Status
- Forthcoming
- Deadline
- (time not stated)
- Opens
- Published
- Total budget
- €166,000,000
- Grant range
- €1,000,000 – €5,000,000
- Country
- European Union (EU-wide)
- Programme
- Horizon Europe (HORIZON)
- Funder
- European Commission
- Official page
- Open at the source portal
What applying involves
12 steps, all of them taken from this call's own documents.
Understand the call
- Read the call on the source portal and download its documents
-
Write the proposal against the award criteria and thresholds
standard for this programme
Described in Section II of EIC Work Programme 2027 — conditions §5a
-
Check the grant's legal and financial set-up
standard for this programme
Please refer to the Lump Sum Model Grant Agreement (Lump Sum MGA) used for Lump Sum EIC actions under Horizon Europe. Specific conditions Described in EIC Work Programme 2027 . Application and evaluation forms and model grant agreement (MGA): Application form templates Standard application form (HE EIC Pathfinder Open stage 1 - short proposal) Standard application form (HE EIC Pathfinder Open stage 2 - full proposal) Evaluation form templates Standard evaluation form (HE EIC … — conditions §6
- Note the opening date — a proposal cannot be submitted before it
- Check the amount you plan to request against the call's range
Check you are eligible
-
Check every partner is established in an eligible country
standard for this programme
Described in Annex 2 of EIC Work Programme 2027 — conditions §2
-
Meet the call's other eligibility conditions
standard for this programme
Described in Annex 2 of EIC Work Programme 2027 — conditions §3
-
Be able to show financial and operational capacity
standard for this programme
Described in Annex 2 of EIC Work Programme 2027 — conditions §4
Prepare the documents
- Prepare Part B of the Application Form standard for this programme
- Complete the detailed budget table standard for this programme
Submit
-
Check the submission and evaluation process
standard for this programme
Described in Section II of EIC Work Programme 2027 . and the Online Manual — conditions §5b
-
Submit before the closing date shown above
The source states the closing day but no closing time — check the portal before the last day. — calls.deadline
Other calls under Horizon Europe (HORIZON)
- Space critical EEE components for EU non-dependence
- Space critical equipment for EU non-dependence
- Short proposal
- Enabling environments for a sustainable and circular construction sector
- Revitalising neighbourhoods around existing railway and motorway corridors
- PV based electrification of the economy: Designing & optimising PV systems supporting industrial electrification and promoting participation in electricity markets (EUPI-PV Partnership)
- Advanced TSO control rooms to enhance grid observability, stability and resilience
- Advanced Distribution Management Systems (ADSM) for more efficient and flexible distribution grids
All calls under this programme
Similar opportunities
- EIC Pre-accelerator - Widening
- EIC Accelerator 2026 - Short proposal
- European Startup and Scaleup Hubs pilot
- Testing and optimising models of co-creation of advanced research infrastructure technologies
- EIC Transition Open
- EIC Accelerator Open 2023
Where this came from
- Source document
- https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/data/topicDetails/horizon-eic-2027-pathfinderopen-two-stage.json
- Document fingerprint
800ae9367e3fd140(SHA-256, first 16 hex characters)- Collected
- First recorded here
What has changed
- url first recorded as https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/horizon-eic-2027-pathfinderopen-two-stage on
- currency first recorded as EUR on
- amount_max first recorded as 5000000.00 on
- amount_min first recorded as 1000000.00 on
- budget_total first recorded as 166000000.00 on
- deadline first recorded as 2027-02-25 on
- opens_on first recorded as 2026-11-25 on
- published_on first recorded as 2026-11-10 on
- status_basis first recorded as source_status on
- status first recorded as forthcoming on
- title first recorded as HORIZON-EIC-2027-PATHFINDEROPEN-two-stage on
Data source
© European Union, 2026. Source: EU Funding & Tenders Portal. Reused under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU — CC BY 4.0.
We collected this from the source on .
The source last changed this record on Wed, 11 Nov 2026 11:11:13 GMT.
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