This article presents the EIC Accelerator Challenges for 2026, focusing on transformative innovations in energy, fusion, agriculture, and climate adaptation. The following challenges have been announced for the European Innovation Council's Accelerator programme, targeting breakthrough technologies that will drive Europe's green and digital transitions.

Table of Contents

1. Advanced Materials for Renewable Energy and Energy Storage Systems
2. Alternative Concepts and Key Enabling Technologies for Fusion Power Plants
3. Biotech for Regenerating Agricultural Soils
4. Boosting the European Critical Raw Materials value chain
5. Deep Tech for Climate Adaptation

1. Advanced Materials for Renewable Energy and Energy Storage Systems

Background and Scope

The share of renewables in electricity generation in the EU rose to 47% in 2024 compared to 34% in 2019 and this has also underpinned an exponential increase in the EU's demand for base metals, battery materials, rare earths and other materials for renewable energy generation and storage systems. However, most of these materials are not currently sourced or processed in Europe.

The European Commission Communication "Advanced Materials for Industrial Leadership" identifies an urgent need to boost the development of advanced materials, such as their design, scale-up and manufacturing capacity (from lab to fab) to enhance the EU's strategic autonomy in key sectors such as energy, while addressing sustainability, circularity and safety issues.

The absence of a common European approach will pose a considerable risk to the EU's future energy strategic autonomy and requires investments. These target both developers and producers of advanced materials.

This Challenge competition thus aims at scaling startups and SMEs developing advanced materials with added functionalities and improved performance specifically designed for energy storage or energy generation/harvesting systems. The targeted systems address solar cells, wind turbines, mid-long term energy storage and energy harvesting technologies exploited across Europe.

Specific Objectives

The start-ups and SMEs to be supported under this Challenge must focus on the development of advanced materials for innovative renewable energy or energy storage systems, encompassing the design, synthesis, characterisation, up-scaling, and production of such materials.

The materials and associated processes must be developed with a view to minimising the use of resources, including strategic and Critical Raw Materials (CRMs). They must have their performance benchmarked, minimisation of resource use proven with respect to the state of the art and the use-case considered. In-silico methods of design and testing developed materials should be considered to speed-up the design process and decrease the cost of development.

The environmental footprint of the developed advanced materials should also be measured with a life-cycle analysis that includes an evaluation of the cost and social impact.

The projects selected under this Challenge will become part of the wider advanced materials ecosystem to be fostered by the actions set out in the Commission Communication on Advanced Materials including the new co-programmed partnership IAM4EU.

Expected outcomes and impacts

This Challenge aims to scale advanced material technologies that will enhance the EU's strategic autonomy in energy generation and mid-long energy storage, while addressing sustainability, circularity and safety issues.

This will:

• Develop along the value chain, and support the integration of new advanced materials with improved functionalities in renewable energy sources and mid-long term energy storage systems
• Enable a more diversified, digitally driven, and risk-aware configuration of the European advanced materials value chain and associated processes and technologies for energy harvesting/generation and mid-long term energy storage systems
• Accelerate market uptake of innovative advanced materials with added functionalities in the energy sector
• Address the EU's industrial dependency on the import of materials for the energy sector, and
• Strengthen the European value chain of advanced materials for the energy sector.

2. Alternative Concepts and Key Enabling Technologies for Fusion Power Plants

DISCLAMER: Proposals received under this challenge will be evaluated in the last two batches of the year (2/09/2026 and 3/11/2026)

Background and scope

The global demand for clean, abundant, and sustainable energy has never been greater. Fusion energy holds the potential to revolutionise energy production by providing a near-limitless, carbon-free power source that minimises radioactive waste. It has been broadly recognised as a promising path to producing affordable electricity, according to numerous strategies, reports, such as Draghi, and roadmaps unveiled worldwide.

However, despite significant scientific and technological advancements, commercial fusion energy faces a number of technological, material, and economic barriers. These include:

• Achieving and maintaining the extremely high temperatures and pressures required for sustained fusion reactions
• Engineering materials that can withstand extreme neutron flux and thermal loads over long operational periods
• Developing critical components such as breeding blankets, gyrotrons, first walls, and divertors
• Designing high-power, efficient and high-repetition rate laser systems for inertial confinement fusion, and
• Designing cost-effective and scalable fusion reactors that compete with existing energy sources.

Europe has a competitive advantage in fusion with highly skilled scientists and engineers, leading experimental facilities and, is also the primary contributor and host of ITER, the world's first fusion experimental device of "power plant level". Europe is also beginning to see growing private investor interest in fusion energy, particularly in emerging companies beyond publicly led initiatives, with a strong push towards commercially viable solutions.

This Challenge, co-funded by the Euratom Research and Training Programme, will therefore support SMEs and start-ups advancing new fusion reactor concepts and key enabling technologies for fusion power plants.

Specific Objectives

The start-ups and SMEs to be supported under this Challenge must focus on one or more elements of the fusion value chain including:

• Alternative concepts: magnetic, inertial and magneto-inertial fusion, either at the system level (conceptual or engineering design) or the design of core components and technologies
• Advanced materials: these encompass materials for components that must withstand extreme conditions of e.g. temperature, heat flux, plasma particle flux and neutron load, corrosion, and mechanical stress
• Sustainable and stable fuel production: innovative concepts for enabling tritium production and a closed tritium fuel cycle in fusion power plants
• New laser technologies: high-power, high-repetition-rate laser systems, along with allied optics, to enable fuel compression and ignition in inertial confinement fusion
• New components /systems for Plasma: innovative components/systems for effective plasma heating and current drive
• Magnets: innovative components and design approaches for magnets capable of operating under fusion power plant conditions, including high heat and radiation tolerance and structural strength

• Advanced Digital Technologies: includes the use of AI and machine learning techniques as well as digital twins to facilitate the design, control, monitoring and operation of future fusion power plants, and
• Targets for inertial confinement fusion: Advancing target design and materials to address current limitations in target performance and target insertion into the experimental/reactor chamber.

Other key enabling technologies for fusion power plants not mentioned above will also be considered.

Expected outcomes and impacts

The Challenge aims to accelerate the transition from achieving fusion energy gain to the full commercialisation of fusion energy, positioning Europe as a global leader in the field. It supports the Competitiveness Compass for the EU by helping fusion energy start-ups and SMEs deploy and scale up their innovative technologies and concepts. Aligned with the Clean Industrial Deal roadmap, the Challenge contributes to a decarbonised energy mix and strengthens EU funding for the next generation of clean energy technologies. It also contributes towards establishing an innovation ecosystem that fosters investment and promotes growth in the fusion sector.

By developing and scaling up breakthrough innovations for fusion energy, the Challenge is expected to:

• Keep technology leadership in the field of nuclear fusion and build a value chain for the commercialisation of nuclear fusion, expected in 2040
• Enhance competitiveness and nurture the ecosystem of European companies;
• Attract new deep tech startups and SMEs to the sector;
• Facilitate the scaling up of technologies that address critical bottlenecks for the feasibility of commercially viable fusion power plants
• Contribute to the emergence of globally competitive European fusion energy leaders
• Develop new skills and create jobs within the EU, and
• Raise awareness about the potential of nuclear fusion in the private and public sector.

Specific conditions

Fusion systems require the integration of several different technologies, which stand at varying stages of maturity, from advanced sub-systems to early-stage components. The TRLs of applicants can therefore vary from 4 to 6 at the point of application for support. Regardless of the area(s) addressed, candidate companies should clearly demonstrate how

the proposed innovation advances the TRL or address one or more of the critical bottlenecks, including cost-effectiveness, that affect the design, construction, and operation of commercially viable fusion power plants.

[Legal entities applying to this call must be established in an EU Member State or a country which is Associated to both the Horizon Europe and Euratom R&T Programmes].

3. Biotech for Regenerating Agricultural Soils

Background and Scope

Soils are essential ecosystems that deliver valuable services such as the provision of food, energy and raw materials, nutrient regulation, and water purification and infiltration. Healthy soils are thus a key enabler supporting the objectives of the European Green Deal.

However, about 60% of EU soils are considered unhealthy, losing their capacity to support agricultural production of food, feed and biomass. According to recent estimates, fourteen European countries saw land area highly sensitive to desertification nearly double to 400 000 km² in the period 2008 to 2017. In addition, agricultural soils in the EU are depleted in soil organic carbon, which could impact EU climate change mitigation efforts. Furthermore, EU soils are under increasing pressure from various sources, including contamination by microplastics, heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants, as well as the excessive input of fertilizers, pesticides, and antibiotics. These activities harm soil health and fertility, reducing biodiversity and agricultural yield.

In line with the ambitions of the Commission Communications on Building the future with nature: Boosting Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing in the EU, a critical technology identified under the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP), the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy, the EU Soil Strategy for 2030 and the Vision for Agriculture and Food, this Challenge focuses on reinforcing soil-based agricultural production, encompassing food, feed and biomass, through biotech driven deep tech solutions that will:

• Improve soil health and enhance the quality of agricultural products, by for example increasing their micronutrient content and availability, while supporting biodiversity and ecosystem services
• Address soil pollution to restore and enhance soil health, including the extraction, degradation or transformation of pollutants, and the restoration of soil biodiversity, thus enabling sustainable agriculture on degraded and contaminated lands, and
• Reduce dependency on hazardous chemicals, enhance soil fertility and health while minimising environmental impacts.

Specific Objectives

The start-ups and SMEs to be supported under this Challenge must focus on developing biotech driven solutions in one (or more) of the following areas:

• Bioremediation technologies: focused on restoring and enhancing soil health enabling sustainable agriculture in contaminated lands. Proposals could include solutions such as, but not limited to, phyto or mycelial extraction or degradation of pollutants. Solutions that will extract, degrade or transform pollutants must go beyond the state of the art and put forward solutions that demonstrate improvements to the nutritional profile of food and feed, and the quality of the biomass produced
• Soil and soil microbiome management technologies: covers solutions that will increase the soil's organic carbon stock and its structure to enhance biodiversity, improve water retention and boost nutrient availability
• Renewable fertilizers and bio stimulants: targets materials that could be produced from waste and residue streams and biomass in innovative, sustainable and circular ways with the help of microorganisms or their biological components, enabling a virtuous cascading approach from agricultural operations or from bio-based industrial processes.

Regardless of the specific area addressed, companies are encouraged to leverage digital tools such as AI and monitoring technologies such as sensors, as appropriate, to facilitate the identification or the development of processes and to assess the evolution of soil conditions to make the resulting products and services suitable for integration into existing production systems. All projects must provide a lifecycle assessment (LCA) considering environmental, social and economic consideration. Proposals are also expected to consider regulatory aspects alongside issues surrounding consumer acceptance and articulate suitable strategies to support market entry within and beyond the EU.

The startups and SMEs supported under this Challenge will be connected through the EIC's Business Acceleration Services with stakeholders engaged in the EU's Mission: A Soil Deal for Europe and with Horizon Europe Cluster 6, including its public-private partnership Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking (CBE JU) to support the accelerated uptake of breakthrough solutions.

Expected Outcomes and Impact

This Challenge aims to scale deep tech solutions that will improve soil health and the sustainability, efficiency, and resilience of the European agricultural sector, which spans food, feed and biomass. Their entry into the market will reverse the declining health of agricultural soils resulting in an enhanced production of high quality, sustainable crops.

By targeting breakthrough solutions, it will also support Europe's future strategic autonomy and enhance the competitiveness of the sector by helping it overcome challenges linked to climate change and environment stresses including soil biodiversity loss and pollution as well as contributing to boosting biotechnology in the EU.

4. Boosting the European Critical Raw Materials value chain

Background and Scope

Europe's technological sovereignty and capacity to deliver on the twin green and digital transitions is contingent on access to Critical Raw Materials (CRMs) along all stages of the value chain. Secure access to such materials will reduce Europe's dependence on unreliable suppliers and integrating circularity is crucial to making the most of the EU's limited resources. Actions foreseen under the EU's Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) adopted in 2024 aim to strengthen the supply security of CRMs by:

• Setting benchmarks by 2030 for domestic capacities of strategic raw materials
• Creating secure and resilient supply chains
• Enhancing supply risk preparedness and mitigation
• Improving sustainability and circularity of critical raw materials on the EU market
• Diversifying suppliers of raw materials imported in the EU.

A subset of these CRMs are also classified as "strategic raw materials" due to their use in strategic technologies and strong projected demand growth. These strategic raw materials are considered priority materials and certain measures under the CRMA apply only to them.

In this context, the Commission recently recognised a set of strategic projects along the raw materials value chain with a view to lowering the risk of supply disruptions by increasing Union capacities and diversifying imports.

Deep tech start-ups and scale-ups can make an important contribution to achieving the 2030 EU benchmarks defined in the CRMA. They could contribute to developing and commercialising new deep tech innovations that address the entire spectrum of activity from exploration via extraction and refining to the recycling of CRMs with a view to:

• Strengthening the supply of primary critical and strategic raw materials in the EU
• Increasing the recovery rate of critical and strategic raw materials as set out in the CRMA, and
• Improving the competitiveness of secondary raw materials production by ensuring cost effectiveness and also enhancing sustainability in terms of energy, resource and water use, waste and emissions (including Green House Gases and air pollutants) footprint.

Specific Objectives

The start-ups and SMEs to be supported under this Challenge must look to develop and deploy deep-tech innovations that contribute to the CRMA and European domestic capacity in one or more of the following areas:

• Exploration of critical and strategic raw materials: this includes precision drilling, remote sensing, and the use of AI and big data to access and assess previously sub-economic resources, retired mines, and re-assess mine tailings and post-processing waste heaps, whilst reducing costs and waste.
• Extraction, processing and metallurgy refining for the supply of primary critical and strategic raw materials: this includes approaches such as hydrometallurgical, bioleaching, phytomining and nano-filtration. A holistic approach to economical and sustainable mining operations is essential for the ambitions of the CRMA. Deep tech innovations that enable electrified autonomous operation of mining equipment are within scope.
• Recycling from end-of-life products for the supply of secondary critical and strategic raw materials: this includes urban mining and the use of battery black mass and electronic waste as CRM feedstock.

The deep tech innovations must improve the sustainability of the EU's sources for critical and strategic raw materials in line with the EU principles for sustainable raw materials and must clearly justify the relevance and business case for all targeted minerals and metals.

The environmental footprint of the proposed innovations should also be measured with a life-cycle analysis that includes an evaluation of the cost and social impact.

Deep-sea mining does not fall within the scope of this call.

Projects selected will become part of the wider range of activity to be fostered by the EU Co-funded Partnership on raw materials for the green and digital transition.

Expected outcomes and impacts

By targeting breakthrough innovations, the Challenge is expected to contribute to the secure supply of sustainably produced primary and secondary critical and strategic raw materials for EU industrial value chains and strategic sectors and help strengthen the EU mining value chain.

Specific conditions

In order to achieve the expected outcomes, and safeguard the Union's strategic assets, interests, autonomy, and security, it is important to avoid a situation of technological dependency on a non-EU source, in a global context that requires the EU to take action to build on its strengths, and to carefully assess and address any strategic weaknesses, vulnerabilities and high-risk dependencies which put at risk the attainment of its ambitions.

For this reason, and in line with Article 136 of the Financial Regulation, beneficiaries of grant-only Accelerator funding must not be directly or indirectly controlled by a non-associated third country or a legal entity established in a non-associated third country other than such third countries or legal entities established in Member States, associated countries, OECD countries, African Union Member States, MERCOSUR, CARIFORUM, Andean Community and countries with which the EU has concluded strategic partnerships on raw materials as well as trade agreements (or association/economic partnership or equivalent agreements, including the new Clean Trade and Investment Partnerships) containing raw materials cooperation provisions (i.e. Energy and Raw materials chapters).

5. Deep Tech for Climate Adaptation

Background and Scope

Europe is warming faster than any other continent in the world. As the Earth continues to warm, climate change is increasingly affecting humans, economic activities and natural systems across the globe including in Europe. The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) identified 4 key risks for Europe, which will become more severe as the world continues to warm:

• Mortality and morbidity of people and changes in ecosystems due to heat
• Heat and drought stress on crops
• Water scarcity, and
• Flooding and sea level rise

As policies and actions are not keeping up with the rapidly growing climate risks, the need for adaptation solutions will only become more pressing.

Start-ups and scale-ups are already developing deep tech solutions to address these climate risks. On the other hand, the European Commission - through its EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change – is supporting climate adaptation efforts on the ground, uniting more than 400 regional and local authorities across Europe towards climate resilience by 2030.

The aim of this Challenge is to improve Europe's Climate resilience by scaling up companies and solutions and connect them to the Mission's regions and local authorities.

This Challenge competition focuses on deep tech solutions including nature-based solutions (NbS) and engineering approaches reinforced by AI and other Key Enabling Technologies (KET).

Specific Objectives

The start-ups and SMEs to be supported under this Challenge must look to develop and deploy deep-tech innovations that will address one of the following priorities:

• Combating extreme heat in urban environments: climate-neutral solutions that address urban heat island effects and urban cooling by for example reducing heat transfer, heat accumulation and cooling costs in urban areas. Proposals could include solutions such as, but not limited to, temperature-responsive and reflective materials, insulation, coating that regulate building temperatures, biomimetic nano-structured metamaterials that selectively/adaptively reflect or absorb light bandwidth, novel green-roof and green-façade systems integrating nature and materials for new build and retrofit
• Climate Smart Agriculture: this includes scalable climate smart crops, agroecology, integrated pest management with increased resilience to several simultaneous climate threats as well as microbial solutions, and bio stimulants enhancing climate resilience. Deep tech solutions for indoor food production such as, but not limited to, variable transparency solar glass which could be applied to industrial and residential buildings also fall within scope;
• Combating Water scarcity: this includes the reuse of water trough wastewater processing and water filtration solutions sensitive to emerging pollutants and could include biotech solutions such as, but not limited to, bacterial, mycelial or plant extraction or degradation. These solutions must be suitable for large and small-scale applications in urban and/or rural regions
• Flood and coastal protection: includes solutions for new (temporary) buildings / (green) infrastructure and retrofit to help infrastructure withstand damage from storm waters, coastal and river flooding alongside novel/ targeted predictive systems.

Expected outcomes and impacts

By targeting deep tech including nature-based solutions, this Challenge looks to develop and commercially scale timely solutions needed across Europe to adapt to key climate risks. Furthermore, the EIC will, through its Business Acceleration Services, especially the innovation procurement programme, connect the startups and SMEs supported under this Challenge with the network of regions and local authorities engaged in the Mission on Climate Adaptation (leveraging the Mission Implementation Platform), to facilitate the accelerated uptake of breakthrough solutions, and the regions and cities in their adaptation journey.