The current draft of the EIC Work Programme 2027 already shows what the EIC Accelerator Challenges are likely to be next year, and they are very climate focused. That was a real surprise.
Climate Seemed to Be Losing Priority
The sense over the past years was that climate, while it was extremely important a few years ago, has become less of a focus. The fall of Northvolt was very public, because it was a European darling of technology. It was in the battery space, which is of extreme strategic importance for Europe, but it ended up failing.
You would have expected someone to try to bail it out, at least the European Commission, because it is very much aligned with the green strategy, green technologies and general climate mitigation. Paying closer attention after that, it felt like a lot of green financing was drying up. There was a market downturn at the same time, but there also seemed to be less interest in green technologies, both policy-wise and funding-wise.
So it was very surprising to see that the EIC Accelerator Challenges in the 2027 draft are strongly green focused.
The Four Proposed Challenges
The draft allocates EUR 150 million to the EIC Accelerator Challenges, out of a total Accelerator budget of EUR 578 million. It is split across four topics:
| 2027 draft challenge | Indicative budget | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Advanced in-situ ocean observation technologies | EUR 30 million | Marine monitoring |
| Climate-neutral and smart cities | EUR 50 million | Climate |
| Alternative concepts and key enabling technologies for fusion power plants | EUR 20 million | Clean energy |
| Carbon removal and circularity for climate change mitigation and EU industrial resilience | EUR 50 million | Climate |
Ocean Observation
The first is a little left field: marine monitoring, through persistent, scalable ocean observation systems.
Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities
The second is climate-neutral and smart cities. There have been similar challenges before, but this one is dead-on climate neutral smart cities, so very much climate focused.
Fusion Power Plants
Then there are fusion power plants, which is an interesting choice because it is very much a niche technology for European companies. How many European companies can even apply to that? How many European SMEs are involved in fusion power plants? Probably not many. If we had to guess, this challenge is going to be very undersubscribed.
Carbon Removal and Circularity
The fourth is carbon removal and circularity for climate change mitigation and industrial resilience.
That makes two challenges out of four that are squarely focused on climate change, together worth EUR 100 million of the EUR 150 million. Of the other two, one leans towards clean energy and the other is marine monitoring. The strength of the focus on the climate aspect is not what we expected from the EIC, especially now. For the full scope of each topic, see our EIC Accelerator Challenges 2027 guide.
What Europe Is Actually Facing
It is pretty much common knowledge that Europe has an energy problem: energy costs are extremely high. That is related to a lot of dependencies, with the Iran war and with the Russia-Ukraine war, and those dependencies make the situation really bad. On top of that there is a general anti-nuclear stance, meaning fission rather than fusion.
Europe also lacks:
- data centres,
- semiconductor fabs,
- frontier AI models.
So there is a range of problems Europe is struggling with, and it is extremely surprising that there is no challenge for data centres at least. We know quite a few companies trying to innovate in the data centre space, which is super important, and quite a few trying to innovate in semiconductor manufacturing. It is surprising that neither made it into the challenges, because this is exactly what Europe is facing now.
Climate Is Important, but It Is Not the Bottleneck
Climate, pollution and everything around it are extremely important, but they are not the issue Europe is facing right now. There are technologies, such as AI data centres and energy, where if you are not winning, or at least competent, the entire region and its industries may simply degrade, because they all depend on them.
Energy is a great example. With high energy costs, companies are going to leave; that is just how it is. All the manufacturing will leave if energy costs are, say, triple those of the United States. Why would you build in Europe if you can build in a place where there is more money and electricity costs a third of the price?
A Small Budget, but a Clear Signal
It remains to be seen whether the challenges change before the work programme is adopted. The choice looks a little short-sighted. Then again, the budget is small: EUR 150 million, or 26% of the Accelerator budget, with EUR 428 million going to the open call. It is probably not going to move the needle, but it is a signal that surprised us a lot.
For the rest of the 2027 changes, see EIC Work Programme 2027 Drafts: What Changes for Pathfinder, Transition and the Accelerator, the EIC Work Programme 2027 guide and the EIC Accelerator 2027 guide. If a challenge fits your company, the submission walkthroughs for Step 1 and Step 2 apply to both Open and Challenges.
Summary
- The 2027 draft proposes four EIC Accelerator Challenges worth EUR 150 million in total.
- Two of them, climate-neutral and smart cities and carbon removal and circularity, are squarely about climate and take EUR 100 million.
- The fusion power plant challenge (EUR 20 million) targets a niche where few European SMEs can apply and may be undersubscribed.
- There is no challenge for data centres or semiconductor manufacturing, despite Europe's gaps in both.
- High energy costs, not climate policy, are the pressing threat to European industry.
- The challenge budget is small, 26% of the Accelerator, so the signal matters more than the money.
