The EIC Accelerator Challenges 2027 call in the adopted EIC Work Programme 2027 allocates €150 million across four strategic topics: ocean observation, climate-neutral cities, fusion technologies, and carbon removal and utilisation. Applicants use the standard Accelerator application process but must also satisfy the scope and expected outcomes of the selected Challenge.
Deadlines / EIC Accelerator Cut-Off Dates 2027
- Step 1
- Open now: Apply as soon as possible to be eligible for the next Step 2 submission deadline
- Proposals are sent for evaluation on the first Tuesday of every month
- Open now: Apply as soon as possible to be eligible for the next Step 2 submission deadline
- Step 2 (closing 17:00 Brussels Time)
- 1st cut-off 2027: January 20th 2027
- 2nd cut-off 2027: March 17th 2027
- 3rd cut-off 2027: September 1st 2027
- 4th cut-off 2027: November 4th 2027
The topics, allocations and schedule are set in the adopted EIC Work Programme 2027 (Commission Decision C(2026)7629). All four Challenges fall within STEP scope and can lead to a Sovereignty or STEP Seal under the call conditions.
Challenge 1: Advanced In-Situ Ocean Observation
Indicative budget: €30 million. The challenge targets persistent, scalable and high-resolution marine-monitoring systems serving climate resilience, biodiversity, the blue economy, maritime security and underwater infrastructure.
Relevant solutions include autonomous sensors and marine vehicles, underwater communication, integrated mapping, interoperable data platforms, environmental-DNA systems and AI-based detection. A strong proposal must explain endurance, maintenance, power, communications, biofouling, data standards and the path from a local pilot to economically sustainable deployment.
The adopted text explicitly adds pollution monitoring and biodiversity restoration. Across all priorities, proposals should quantify improvement over current practice using a stated metric, baseline and measurement method. They should cover the full system life cycle, end-of-life management and, where possible, reuse of sensors or hardware deployed at sea.
Challenge 2: Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities
Indicative budget: €50 million. Supported areas include building retrofits and district energy, renewable integration, smart grids, waste-heat use, advanced mobility, traffic management, circular construction, recycling, water planning and wastewater treatment.
Applicants are encouraged to involve a city participating in the EU Mission for Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities. A useful city commitment identifies the deployment site, decision owner, procurement route, data access, success metrics and pathway to adoption after the pilot.
The adopted text details renewable integration with energy storage and grid flexibility, including stationary or EV batteries, thermal storage and possible local DC microgrids at low/medium voltage. It explicitly includes nature-based resource-management solutions, waste heat and increased biodiversity among the expected environmental outcomes.
Challenge 3: Fusion Power Plant Concepts and Enabling Technologies
Indicative budget: €20 million. The scope covers alternative fusion concepts and enabling technologies such as materials, tritium fuel cycles, high-power lasers, plasma heating, magnets, digital twins and AI-enabled control.
Because fusion subsystems mature at different rates, starting TRLs can vary. The proposal must quantify how the innovation removes a decisive engineering, cost, material or operational barrier to a commercially viable plant.
Challenge 4: Carbon Removal and Utilisation
Indicative budget: €50 million. The challenge covers direct air and ocean capture, eligible biogenic streams, permanent storage in products, biochar, enhanced weathering, mineralisation, carbon utilisation and systems for quantification, monitoring and verification.
The detailed heading in the adopted text uses utilisation rather than circularity, although the summary table still uses circularity. The utilisation priority expressly includes agriculture alongside food and feed uses. This is a revision within the existing challenge, not an additional fifth challenge.
Storage of captured fossil carbon dioxide as an untransformed gas and hydrogen-production technologies are outside the scope. Applicants need credible lifecycle boundaries, permanence evidence, leakage controls and a realistic route to customers or offtakers.
Funding and Applicant Requirements
The Challenge route uses the same funding forms as Accelerator Open: grant only, blended finance or equity only under the applicable eligibility conditions. The grant is below €2.5 million and normally funds 70% of eligible innovation costs; the investment range is €1 million to €10 million.
A competitive application must prove TRL 5 completion, technical differentiation, market demand, a credible team and a financing gap. Challenge alignment cannot compensate for weak technology, commercial evidence or execution planning.
Choosing Between Open and Challenges
Use a Challenge only when the proposed innovation and impact directly satisfy its stated scope. A strong deep-tech company outside those topics should apply to Accelerator Open. Artificially forcing a project into a Challenge creates evaluation risk because both normal Accelerator quality and topic-specific outcomes are assessed.
See the EIC Accelerator 2027 guide for the full application process and the EIC Work Programme 2027 guide for programme-wide context. For a commentary on why these topics are surprising, see EIC Accelerator Challenges 2027: A Surprising Climate Focus.
