EIC Work Programme 2027 Drafts: What Changes for Pathfinder, Transition and the Accelerator

Updated 5 November 2026: The Commission has adopted the EIC Work Programme 2027 (Decision C(2026)7629). Compared with version 4, the first Accelerator full-proposal batch moves from 21 to 20 January 2027, the Pathfinder Open page limits no longer exclude references, and the Transition summary table gives 14 September 2027 and grants of less than €2.5 million, while the detailed Transition call keeps 16 September 2027. The EIC Work Programme 2027 guide follows the adopted text.

Updated 18 October 2026: This article now reflects Draft Implementing Decision - Horizon Europe - European Innovation Council (EIC) Work Programme 2027 - version 4 of 17/09/2026. The document is marked "DRAFT VERSION for adoption, September 2026" and still states that it has not been adopted or endorsed. The video discusses the earlier drafts; the version 4 updates are set out below.

Every year the European Innovation Council publishes a work programme. It contains all of the rules, the deadlines and the budgets for flagship programmes like the EIC Accelerator, EIC Transition and EIC Pathfinder, so everything you need to know about these programmes is in the work programme.

The work programme is published anew every single year. Usually in November or December the European Commission legally adopts it, and from then on it is the rule book for how these programmes will unfold the following year.

Drafts Are Now Published During the Year

The way it works is that a draft is in development throughout the year, and only once the final version is complete is it published. One of the issues with this used to be that it was very hard to get the early draft, so you had to wait until the end of the year to even know what was going to happen next year.

In the past, if you were a consultant with connections at the European Commission or at the EIC, you could unofficially obtain a draft. That has now been democratised. The European Commission publishes the working drafts throughout the year, and there is no more unofficial sharing of documents, which was unfair to applicants who were not in the loop and therefore relied more on consultants.

Applicants can follow successive drafts through the European Commission Comitology Register. Following the June, July and August drafts, version 4 is dated 17 September 2026. It retains the two-stage Pathfinder Open, single-beneficiary Transition and four Accelerator full-proposal batches, while revising dates and adding evaluation and technical requirements. The draft describes 2027 as the final EIC work programme under the current Horizon Europe framework, with pilots intended to inform the next framework.

What Version 4 Changes Compared with the August Draft

• Revised deadlines: the first two Accelerator full-proposal batches move earlier, the fourth moves one day later, and the final STEP Scale Up batch moves two days later. The schedules below and in our STEP Scale Up guide use version 4.
• Investment budget: the Accelerator investment-component placeholder is replaced by EUR 347 million, comprising EUR 257 million for Open and EUR 90 million for Challenges. The total Accelerator allocation remains EUR 578 million.
• Pathfinder Open: Stage 1 allows ten A4 pages excluding references, with Excellence weighted 60% and Impact 40%. Version 4 clarifies the weighted score calculation, adds experimental proof of concept to the objectives question and qualifies integrated use-case validation by relevance and technology maturity. The planned opening is 25 November 2026; Pathfinder Challenges is planned to open on 27 May 2027.
• Transition: the Excellence criterion explicitly assesses technological maturity as well as breakthrough potential. The implementation criterion asks for specific, relevant and credible evidence rather than unvalidated or automatically generated content. The target is completion of TRL 5 or beyond.
• Redress: version 4 deletes the explicit Step 1 review route from the main Accelerator section, offered in version 3 to rejected short proposals with two of four GO votes. Only the general procedural review in Annex 2 remains.
• Submission limits: version 4 removes the same/improved-proposal qualification from the Accelerator and STEP failure limits. The general STEP chapter now expressly combines STEP and STEP Defence submissions in its three-failure limit.
• STEP investment conditions: the call text says safeguards will be introduced, rather than may be introduced. Its interview tie-break adds the Impact score after priority for women-led companies and before submission date.
• Ocean and Smart Cities Challenges: Ocean proposals should quantify expected improvement using a metric, baseline and measurement method and cover the system life cycle. Pollution monitoring and restoration receive more emphasis. Smart Cities adds concrete storage/grid-flexibility options, nature-based resource management, waste heat and biodiversity outcomes.
• Economic security: the grant-only restriction on entities controlled from non-eligible third countries is expressly tied to Accelerator Challenges containing the relevant specific conditions.
• Continual-learning AI: CLOWAI adds detail on governed parameter or persistent-state updates, update provenance, human oversight, prompt-injection resistance and safe adaptation within the agent's defined operational purpose. Demonstrators should operate in a controlled laboratory or simulated setting relevant to the application.
• Quantum Energetics: applicants must choose exactly one of computing, communication or sensing. Version 4 strengthens comparable energy benchmarking, pre-standardisation work and collaboration on European quantum-energy measurement practices.
• Physical AI: autonomous wet-lab proposals gain biosafety, containment and biological-sequence screening requirements, with mandatory human authorisation checkpoints for specified high-risk activities.
• Advanced Innovation Challenges Stage 2: version 4 lists 15 June 2027. The official pilot page still gives an indicative 18 June 2027 date. Applicants should resolve this against the adopted work programme and final call conditions.

For the full programme-wide picture, see our EIC Work Programme 2027 guide. Below are the changes that stand out.

Change 1: EIC Pathfinder Open Becomes a Two-Stage Programme

EIC Pathfinder Open is going to be a two-step programme, meaning there will be two stages to the application. With many grants the process is a single stage: you hand in a proposal and that is it. The EIC Accelerator, by contrast, is famous for having three steps, and it has effectively become four, with multiple proposals and multiple interviews. EIC Pathfinder is now moving in the same direction.

The draft describes the new process as a short application, followed by a full proposal for shortlisted applicants, together with interviews and refined award criteria:

1. Short proposal (Stage 1 deadline in the draft: 25 February 2027)
2. Full proposal for shortlisted applicants (Stage 2 deadline in the draft: 16 September 2027)
3. Interview at the second stage

The draft allocates an indicative EUR 166 million to the Pathfinder Open call, with grants of up to EUR 4 million per project and only consortia eligible to apply. The thematic Pathfinder calls are covered separately in our EIC Pathfinder Challenges 2027 guide.

Change 2: EIC Transition Becomes a Single-Beneficiary Programme

EIC Transition is going to be a single-beneficiary programme. Instead of applying as a consortium with partners, the applicant will be a single entity. According to the draft, affiliated entities and subcontractors can still take part where they are needed to implement the project, and the application gains a video pitch.

That change brings the applicant structure closer to the EIC Accelerator. Transition starts from results that have completed TRL 3 and are in laboratory validation at TRL 4, aiming to complete TRL 5 or beyond. The Accelerator supports innovation activities at TRL 6 to 8.

See the EIC Transition 2027 guide for eligibility details.

Change 3: A New EIC Accelerator Calendar

The EIC Accelerator also changes its calendar. There are still twelve Step 1 cut-offs: short applications are batched on the first Tuesday of every month at 17:00 Brussels time, and that stays the same.

Step 2 changes. In the current year, full proposals are batched on the first Wednesday of every second month, which makes six Step 2 deadlines. The 2027 draft reduces that to four, and instead of three interview sessions there will be two.

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
• Step 2 (closing 17:00 Brussels Time)
  • 1^st cut-off 2027: January 20^th 2027
  • 2^nd cut-off 2027: March 17^th 2027
  • 3^rd cut-off 2027: September 1^st 2027
  • 4^th cut-off 2027: November 4^th 2027

So in 2027 it will be twelve deadlines in Step 1, four deadlines in Step 2, and two interview weeks for Step 3. The draft states that the budget will be distributed approximately equally over the jury interview sessions, batches and evaluation panels. For the full process, see the EIC Accelerator 2027 guide, and for the submission walkthroughs, how to apply for Step 1 in 2027 and how to apply for Step 2 in 2027.

Challenge Budgets Keep Shrinking

A few other points in the draft are interesting. The first is that the challenge budgets keep shrinking. If you look at the overall EIC Accelerator budget for next year, the challenges account for 26% of the total.

There was a time when the challenge share was more in the area of 50%. If you applied to an open call or to a challenge, the budget was roughly the same, which obviously made the challenge call more attractive: it is thematically more restricted but had the same budget as the open call, so there was a higher probability of getting funded.

With the challenges now at 26% of the budget, it is clear that the EIC is doing less picking of winners. Rather than saying these are the technologies we think are going to be big, important and strategic, it is doing less of that selection and keeping the programme open. Most of the budget, EUR 428 million, sits in the open call, which means anyone can apply: any industry and any technology has a shot. The four proposed 2027 challenges are covered in our EIC Accelerator Challenges 2027 guide.

Step 1 Rejections and Evaluation Review

Version 4 requires at least three GO decisions from the four Step 1 evaluators. Two NO GO decisions mean rejection, even if the other two evaluators give a GO. The applicant may resubmit within the submission limits after improving the proposal.

Version 3 explicitly offered rejected short proposals with two of four GO votes an evaluation-review route in the main Accelerator section. Version 4 deletes that entire sentence. Only the general procedural review in Annex 2, Section F.2 remains, with a 30-day request period after access to the results and a 7,000-character limit; it excludes reassessment of proposal merits. The explicit main-section route has therefore been removed, and the deletion does not establish a broader Step 1 review route.

Version 4 also removes "of the same/improved proposal" from the Accelerator's three-unsuccessful-submissions rule. The rule is now expressed by legal entity across the stated stages and funding forms. Applicants should not assume that switching to a different proposal resets their failure count.

Still a Draft

Version 4 is a draft for adoption, not an adopted work programme. Dates, budgets and rules remain provisional until confirmed by the Commission Decision and the relevant Funding & Tenders call conditions.

Our other 2027 draft guides: EIC Advanced Innovation Challenges 2027 Stage 2, EIC STEP Scale Up 2027, EIC Pre-Accelerator 2027, and our analysis of the surprising climate focus of the 2027 Accelerator Challenges.

Summary

• The European Commission now publishes EIC Work Programme drafts during the year, so every applicant sees them, not only well-connected consultants.
• EIC Pathfinder Open becomes two-stage: short application, full proposal for shortlisted applicants, then an interview.
• EIC Transition becomes a single-beneficiary instrument with grants of up to EUR 2.5 million.
• The EIC Accelerator keeps 12 monthly Step 1 cut-offs but moves to 4 Step 2 cut-offs and 2 interview sessions.
• Challenges fall to EUR 150 million of the EUR 578 million Accelerator budget (26%), leaving EUR 428 million for the open call.
• Version 4 fills the Accelerator investment envelope at EUR 347 million and revises the Accelerator and STEP calendars.
• AI governance, quantum benchmarking, wet-lab safety and evaluation criteria receive additional detail.
• Version 4 deletes the explicit Step 1 redress route from the main Accelerator section; only the general procedural review in Annex 2 remains.
• Failure-limit wording no longer refers only to the same or improved proposal; the general STEP chapter expressly combines STEP and Defence submissions.
• Dates, budgets and rules remain provisional pending adoption and final call conditions.