Applying for the EIC Accelerator Step 1 in 2027 is straightforward once the administrative setup is complete. The difficulty is rarely the portal. It is that outdated guidance keeps circulating, so applicants prepare against obsolete funding amounts, proposal formats and deadlines.

The rules below follow the draft EIC Work Programme 2027 and remain provisional until the European Commission adopts it. Confirm the call conditions on the official call page before you submit, and treat the 2027 figures as proposed rather than final.

Official reference: European Innovation Council, EIC Accelerator frequently asked questions.

Step 1: Find the Correct 2027 Call

Open the EIC Accelerator Step 1 submission page on the European Commission's Funding and Tenders Portal and confirm three things before creating anything: that the call belongs to the 2027 Work Programme, that it is the Accelerator rather than another EIC scheme, and that you are starting a short proposal rather than a full proposal.

This check matters because search results routinely surface archived call pages from earlier years. The call name, programme year and stage should all match before a draft exists.

Step 2: Create an EU Login Account

The portal authenticates through EU Login. The person who will actually manage the proposal needs an account tied to an email address they can access throughout submission and evaluation, not a shared mailbox.

Shared credentials cause avoidable problems when the Commission sends notices or requires authentication at a specific moment.

Step 3: Register the Organisation and Obtain a PIC

Every applicant organisation must exist in the Participant Register. Registration produces a nine-digit Participant Identification Code, the PIC, which identifies the legal entity across EU funding applications.

Search the register first. Many companies already hold a PIC from an earlier application, and a duplicate registration creates validation problems later. Registration itself requires the legal name, registered address, registration details and VAT information where applicable.

Store the PIC where the whole team can find it. It is used in the portal and in proposal documents, and the entity details are formally validated if the application succeeds.

Step 4: Configure Two-Factor Authentication

EU Login requires two-factor authentication for protected portal actions. Configure a method such as the EU Login mobile application and test it well before the batch you intend to reach.

Do not leave this to submission day. A changed phone, an account recovery or an unavailable colleague will block access at precisely the wrong moment.

Step 5: Create the Submission Draft Early

Once the account, organisation and PIC exist, create the Step 1 draft even though the content is unfinished. An active draft confirms you are working in the correct call and lets the Commission notify you if the call documents, submission conditions or dates change.

Creating a draft is an administrative checkpoint, not the act of writing the proposal in portal fields. Its value is exposing a platform problem weeks before batching rather than hours before.

Step 6: Prepare the Documents Outside the Portal

Develop the proposal in a controlled team workspace with version history rather than typing into portal fields. Under the draft 2027 rules the short application comprises:

  • A short proposal form of 12 pages covering the company, innovation, market opportunity, impact, implementation and the need for EIC support.
  • A pitch deck of up to ten slides presenting the investment and innovation case.
  • A video of up to three minutes featuring no more than three core team members.
  • Administrative and funding information completed in the portal forms.

The video constraint is easy to miss. A polished film with five people on camera fails a formal condition regardless of its quality.

Understand How Step 1 Is Decided

Four expert evaluators assess the short proposal, and at least three GO decisions are required to proceed. That threshold is the reason a proposal written only to the template structure underperforms: it can satisfy the format while leaving an individual evaluator without the evidence to justify a GO.

Write against the evaluation criteria instead. If an evaluator must judge the breakthrough nature of the technology, the market impact, the implementation capability, the risk profile, the Technology Readiness Level and the need for Union support, then each of those needs explicit evidence somewhere in the twelve pages.

Eligibility Conditions Worth Confirming First

Under the draft 2027 rules the integrated innovation must have completed TRL 5. A single component at a higher readiness level does not compensate for a solution that has not been validated as a whole.

The company must also show a financing gap, meaning private investors cannot fund the project alone at the necessary risk, timing or scale. Applicants who can raise the round privately are, by design, a poor fit for the instrument.

See the EIC Accelerator 2027 guide for the full eligibility rules and funding options, and the 2027 cut-off dates for the batching schedule.

Final Step 1 Checklist

  • Confirm the submission page belongs to the 2027 EIC Accelerator Step 1 call.
  • Create and test the EU Login account.
  • Search the Participant Register before creating a new entry.
  • Save the correct PIC and verify the legal company details.
  • Configure and test two-factor authentication.
  • Create the portal draft early.
  • Prepare the form, deck and video outside the portal, and check the three-member video limit.
  • Cross-check every document against the evaluation criteria, not only the template headings.
  • Upload and submit ahead of the monthly batching time rather than in the final minutes.

The administrative setup is the easy half of Step 1. The competitive work is proving a genuine breakthrough, a completed TRL 5, a substantial market opportunity and a real need for EIC support to scale.

Deadlines / EIC Accelerator Cut-Off Dates 2025, 2026 and 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)
    • 1st cut-off 2025: March 12th 2025
    • 2nd cut-off 2025: October 1st 2025
    • 1st cut-off 2026: January 7th 2026
    • 2nd cut-off 2026: March 4th 2026
    • 3rd cut-off 2026: May 6th 2026
    • 4th cut-off 2026: July 8th 2026
    • 5th cut-off 2026: September 2nd 2026
    • 6th cut-off 2026: November 4th 2026
    • 1st cut-off 2027: February 3rd 2027
    • 2nd cut-off 2027: April 1st 2027
    • 3rd cut-off 2027: September 1st 2027
    • 4th cut-off 2027: November 3rd 2027
  • Step 3
    • 1st cut-off 2025: June 2nd 2025
    • 2nd cut-off 2025: January 19th to 23rd 2026
    • 1st cut-off 2026: June 2026
    • 2nd cut-off 2026: October 19th to 22nd 2026
    • 3rd cut-off 2026: January 2027 (exact date TBD)

Deadlines / EIC Accelerator Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP) Scale Up Cut-Off Dates 2026 and 2027

  • EIC STEP Scale-up Call
    • 1st cut-off 2026: February 11th 2026
    • 2nd cut-off 2026: May 6th 2026
    • 3rd cut-off 2026: September 9th 2026
    • 4th cut-off 2026: November 25th 2026
    • 1st cut-off 2027: January 28th 2027
    • 2nd cut-off 2027: April 29th 2027
    • 3rd cut-off 2027: September 6th 2027
    • 4th cut-off 2027: November 22nd 2027
  • EIC STEP Scale Up Defence
    • 1st cut-off 2027: June 1st 2027

Deadlines / EIC Pre-Accelerator 2027

  • EIC Pre-Accelerator Widening via WIDERA
    • 1st cut-off 2027: November 18th 2027

Deadlines / EIC Transition Cut-Off Dates 2025, 2026 and 2027

  • EIC Transition Open
    • 1st cut-off 2025: September 17th 2025
    • 1st cut-off 2026: September 16th 2026
    • 1st cut-off 2027: September 16th 2027

Deadlines / EIC Pathfinder Cut-Off Dates 2025, 2026 and 2027

  • EIC Pathfinder Open
    • 1st cut-off 2025: May 21st 2025
    • 1st cut-off 2026: May 12th 2026
  • EIC Pathfinder Open
    • Stage 1 cut-off 2027: February 25th 2027
    • Stage 2 cut-off 2027: September 16th 2027
  • EIC Pathfinder Challenges
    • 2nd cut-off 2025: October 29th 2025
    • 2nd cut-off 2026: October 28th 2026
    • 2nd cut-off 2027: September 29th 2027

Deadlines / EIC Advanced Innovation Challenges 2026

  • EIC Advanced Innovation Challenges
    • Stage 1 cut-off 2026: February 26th 2026
    • Stage 2 cut-off 2027: June 18th 2027

EIC Work Programme

EIC Accelerator Challenges

  • EIC Accelerator Challenges 2026
    • Advanced Materials for Renewable Energy and Energy Storage System
    • Alternative Concepts and Key Enabling Technologies for Fusion Power Plants
    • Biotech for Regenerating Agricultural Soils
    • Boosting the European Critical Raw Materials value chain
    • Deep Tech for Climate Adaptation
  • EIC Accelerator Challenges 2027 (draft)
    • Advanced in-situ Ocean Observation Technologies for Scalable, High-Resolution Marine Monitoring
    • Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities
    • Alternative Concepts and Key Enabling Technologies for Fusion Power Plants
    • Carbon removal and circularity for climate change mitigation and EU industrial resilience

EIC Accelerator STEP Scale-Up Topics

  • EIC Accelerator STEP Scale-Up Topics
    • Digital technologies, and deep tech innovations
    • Clean and resource-efficient technologies, including net-zero technologies
    • Biotechnologies, including medicinal products on the Union's list of critical medicines and their components.

EIC Advanced Innovation Challenges 2026

  • Accelerating Physical AI: Embodied Intelligence for the Next Frontier of AI-Powered Robotics
  • Translating Disruptive New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) into Practice

EIC Pathfinder Challenges 2026

  • Advanced Materials for Miniaturised Energy Harvesting Systems
  • Biotechnology for Healthy Ageing
  • DeepRAP: Deep Reasoning, Abstraction & Planning towards trustworthy Cognitive AI Systems

EIC Pathfinder Challenges 2027 (draft)

  • Breakthroughs in Advanced Materials for Electricity Generation, Storage and Transmission
  • Safe and Controlled Continual Learning in Open World for Reliable AI Agents (CLOWAI)
  • Quantum Energetics

EIC Fund Guidelines (Equity)

EIC Accelerator and EIC STEP Scale-Up Call Page, Proposal Templates and Submission Links

EIC Accelerator Jury Members

List of Eligible EIC Accelerator Countries

  • All Eligible EIC Accelerator Countries
  • EU-27 Member States
    1. Austria
    2. Belgium
    3. Bulgaria
    4. Croatia
    5. Republic of Cyprus
    6. Czech Republic
    7. Denmark
    8. Estonia
    9. Finland
    10. France
    11. Germany
    12. Greece
    13. Hungary
    14. Ireland
    15. Italy
    16. Latvia
    17. Lithuania
    18. Luxembourg
    19. Malta
    20. Netherlands
    21. Poland
    22. Portugal
    23. Romania
    24. Slovakia
    25. Slovenia
    26. Spain
    27. Sweden
  • Association Agreements with Legal Effect
    1. Albania
    2. Armenia
    3. Bosnia and Herzegovina
    4. Faroe Islands
    5. Georgia
    6. Iceland
    7. Israel
    8. Kosovo
    9. Moldova
    10. Montenegro
    11. North Macedonia
    12. Norway
    13. Serbia
    14. Tunisia
    15. Turkey
    16. Ukraine
  • Transitional Association Arrangements
    1. Morocco
    2. United Kingdom (grant but no equity)
    3. Switzerland
  • Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) Linked to Member States
    1. Aruba (Netherlands)
    2. Bonaire (Netherlands)
    3. Curação (Netherlands)
    4. French Polynesia (France)
    5. French Southern and Antarctic Territories (France)
    6. Greenland (Denmark)
    7. New Caledonia (France)
    8. Saba (Netherlands)
    9. Saint Barthélemy (France)
    10. Sint Eustatius (Netherlands)
    11. Sint Maarten (Netherlands)
    12. St. Pierre and Miquelon (France)
    13. Wallis and Futuna Islands (France)

Widening Countries (EIC Pre-Accelerator Eligibility)

The less advanced countries in terms of R&I performance eligible under the Widening participation and strengthening the European Research Area (WIDERA) programme:

  • EU Member States
    1. Bulgaria
    2. Croatia
    3. Cyprus
    4. Czechia
    5. Estonia
    6. Greece
    7. Hungary
    8. Latvia
    9. Lithuania
    10. Malta
    11. Poland
    12. Portugal
    13. Romania
    14. Slovakia
    15. Slovenia
  • Associated Countries with equivalent characteristics in terms of R&I performance
    1. Albania
    2. Armenia
    3. Bosnia & Herzegovina
    4. Faroe Islands
    5. Georgia
    6. Kosovo
    7. Moldova
    8. Montenegro
    9. North Macedonia
    10. Serbia
    11. Tunisia
    12. Türkiye
    13. Ukraine
    14. Morocco (once associated)
  • Outermost Regions (defined in Art. 349 TFEU)

Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprise (SME) Status

  • SME definition
    • Staff headcount < 250
    • Turnover ≤ €50 million
    • Balance sheet total ≤ €43 million

This page contains all the relevant and up-to-date information about the EIC Accelerator. You can find the latest EIC Accelerator cut-off dates for the submission deadlines, the current EIC Accelerator submission links, information on EIC Accelerator templates, the EIC Accelerator Challenges, the EIC Accelerator Budget, the Eligible EIC Accelerator Countries and other general requirements here.