Eurostars
Eureka (Intergovernmental Network)
Eurostars is the largest international funding programme for SMEs aiming to collaborate on R&D projects that create innovative products, processes or services for commercialisation.
- Use: R&D;
- Date closing: -
- Amount: 114,000 € - 500,000 €
- Industry focus: Agriculture, Forestry, Fishery; Arts; Tourism; Health; ICT; Food; Manufacturing; Chemical industry; Construction; Education; Energy and water supply; Transportation; Media; Others;
- Total budget: 1B €
- Entity type: Public Agency
- Vertical focus: All
- Website: https://www.eurekanetwork.org/open-calls/eurostars-funding-programme-2021
- Status: Open
- Funding type: Grant;
- Funding rate: 60%
- Geographic focus: EU; Eureka associated countries;
- Sucess rates: 29%
- Public/Private: Public
- Stage focus: Seed; Series A;
- Applicant target: SME; Startup; Mid-cap; University; RTO; LE;
Overview
Eurostars program is aimed to support innovative SMEs and project partners (large companies, universities, research organisations and other types of organisations) by funding international collaborative R&D and innovation projects. Projects should result in the creation of new products, processes and services that can be rapidly commercialised in European or global markets. It is a competitive programme that sees an average of 29% of project applications receive funding.
Form your consortium
To apply, your consortium must be led by an innovative SME from an EUREKA country. The minimum consortium is composed at least by two independent entities from at least two participating countries, with at least one organisation coming from an EU or Horizon Europe Associated Country. The budget of the SMEs (excluding any subcontracting) must be 50% or more of the total project cost but no single participant or country should be responsible for more than 70% of the project's budget.
How to apply?
EUREKA is not a direct funding instrument. Projects are funded in a de-centralised manner through the funding agencies of the member countries. However, the Eurostars submission process is centralised through the EUREKA network.
As such the application is a two-stage procedure, first you submit your project application online via de Eureka Project Management Platform. This application is based on an ad-hoc specific text only form, that makes almost impossible to reuse existing documentation or business plans. Additionaly, you must upload compulsory annexes such as the financial annex, a commitment form, SME declarations, and optionally a technical annex and a gantt chart.
In parallel to the submission of the Eureka project application form, all project partners are required to submit a related national funding application, if required, to their respective funding agencies, so you have to consult with your national funding application the time-line and content for each application.
If the project is evaluated positively by the Eureka network, then you have the right to be financed by your country. Each country have different funding schemes (varying from direct grants to loans) and thus different funding rates. Even more, each country have different budgets for its Eurostars program. It can happen that even if the project has been approved by the EUREKA evaluators, maybe one consortium partner do not get funding due to this limitation on each country's budget.
Budget
The expected public-private investment is €250 million each year.
Eurostars FAQ
- March 24th
- September 15
Meanwhile, the EIC Accelerator program is aimed to reach the commercialisation (TRL6-TRL9) starting from a proof of concept.
Thus, the Eurostars-3 programme (2021 – 2027) will be ideal for SMEs willing to develop R&D, whereas the EIC Accelerator programme can be leveraged by the very same SMEs later when the TRL of their R&D projects is 6 or above.
The platform has 5 different sections that must be filled.
1.- Summary of your project
2.- The project application itself is divided into the sections (Impact, Excellence and Quality and efficiency and Ethics)
3.- A Partner-specific section including: project costs, financial information, funding requested, core business and expertise, contribution to the project, benefits of the participation, financial situation and how you intend to finance your participation.
4.- Declarations: Including the commitment form that is compulsory for all the consortia members.
5.- Work packages description.
Once you have filled all the subsections, the platform lets you upload the application. However, once you send the application, you can only modify contact information.
First, all partners must complete the commitment document and financial viability check (for each call). After that you must re-fill three sections (Impact, Excellence, and Quality and efficiency) with a total of 13 subsections. Each subsection has a set of questions that you can answer directly on the platform (plain text only). Most questions are limited to 500-1,000 characters
Additionally, the consortium can include more organisations, even if they are not based in EUREKA's network countries. However, there is no funding available for those organisations outside the EUREKA's network, and a self-funding declaration must be provided.
So, you should consider whether you can dedicate the time ( and also associated internal costs) and talent to writing a lengthy proposal, whether you have the skills required, and whether you can afford a consultancy.
You should also consider that the Eurostars project requires a deep understanding of both the technology and the business, whereas the latter is mostly sufficient for other European funding opportunities such as the EIC Accelerator. If you hire a consultant, you will be expected to give a lot of input regarding the technology and the state-of-the-art.
It is essential to be eligible. The different organisations within the consortium must be based in at least two different EUREKA's network countries, and at least one organisation must be based in a Horizon Europe country.
Let me give you an example: a consortium of an SME from Canada and one LE from Singapore would not be eligible (although both companies in the consortium are based in EUREKA's countries, because none belongs to a Horizon Europe country)
Although it is difficult to estimate, it is important to consider the budget limitations of each country when forming your consortium. Maybe your project will have more options if you find a partner in a country with a bigger budget, and there are fewer applicants.
Regarding the type of entities in the consortia, it is compulsory to have at least one SME (that must be the project leader). However, every partner must check their own national funding body because each has independent rules on: type of organisations that can be funded, activities that can be funded, and funding rates and thresholds.
You will receive the evaluators’ comments on your proposal after about 2 months, not the final result though. As a final step, an independent panel will rank all eligible and evaluated applications and perform an ethics review.
First, your company must establish an eligible international consortium for the project. After that, you log in to the platform www.myeurekaproject.org and create the project application. It is a collaborative platform where you invite all your partners and can fill the different sections and even make comments in the text.
The platform has 5 different sections
1.- Summary of your project
2.- The project application itself that is divided into three sections (Impact, Excellence and Quality and efficiency)
3.- A Partner-specific section including: project costs, financial information, funding requested, core business and expertise, contribution to the project, benefits of the participation, financial situation and how you intend to finance your participation.
4.- Declarations: Including the commitment form that is compulsory for all the consortia members.
5.- Work packages description.
With this information, first national funding bodies proceed for a financial viability check of each partner, and after that the evaluators' panel review applications.
If your application is evaluated positively you can be founded by your national funding body. However, to receive this funding sometimes require an additional application to your national funding body (in some countries even before receiving the evaluators' report). Before applying, each project partner should check the funding rules in their country on our website and contact their national funding body for more information.
Funding rates vary from country to country being the average up to 50% of the eligible project costs and a maximum grant of 500.000€.
Eurostars Reviews
Recommend to a Friend
Experience
Getting the funds
Simple process
Reasonable application process but slow approval
- Promotes international collaboration
- Higher success rates than other EU funded programmes (eg. Horizon Europe)
- Easy to get advice from Eureka organizations
- Rules are different across countries
- Need to go through a double application process (Eureka + national)
- Limited funding
Advice for applicants
- Start preparing the consortium at least 6 months in advance
- Check all eligility criteria with the national agency
Advice for the Fund
- Unify criteria across countries
- Provide a single point of contact
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