Submission

The open call consists of two strands. The submissions will happen through the official submission Sploro’s platform, which is directly linked to the Women TechEU website. Only applications received directly through the online submission platform will be considered eligible.

The submission process is divided into 2 strands:

Eligibility strand. First step is verifying the eligibility of the startups:

- Submission period: continuously running from 1 June 2026 to 13 July 2027 at 17:00 CEST Brussels time with weekly cut-offs for validation.First cut-off is the 30 June 2026 at 17:00 CEST.

- Link for submission: online submission platform

Full proposal strand. Only the eligible startups will be invited to submit the Full Proposal. This strand is continuously running with 4 submission deadlines for evaluation:

- Opening: 15/07/2026

- Submission deadline 5: 16/09/2026, 17:00h CEST*, Brussels time

- Submission deadline 6: 14/01/2027, 17:00h CET*, Brussels time

- Submission deadline 7: 13/05/2027, 17:00h CEST*, Brussels time

Submission deadline 8: 29/07/2027, 17:00h CEST*, Brussels time

Both strands are supported by the following documents (all the documents will be available at Women TechEU website in due time):

- Guidelines for applicants: cover all the information applicants need to know before applying.

- Annex 1: the word template of the online application forms. The application forms are divided into different sections.

- FAQ: document with the Frequently Asked Questions. This document will be updated periodically.

- Eligibility strand - Online Form: to be completed via Sploro platform. The invitation to submit a full proposal will be sent directly only to eligible startups.

Women TechEU also provides online info sessions. It is advisable to attend at least one of the upcoming online events:

1. 1st InfoDay: 25 June 2026 at 10:00h CEST (Brussels time)
2. 2nd InfoDay: 08 July 2026 at 10:00h CEST (Brussels time) 
3. 3rd InfoDay: 06 August 2026 at 12:00h CEST (Brussels time) 
4. 4th InfoDay: 15 September 2026 at 16:00h CET (Brussels time) 
5. 5th InfoDay: 10 November 2026 at 16:00h CET (Brussels time) 
6. 6th InfoDay: 12 January 2027 at 10:00h CET (Brussels time) 
7. 7th InfoDay: 16 March 2027 at 16:00h CEST (Brussels time) 
8. 8th InfoDay: 04 May 2027 at 10:00h CEST (Brussels time) 

Evaluation process

The application process for Women TechEU is divided into 2 strands. First, applicants must verify their eligibility status, and once they are validated, they will be moved (if eligible) to the second strand, the Full Proposal strand.

Eligibility check strand

The eligibility strand opens on the 1 June 2026 and closes on 13 July 2027 at 17:00 CEST. Weekly cut-offs take place every Tuesday at 17:00 CE(S)T during the opening period, being the first one on the 30 June 2026 at 17:00 CEST. Applicants complete the eligibility form to verify compliance with the programme requirements. After submission, applications are reviewed against the following criteria:

- European: established in an EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country eligible for this call.

- Early-stage:

1. Registered for at least six months and maximum five years at the time of the eligibility cut-off date they are submitting for
2. Raised less than 1M€ in equity
3. Have not reached Minimum Viable Product stage, they are in between TRL4 and TRL6 both included

- Deep tech: Active in one of the deep tech sectors defined in the Guidelines for Applicants

- Startup: Follows the SME definition by the EC and it is autonomous as per the SME recommendation definition 2003/361/EC

- Women-led:

1. Founded or co-founded by women
2. The co-founder holds a top management position at the moment of submission for eligibility (CEO, CTO, CSO or equivalent)
3. Women hold at least 25% of the shares at the moment of submission for eligibility.

- Unique: proposals are required not to have been previously funded by prior Women TechEU editions or EIC Accelerator.

- Absence of conflict of interest with the Women TechEU 2 EIC consortium partners.

Applicants will receive an Eligibility Letter within one week after the cut-off deadline they submitted for. Eligible applicants will be invited to submit a Full Proposal in the next available cut-off of the Full Proposal strand.

Applicants marked as non-eligible may re-apply up to three times should their eligibility status change.

For any question about the process there is a general email address available at [email protected].

Full Proposal strand budget

The total available budget is 12,000,000€. Each submission deadline will count on a total budget of 3,000,000€ to fund 40 startups per deadline.

In each submission deadline 40% of the budget will be reserved for applications from the widening areas. This is translated into 1.200.000€ per deadline for widening area startups.

Please note that applicants who have submitted their eligibility form and received their eligibility letter more than 15 days before the following Full Proposal submission deadline closes must submit their Full Proposal by the nearest submission deadline date. If you are eligible and receive the eligibility letter 14 days or less before the following Full Proposals submission deadline closes, you may submit your full proposal at the next submission deadline date.

Applications must be submitted before the submission deadline date, via the Sploro’s platform. Paper submissions are not allowed. Applications must be complete and contain all parts and mandatory Annexes and supporting documents in English.

Full proposal evaluation process

After each submission deadline, the proposals are evaluated in six steps:

1. Verification that all documents and text are in English and properly filled out.
2. The applications that pass this filter will move to a flags check to validate that the startups are not grant survivors, are growth-oriented, are interested in scaling and raising investment, and have an IP policy. At each submission deadline, a maximum of 350 applications will move to external evaluation..
3. Third step is the external evaluation by a panel of two external evaluators per proposal that will score the proposals based on 3 criteria: Excellence, Impact and Implementation.
4. To avoid discrepancies based on biases from evaluators, normalisation will be applied to all the evaluations. The normalization step guarantees a more balanced distribution of scores and reduces the possibility of biases and distortions. A consensus meeting will be organised if the scores of the two evaluators are very divergent (over 20% after normalisation).
5. Ethics evaluation: all applicants will fill in the standard ethics form from Horizon Europe. Pre-selected applicants will follow a deeper ethics screening by external experts.
6. Final decision. The pre-selection will be based on the scoring mechanism and will include a tie-sorting mechanism published in the guidelines.

Applicants will receive an Evaluation Summary Report that includes the feedback of the external evaluators so that they identify the points of improvement maximum eight weeks after submission deadline closure. Pre-selected applicants will undergo a thorough legal validation process before proceeding to signing the Sub-grantee agreement.

Important note: maximum two resubmissions are allowed for Full Proposal strand.

Legal Validation and Sub-grantee agreement signature

Pre-selected startups will be invited to fill out a legal validation form. To speed up the validation process we highly recommend that the applicants validate their legal entity via the Funding & Tenders portal. To get validated you should refer to the official guide HERE.

After the validation of the Legal Entity, eligibility criteria and representative, a written Sub-grantee agreement will be signed between the Consortium (represented by the coordinator: Sploro) and the beneficiary. After signing the sub-grantee agreement, beneficiaries will be eligible to participate in the Women TechEU Programme of services.

Appeals

The Women TechEU project has established a process that allows applicants to appeal the decision in the event their proposal is not selected for funding. As the call consists of two strands, there are two moments for appealing, both following the same process. In both cases complaints, which should include a detailed explanation and clear evidence of the alleged error, should be made within seven (calendar) days since the communication of results to the applicants via the appealing online form that will be made available at that time.

The Women TechEU 2 EIC project is on a mission to ignite the potential of women-led early-stage startups in deep tech. 160 talented women entrepreneurs from across the European Union and Horizon Europe associated countries will be receiving direct support. With 75k€ grant (non-diluting finance) and a personalised business development programme, the project will be paving the way for these innovators to shine as leaders in deep tech innovation across Europe.

This project is a continuation of the Women TechEU scheme that was first managed by EISMEA (European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency) from 2021 to 2023 and by another consortium during 2024 - 2026, and it has now become a fully-fledged cascade funding project that is run by an EU-wide consortium made up of different innovation ecosystem players, representatives of women entrepreneurs and also investors.

During 2 years, the project will give out a total of 12 M€ in non-diluting finance in an open call with 4 different competitive submission deadlines In each submission deadline 40% of the funding is secured for startups coming from widening areas. Each cohort will then be also invited to use the menu of business development services that will be provided over a period of 6 months. Constant contacts and checkups of the KPIs that will be jointly developed by the entrepreneurs and their coaches will ensure that there is a smooth ongoing scaleup of their businesses, in order to prepare the winners to eventually also apply for the EIC Accelerator or Pre Accelerator scheme.

Women TechEU programme

This unique Women TechEU Programme offers:

1. Service 1 - Women mentors (one meeting per month during 6 months).
2. Service 2: Investor readiness.
3. Service 3 - Export Readiness Check.
4. Service 4 - Soft Skills Training.
5. Service 5 - Sales Strategy.
6. Service 6 - Environmental Impact Assessment.
7. Service 7 - High Impact Events
8. Service 8 - Peer-meetings.
9. Service 9 - Perks programme and Community.

At the moment of submission, the applicant will select her top three services that she would like to get from Women TechEU project. During the execution of the Programme of Services selected services from the EIC Business Accelerator Service will also be offered.

Following the M3 Programme evaluation. At least 60% of the selected startups will move to a new phase called “Paving the way”. These startups have access to services meant to support their scaling-up:

1. Service 10 - Fast Track to EIC Accelerator.
2. Service 11 - Open Innovation and Corporate Access.
3. Service 12 - Targeted meetings with investors.
4. Service 13 – Community creation.