EIC Advanced Innovation Challenges calls receive 709 requests for total funding of €131 million

The European Innovation Council (EIC European innovation council ) announced that it had received 709 proposals for its new Advanced Innovation Challenges calls for proposals. In total, applicants requested €130.7 million in funding on 09/03/2025.

The two calls closed in February 2026. The first focused on projects aimed at accelerating Physical AI and attracted 425 proposals, while the second supported efforts to translate Disruptive New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) into practice. The latter attracted 284 proposals. Each call foresaw around ten grants. Selected teams are expected to receive a lump-sum €300,000 lump-sum grant.

Applicants from 39 countries submitted proposals, with organisations from Germany (84 proposals), Italy (71) and the Netherlands (62) submitting the highest number of applications. Most applicants were companies, accounting for 490 participants (69%), followed by higher education institutions with 124 participants (17%) and research organisations with 89 participants (13%).

The Advanced Innovation Challenges call is a one-year pilot programme introduced in the 2026 EIC Work Programme, inspired by the US model of the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA Advanced Research Projects Agency of the US ). The programme supports high-risk, high-reward innovation to help the EU turn strong research into marketable products and businesses and uses a two-stage funding approach:

• First, selected teams receive a lump sum for up to nine months to prepare, benchmark and assess the feasibility of breakthrough solutions;
• Then, the most mature projects can receive up to €2.5m for up to two-and-a-half years to develop and test solutions in real-world settings.

The proposals will be evaluated by independent experts and applicants are expected to be informed of the results by May 2026.