Coordinators Horizon Europe
- All sectors
- EU Open Calls
Breakthrough innovations for future mobility
- All sectors
- EU Open Calls
- Coordinators: Horizon Europe
- Opening of application: 15 May 2025
- Allocated budget: Combination of grant (up to 2,5M€) and equity (up to 10M€)
- End of applications: 1 October 2025
- Project duration: 24 months
- Project submitted on: Open calls
Objective
Support the development and scale-up of cost-effective and disruptive deep tech innovations that significantly reduce mobility-related emissions—across manufacturing, operations, and use—while enhancing transport efficiency and reinforcing the EU’s strategic autonomy in critical mobility technologies.
Priorities
- Increase the competitiveness and economic autonomy or security of European companies across the mobility value chain.
- Support the scaling up of technologies that materially reduce mobility-related emissions, including a quantification on how they reduce emissions or increase efficiency of transport, or provide more affordable or inclusive mobility
- Deliver improvements in accessibility, safety, security, connectivity, flexibility and efficiency of the transport system including new mobility services and models.
- Develop new skills and create jobs in the EU.
Eligibility
Eligible activities
At least one of the following:
- Breakthroughs in the design, manufacture, assembly and operation of road vehicles, waterborne vessels, aircraft, or rail that contribute significantly to reduce their environmental footprint;
- Disruptive technologies that contribute to increase operational efficiencies and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, secondary and other harmful emissions and noise for Heavy Duty Road vehicles, waterborne vessels, aircraft or rail, multimodal transport and/or their related infrastructure.
- Sustainable fuels for hard-to-abate sectors such as aviation and maritime, including retrofitting solutions;
- Breakthroughs in the development and integration of digital tools ranging from sensors to the application of Artificial Intelligence to enhance autonomous transport solutions and more sustainable energy use on land, water or in the air, improve the connectivity and efficiency of vehicles and the transport system including capacity management, and smart and bi-directional charging functionalities.
Eligibility
This programme is mono-beneficiary
1. Be established in one of the following countries :
- Member States of the European Union, including their outermost regions;
- The Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) linked to the Member States;
- Countries associated to Horizon Europe – Pillar III & low ans middle income countries
2. Single start-up or SME (including spin-outs)
3. Small mid-caps (up to 499 employees) in two scenarios:
- Can apply for “investment only”
- Can apply for “blended finance” in exceptionl cases for rapid scale up of TRL 9.
4. Natural persons or legal entities willing to set up an SMEs or a mid-cap.
5. Applicants may submit only one application to the EIC Accelerator. Additional applications can be submitted after receiving the results of the original submission.
The application can be rejected maximum 3 times up until the end of the programme under Horizon Europe i.e. the end of 2027. (If you are successful at the short proposal stage, this does not count within the limit of three applications. If you are successful at the remote evaluation stage of a full proposal but then unsuccessful at the interview phase, this counts as one unsuccessful application.)
Different types of funding
Grant only: – for start-ups and SMEs with capacity to scale-up. To be provided only once during the implementation period of the Horizon Europe programme (2021-2027)(your application must demonstrate that you have access to the resources needed to commercialise and scale up your innovation)
Blended finance: a grant component & direct equity or quasi-equity such as convertible loans.
Investment only: for mid caps companies and companies that have received a «grant only».
You may adjust the EIC funding request when submitting your full proposal.
Application Process
1. Write your short proposal
Short proposals may be submitted at any time and which will be evaluated remotely by EIC expert evaluators on a first come, first served basis :
- A short form where you must summarise your proposal and respond to a set of questions on your innovation, your potential market and your team;
- A pitch-deck of up to ten slides in PDF format;
- A video pitch of up to three minutes where the core members of your team (up to three people) should provide the motivation for your proposal.
If your application meets the basic criteria, you will be invited to prepare a full proposal to submit to one of the periodic cut-off dates for funding.
Please note that short proposals are collected for evaluation on the first Tuesday of every month, and the results are transmitted to applicants within 4 to 6 weeks of the date at which the evaluation is started.
It is therefore recommended to submit a short proposal at least 10 weeks ahead of the deadline of a full application
2. Prepare your full proposal
If your short proposal receives a GO, you can submit your full proposal to any of the 2025 – 2026 cut-offs.
Prepare your full proposal on Funding and Tenders portal. The full proposal consists of a full business plan, pitch deck in PDF & a 3 minutes video pitch.
You will get the result in a 8-9 weeks.
3. Pitch your innovation
If you receive a GO, you will be invited to an interview with an EIC jury. The interview will take place within 4–5 weeks after the announcement of the previous step’s results. The format will be determined later.
You will receive the interview results within 2–3 weeks.
October 1 cut off: interviews January 19-23, 2026
4. Step 4
Negotiate the grant component, start due diligence for investment component.
