ATHENA Grant & Support Office

NEWS

EIC Pathfinder Open 2026 call continues to attract strong interest from the research community

The European Innovation Council (EIC) has received 2103 project proposals under the EIC Pathfinder Open 2026 call, confirming the continued strong interest of the research and innovation community in breakthrough deep-tech funding opportunities. The call, which closed...

European Competitiveness Fund: synergies with Erasmus+ must be maintained

The European University Association calls on policy makers to maintain explicit references to higher education in the regulation to establish a European Competitiveness Fund, as originally proposed by the European Commission. Notably, the recent draft report on the...

European Innovation Council selects EQT to lead €5 Billion Scaleup Europe Fund

The European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund Board has chosen EQT as the preferred investment adviser and fund manager for the Scaleup Europe Fund, following a rigorous and highly competitive selection process to lead the EU's €5 billion initiative designed to empower...

The public consultation process for the Future Circular Collider (FCC) project begins in Switzerland and France

The public consultation process for the CERN-led Future Circular Collider (FCC) project will soon begin in Switzerland and France. These four months of exchanges and dialogue with the public are part of the preparations for a final decision on the...

UCD Space Strategy 2030 charts ambitious course for Ireland

University College Dublin (UCD) launched its Space Strategy to 2030, calling for Ireland to hold outsized ambitions for its future in the trillion dollar global space sector. The strategy offers an ambitious blueprint to position Ireland as a national and European...

Associated Countries position on FP10

Universities from four countries associated with Horizon Europe have called on the EU Council to ensure that Framework Programme 10 (FP10) remains open, research-led and attractive to trusted international partners. In a joint letter addressed to the Cyprus EU...

Keeping Europe’s science-based companies in Europe: CESAER contributes input on EU Inc.

CESAER has contributed input to the European Parliament on the proposed EU Inc. framework, calling for the new European company form to support science-based startups, university spinouts and deep tech ventures....

ATHENA FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES CALENDAR

Erasmus +

Call/TopicOpenDeadline
Erasmus+ Virtual Exchanges in Neighbourhood East

ERASMUS-EDU-2026-VIRT-EXCH-NE

04 Dec 202526 Nov 2026
Erasmus+ Virtual Exchanges in Western Balkans

ERASMUS-EDU-2026-VIRT-EXCH-WB

04 Dec 202526 Nov 2026

Horizon Europe 2021-2027

Call/TopicOpenDeadline
EIC STEP Scale Up

HORIZON-EIC-2026-STEP

06 Nov 202525 Nov 2026

Open for SMEs-Innovators-Students

Call/TopicOpenDeadline
EIC Accelerator 2026 – Short proposal

HORIZON-EIC-2026-ACCELERATOR-01

06 Nov 202517 Dec 2026

EVENTS

The European degree label: state of play and ways forward

During this webinar, EUA will update participants on the current status of the development of the European degree label, explain how and when it can be used by institutional consortia offering joint degrees and provide some reflections on the future evolution of the...

STOA-STS forum Conference ‘Start-ups and scale-ups: lessons from EU and Japan’

This event organised by STOA together with the Japanese STS forum, aims to look into one of the key questions facing the economic competitiveness of both EU and Japan: how to bridge a strong research ecosystem with successful commercialisation of innovations through...

ERC Grants Info Session: Funding for Excellent Frontier Research

Join EURAXESS North America and the European Research Council Executive Agency for a webinar on the bottom-up funding schemes that make up the European Research Council grants. The ERC is the premier European funding organization for excellent frontier...

Leading career assessment reform across academia to enhance culture, engagement and impact

Organisations involved in research and academic career assessment across Europe, including universities, funders, national authorities and others, are rethinking how they assess, incentivise and recognise academic work. Academic career assessment reform,...

Economic impact of options for improving access to and reuse of research results, publications and data for scientific purposes

The workshop concerns the findings of an economic study launched in the context of structural policy 1 of the European Research Area Policy Agenda 2025-2027. The findings of this study will be presented by the study consortium. Join event online Register here

Info session: Accelerating Best Use of Technologies – Materials available

In the context of the Digital Europe Programme call "Accelerating Best Use of Technologies" (DIGITAL-2026-BESTUSE-10), HaDEA organised an Info Session on 29 April 2026. Participants had the opportunity to learn more about the calls, how to prepare and submit a...

European AI Innovation Month

The European AI Innovation Month brings together policymakers, industry, public sector, and research together to discuss and showcase how AI is being developed and applied across EU industry sectors. From 14 October to 17 November 2026, this...