ATHENA Grant & Support Office

NEWS

Tomorrow’s startups awarded: here are the EIT Jumpstarter 2026 winners

Europe’s next generation of startup founders won recognition in Lisbon on 12 November, as the EIT Jumpstarter 2026 winners were announced at an official side event of Web Summit. Selected from 895 applications, the winning teams developed their ideas through training,...

Defence innovation: Parliament pushes for more support for SMEs and start-ups

MEPs call on the EU to make it easier for smaller companies to play their part in improving the EU’s defence readiness. In a report adopted on Thursday, which looks at ways for new EU defence actors to establish themselves and scale up production, Parliament...

Horizon Europe to get a €21.5M top-up in 2027

The European Parliament and the Council have reached a provisional agreement on the 2027 EU budget, which would increase funding for Horizon Europe by €21.5 million and Erasmus+ by €14 million.  The LIFE Programme for the environment and climate action will also...

ERC Synergy Grants 2026: Bringing 48 research teams together to tackle science’s biggest challenges

The scheme enables groups of two to four researchers with complementary expertise to pursue ambitious research questions that they could not address individually. Researchers choose the questions and decide how best to investigate them. The grants are part of the...

EU and Australia deepen science and innovation ties with Horizon Europe Agreement

The European Union and Australia have signed an agreement paving the way for Australian researchers and organisations to join and lead projects under Horizon Europe, the EU's flagship research and innovation programme. The agreement was signed today in Brussels by...

A Horizon Europe’s new Annotated Grant Agreement

European Commission has adopted a new version of the Horizon Europe Annotated Grant Agreement, an explainer of the Model Grant Agreement that beneficiaries of all EU programmes sign when they start a project.  This third version includes corrections and updates...

Major institutional investors join EIB Group and EU Member States to channel over €10 billion into European scale-ups

Building on the success of the European Tech Champions Initiative, the EIB Group, fifteen institutional investors and seven EU Member States join forces to close financing gap for Europe’s innovators First investment decisions are expected within weeks In parallel,...

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 Chips 2023 JU

Call/TopicOpenDeadline
Quantum Experimental Pilot Lines for Quantum Technologies
HORIZON-JU-EUROHPC-2026-QEXP-14-01
13 Aug 202617 Nov 2026

Horizon Europe 2021-2027

Call/TopicOpenDeadline
MSCA Staff Exchanges 2027
HORIZON-MSCA-2027-SE-01-01
15 Dec 202615 Apr 2027
Pilot access schemes to Technology Infrastructures for European startups, scaleups and innovative SMEs (CSA)
HORIZON-CL4-2027-01-MAT-PROD-47
22 Sep 202602 Feb 2027
Driving Urban Transitions (DUT) Call 2026
DUT
01 Sep 202617 Nov 2026
EIC STEP Scale Up
HORIZON-EIC-2026-STEP
06 Nov 202525 Nov 2026

Horizon Europe Cluster 5

Call/TopicOpenDeadline
Africa-EU CO-FUND action on climate
HORIZON-CL5-2027-01-D1-11
17 Nov 202604 Mar 2027

Open for SMEs-Innovators-Students

Call/TopicOpenDeadline
EIC Accelerator 2026 – Short proposal
HORIZON-EIC-2026-ACCELERATOR-01
06 Nov 202517 Dec 2026

EVENTS

EIT Awards 2026 – Register now

Meet the changemakers, entrepreneurs and teams driving innovation across Europe and join us for the EIT Awards 2026 on 2 December in Budapest! The EIT Community’s annual awards ceremony will celebrate outstanding innovators turning ideas into impact across Europe with...

Erasmus Mundus Q&A Session 2027

The European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) is organising a Q&A session on the 2027 Calls for Proposals for Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters (EMJM) and Erasmus Mundus Design Measures (EMDM). The session will begin with an...

Online Info session: Erasmus+ European Degree Exploratory Action

The info session will present the main elements of the second round of the European Degree Exploratory Action, opened on 5 November 2026. It will cover the action’s objectives and expected impact, with a focus on the creation of new joint programmes and the adaptation...

Online Info session: European Universities 2027 call for proposals

The European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) is organising an online info session to illustrate the 2027 European Universities call for proposals - (ERASMUS-EDU-2027-EUR-UNIV). Join us on Tuesday 17 November 2026 from 10:30  to...

European Quantum Technologies Conference

The European Quantum Technologies Conference is a Quantum Flagship event dedicated to showcasing the latest advances in research and innovation in Quantum Information Science and Technology. The mission of the European Quantum Technologies Conference (EQTC) is to...

Online Info Day: Accelerator Challenges 2027

aking place the morning after the EIC Work Programme 2027 Info Day, this dedicated online session will focus on the EIC Accelerator Challenges for 2027. Join us to discover the new Challenges and learn more about the opportunities available to EIC applicants in 2027....

Scaleup Europe Fund Online Info Session

n August 2026 the Scaleup Europe Fund was launched and has started to make major investments to build up a portfolio of European growth-stage companies across strategic technologies. An information session is being organised to provide further insights about the...