The European Innovation Council (EIC) received by 28 October 2026, the deadline for its EIC Pathfinder Challenges call, an unprecedented number of applications, namely 1138 project proposals, almost double compared to 2025. The proposals involve a total of 5107 participants from 58 countries, demonstrating a very strong interest in the funding opportunities offered by the programme and showing the relevance of this type of funding.
The proposals are distributed over the three EIC Pathfinder Challenges as follows:
- Advanced materials for miniaturised energy harvesting systems: 261 proposals
- Biotechnology for healthy ageing: 427 proposals
- DeepRAP: Deep reasoning, abstraction & planning towards trustworthy cognitive AI systems: 450 proposals
The total indicative budget for the call is €96 million, which is expected to be allocated in approximately equal shares across the Challenges.
The evaluation process has begun, with the results expected to be announced in spring 2027.