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Home / Horizon Europe / HORIZON-EIE-2027-02-CONNECT-01

European Startup and Scaleup Hubs pilot

Announced, not yet open · HORIZON Programme Cofund Actions · HORIZON-EIE-2027-02-CONNECT-01

Next cut-off
05 Jan '27
in 93 days
Per grant
€20M
the call's own average
Grants expected
2
projects that will be funded
Funding rate
50%
the rest is your own money

In context of Horizon Europe

This grant€20M
The track runs to the largest grant in Horizon Europe (€100M). The median across the 365 calls we publish is €5.8M, this one is above it.

What this call funds

Expected Outcome:

Projects under this topic will contribute to the following outcomes:

  • Accelerate market expansion for European deep tech startups across EU regions and beyond by fostering collaboration and mutual support among European deep tech startup ecosystem actors;
  • Interconnect top-tier tech startup and scaleup hubs embedded in research, technology and higher education ecosystems;
  • Enable cross-border access to infrastructures, facilities, corporates, investors and talents to deep tech startups and scaleups, including those funded by the European Innovation Council (EIC);
  • Enable more European deep tech startups, including women-led startups and scaleups, to succeed scaling into globally competitive companies;
  • Strengthen less-connected innovation hubs by integrating them into a Europe-wide collaborative network;
  • Boost private and public investment in deep tech ventures established within the participating innovation hubs.

Scope:

This action builds upon the EU’s strategic vision outlined in the EU Competitiveness Compass [1], the EIC scaling strategy[2], and the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy[3]. It aligns with the objectives of strengthening Europe’s deep tech capabilities, increasing regional innovation cohesion and supporting the growth of globally competitive companies.

Trimmed here, the full scope, expected outcomes and award criteria are on the official topic page ↗.

What applying costs you

ItemEstimateNote
Drafting effort6–8 weekssingle submission
Partner search4–8 weeksruns in parallel, and it is the part that slips
Your own money€20M50% of project cost, over the project's life
Time to first payment6–9 monthscut-off → evaluation → grant agreement

These are Bemzu's estimates from the call's structure (the number of stages and whether a consortium is required) not figures published by the Commission. Only the co-financing share is read from the call itself.

Where these conditions come from

Two kinds of row. Most are the sentence we read the condition from, quoted out of the call itself. Some say plainly that they are not a quotation but the programme's own rule for this type of action, the EU portal publishes a table of contents where the conditions should be, so for a Research and Innovation Action the rate comes from the rulebook rather than from the fiche.

ConditionQuoted from the call, or the rule behind it
Funding rateThe funding rate is 50% of the eligible costs as co-fund actions require the remainder of the cost to be secured from other sources.

Also open in HE

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