The European Innovation Council (EIC), which is part of the Horizon Europe research and innovation programme, will support European cutting-edge research and high-potential start-ups in the European Union (EU) with €1.4 billion a year 2025.

The EES work program for 2025, which was approved by the European Commission, has a budget increased by almost 200 million euros compared to this year.

The Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Mrs Iliana Ivanova, said: “The European Innovation Council has emerged as an important factor in supporting breakthrough innovation in the European Union. In 2025, the ESF will boost cutting-edge technology in the EU with even more resources of €1.4 billion from the Horizon Europe research and innovation programme. Targeted support, in particular under the STEP call, will help close critical funding gaps and build a stronger and more resilient innovation ecosystem in Europe.”

The 2025 work program has a higher budget and several aspects of it have been improved based on the recommendations of the ESS panel, such as access to scalable equity funding with the ESS Strategic Technologies Platform for Europe (STEP) expansion programme; established under the STEP Regulation.

Katerina Plati