Eurostars is part of the European Partnership on Innovative SMEs. The partnership is co-funded by the European Union through Horizon Europe.
Your project can address any technology area, but it must have a civilian purpose and be aimed at the development of a new product, process, or service.
Conditions for UK applicants
Innovate UK funds R&D costs for SMEs participating in our Eurostars programme. The total budget for the call is £2.5m. Innovate UK covers up to 60% of project costs in grants for SMEs.
The maximum funding amount is a grant of 360,000 euro per project. If there is more than one UK partner in the project, this amount is shared.
Some additional conditions apply: check the Eurostars page for the full list of requirements.
- Innovate UK funding is only available for UK-based SMEs. Research organisations, universities and large companies are not eligible for funding (though they may participate in a consortium on a self-funded basis).
- UK funded participants must be an active registered entity, at Companies House at least 12 months and active, before the Eurostars call deadline, and can only receive funding for one live Eurostars project at a time.
- Project costs incurred and the activities undertaken by UK participants that are funded through Eurostars must be conducted in the UK.
- UK-led projects must be managed by an R&D-performing SME.
- UK micro entities must have a minimum of three full time employees within the business by the deadline.
General conditions for applicants
To apply, you must meet seven international eligibility criteria:
- The project consortium is led by an innovative SME from a Eurostars country.
- The project consortium is composed of at least two entities that are independent of one another.
- The project consortium is composed of entities from at least two Eurostars countries with at least one organisation coming from an EU or Horizon Europe Associated Country
- The budget of the SMEs from the Eurostars countries (excluding any subcontracting) is 50% or more of the total project cost.
- No single participant or country is responsible for more than 70% of the budget of the project.
- The project duration is 36 months or less.
- The project has an exclusive focus on civil applications.
You can find more information and definitions of the terms used in these criteria in the detailed Eurostars guidelines in the Resource Library.