European Partnership on Innovative SMEs/Eurostars: joint transnational call for proposals

Eurostars is part of the European Partnership on Innovative SMEs. The partnership is co-funded by the European Union through Horizon Europe.

Eurostars is a funding instrument that supports innovative SMEs and project partners (large companies, universities, research organisations and other types of organisations) by funding international collaborative R&D and innovation projects. By participating, organisations can access public funding for international collaborative R&D projects in all fields.

To have a successful Eurostars application you must:

·Define your project idea.

·Collaborate internationally, sharing expertise.

·Develop products, processes or services that can be easily commercialised.

Your project consortium must have an innovative SME in the leading role, but it can also include other types of organisations like large companies, universities, research organisations and more.

To apply, you must fulfil 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 participating 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.

Eurostars countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye, and the United Kingdom.

Eurostars countries which are not an EU member state or a Horizon Europe Associated Country are: Canada, South Korea, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland.

For clarification, the United Kingdom is a Horizon Europe Associated Country, however for the purpose of this call deadline, the United Kingdom is treated as not associated.

Funding information

The amount of funding your organisation receives when you participate in a project is managed by your national funding body. Funding rules vary from country to country and your national funding body decides:

·which organisations can receive funding,

·which project activities can be funded and

·funding rates.

If you are from a Eurostars country, you can discover what funding is available for your organisation on our country-specific pages at www.eurekanetwork.org and by contacting your national or regional funding body using our contact form (eurekanetwork.org/footer/engage-with-us/contact-us). Your national funding body may have maximum funding amount per project or project partner.

Organisations from non-Eurostars countries can participate by self-funding their project costs.