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Horizon Europe · European Union

EIC PATHFINDER 2027 — HORIZON-EIC-2027-PATHFINDEROPEN-two-stage

Opens 25 Nov 2026

The EU's Horizon Europe programme expects to make 45 awards of €1 million – €5 million each, from a total budget of €166 million. Applications close on 25 Feb 2027 (EU calls usually close at 17:00 Brussels time). Organisations in EU member states and Horizon Europe associated countries such as Türkiye can usually take part; the topic conditions control.

Expected outcome

The deep-tech approach is problem oriented. Its starting point is an important and fundamental issue, that will be tackled, e.g. related to the UN’s sustainable development goals or an economic, environmental, or societal problem. It relies on the joint efforts of a multitude of different experts, e.g., scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs. Deep-tech employs the convergence of existing and emergent technologies, rooted in science and advanced engineering, and powered by the design-build-test-learn cycle. The novelty of technologies and the ways in which they are used make the deep-tech approach very powerful and may lead to the solution of global societal or environmental problems or to the creation of new markets and the disruption of existing industries.

The deep-tech journey needs time to move from basic science to applications to actual use cases. The amount of time required varies substantially for various cases, but it almost always takes longer than an innovation based on an available technology or existing engineering approach. EIC Pathfinder Open supports the initial phase of this journey. The projects funded by EIC Pathfinder Open work towards development of novel technologies when no existing technology fully solves the problem at hand. In some instances, a novel technology provides directly a solution, in others, success depends on combining novel and existing technologies or on developing new applications of established technologies. Sometimes the solution built will not work as desired and then again, the process will return to the technology development.

Scope

You should apply if you are looking for support from EIC Pathfinder Open to realise an ambitious vision for a scientific breakthrough, which will provide the foundations of a radically new technology, with the potential to create new markets, respond to societal needs and/or to provide solutions to global challenges. EIC Pathfinder Open supports early-stage development of such future or emerging technologies (e.g., various activities starting from establishing basic principles and reaching at least a proof of concept or a technology validation in a lab), based on high-risk/high-gain science-towards-technology breakthrough research.

EIC Pathfinder Open may support your work, especially if it is highly risky: you may set out to try things that will not work; you may be faced with questions that nobody has the slightest idea about how they should answered; you may realise that there are many aspects of the problem at hand that you do not master initially. All this may make your application stronger. On the contrary, if the approach you want to follow is incremental by nature or known, or if you have already validated your technology in the lab and are looking just for funding its implementation, EIC Pathfinder Open will not support you.

Topics

PATHFINDER PATHFINDER OPEN PATHFINDEROPEN

Timing

Two-stage call. Next deadline 2027-02-25; later stage/cut-off 2027-09-16. The portal states the exact cut-off time (EU calls usually close at 17:00 Brussels time).

How to apply

1. Read the full topic on the Funding & Tenders Portal: expected outcome, scope, type of action and the topic conditions, including any country restrictions.
2. Register each participating organisation in the Funding & Tenders Portal to get a PIC.
3. Check the topic conditions for the minimum number of partners.
4. Prepare Part A (administrative forms and budget, completed in the portal) and Part B (the technical description on the official template for this type of action).
5. Submit in the portal before the cut-off time on the deadline day. Late submissions are not accepted.

From the call text

Who can apply

Not stated in the call text we hold — check the official page

Company stage

Not stated in the call text we hold — check the official page

Single applicant or consortium

Read the topic conditions on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal for eligible countries, consortium requirements, budget and the application route.

Where applicants must be based

Read the topic conditions on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal for eligible countries, consortium requirements, budget and the application route.

Where to apply

Read the topic conditions on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal for eligible countries, consortium requirements, budget and the application route.

Read the EU application guide

Where these facts come from

Official sources

Official call page

Facts on this page come from the funder’s official data, taken on 14 Nov 2026. The funder's own documents, including later amendments, always take precedence.

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