Back in the Game: Eurostars 3 Call 9 Welcomes Swiss SMEs Again
23rd April 2025 at 11:38 am
Great news for Swiss SMEs! After a temporary pause in some of the previous calls, the Eureka Eurostars 3 programme is back open for Swiss applicants next September (Call 9). This means that Swiss small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) once again have the exciting opportunity to lead cutting-edge international innovation projects and access valuable public funding. See all facts at a glance and find out why innovators should apply to this exciting funding scheme – EUREKA Eurostars-3.
Six reasons for choosing Eurostars
There are many reasons why your company should apply to Eurostars; our top six are listed for you here:
- Eurostars has an impressive success rate of 29% compared to 5-10% (or lower) of many other European funding schemes. Whereas other funding opportunities for SMEs have over 2,000 applications for a single submission deadline, the number of applications to Eurostars is, in comparison, rather small and only sums up to 3,422 submitted applications from 2014-2020 and thanks to the high success rate, 989 projects were funded accordingly.
- There is no need to apply to a specific and pre-given topic that might not match your idea 100%. You can freely choose your area since Eurostars supports the development of any rapidly marketable innovative product, process or service.
- The average consortium in Eurostars is only 2-4 partners, which facilitates the management of your project as well as communication within your consortium. Since your partners cannot all be from one single country, Eurostars gives you the possibility to collaborate internationally, combine and share expertise and benefit from working beyond national borders in a small team.
- As an SME you can get up to 80% of your costs funded, depending on your country (50% for Swiss SMEs), as Eurostars is co-funded from the national budgets of the 37 participating countries. For Eurostars-3, you can check your country-specific funding information here.
- Eurostars offers two cut-off dates each year, usually in March and September, with the next 2025 deadline to be soon announced for September, which gives you plenty of time to prepare. Since the cut-off date is not tied to a specific call topic as in other schemes, you can just apply to the next cut-off in case you missed your window for the first one in March.
- The application process is quite different from other funding schemes. The whole process takes place online, although EUREKA provides a Word template to compile your input offline and there are character limits to each question of the application form. The questions might be complex at times, but at least you know exactly how much text and detail you are supposed to provide.
Read our detailed step-by-step guide to support your Eurostars 3 application from start to submission for extra tips and to avoid common pitfalls. Your next application opportunity is expected for mid-September 2025.
Eurostars in numbers – all facts at a glance
Eurostars was implemented in 2008 to support innovative SMEs and their project partners from academia and industry. Building on its success, Eurostars 3 was launched in 2021 with eight cut-off dates so far. While the reports on the proposal submissions in March 2025 are not available yet, an overall Eurostars-3 budget of about 1.6 billion euros and the success numbers of previous cut-off dates, as shown in the below infographic, provide a promising lookout for future Eurostars applications.
Support for Eurostars applicants by accelopment
We offer you and your project partner(s) hands-on support throughout the whole application process, from helping you on defining your work plan to advising you on the project budget. We are eager to help you convince the evaluators of your innovation project.
Our many years of Proposal Writing allow us to support you throughout your application process, facilitate communication with your project partners and manage your application in the Eurostars online platform. We have been involved in several successful Eurostars applications in the past, such as the awarded OPTO-BRAIN, MAXCOAT, NoCaTS, sus@pension, MiniLib, RETWood, FP-Catheter, and more recently AirToxMonitor.
Robin Vanneste
Business & Finance Associate