EIC Work Programme 2025 – Key facts about the next Pathfinder and Transition calls
8th November 2024 at 11:43 am
The European Innovation Council (EIC) operates with annual work programmes and recently published its Work Programme for 2025. An overview of the main funding instruments and key novelties was presented earlier this week during a dedicated info day. As expected, the new work programme includes the next series of EIC Pathfinder, Transition, and Accelerator calls but also introduces a new funding instrument, the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP) Scale-Up scheme.
The total budget for the 2025 Work Programme is € 1.4 billion, most of it allocated to the four main funding schemes. We here summarise the main information about the EIC Pathfinder Open, Pathfinder Challenges and Transition calls. If you want to know more about the changes concerning the EIC Accelerator and the introduction of the STEP, you can find a comprehensive overview in Science Business.
A similar budget for the EIC Pathfinder Open
Contrary to previous years and the initial draft Work Programme, the proposal submission deadline for the 2025 EIC Pathfinder Open call will be on 21 May 2025 instead of March in previous years.
A total of €142 million is allocated to supporting groundbreaking research ideas within the Pathfinder Open call. This budget will support multi-disciplinary research teams to undertake visionary research with the long-term potential to lead to breakthrough applications. The € 142 million represents a slight increase compared to last year, though it remains significantly lower than the budget during the first three years of Horizon Europe. The increased budget only allows for a moderate increase in the number of funded projects and consequently, we expect the success rate to remain around 5%, similar to the last Pathfinder Open call.
New challenges from medical diagnosis to autonomous construction robots
The 2025 EIC Pathfinder Challenges deadline will be on 29 October 2025. The EIC allocates a total of € 120 million to four challenges for next year, covering a wide range of research topics:
- Biotech for Climate Resilient Crops and Plant-Based Biomanufacturing
- Generative-AI based Agents to Revolutionise Medical Diagnosis and Treatment of Cancer
- Towards autonomous robot collectives delivering collaborative tasks in dynamic unstructured construction environments
- Waste-to-value devices: Circular production of renewable fuels, chemicals and materials
A total of € 30 million will be allocated for each of these challenges. We expect the number of submitted proposals, and consequently the success rates, to be highly variable between the different challenges.
Funding for technology validation and commercialisation
The EIC Transition provides funding for technology validation and commercialisation. For 2025, the EIC allocates € 98 million to this funding scheme with a proposal submission deadline on 17 September 2025. As in 2024, there will be only one EIC Transition call and no challenges. The budget allows for funding of about 40 projects with grants of up to € 2.5 million. Considering the larger number of eligible projects since last year, we expect the success rate to remain around 10%.
In one of our previous blog posts, you can read about the use of the lump-sum model that was introduced in 2024 for the EIC Pathfinder Challenges and Transition calls and the evaluation process.
Turning visionary research ideas into reality together
With a track record of successfully supporting five Pathfinder projects in Horizon Europe – namely CORENET, PEARL-DNA, POLINA, PIONEAR, and the soon-to-launch BoneOscopy – the accelopment team is exceptionally qualified to assist you in navigating these highly competitive funding schemes. Our dedication to pioneering research extends back to the FET programme under Horizon 2020, where we contributed to the success of projects such as CLASSY, FRINGE and Lumiblast.
Whether you are planning a resubmission or preparing a new proposal, we offer detailed proposal reviews and comprehensive assistance with new submissions. In line with our involvement in the successful projects mentioned above, we can also serve as a project partner, providing expertise in efficient project management and the communication and exploitation of project outcomes.
We are committed to supporting your journey in groundbreaking research and innovation. Please contact us if you need assistance with your EIC Pathfinder or Transition proposal.
Dr. Jörn-Frederik Wotzlaw
Research & Innovation Project Manager
Dr. Eva Avilla Royo
Research & Innovation Project Manager