How to approach the EIC Pathfinder Challenge on energy harvesting systems

21st May 2026 at 4:44 pm

The EIC Pathfinder Challenge HORIZON-EIC-2026-PATHFINDERCHALLENGES-01-01 focuses on one of the less visible but increasingly critical bottlenecks in Europe’s digital transition: powering billions of connected devices sustainably and autonomously. As wearable electronics, distributed sensors and other systems of the Internet of Things (IoT) continue to expand, reliance on batteries is becoming both an environmental and technological limitation.

This Challenge seeks breakthrough approaches based on advanced materials for miniaturised energy harvesting systems, enabling small-scale devices to capture and convert ambient energy from their environment. However, this is not simply a materials science call. The European Innovation Council (EIC) expects applicants to combine advanced materials with system integration and also present a credible pathway towards future application. Below, we analyse what the EIC is really asking for and how applicants can position their proposals competitively.

Why miniaturised energy harvesting matters now

The Challenge is rooted in growing concerns about the scalability and sustainability of future connected systems. According to the EIC Challenge Guide, the rapid proliferation of IoT and autonomous sensing technologies risks creating unsustainable levels of battery consumption, maintenance requirements and electronic waste (EC, 2026).

Miniaturised energy-harvesting systems aim to address this by converting ambient energy sources, such as vibration, heat, light, magnetic fields, or radio-frequency signals, into usable electrical energy. The long-term ambition is to create energetically autonomous systems that operate with little or no reliance on batteries.

The EIC highlights applications including:

• Wearables and health monitoring devices
• Smart city infrastructure
• Industrial monitoring systems
• Precision agriculture sensors
• Drones and autonomous robotics
• Environmental and security monitoring systems

Pro tip: If possible, select a use case where energy autonomy is genuinely transformative, not simply convenient.

Advanced materials are the entry point, not the final objective

The Challenge supports a broad range of harvesting approaches, including piezoelectric, triboelectric, thermoelectric, photovoltaic, magnetic and hybrid systems. However, the novelty in the advanced materials  alone will not be sufficient, as the call explicitly expects projects to go beyond material development and demonstrate:

• Miniaturised harvesting modules integrating those materials
• Integration into an energetically autonomous system
• Validation in a representative laboratory use case at TRL 4

This means strong proposals should explain why the selected materials are particularly suited for miniaturised harvesting, how they enable measurable performance gains (benchmarked against the current state of the art), and how integration challenges will be addressed at the system level.

Pro tip: Avoid proposals that stop at material characterisation or proof-of-concept synthesis. The EIC expects system-oriented thinking and a coherent pathway towards functional autonomous devices from the outset.

Portfolio logic: the hidden competitiveness factor

Like other Pathfinder Challenges, this topic follows a strong portfolio approach. This means proposals are evaluated not only on their individual merits but also on how they contribute to a balanced set of funded projects. The Challenge Guide explains that proposals will be mapped according to:

• The energy harvesting phenomenon used
• The advanced material composition
• The target field of application

As a result, even scientifically excellent proposals may not be funded if they overlap too strongly with other selected projects. This is one of the most important aspects that applicants often underestimate.

For example, multiple proposals focused on similar triboelectric materials for generic wearable applications may compete directly for the same portfolio space. In contrast, a proposal combining an unconventional harvesting mechanism with a highly specific industrial or biomedical application may strengthen portfolio diversity.

This does not mean explicitly guessing what other consortia will submit. Rather, it means showing evaluators that your approach occupies a meaningful and differentiated position within the Challenge landscape. For a broader discussion of how this portfolio logic influences EIC evaluations, see our earlier blog on EIC Pathfinder Challenges proposal positioning.

Common proposal weaknesses to avoid

In general, like all EIC Pathfinder proposals, the Challenges are designed for high-risk, high-gain research. Incremental efficiency improvements without disruptive potential are unlikely to remain competitive. In addition, specifically for this Challenge, you should avoid the following weaknesses:

• Generic application scenarios: Use cases should not be interchangeable or overly broad. Applicants need to justify why miniaturised harvesting is particularly relevant for the selected domain (first Pro tip above).
• Weak system integration: Avoid focusing only on materials science while neglecting integration into realistic autonomous systems. The EIC expects a functional harvesting module (second Pro tip above).
• Insufficient benchmarking strategy: The call explicitly requires benchmarking against the state of the art. Vague claims of improvements will not be sufficient without measurable validation criteria.

Pro tip: Clearly define what “success” looks like technically, functionally and comparatively.

Our Pathfinder track record

With years of hands-on experience in preparing successful proposals, we have become a trusted partner for ambitious researchers applying to the EIC Pathfinder programme. Our team at accelopment understands how to position high-risk research for competitive evaluation. Our track record extends back to the FET programme in Horizon 2020, the predecessor of EIC Pathfinder, where we contributed to pioneering projects such as CLASSY, FRINGE and Lumiblast. In Horizon Europe, we supported the preparation of successful EIC Pathfinder proposals, including CORENET, PEARL-DNA, POLINA, PIONEAR and BoneOscopy.

Whether you are preparing a first submission or considering a resubmission strategy, we provide tailored support across proposal positioning, impact development, consortium structuring and proposal writing. As in many of our successful collaborations, we can also participate as a project partner supporting communication, dissemination, exploitation and project management activities.

Our team is ready to help transform your breakthrough idea into a strong and compelling Pathfinder proposal. Contact us to discuss how our experience can strengthen your application.

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Dr. Johannes Ripperger
Research & Innovation Manager

Andreia Cruz
Research & Innovation Project Manager