Record-breaking interest in the EIC Pathfinder 2025 call with more than 2,000 submitted proposals
4th June 2025 at 10:20 am
The fifth deadline of the EIC Pathfinder Open in Horizon Europe closed on 21 May 2025, with a staggering 2,087 proposals submitted, marking an 86.5% increase compared to last year. With an indicative budget of €142 million and average project costs of €3 million, the EIC is expected to fund just over 40 projects. The expected success rate is thus at an all-time low, at about 2.3%.
Results expected in autumn 2025
The evaluation process has already started, and the results are expected to be communicated in October 2025. The first projects are then expected to start in early 2026. As many of the high-quality proposals are expected not to be funded (this year), a resubmission in 2026 might be worth considering in case of a high score. Next year’s deadline will be known once the 2026 EIC Work Programme is published toward the end of the year.
Looking for alternative calls?
With the 2025 Work Programmes for the Horizon Clusters and other instruments recently adopted, there are currently many other calls for proposals open, which could be of interest and might offer better success rates than the EIC Pathfinder Open. An obvious one to consider is the EIC Pathfinder Challenges 2025 call with a deadline of 29 October 2025, covering the following four topics this year:
- Biotech for Climate Resilient Crops and Plant-based Biomanufacturing
- Generative-AI based Agents to Revolutionise Medical Diagnosis and Treatment of Cancer
- Toward autonomous robot collectives delivering collaborative tasks in dynamic, unstructured construction environments
- Waste-to-value devices: Circular production of renewable fuels, chemicals and materials
If your proposal does not fit into one of the challenges, you may want to have a closer look at the Horizon clusters:
- Cluster 1 – Health
- Cluster 2 – Culture, Creativity & Inclusive Society
- Cluster 3 – Civil Security for Society
- Cluster 4 – Digital, Industry & Space
- Cluster 5 – Climate, Energy & Mobility
- Cluster 6 – Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture & Environment
The 2025 calls offer a wide range of call topics for Research and Innovation Actions. The deadlines for these calls are mostly between September and November this year, and some in early 2026. While most call topics in the clusters are quite specific, there are even some more open-topic opportunities in Cluster 3, such as the HORIZON-CL3-2025-01-FCT-01 Open topic on modern information and forensic evidence analysis and on frontline policing call (deadline 12 November 2025). Cluster 6 also offers some open-topic opportunities, but only for Innovations Actions. For applicants planning to adjust their Pathfinder Open proposal, these will require a more advanced Technology Readiness Level (TRL). The challenge for any consortia planning to resubmit their proposal will be to find the right call within the plenty of opportunities that the 2025 Work Programme offers.
Turning research ideas into reality together
For more information or general advice on the above funding schemes, please consult your National Contact Point. However, for project-specific funding advice and a systematic analysis of suitable funding opportunities, we at accelopment offer a strategic grant planning service. In case you have identified a relevant call and require support in adapting, revising or rewriting your Pathfinder proposal, please reach out to us. Since the start of Horizon Europe, we have supported the preparation of four winning Pathfinder projects, i.e., CORENET, PEARL-DNA, POLINA and PIONEAR.
If you want to be notified as soon as we publish any EIC-related news, you can subscribe to our blog posts and stay updated about the latest developments, trends, and results.
Andreia Cruz
Research & Innovation Project Manager, Group Lead