EIC Pathfinder: Open and Challenges

The overall objective of the European Innovation Council (EIC) Pathfinder for advanced research is to develop the scientific basis to underpin breakthrough technologies. It provides support for the earliest stages of scientific, technological, or deep-tech research and development.

Pathfinder projects aim to build on new, cutting-edge directions in science and technology to disrupt a field and market or create new opportunities by realising innovative technological solutions through:

• EIC Pathfinder Open: Available to support projects in any field of science, technology, or application without predefined thematic priorities.
• EIC Pathfinder Challenges: Supports coherent portfolios of projects within predefined thematic areas with the aim to achieve specific objectives for each challenge.

EIC Pathfinder Open

EIC Pathfinder Open supports the early-stage development of such future technologies (e.g., various activities at low technology readiness levels, or TRL, from 1 to 4), based on high-risk/high-gain deep technology.

• Project Value: Up to €3 million
• Project Deadline: 12 May 2026

Proposals must meet all the following essential characteristics:

• Convincing long-term vision of a radically new technology that has the potential to have a transformative positive effect to solving a challenge in our economy and society.
• Concrete, novel, and ambitious science-towards-technology breakthrough, providing advancement towards the envisioned technology.
• High-risk/high-gain research approach and methodology, with concrete and plausible objectives.

EIC Pathfinder Challenges

EIC Pathfinder Challenges aims to build on new, cutting-edge directions in science and technology to disrupt a field and market or create new opportunities by realising innovative technological solutions grounded in high-risk/high-gain research and development.

With each specific Challenge, a portfolio of projects will be established that explore different perspectives, competing approaches, or complementary aspects of the Challenge. The complexity and high-risk nature of this research will require multidisciplinary collaborations.

• Project Value: Up to €4 million
• Project Deadline: 28 October 2026

EIC Pathfinder Challenges include:

• Advanced Materials for Miniaturised Energy Harvesting Systems
• Biotechnology for Healthy Ageing
• DeepRAP: Deep Reasoning, Abstraction & Planning Towards Trustworthy Cognitive AI Systems