Horizon Europe: Innovative Europe – European Innovation Council (EIC) Advanced Innovation Challenges

Pilot, two-stage, ARPA-style funding opportunity to support high-risk, demand-driven deep tech innovation with transformative potential in areas where there is lack of commercial uptake.

The European Innovation Council (EIC) has launched the Advanced Innovation Challenges pilot to support high-risk, demand-driven deep tech innovation with transformative potential, especially in areas where there is extensive research but lack of commercial uptake.

The awards follow a two-stage procedure. At the first stage, applicants will receive a lump sum to prepare and benchmark breakthrough solutions and explore their feasibility and viability over a nine-month period. After this, the most promising stage one solutions will apply for additional funding to develop solutions and test them in real world environments and with users over two and a half year period.

The pilot is based on the US Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) model and will test whether competitive, stage-gated support can accelerate the path to market for high-risk deep tech innovations, and whether early integration of demand-side actors can enhance the relevance, validation, and ultimately the uptake of breakthrough solutions. The pilot will provide evidence on whether these mechanisms lead to more efficient innovation cycles and broader market adoption than other instruments within Horizon Europe.

Each challenge is overseen by a Programme Manager who will guide and support projects throughout Stage 1, foster synergies and the potential formation of consortia between selected initiatives and play a leading role in the selection process for Stage 2. The Programme manager will ensure strategic alignment, cross-project learning, and coherent portfolio development

Commercial users (eg industry, public sector) and/or end-users and/or other major stakeholders like regulators should be involved from the outset to validate use cases, enhance market relevance, and facilitate uptake. The proposed solution should have reached TRL 4 and the applicant must have access to an appropriate infrastructure for data collection and testing.

For the 2026 pilot, there are two predefined challenge topics: 

• Accelerating Physical AI: Embodied Intelligence for the Next Frontier of AI-Powered Robotics.
• Translating Disruptive New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) into Practice.

Each Challenge has its own scope, objectives, and eligibility requirements.