What is the EIC Pathfinder funding scheme?

The EIC Pathfinder funds research that develops the scientific foundations of breakthrough technologies. The focus is on the early stages of scientific, technological, or deep-tech R&D, with the aim of building new cutting-edge directions in science and technology that can disrupt existing fields and markets and create entirely new opportunities.

The Pathfinder call supports goal-driven research that:

• Realises innovative technological solutions;
• Identifies, develops, and scales up breakthrough technologies;
• Contributes to deep-tech innovation in Europe.

In EIC Pathfinder, the Challenges follow a top-down, predefined thematic approach that directs research towards specific strategic objectives, while the Open call follows a bottom-up approach, allowing proposals in any field without set themes.

Here, we focus on EIC Pathfinder Challenges. A separate blog post is dedicated to EIC Pathfinder Open.

EIC Pathfinder CHALLENGES

The Pathfinder Challenges’ projects must be built on new cutting-edge directions in science and technology, and they should aim to:

• Disrupt existing markets or create entirely new ones;
• Generate innovative technological solutions based on high-risk, high-gain research and development.

From the selected proposals, Program Managers will shape and curate project portfolios, ensuring that each explores:

• Different scientific and technological perspectives;
• Competing approaches;
• Complementary angles within each challenge area.

Insight from the TPM team: Pathfinder Challenges have predefined topics but freedom of approach. The problem space is fixed by the Challenge, but applicants are expected to explore radically different scientific and technological routes towards resolving the Challenge defined by the call.

Expected Outcomes

In general, projects are expected to:

• Deliver top-level scientific publications during the project, preferably in open access;
• Ensure adequate formal protection of generated intellectual property (IP);
• Assess relevant aspects related to regulation, certification, and standardisation during implementation.

The expected outcomes are detailed in each Challenge Guide (see the following section).

Projects are strongly encouraged to involve and empower key actors who can grow into future leaders, in particular:

• Early-career researchers;
• Promising high-tech SMEs and startups.

We particularly encourage the involvement of female researchers, and we expect them to be part of a balanced gender representation, including among work package leaders.

Insight from the TPM team: Despite their strategic framing, Pathfinder Challenges remain early-stage instruments. The emphasis is on proof of concept (typically up to TRL 3–4), not on deployment or market readiness.

The Challenge Guide – Your “Bible”

The Challenge Guide is the central reference document for each Pathfinder Challenge – effectively the “bible” for applicants. Each guide includes:

• The specific objectives of the challenge;
• Technical background and context supporting those objectives;
• The portfolio considerations used in the final selection of projects (how individual projects will fit together into a coherent portfolio).

The Challenge Guides are publicly available on the EIC website.

Challenge Topics for 2026 and Budget

For 2026, the overall budget for Pathfinder Challenges is €96 million, with each Challenge having a budget of €32 million.

The 2026 EIC Challenges will be:

1. Advanced Materials for Miniaturised Energy Harvesting Systems
2. Biotechnology for Healthy Aging
3. DeepRAP: Deep Reasoning, Abstraction and Planning towards Trustworthy Cognitive AI Systems

 

Pathfinder Challenge 1:

Advanced Materials for Miniaturised Energy Harvesting Systems

The first challenge addresses the rapidly growing use of sensors in the context of the Internet of Things (IoT).

We are using more and more sensors in countless locations, often in remote or hard-to-reach environments. These devices need energy to function. Since there is often no direct energy supply, they are typically powered by batteries. Currently, an estimated 80 million batteries need to be replaced every day, which is unsustainable from both environmental and logistical perspectives.

The challenge, therefore, aims to:

• Reduce the energy consumption of sensors; and
• Develop energy-autonomous and sustainable solutions.

To achieve this, we need a new generation of advanced materials that enable highly efficient, miniaturised energy-harvesting systems with performance superior to existing solutions. These systems must be very small, suitable for integration into IoT devices, and capable of harvesting energy from the environment.

Specific Objectives (All Must Be Addressed)

Projects under this challenge are expected to address all the following objectives:

1. Develop innovative, advanced materials for energy harvesting
   • Harness new physical or chemical phenomena;
   • Achieve a radical shift in application range and performance;
   • Reduce reliance on critical raw materials to avoid trading energy autonomy for new resource dependencies.
2. Implement advanced materials in miniaturised energy harvesting modules
   • Integrate the materials into miniaturised modules, such as small solar cells, thermoelectric generators, or other micro-harvesters.
3. Integrate the module into an energetically autonomous system
   • Incorporate the miniaturised energy harvester into an energy-autonomous system, such as an IoT device or a wireless sensor network.
4. Benchmark in representative use cases (TRL 4)
   • Demonstrate and benchmark the modules in relevant laboratory use cases;
   • Reach TRL 4 and deliver:
     • A new generation of advanced materials;
     • Miniaturised energy harvesting modules integrated into autonomous systems.

Pathfinder Challenge 2:

Biotechnology for Healthy Aging

We all know that Europe has an aging population. By 2050, the proportion of people aged 85 years and older will double. While life expectancy in the EU is about 81 years, people on average start experiencing health problems around 63, leaving a long period of life with significant health issues. Many common diseases are age-related, and with age comes a higher likelihood of multiple co-existing conditions (multimorbidity). The goal of this challenge is to leverage recent breakthroughs in biotechnology to improve healthy lifespan, not just lifespan.

Specific Objectives (Choose One Area)

Projects should deliver a proof of concept in one of the following three areas (it is not necessary to address all three):

1. Preventive or therapeutic interventions
   • Develop an innovative preventive or therapeutic biotechnology-based or pharmaceutical intervention that can prevent, delay, or reverse the onset of a specific age-related disease.
2. Biomarker-based tools
   • Develop a biomarker-based tool to guide the responsible use of aging-related interventions, e.g., to define when an intervention should start for a specific individual.
3. New approach methodologies (NAMs)
   • Develop non-animal methods that go beyond the current state of the art for preclinical testing, enabling the future development of interventions for healthy aging.

Expected Outcomes

• For interventions (Objective 1):
  • Proof of concept at TRL 3 in a vertebrate model system;
  • Based on recognised hallmarks of aging;
  • Considering practical challenges of implementation.
• For biomarker tools (Objective 2):
  • Tools to facilitate the development or adoption of interventions;
  • Proof-of-concept validation of biomarker signatures or suitable preclinical models.
• For NAMs and enabling frameworks (Objective 3):
  • Approaches to address regulatory and societal challenges of aging-related interventions;
  • Facilitation of ethical, acceptable, and responsible adoption.

Pathfinder Challenge 3:

DeepRAP – Deep Reasoning, Abstraction and Planning Towards Trustworthy Cognitive AI Systems

Current AI systems excel at pattern recognition and output generation, and we are all impressed by what they can already do. However, AI still lags behind humans in:

• Logical reasoning;
• Abstraction;
• Planning.

This challenge aims to develop cognitive AI systems with enhanced capabilities in deep reasoning, abstraction and planning, leading to:

• More intuitive interactions;
• Better explainability;
• Increased trustworthiness.

Specific Objectives

Projects should explore novel approaches, which may include:

• Combinations of existing techniques (e.g., neuro-symbolic AI, combining deep learning with symbolic reasoning);
• Entirely new frameworks that go beyond traditional deep learning and reinforcement learning.

They may focus on one or more of the following capabilities:

• Deep reasoning;
• Deep abstraction;
• Deep planning.

Expected Outcomes

Projects should deliver:

• Models and/or architectures that:
  • Handle multimodal data and knowledge uncertainty;
  • Can be trained and deployed with constrained computational resources (energy- and resource-efficient AI).
• Provable trustworthiness mechanisms, ensuring:
  • Explainability, transparency, fairness;
  • Risk evaluation and security;
  • Alignment with ethical and legal standards.
• Integration of the developed capabilities into a cognitive AI system reaching TRL 4, able to perform complex real-world tasks, such as:
  • Scientific discovery;
  • Decision support;
  • Problem solving;
  • Large-scale simulations.

Who Can Apply to Pathfinder Challenges?

In Pathfinder Challenges, the EU Commission offers more flexibility in terms of rules for participation:

1. Single-entity applications
   • A single legal entity established in an EU Member State or Associated Country can apply.
   • Important limitation: mid-caps and large companies cannot apply alone as a single beneficiary.
2. Consortia of two entities
   • Two independent legal entities, each established in a different Member State or Associated Country.
3. Consortia of three (or more) entities
   • Three must be independent legal entities, established in at least three different countries;
   • One must be in an EU Member State;
   • Two must be in Member States or Associated Countries, each in a different country.

Eligible entities can include:

• Universities;
• Research organisations;
• SMEs and startups;
• Industrial partners;
• Natural persons (where applicable).

Some participants may join as “associated partners” (not receiving EU funding). These do not count for meeting the minimum eligibility rules (e.g., the required number of partners or countries). Typical associated partners might be organisations from third countries not eligible for direct funding (e.g., the US, Canada, Australia).

When building your consortium, make sure you:

• Meet the minimum eligibility rules (without counting associated partners);
• Use associated partners to complement capabilities, not to satisfy the core eligibility conditions.

Insight from the TPM team: Although single-entity applications are allowed, most competitive proposals rely on complementary expertise. Portfolio diversity and interdisciplinarity tend to favour well-balanced teams.

Funding, Budget and Business Acceleration Services

Grants under the Pathfinder Challenges are Research and Innovation Actions:

• The indicative project size is €4 million, but applicants can request more or less if they provide an appropriate budget justification.
• The total budget for the 2026 Challenges is €96 million, i.e. €32 million per challenge.

Successful applicants will receive:

• 100% funding of eligible costs under a lump sum model;
• Access to Business Acceleration Services;
• Direct interaction with the EIC Programme Managers who design and curate each challenge portfolio.

Applicants must:

• Propose a lump sum amount based on estimated project costs;
• Submit a detailed budget table via the template on the Funding & Tenders Portal.

In addition, applicants are advised to:

• Include a dedicated work package for portfolio activities;
• Allocate at least 10% of the total budget for these portfolio-wide actions (joint workshops, shared dissemination, etc.).

Timeline, Proposals, and Forms

Applicants must submit their proposals via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal.
For the 2026 Pathfinder Challenges:

• The call will open in July 2026;
• The deadline for submission is 28 October 2026, 17:00 (Brussels time).
• Applicants are strongly recommended not to wait until the last minute to submit to avoid technical issues.

You will be informed about:

• Evaluation results within 5 months from the deadline;
• Grant agreements are expected to be signed within 8 months from the deadline.

Proposal Structure

• Part A is an online form (similar to the one for EIC Pathfinder Open). It includes:
  • Administrative data;
  • Participants;
  • Budget;
  • Call-specific questions.
• Part B contains the technical description of the proposal (different template from Pathfinder Open):
  • Must cover the scientific concept, methodology, work plan, and portfolio-related aspects.
  • Sections 1 to 3 must consist of max 30 pages, format A4 (vs. 22 pages for EIC Pathfinder Open).
  • Additional pages beyond the limit will not be evaluated.

Award Criteria and Evaluation Process

The 3 award criteria are:

• Excellence (weight 50%, threshold 4/5)
  • Relevance and clarity of objectives in relation to the specific challenge;
  • Ambition and progress beyond the state of the art;
  • Soundness and plausibility of the proposed methodology.
• Impact (weight 30%, threshold 3.5/5)
  • Credibility of pathways to the expected outcomes and impact;
  • Innovation potential and feasibility of reaching proof of principle;
  • Quality of measures for communication, dissemination, and exploitation.
• Quality and efficiency of the implementation (weight 20%, threshold 3/5)
  • Coherence and effectiveness of the work plan;
  • Appropriateness and efficient allocation of resources;
  • Capacity and complementarity of the consortium members.

Evaluation occurs in two steps:

• Step1: Each proposal is assessed individually by at least 3 EIC expert evaluators with respect to the three award criteria.
  • • After the individual evaluation, these evaluators will get together in a consensus group to agree on a common position and on the final comments and scores.
    • Only proposals that meet all minimum evaluation thresholds are considered in Step 2.
• Step 2: Once a consensus is reached (Step 1), all proposals are reviewed by an Evaluation Committee, including Programme Managers.

1. 1. 1. First, the Evaluation Committee will map the proposals in categories stemming from the overall goal and specific objectives of each Challenge (e.g., technical areas, risk level, stage of technology readiness level, etc.)
      2. Second, the Evaluation Committee will select a balanced portfolio of diverse and complementary proposals by applying portfolio considerations to propose for funding a coherent set of projects that will achieve the expected outcomes and impacts of the Challenge and maximise their impact.
         • Further information and details about the categories and the portfolio considerations will be provided in each Challenge Guide. When needed for the consistency of the portfolio approach, the Evaluation Committee may propose some minor adjustments to the proposals, in conformity with the conditions for participation and comply with the principle of equal treatment (for example, the committee may recommend to strengthen portfolio synergies or align more closely with challenge objectives).

Each applicant will receive an Evaluation Summary Report (ESR), including:

• The final score;
• Consolidated comments from The Evaluation Committee;
• Explanations on how portfolio considerations were applied;
• Feedback on the budget (including any recommended changes).

For funded projects, applicants will be supported by both:

• • A Project Officer, who follows your grant implementation;
  • The relevant Programme Manager who oversees the challenge portfolio as a whole (activities and the strategic plan).

Insight from the TPM team: In Pathfinder Challenges, you are not only proposing a project—you are proposing a piece of a portfolio. Final selection depends on complementarity and balance across projects, not only on individual excellence.

---

More details on all three challenges—including portfolio considerations and common activities for selected projects—can be found in the Challenge Guides:

• Advanced Materials for Miniaturised Energy Harvesting Systems

• Biotechnology for Healthy Ageing

• DeepRAP: Deep Reasoning, Abstraction & Planning towards trustworthy Cognitive AI Systems

If you are interested in a detailed overview of EIC Pathfinder Open 2026, including eligibility, evaluation criteria, and practical application tips, you can find a dedicated blog post on our website.

For those interested in the broader EIC landscape, the full EIC Work Programme 2026 is available as a PDF on the European Commission website.

In addition, the official EIC Work Programme 2026 Info Day webinar—covering all EIC programmes—is freely available at the link below:
https://webcast.ec.europa.eu/eic-work-programme-2026-info-day-25-11-13

Please contact us for more support in your proposal development and best of luck with your EIC Pathfinder application!

---

EIC Pathfinder Challenges are not about exploring in every direction, but about collectively pushing toward a common goal. If your expertise and idea truly fit the Challenge scope, this is a rare chance to contribute to a shared European research objective.