Horizon Europe European Innovation Ecosystems, CONNECT strand
European Innovation Ecosystems - CONNECT
Usually opens in March and September
Projected from the months this call usually opens — not a date the funder has confirmed.
Projected from the pattern of past calls — confirm on the funder's page before planning around it.
Coordination and Support Actions plus Innovation Actions connecting regional innovation ecosystems. Project budgets typically EUR 1-6 million per topic. Several CONNECT projects run cascade funding (financial support to third parties) that re-grants to start-ups, commonly in the EUR 10,000-60,000 range per company.
You must co-fund 0%.
European Commission (EISMEA), Horizon Europe Part 10
public · supranational
Deadline: One call a year — HORIZON-EIE-2026-01 CONNECT-03 closed 20 January 2026 (budget EUR 4.5 million). Next EIE call (European Startup and Scaleup Hubs) opens October 2026.
This funder does not publish a success rate. We rank it using the rate observed across similar programmes and label it as an estimate rather than implying we know.
Quick — mostly identity and bank details.
Who can apply
- Sectors: deeptech, any
- Stage: pre-seed and seed
- Locally registered entity required
Direct applicants are typically consortia of ecosystem actors (clusters, agencies, incubators, universities). Start-ups usually benefit via the funded projects' cascade calls.
Related reading: How grant deadlines actually work
"Scaling up deep tech ecosystems (HORIZON-EIE-2026-01-CONNECT-03)"
Last checked against the official page on 5 October 2026
Source: eismea.ec.europa.eu
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