EIC Grants

The European Innovation Council (EIC) is the primary European innovation programme for the identification, development and distribution of ground-breaking technologies and forward-looking innovations. It includes three main funding schemes: 

  • EIC Pathfinder: With the EIC Pathfinder, breakthrough technologies shall be identified that have the potential to create completely new markets. Funding is availabe for visionary and high-risk projects at the earliest stages of scientific, technological or deep-tech research and development. The call ‚Pathfinder Open‘ is without predefined thematic priorities, while ‚Pathfinder Challenges‘ is an annual call within a predefined thematic area.
  • EIC Transition: The EIC Transition supports both the maturation and validation of a novel technology and at the same time development of business plans towards future commercialisation. Applications are open to applicants who have already been awarded with an ERC Proof of Concept, an EIC Pathfinder or a FET (Future and Emerging Technologies) grant. The ‚EIC Transition Open‘ has no predefined thematic priorities while the ‚EIC Transition Challenges‘ is again an annual call within a predefined thematic area.
  • EIC Accelerator: The EIC Accelerator is directed towards small and medium-sized enterprises including start-ups that develop disruptive, high-risk innovations with market potential of high-impact. It offers funding and/or credit and acts as a catalyst to crowd in other investors necessary for the scale up of the innovation and to achieve Technology Readiness Level.
Professor Rita Groß-Hardt
Professor Rita Groß-Hardt

Prof. Dr. Rita Groß-Hardt

EIC Transition Grant (2022)

Biologist Professor Rita Groß-Hardt receives the EIC Transition Grant from the European Research Council. In the project " 3P-Tec - Three-parent breeding technology for plants of the future", the scientist and her team, together with plant breeders KWS and Aardevo, want to establish three-parent crosses as a new breeding strategy for agriculture. In 2017, Groß-Hardt and her team demonstrated for the first time that plant eggs can fuse with two sperm to produce offspring with three parents instead of two - a mother and two fathers. This groundbreaking research result makes it possible to harness climate-adapted wild plants for plant breeding and accelerate breeding processes. The EIC Transition Grant that has now been awarded will support Groß-Hardt and her collaboration partners in further developing the technology and bringing it to market.