Eurostars Frequently Asked Questions

Eurostars is part of the European Partnership on Innovative SMEs. The partnership is co-financed by the European Union through Horizon Europe. Eurostars funds international innovation projects led by R&D-performing SMEs from 37 countries, supporting market-ready products, processes, or services through decentralised national funding. The average project budget is 1.5 million euro and approximately 20% of Eurostars submitted applications pass the evaluation and receive funding.

1. Check the Eurostars eligibility criteria.
2. Check the national funding rules and contact your National Funding Body using our contact form.
3. Register on the Eureka Project Management Platform and prepare your application.
4. Gather the necessary annexes (SME declarations, commitment and signature forms, financial documents and self-funding declarations if needed).
5. Submit your application through the platform before the deadline.

There are 37 Eurostars countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye, and the United Kingdom. 

The project must be led by an innovative SME. Other types of organisations (large companies, universities, research organisations, associations, etc.) can join the consortium if they meet the Eurostars eligibility criteria.

Please contact your National Funding Body using the contact form if you have questions about national funding rules, funding rates and/or eligible costs. 

If you have questions about Eurostars eligibility criteria or the Eureka Project Management Platform, contact the Eurostars team through [email protected] or fill in the contact form. Please include your application number if you have already started drafting your application.

The national funding rules and procedures are published on the relevant Eurostars call page. Your national eligibility criteria can also be found there. Just select the country your organisation is based in. We recommend contacting your National Funding Body to obtain the latest information using our contact form. 

Funding in Eurostars is decentralised. Organisations with approved projects receive public funding from National Funding Bodies according to national rules and procedures, which may vary by country or region. National Project Coordinators in each country or region are available to discuss the rules and procedures, the types of costs and activities that can be funded, as well as the funding rates and thresholds.

Eurostars organises two calls per year, usually in spring (e.g., March-May submission) and in autumn (e.g., September-November submission). The upcoming calls are published on the Eureka website.

Once the call closes, we will tell you whether your project will be able to receive funding within 3.5 months. The goal is that agreements with your National Funding Body are signed between five and seven months after the submission deadline.

Yes. You can participate in a Eurostars project regardless of whether you are based in a Eurostars country or not. However, your consortium must meet the Eurostars eligibility criteria. Carefully read the eligibility criteria guidelines before applying. 

Moreover, only organisations based in Eurostars countries may receive Eurostars funding. Organisations based elsewhere must entirely self-fund their project costs. A self-funding declaration must be uploaded at the time of submission. You can find the official self-funding declaration template on the Eureka website to use for this purpose. 

Eurostars does not impose a maximum project budget. Eurostars projects have an average budget of 1.5 million euro. Funding in Eurostars is decentralised. Organisations in approved projects receive public funding from National Funding Bodies according to national rules and procedures, which vary by country or region. National Project Coordinators in each country or region are available to discuss the rules and procedures, the types of costs and activities that can be funded, as well as the funding rates and thresholds.

The most common errors during the application phase are:

• Starting the application too late and not having sufficient time to complete the application form.
• Non-compliance with eligibility criteria.
• Non-compliance with national-level requirements. If you do not provide information required by your national or regional funding body, your organisation may be considered ineligible to receive public funding and your project may be declared ineligible.

The project cannot start without an approved Consortium Agreement (CA), so you should sign and submit the Consortium Agreement and agree a start date with the other beneficiaries in the project. Each National Funding Body should be in contact with their participant for drafting the grant agreement.

You can find more information in the Eurostars guidelines and through the Eurostars on-boarding webinar for new participants.

Yes. You can participate in a Eurostars project regardless of whether you are based in a Eurostars country or not. However, your consortium must meet the Eurostars eligibility criteria. Carefully read the eligibility criteria guidelines before applying. 

Moreover, only organisations based in Eurostars countries may receive Eurostars funding. Organisations based elsewhere must entirely self-fund their project costs. A self-funding declaration must be uploaded at the time of submission. You can find the official self-funding declaration template on the Eureka website to use for this purpose. 

Yes, startups can participate in a Eurostars project. Contact your National Funding Body using our contact form to find out if you are eligible to receive funding, as different funding agencies have different rules. 

Yes, universities can participate in a Eurostars project, but they cannot coordinate one. Contact your National Funding Body using our contact form to find out if you are eligible to receive funding, as there could be specific national rules for universities.

In Eurostars, we consider as “innovative”, any SME with the ambition to collaborate on R&D and innovation with international partners to develop new products, processes, and services for European and global markets. To be innovative, SMEs do not need a proven track record of R&D activities.

Eurostars does not have rules regarding the initial and final TRL of a project, and it is not binding for eligibility purposes. However, Eurostars aims to support close-to-market research and innovation, and beneficiaries must be able to rapidly start commercialisation or, in case of biotechnology, biomedical, and medical projects, clinical trials after the project’s completion. As a result, Eurostars projects usually start at around TRL 4 and they end at around TRL 6-7. 

Applicants need to describe precisely what the expected outcomes of the research and innovation activities will be in relation to moving to commercialisation. Moreover, since funding in Eurostars is decentralised, it is important to check with your National Funding Body about which activities and which TRL levels are covered by the funding.

Eurostars funds close-to-market research and organisations must be able to rapidly start commercialisation or, in case of biotechnology, biomedical, and medical projects, clinical trials after the project’s completion. 

Organisations are asked to give a timeline and describe the steps for the commercialisation of the project results. They need to state how many months after the project’s completion they expect the project results to be on the market. 

Please refer to our guidelines on how to complete your SME declaration. The SME declaration will be verified during the Legal and Financial Viability Check performed by National Funding Bodies.

You can contact your National Funding Body for further information using our contact form.

You can use the matchmaking tool supported by Enterprise Europe Network. You can also contact your National Project Coordinator using our contact form.

The innovative SME leading the project must register on the Eureka Project Management Platform and start a new application. Afterwards, they must invite their intended project partners to collaboratively fill in the application. 

Every application is treated as a new application regardless of if being a resubmission or not. Your application will undergo the evaluation process in the same manner as any other application submitted under the call. You will have to start a new application, fill in the application form, and upload all annexes. You must also indicate that it is a resubmission under the relevant question in the application.

Yes. Your organisation can participate in multiple Eurostars projects simultaneously, and you can submit more than one application in the same call. Contact your National Funding Body using our contact form before you consider participating in or leading multiple projects at a time. 

There are some important notes to take into consideration: 

• Your organisation must demonstrate sufficient private financial means to undertake its role in all the submitted projects.
• Your organisation cannot receive double funding. The same activities for a similar project outcome cannot be publicly supported twice.

Eurostars adopts a decentralised funding methodology. All funding to approved projects is managed by the National Funding Bodies according to their national funding rules and procedures. There may be national rules that prevent your organisation from receiving national funding for more than one project.

Yes. All project partners must register individually on the Eureka Project Management Platform. The innovative SME leading the project must start the application and invite partners to collaboratively fill in the application.

No. The main partner can complete most questions alone, but not the questions in the section titled “your organisation”, which is a partner-specific section that each partner must complete individually.

Yes. The Commitment and Signature form must be submitted by each organisation participating in the consortium. The SME declaration, however, must only be submitted by the SMEs in the consortium. 

Yes. Under the “exclusion of experts” question in the Eurostars application form, you can indicate which entities or persons should not be involved in the evaluation of your application.

Be mindful that the reasons for exclusion can only include direct professional competition, scientific rivalry, or similar situations that would clearly undermine or call into question the expert’s impartiality.

To exclude an expert who performed an assessment of a previous application, you need to provide the “assessment number” that you can find on the Eureka Project Management Platform.

The project’s start date cannot be set before the Eurostars project approval notification, which normally takes place three months from the call deadline.

Once you have been notified, the main applicant will need to submit a signed Consortium Agreement and confirm the start date on the Eureka Project Management Platform. Until this has been approved the project cannot start.

Eurostars has a bottom-up approach. Projects from all technology and market areas are encouraged to submit an application.

We aim to organise two Eurostars calls each year. We announce the calls on the Eureka website, in our newsletter, and through other social media channels. You can subscribe to our newsletter on the Eureka website.

You will receive updates throughout the evaluation process:

• Eligibility check (within one week of submission deadline)
• Legal and financial viability check (within six weeks of submission deadline)
• Expert evaluation conducted by three independent experts per project (within six weeks of submission deadline)
• Independent Evaluation Panel and ranking of project applications (within ten weeks of submission deadline)
• Ethics review (within ten weeks of submission deadline)

If your application is approved for funding, we will communicate whether your application will be able to receive funding within 14 weeks. The objective is that agreements with your National Funding Body are signed between five and seven months after the submission deadline.

You can check the status of your application on the Eureka Project Management Platform.

Eurostars has a decentralised funding methodology. Organisations of approved projects receive public funding directly from National Funding Bodies according to national rules and procedures. It may vary between countries. National Project Coordinators in each country or region are available to support applicants while preparing their application and to discuss any national rules and procedures that apply.

We have some information available from the countries involved in the previous call for reference. We advise you to contact the National Project Coordinator via the contact form.

Please refer to the guidelines for completing an application and the Legal and Financial Viability Check guidelines for more information. 

The Legal and Financial Viability Check is performed by your national/regional funder. If you have any questions about what kind of financial/legal information is needed in your country or region, please contact your National Funding Body to discuss your current financial situation and know exactly which documents you need to submit.

If you do not submit the information your National Funding Body requires, you might not fulfil national requirements, might be considered high risk, and might be ineligible to receive public funding.

Subcontracting amongst project partners is not allowed. This rule is valid for all project partners, irrespective of the type of organisation. 

While determining subcontracting costs for your Eurostars project, make sure to still adhere to the following eligibility criteria: 

• The budget of the SME(s) from a Eurostars country, excluding subcontracting, is 50% or more of the total project cost. 
• No single entity or country is responsible for more than 70% of the project budget (including subcontracting). 

Approximately 20% of Eurostars submitted applications pass the evaluation and receive funding. 

Organisations that are not from a Eurostars country or that are not eligible to receive public funding, can participate in a Eurostars project provided that:

• The consortium meets the Eurostars eligibility criteria.
• The organisation must self-finance their entire contribution to the project. A self-funding declaration must be submitted with the application.

The official self-funding declaration template can be downloaded on the Eureka website.

The main project partner must upload the final signed Consortium Agreement in the Eureka Project Management Platform within six weeks of project approval. When uploading the document, the main project partner can confirm the start date from the application or update it by entering a new one in the platform.

Please make sure the CA is complete, signed by all project participants and includes all required elements set out in the Consortium Agreement guidelines. Aside from updating the start date during the upload, project changes cannot be approved until the CA has been validated by the Eureka Secretariat and marked as “completed” on the platform. If no signed CA is submitted, the project’s funding and Eureka label will be withdrawn.

If more time is needed to submit the Consortium Agreement on the platform or you have any additional questions, please contact us at [email protected].

Yes. If you are unable to submit the CA by the initial deadline, you may request an extension, which is subject to approval.

To do so, contact the Eurostars team via email at [email protected]. Your request must include:

• A specific new date by which you will submit the CA
• A clear justification for why you need the extension

The main applicant is responsible for uploading the signed CA, in PDF format, in the Eureka Project Management Platform. If you experience any issues with the upload, please contact us at [email protected].

Your CA must include the following elements:

• Project ID, name and acronym
• Exact name of entities involved
• A section/annex about Intellectual property rights (IPR)/Access Rights
• A signature of all entities

In case of the necessary information missing or being incorrect, the CA will be returned to allow you to revise the document. Please refer to the Consortium Agreement guidelines for additional information.

The Eureka Secretariat checks that all requirements are included after which they verify the project dates and administrative correctness. If everything is in order, the CA will be validated.

If any necessary information is missing or incorrect, the CA will be returned to allow you to revise the document.

Your consortium must complete Project Progress Reports (PPR) every six months. Our Eureka Project Management Platform automatically generates PPRs every six months whilst your project is running. All partners will be notified by email when you must complete a Project Progress Report. 

Each participant must also complete an End-of-Project Report (EPR) at the end of the project. The report will be made available to complete once the main partner indicates that one or all partners have finished their work on the project. Some national funders require the EPR to be completed for final payment to be made.

These reports must be completed on our Eureka Project Management Platform. Please note that you may also have to report information to your National Funding Body. 

The main partner must first log into the Eureka Project Management Platform to access the project progress report. Next, they must fill out the questions under all tabs and mark the sections as complete. For the partner section, the main partner can assign it to the specific partner. You have four weeks to complete your Project Progress Report. 

No, you can complete the report in any order. Please make sure to save as you go and mark fields as complete when you have finished filling them in. 

There are two options for filling out the partner sections in your Project Progress Report. Either the main partner can fill out the partner section on behalf of the consortium, or they can assign them to their project partners.

Whatever option chosen, the main partner in your Eurostars project must complete part one of the PPR. As the main partner, you can then assign partner sections to your project partners (and to yourself to complete) in part two.

The partner section and your project partners’ tasks will only be visible and accessible to them once you have assigned the section.

As the project partner, you must complete the partner section in part two of your PPR once it has been assigned to you on the Eureka Project Management Platform. As mentioned before, the main partner can also complete the partner section on your behalf.

Once all fields and sections (including all partner sections) of your Project Progress Report have been filled in and marked as complete, the main partner needs to log into the Eureka Project Management Platform to submit the report on behalf of the consortium.  The other partners cannot submit the report.

After completing both your partner section and your whole Project Progress Report, click on “submit”. Do not confuse this with the “save and return” button.

Once you have submitted your PPR, the status of your report will change from “to be completed” to “pending”. The status “pending” means that the report is on our side for validation.

The main applicant from the main partner is the only one who can submit the Project Progress Report. If the main applicant cannot submit your PPR, you may have left a question or a partner section unanswered. Check that all the fields in the form are filled in and marked as complete. If you cannot answer a question, you must still write “N/A” in the text box. When you have completed the report, you will be able to click on “submit”.

If you receive an email asking you to redo a task, it means that your Project Progress Report has been reviewed and contains mistakes or inconsistencies. You will receive a notification by email with feedback from us. Please log into the Eureka Project Management Platform to make the revisions we have requested and click on “submit”. 

When you are asked to resubmit your report, you will receive an email with comments about the content in your report that needs to be improved. 

The EPR will be generated once the main partner indicates in a Project Progress Report that one or more partners have finished their work on the project.

Individual final report(s) will be generated for the partner(s) that have completed all activities in your project. 

All project participants must fill in an EPR individually. You must submit your report even if you self-funded your project costs. When you have completed your final report, click on “submit”. 

You can find all the Eurostars programme guidelines in the Eurostars Resource Library.

Yes. To change your contact details, go to “project team” on the Eureka Project Management Platform and modify your contact details.

When you have a new task (e.g. Project Progress Report) to complete, you will receive an email notification with a link to access the task. Either click on that link or log into the Eureka Project Management Platform. The task you need to complete will state “to be completed” next to it and the link will become active and clickable. 

Yes. You can download a PDF version of your Project Progress Report when you submit it, and you can download a copy of your End-of-Project Report in PDF format once it has been approved. 

To request a change to your Eurostars project, the main project partner should log in to the Eureka Project Management Platform, open the project and click “request change”.

You can request operational, legal, or consortium-related changes, such as changes to project dates, duration, budget, deliverables, organisation details, consortium composition, or the main project partner.

We will review your request in consultation with relevant National Funding Bodies. Supporting documents and, in some cases, a technical evaluation may be required depending on the type of request. The process usually takes 30 to 40 days.

Please note that certain changes can affect the eligibility of your project and may therefore be rejected.

It is highly recommended you contact [email protected] before submitting your request. For any questions, please contact [email protected] and include your project ID. Project partners should also inform their National Funding Bodies about planned changes.

You can access your Eurostars project information on the Eureka Project Management Platform. Once logged in, scroll down to see your project under “Approved projects”. In the next step, click on the project title to enter the “Monitor project” section where you will have access to your project information.

Yes. Information on successful projects can be found in the data section of the Eureka website.

The term “procedural grounds” refers to a failure in the way the eligibility check, the Legal and Financial Viability Check, or the evaluation process were conducted. A redress request can only be based on procedural grounds, with clear evidence of the reasons for complaint.