The EIC strand for frontier research on emerging technologies at a very early stage, organised around thematic challenges defined annually by the Commission. In the 2026 edition the challenges cover advanced materials for miniaturised energy harvesting systems, biotechnology for healthy ageing and trustworthy cognitive AI systems: no challenge is dedicated to agriculture, agri-food or water. It nonetheless remains an indirect channel for agricultural technologies, since self-powered sensing and trustworthy AI have agronomic applications. Budget EUR 96 million. Opened 22 July 2026, deadline 28 October 2026.
Single applicants or small consortia (from 2 partners): universities, research organisations, deep tech start-ups, research-intensive SMEs.
A differenza dell'EIC Pathfinder Open, che richiede almeno 3 soggetti indipendenti da 3 paesi diversi, le Pathfinder Challenges ammettono anche il richiedente singolo o un consorzio di soli 2 partner. Requisito di stabilimento in uno Stato membro UE o in un paese associato a Horizon Europe. Nessun requisito di residenza locale.
Dates (opening 22 July 2026, deadline 28 October 2026), the overall EUR 96 million budget and the challenge titles were verified against the official Funding & Tenders Portal data endpoint on 27 August 2026. Challenge 01 showed as 'Open' while challenges 02 and 03 were still labelled 'Forthcoming' despite sharing the same deadline: a portal metadata inconsistency to be checked before preparing an application. The EIC Pathfinder Open 2026, the bottom-up strand with no thematic restriction, closed on 12 May 2026.
Every piece of information on this page was read on 27 August 2026 from the pages below. Where they disagree, the managing body’s document prevails.
deep techricerca di frontieratecnologie emergenti
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