• Complete application in English: online form, workplan annex in the mandatory template and all declarations, including the main subcontractor's commitment.
• Applicant: an SME under EU Recommendation 2003/361 (fewer than 250 staff; turnover up to EUR 50 million or balance sheet up to EUR 43 million; engaged in an economic activity), with its own legal personality, legally established in an EU Member State, Iceland, Israel, Norway, Switzerland, Türkiye or the United Kingdom. Start-ups, companies without turnover yet and long time-to-market companies qualify (a business plan may be requested); branches, departments without legal personality and natural persons (self-employed) do not. An innovative SME is any SME with the ambition to collaborate on R&D and innovation with international partners; it does not need a proven track record of R&D activities.
• Company age: legally established on or before 1 December 2024 (two years before the deadline), irrespective of any parent or affiliated company.
• No previous Innowwide funding: SMEs funded under the 2022, 2023, 2024 or 2025 calls are not eligible.
• One application per company.
• Main subcontractor: independent from the applicant, legally established in the target country (Africa, Americas, Asia or Oceania), commitment and declaration of honour completed on the platform.
• Declaration of honour: no participating organisation convicted of fraud or illegal practices, bankrupt or an 'undertaking in difficulty' (Article 2(18) of Regulation (EU) 651/2014). Organisations subject to EU restrictive measures (Article 29 TEU, Article 215 TFEU) or covered by Commission Guidelines No 2013/C 205/05 are not eligible, including as subcontractors.
• Exclusive focus on civil applications, stated in the application (dual-use results allowed if the project has a clear civil focus).
• Duration: six months.
• Costs: total eligible costs of at least EUR 86,000; subcontracting costs above zero.
• Activities: a combination of eligible activities including at least one from each of categories 1, 2 and 3.
• Maturity: innovation at TRL 4 or more by the deadline, not above TRL 8 in the target country (TRL 7 indicative limit if further R&I is expected).
• The automatic completeness check of the platform does not confirm eligibility. An application found ineligible later can be rejected or its grant recovered.

Key dates

Single-stage submission on SmartSimple

1. Register on the Eureka SmartSimple platform (https://eureka.smartsimple.ie/), open the Innowwide Call 5 and fill in the mandatory pre-questionnaire (answers are not saved and not binding).
2. Complete the online application form in English, in nine sections: Participant information, Project description, SME status / commitment, The pitch, Excellence, Impact, Quality and efficiency of the implementation, Ethics self-assessment, Declaration of honour. All fields are mandatory and each question has a word limit.
3. Once the Project description is filled in and saved as a draft, invite the local counterpart (main subcontractor). The counterpart must (1) accept the invitation by email and (2) log in to SmartSimple and complete the commitment and declaration of honour; the application cannot be submitted before the commitment status is 'completed'.
4. Upload the detailed workplan as a PDF built from the mandatory template (remove the example page, file named 'Project ID_Acronym_workplan').
5. Use 'Save and Validate' to check missing mandatory information, then 'Submit' before the deadline. Only one application per company; nothing can be added after the deadline.

Generative AI is not prohibited for writing the application; it is the applicant's responsibility to ensure the content is factually correct and within the required legal standards.

Selection

1. Eligibility check by the Eureka Secretariat (redress possible within five calendar days of the notice).
2. Remote evaluation by two independent experts, one acting as rapporteur: individual evaluation reports, then a consensus report with scores out of 100.
3. The top 105 proposals above all thresholds (plus ties with the 105th) go to the independent evaluation panel (at least five experts) and, in parallel, to the ethics panel.
4. The panel aligns consensus reports, settles disagreements and readjusts ties; the Governing Board (High Level Group of the EU Partnership on Innovative SMEs) approves the ranking list: a selection list of 70 and a reserve list.
5. Each applicant receives one evaluation report; the ranking list (project number and acronym, title, applicant, applicant country, target country) is published on the Eureka website.

Redress: within five calendar days of the eligibility or evaluation notice, through the platform, in English, at most 5,000 characters. The complaint must demonstrate a procedural irregularity or factual error; disagreement with the experts' assessment is not considered. Only one request per application.

Two remote experts score each eligible application out of 100 against three criteria, each with its own threshold; an application below any threshold is discarded. Expert guiding questions (evaluation form, Annex 2 of the evaluation guidelines):

Score bands per criterion (Excellence and Implementation / Impact): 0 not eligible or missing; Poor 1-6 / 1-8; Fair 7-12 / 9-16; Good 13-18 / 17-24; Very good 19-24 / 25-32; Excellent 25-30 / 33-40. Scores are rounded up.

Initial scope check: before scoring, each expert flags whether the project is in scope (market feasibility and validation in the target country) or potentially out of scope (development, scale-up or commercial deployment, or a target country used mainly for manufacturing, sourcing or cost reasons); scope concerns are reflected in the scores.

The consensus report lists three main strengths, three main weaknesses and overall conclusions. The top 105 proposals go to the independent evaluation panel and the ethics panel. Ties near the funding threshold are broken by the Impact score, then Excellence, then geographical diversity (target countries, then applicant countries underrepresented higher in the list), market area diversity and the gender balance of the teams. Experts may not use generative AI; applicants may, and are not penalised for it.

• Grant: fixed lump sum of EUR 60,000 per project, mono-beneficiary (the applicant SME pays its subcontractors).
• Funding rate: at most 70%, so total eligible costs of at least EUR 86,000 and an own contribution of at least EUR 26,000.
• Eligible costs: personnel, subcontracting, purchase costs (travel and subsistence, equipment depreciation, other goods, works and services) and indirect costs at a 25% flat rate of direct costs excluding subcontracting, all directly linked to eligible activities and incurred within the project period; no retroactive costs.
• Payments: 70% pre-financing (EUR 42,000) within one month of signing the Grant Agreement; 30% balance (EUR 18,000) after delivery and acceptance of a complete final report. An unacceptable report can lead to a reduced grant or repayment of the pre-financing.
• Call budget EUR 4.2 million for 70 projects. Centrally managed by the Eureka Secretariat: no national funding scheme involved (Bpifrance only relays the call in France). Not subject to de minimis; no double EU funding for the same activities. Timesheets and invoices are generally not requested, but bookkeeping must be kept for checks.

The main subcontractor (local counterpart)

• Mandatory: one independent legal entity legally established in the target country (SME, large company, university, research centre, non-profit, public body or self-employed professional).
• Independent means neither controls the other nor is under the same control (more than 50% of share capital or voting rights, or decision-making powers); the same public investment corporation, institutional investor or venture-capital company holding both, or both being owned or supervised by the same public body, does not in itself constitute control. Affiliates of foreign parent firms qualify only if independent from the applicant, legally established in the target country, validated legal entities and locally competent; subsidiaries of the applicant in the target country are not eligible.
• It must have a substantive role complementing the applicant, with appropriate legal, technical or market analysis capabilities, and a reasonable share of the budget (subcontracting above zero, rates justified by the economic context of the target country).
• It confirms its participation, legal and financial standing and independence by completing the commitment and declaration of honour on SmartSimple; if funded, the applicant signs a contract with this same organisation.
• Innowwide aims at lasting partnerships: the experts look at complementarity, added value, mutual benefits and cooperation beyond the project, including a possible future R&I project.

Minor subcontractors

Allowed if duly justified and only for minor tasks (publishing, promotional material, trade fair support, basic matchmaking, clerical support); they may be in another eligible country, and their combined costs may not exceed 20% of the total subcontracting budget. All subcontracts are awarded on best value for money and free from conflict of interest.

Six months, 26 weeks

The project lasts exactly six months (26 weeks; 25 to 26 weeks accepted at validation), with 1 June 2027 as the indicative start date. It cannot start before the funding decision and the Grant Agreement signature, and costs must fall within the project period.

Workplan annex (mandatory template)

• A table naming the applicant company, the main subcontractor and any minor subcontractors, with their countries.
• A Gantt chart in weeks: work packages and their tasks, the task responsible, start week, end week and duration.
• One table per work package: number, title, start and end, objectives, tasks (name, owner and description), deliverables (D1.1...), milestones (ML1...), risks and contingency plan.
• Work packages organised sequentially, with a realistic number of activities and deliverables for 26 weeks; a small proof of concept states which steps happen within the six months.
• Use the same or similar wording as the list of eligible activities for every budgeted activity; an activity outside the list may appear only if marked as complementary and not part of the budget request.
• The workplan is the primary justification of the budget request. Pictures and visuals are allowed.
• Project ID and acronym in the footer of each page; example page removed; uploaded as a PDF.

The online form also asks for a summary work plan (250 words, table-of-contents style: work packages, key activities, expected outputs). An incomplete workplan or one outside the template (missing Gantt chart or work package tables) is the most common reason for ineligibility.

The Impact section asks for the key items of intellectual property the project will use and who owns them (150 words), and the experts check that existing IP was analysed for its effect on the marketing approach. Several eligible activities address IP in the target country: analysis of the IP environment, technology scouting and novelty verification, technology legal situation analysis (freedom to operate) and technology protection and valorisation strategy design.

Every applicant completes the ethics self-assessment, whether or not the work raises ethics issues. An ethics panel reviews the applications that passed the remote evaluation and discards those that do not comply with ethics requirements; it also checks the civil purpose. Activities raising ethics issues may require documentation before the Grant Agreement. Experts treat applications as strictly confidential. The project short summary may be made public and must contain no confidential information.

No multi-actor, interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity or SSH requirement. The collaboration is bilateral: the applicant SME and one local main subcontractor whose profile (research or technology provider, supplier, customer, end user, consultancy, legal adviser, broker) complements the SME for the feasibility work in the target country. The gender dimension of the solution (differing needs of women and men) and the gender balance of the teams are asked separately and must not be confused.

Selected applicants receive a Grant Agreement from the Eureka Secretariat, signed and managed electronically on SmartSimple. Before signature they provide: the legal entity identification form, an official VAT document or proof of exemption, a registration extract (both under one year old), the SME declaration form, the signed contract with the main subcontractor (scope, timeline and budget breakdown, explicitly mentioning Eureka Innowwide; same organisation as in the application) and, if requested, ethics documentation. A business plan may be requested from start-ups or companies without turnover. Documents are submitted as scanned versions through the platform (self-declarations or sworn statements are not accepted as proof of SME status); missing or unclear documents not provided within at least 10 clear days can lead to a refused validation. Subcontractors are not party to the Grant Agreement. During the project, change requests are sent by email to innowwide@eurekanetwork.org with the project number; changes to scope, new activities, abandoning a relevant activity (or more than 50% of activities), delays over three months, a new target country or major changes of resources, methodology or budget are not accepted.

The final report is due within 30 days of the project end date, on a template provided before the end: a technical report on the four expected results, impact questionnaires for the applicant and the main subcontractor, and a financial statement. The Innowwide team (or external experts) assesses the report and deliverables; an insufficient report can lead to a reduced grant or recovery. Impact is followed qualitatively (knowledge about the market, networks and contacts, follow-up activities with partners in the target country) and quantitatively (economic transactions during the project); the team may run an impact assessment after the project. There is no obligation to commercialise after the project.

From the official Innowwide FAQ:

• An Innowwide project does not need to come from a Eureka project; it can follow any other programme or accelerator.
• A change of trade name or address does not change the date of establishment if the legal entity and registration number stay the same.
• Foundations are eligible only if they meet the SME definition and carry out an economic activity; a one-employee company can qualify, a self-employed person cannot.
• TRL 4 must be reached by the application deadline, not during the project.
• One target country per project; future export plans are described in the application.
• At least three eligible activities from categories 1, 2 and 3; selecting all activities may look unrealistic for six months.
• The PIC number is required for the applicant only; subcontractors need neither PIC nor NACE codes.
• Several subcontractors are allowed, but the main one is in the target country and minor ones (possibly in other eligible countries) total at most 20% of the subcontracting budget.
• There is no fixed split between personnel, subcontracting and other costs, and no imposed day rates; costs must be reasonable and realistic.
• Costs can be incurred in the home country and the target country.
• Innowwide does not depend on national funding and is not subject to de minimis rules.
• Results are expected in the first quarter of 2027, Grant Agreements around May 2027 and projects start around 1 June 2027.

The proposal is the online form itself (Word version for offline work published in the Innowwide library). Word limits per question:

• Participant information: description of the company and its approach to innovation (100 words), legal registration number and date of incorporation of the applicant SME itself, VAT number or exemption, PIC number (9 digits, applicant only, from the EU Participant Register), up to three NACE codes or equivalent.
• Local counterpart: legal name, country, type of organisation, activity field and description of the main subcontractor (150 words).
• Participation in previous Innowwide calls: SMEs funded in 2022, 2023, 2024 or 2025 are not eligible.
• SME status: built-in SME self-assessment tool (staff headcount, turnover or balance sheet, economic activity, consolidated accounts), completed and marked 'Complete'.
• Ethics self-assessment: mandatory for every applicant (human embryos, humans, human cells or tissues, personal data, animals, non-EU countries, environment, health and safety, artificial intelligence, dual use, exclusive focus on civil applications, misuse, other).
• Declaration of honour by the legal representative (correct information, no activity started before submission, independence of the main subcontractor, exclusion situations, no double EU funding).

Budget table built into the online form: one row per activity selected under 'Type of feasibility assessment proposed' (each activity budgeted once), with personnel, subcontracting and purchase costs; indirect costs are computed automatically (25% of direct costs, excluding subcontracting). Only the applicant's budget is stated; all costs of activities carried out by subcontractors (including their personnel) go in the subcontracting column, and the contract with the main subcontractor must reflect that amount. Every budgeted activity in the workplan needs a cost, even a small one. Three justifications of 100 words each: personnel (rates in line with usual accounting practices), subcontracting (rates justified by the economic context of the target country; split between main and minor subcontractors), purchase costs (travel and subsistence: purpose, destination, duration; equipment; other goods, works and services). Outsourced project tasks are subcontracting; services that support tasks without implementing them are purchase costs.