TA ČR SIGMA Commercialization Support — 18th Call (2026)

Captured cycle: This page is retained for historical guidance. Confirm whether the program has reopened before planning an application.

TA ČR SIGMA Commercialization Support: 18th Call (2026)

The Technology Agency of the Czech Republic (TA ČR) has opened its 18th call under Program SIGMA, sub-objective 1, Support for the Commercialization of R&D&I+. The call follows the commercialization route associated with GAMA 2, but this listing concerns the 2026 SIGMA competition and its own terms. The call period runs from 2026-09-10 at 09:00 through 2026-10-27. The project proposal must reach SISTA by 16:29:59 on the closing date; proof-of-eligibility documents have a separate cutoff at 23:59:59 that day. TA ČR gives the two closing times in its call documentation without specifying a time zone, so applicants should follow the times displayed in the official call materials and SISTA.

This opportunity supports small enterprises and startups based in the Czech Republic that have a breakthrough deep-tech innovation and intend to pursue the European Commission’s EIC Accelerator. The grant pays for a feasibility study, not a general expansion plan or an open-ended technical research project. The study should assess whether applied-research results can work in practice and be prepared for commercial use or societal use. TA ČR expects the resulting study to be in English and to consider the innovation’s technological and economic viability.

Opportunity snapshot

The maximum award is CZK 730,000 per project, and the maximum funding rate is 70%, so the beneficiary must cover at least 30% from other sources. The call documentation treats the feasibility study as industrial research for SISTA classification; every proposal must use a 100% industrial-research ratio. Eligible categories include personnel, subcontracting, other direct costs, and indirect costs claimed at a flat rate of up to 25% of reported personnel and other direct costs. Applicants must justify their planned costs in SISTA and check the General Terms and Conditions for the detailed rules. The call’s expected overall allocation is CZK 10 million and may change depending on the state budget; it is not a guaranteed amount for any individual applicant. Coaching for funded projects depends on available public funding.

What the grant is intended to support

The call focuses on feasibility studies for breakthrough deep-tech solutions: products, services, or technologies with potential to make a substantial difference in a market. It is not tied to a particular sector. Applicants should already have applied-research results and explain how their study will test the assumptions that stand between those results and practical or commercial use. The work should support a decision about the innovation’s technological and economic feasibility, including potential customer interest and readiness for commercial exploitation.

A proposal should describe what the solution does, what evidence already exists, and which uncertainties remain. Those questions may concern performance, demand, costs, competition, certification, or the route to international markets. The call does not fund a plan whose central purpose is to create new scientific or technical knowledge. Instead, the study is meant to assess a solution that has reached a meaningful technical stage and help prepare it for practical use, market entry, and expansion beyond the Czech Republic.

At submission, the technology must be at least TRL 4: verified in a laboratory. The proposal should explain a credible path to finish at no less than TRL 5, validation in a relevant environment, and no more than TRL 6, demonstration in a relevant environment. A project should connect its feasibility questions and work plan to that progression. TA ČR expects the product, technology, or service to be competitive internationally and based on proprietary know-how or substantiated permission to use third-party intellectual property.

Each project’s principal output is a feasibility study prepared in English. The applicant must also confirm an ambition to apply to the EIC Accelerator for the innovation and must indicate interest in the EIC Accelerator Plug-in mechanism in SISTA when submitting. TA ČR says it will screen successful projects for the Plug-in route. Expert review can recommend or not recommend a project for progression to the EIC Accelerator’s second, full-proposal stage. The grant therefore provides a route to further assessment, not a promise that the European Commission will fund a later application. Coaching is available to supported projects according to the state budget. Applicants must also explain how the feasibility study will consider the innovation’s effects on different population groups, including gender and other relevant characteristics such as barriers to use and expected benefits.

Who can apply

The main applicant must be a small enterprise and must carry out the project independently, without other participants. It needs a registered office, establishment, or branch in the Czech Republic. If its Czech presence is only an establishment or branch, the entity must also be established in an EU Member State or a country associated with Horizon Europe. The call documentation connects this condition to eligibility for a subsequent EIC Accelerator application. Applicants should use TA ČR’s SME guidance and the call rules to confirm that they meet the small-enterprise definition; headcount alone may not establish status where ownership and related entities matter.

An applicant may submit at most one project proposal to this competition. A separate eligibility rule excludes a main applicant that submitted a proposal to the immediately previous 14th SIGMA sub-objective 1 commercialization call, except where that previous proposal failed the formal check and did not proceed to evaluation. The restriction concerns the organization acting as main applicant, so companies should confirm their earlier submission and evaluation status before preparing a new proposal.

Applicants must complete the ownership-structure information in SISTA. An entity that is legally required to do so must be listed in the register of beneficial owners by the close of the submission period. Applicants must not meet the definition of an undertaking in difficulty and must satisfy the remaining requirements in the call documentation. For applicants legally obliged to publish financial statements, TA ČR checks statements for 2022, 2023, and 2024. The documentation also explains when 2025 statements and consolidated statements for an economically related group can be supplied to assess whether the applicant is an undertaking in difficulty. The assessment can include the wider group, including parent, subsidiary, sister, and foreign entities, so companies should gather relevant group information before submission.

The planned innovation should be sufficiently distinct from work already funded or submitted elsewhere. TA ČR does not permit duplicate funding of the same work. Applicants must identify relevant completed, ongoing, or submitted projects and explain their relationship to the proposed study where the documentation requires it. The project should be supported by proprietary know-how or documented authorization to use another party’s intellectual property. A clear account of rights, prior work, and the proposed study’s boundary can help evaluators see what this call would pay to investigate.

Application steps and required materials

Applications are filed through TA ČR’s shared SISTA information system, in English, with the project proposal and its annexes. Organizations must first register in SISTA and appoint an organization administrator; TA ČR says the organization setup must be complete before a proposal can be created and submitted. Applicants should do this early, then review the English call documentation, evaluation process, TA ČR general terms, and the SISTA help sheets. Questions can be sent through TA ČR’s Helpdesk, and regional representatives offer consultations. TA ČR says it will not hold a webinar for this call and will publish an informational presentation during the call period.

The project proposal itself must be submitted in SISTA by 16:29:59 on 2026-10-27. The sworn statement proving eligibility must be sent separately to TA ČR’s data box, afth9xp, by 23:59:59 the same day. TA ČR lists these as separate cutoffs and does not state a time zone in the call documentation. Finishing the SISTA proposal does not complete the data-box submission. Applicants should follow the call documentation to confirm precisely which records belong in SISTA and which must be sent separately.

Two annexes are mandatory in the SISTA proposal. The first is a functional link to a video in English, up to three minutes long, in Full HD (1920 by 1080 pixels) at 30 to 60 frames per second. The link must allow a reviewer to play it in a browser without logging in or requesting access. The video should briefly and clearly present the specific product or service and its uniqueness, the applicant’s motivation, its intended target group, the team and each person’s role, the facilities where the work will take place, and the planned route to market. The video is part of the evaluation and should match the proposal. TA ČR does not allow the required video to be added later after a request.

The second annex is English-language evidence that the technology had reached TRL 4 by the date the proposal is submitted. TA ČR lists laboratory test reports, development logs, technical specifications, and drawings or schematics as examples, provided they clearly demonstrate laboratory functionality. Without this evidence, the proposal will not be accepted into the competition. Applicants should upload it under Project Annexes / Mandatory Annexes in SISTA rather than treating it as a document to supply after submission.

The call documentation also asks for ownership structure information in SISTA. Applicants required by law to register beneficial owners must ensure their registration is complete by the close of the call. The sworn statement goes through the data box. Financial statements should be published in the public register when legally required; the documentation describes how to provide records and confirmations where publication is pending, and how related-group accounts may be relevant. Applicants must also disclose connected past, ongoing, or concurrently submitted projects where relevant and explain how the proposed work differs; TA ČR will not support duplicated work or double funding. These checks, together with the undertaking-in-difficulty condition and the previous-call restriction, are worth completing before the final day.

Preparing a focused proposal

Start with the evidence behind the innovation. Explain the applied-research result, the laboratory tests that establish TRL 4, and the intellectual-property rights that allow the applicant to develop or use the solution. Then identify the unresolved questions the feasibility study will answer. A persuasive work plan links each activity to one of those questions and shows how the combined findings will support a commercial decision within the six-month project period.

The market case should identify the intended users, the problem they face, and why the solution could compete outside the Czech Republic. Describe the assumptions to test about demand and economics, along with any certification or market-entry work needed to assess international potential. State why the company intends to pursue EIC Accelerator funding and make sure the proposal marks its interest in the Plug-in mechanism in SISTA. The budget should be tied to the feasibility work and stay within the 70% support ceiling; consult the documentation for eligible cost rules.

Set aside time for organization registration, ownership details, the video, and English-language technical evidence. Check which related projects need to be distinguished and whether the company’s earlier submission to the 14th competition affects eligibility. Finally, plan separately for the SISTA proposal and the eligibility documents sent to the data box, because their cutoff times differ. The official call page and linked documentation remain the authority for terms, required annexes, and any notices TA ČR publishes during the open period.

This is an open 2026 competition with a published submission deadline, so the page remains a current opportunity rather than a historical listing. The detailed 18th-call announcement and its linked English call documentation confirm that applications are accepted from September 10 through October 27, 2026, with a maximum grant of CZK 730,000 and a maximum funding rate of 70%. The documentation also sets a six-month project duration, the small-enterprise and previous-call conditions, mandatory English-language annexes, and separate SISTA and data-box submissions. TA ČR’s page header contains a short parameter summary that still shows the 2025 dates and March 2026 results date; those summary lines conflict with the detailed 2026 call text published below them and with the linked governing documentation. For this cycle, use the detailed text: results are expected by March 31, 2027, and projects are scheduled to start between April and May 2027. Applicants should consult TA ČR’s official 18th-call announcement and its English call documentation before applying, since the documentation governs the details of eligibility, costs, evaluation, and submission.