Eurostars Call 12 – Eureka Network

Eurostars Call 12 – Eureka Network

At a glance

Eurostars supports international research and development projects led by an innovative small or medium-sized enterprise (SME). It is part of the European Partnership on Innovative SMEs and is co-funded by the European Union through Horizon Europe. The programme is intended to help a cross-border team develop a product, process, or service that can be commercialised. The Eureka Network programme page describes the programme and its shared eligibility rules.

The September 2026 Call 11 has closed. Eureka has announced Call 12: its application window is scheduled to open on 17 December 2026 and close on 4 March 2027 at 14:00 CET (Brussels time). The upcoming call is listed on the official Call 12 page. At the time of this listing’s update, the window has not opened. Use the published deadline for planning, then recheck the call page and the rules for every country in your consortium before submitting.

What Eurostars funds

Eurostars is a collaborative R&D programme. A project should have a defined technical challenge and a credible path from research and development to a marketable result. The consortium submits one international project proposal, but public grant decisions and payments are handled through national or regional funding bodies. Their rules determine which kinds of organisations and activities can receive support, the eligible costs, funding rates, and any maximum grant. This means the same consortium can face different funding conditions in different countries.

The programme is not a centrally awarded fixed amount that every successful team receives. Some partners may receive grants under their local rules; partners from countries without an applicable national contribution may need to self-fund. Eureka’s Call 12 page says national and regional funding information is still being confirmed for this round, and that the published information may change before the call opens. Do not treat a country’s previous call terms as a promise for Call 12. Contact each relevant funding body and confirm the current national conditions before you settle the budget or commit partner resources.

Who can apply

The international criteria published for Call 12 require all of the following:

• The project consortium is led by an innovative SME from a Eurostars country.
• It includes at least two independent entities.
• The entities are based in at least two Eurostars countries, with at least one organisation from an EU Member State or a Horizon Europe Associated Country.
• SMEs from Eurostars countries account for at least 50% of the total project cost, excluding subcontracting.
• No single participant and no single country accounts for more than 70% of the project budget.
• The project lasts no longer than 36 months.
• The project is exclusively focused on civil applications.

These are programme-level checks, not a replacement for national eligibility. The lead SME should confirm that its country recognises it as an eligible innovative SME. Every partner should check its legal status, eligible activities, cost categories, rates, co-financing obligations, and any national application requirements with its own funding body. Countries may have no allocated budget for a given organisation type or may offer support only under additional conditions. A partner can sometimes participate by self-funding, but that does not remove the consortium’s international eligibility and budget tests.

Is Call 12 open now?

No. The Call 12 page identifies 17 December 2026 as the opening date. Until the application window opens, teams can prepare their proposal and check the evolving country information, but should not describe the platform as accepting Call 12 submissions. The date currently announced for submission is 4 March 2027 at 14:00 CET. Eureka’s general programme page says calls are usually organised twice a year, but that pattern should not be used to infer any later deadline. Only rely on dates published for a specific round.

The preceding Call 11 had a deadline of 10 September 2026. That round is closed. It is useful as a record of the programme’s previous cycle, but its deadline and country funding details do not govern Call 12. This listing follows the announced Call 12 date instead of presenting the old September deadline as live.

Funding and budget planning

Start with the country pages linked from the Call 12 announcement, then speak directly with every national or regional funding body that may pay for a partner’s work. Ask each body to confirm whether that partner type can receive funding, which activities and costs it accepts, how rates are calculated, whether project or participant caps apply, what own contribution is expected, and which national documents must be submitted. Ask about separate domestic submission deadlines too; some countries require an additional application around or after the international deadline.

Prepare a partner-by-partner budget rather than applying one assumed reimbursement percentage to the whole project. Keep a clear distinction between eligible project cost, requested public contribution, and the amount each partner must finance itself. Check the programme’s 50% SME budget floor and the 70% maximum for any participant or country against the consortium budget before the final submission. Recalculate those shares whenever a partner, subcontract, or work package changes. National funding bodies may apply different definitions and conditions to costs, so validate the planned cost categories with them rather than relying only on a central summary.

The Call 12 page currently says its country information is being confirmed. Therefore no universal award amount, funding rate, or country list of eligible cost types can responsibly be stated here. A partner’s presence in a Eurostars country does not by itself guarantee that its national agency will fund that partner in this call.

How to prepare and apply

1. Check fit and build the consortium

Write a short project definition that names the problem, the planned R&D, the intended product, process, or service, and the customers or users who could adopt it. Identify why the work needs partners in more than one country. Each organisation should own a meaningful technical, validation, production, regulatory, or route-to-market contribution. Confirm that the proposed leader is an innovative SME based in a Eurostars country and that all consortium organisations are independent as required by the programme rules.

2. Run the international eligibility checks early

Map each partner to its country and legal entity. Check the EU or Horizon Europe Associated Country condition, then calculate the SME share of project costs excluding subcontracting and the share assigned to each participant and country. Check that the planned project can finish within 36 months and is exclusively civil in purpose. Save the calculation and the source of each input so you can update it if the consortium changes. A proposal that misses one of the seven international criteria is not eligible, regardless of its technical quality.

3. Confirm national funding before fixing the budget

Use the Call 12 country information and contact the relevant funding bodies. Find out which partner types they can fund and the current national terms for this round. Ask what national forms, financial checks, supporting evidence, and timing apply. National funding conditions can affect who should participate, how work is divided, which costs sit in each budget, and how much private contribution is needed. Build this check into consortium planning rather than leaving it until the central proposal is complete.

4. Prepare the shared proposal

The Call 12 announcement directs applicants to submit through the Eureka Project Management Platform at myeurekaproject.org during the published call window. Prepare a coherent project description in English for the international review. Explain the technical objective, the reason for each partner, the shared work plan, management and milestones, the costs, and the route to commercialisation. Make the partner roles and dependencies easy to follow. The official Call 12 page links to the detailed Eurostars guidelines and resource library; follow those materials for platform fields, supporting documents, and formal submission requirements as they apply to this round.

5. Submit the international application and complete national steps

Plan to finish the shared application ahead of the 4 March 2027, 14:00 CET deadline. Verify that the lead and partners have completed the platform requirements and that the submitted budget still passes all eligibility limits. Separately complete any national or regional steps required by the funding bodies. A successful international evaluation does not automatically mean every partner has secured a national grant. Keep copies of the final proposal, budget, confirmations, and national submissions so partners are working from the same approved version.

What to prepare internally

The exact formal annexes depend on the published guidelines, the application platform, and national rules. As working material, assemble a concise commercial case; technical objectives and measurable outputs; a work-package plan with owners and dependencies; a milestone and risk register; partner capability descriptions; an exploitation and commercialisation route; and a budget workbook by partner, country, and cost category. Gather company and financial information early because national funders may need to assess legal and financial viability. Confirm the required format and freshness of any declarations or accounts rather than assuming old documents will be accepted.

Agree how consortium decisions will be made and how the team will manage project changes, reporting, background intellectual property, new results, publication, and access to shared data. Those arrangements should be credible for the collaboration being proposed. They also help evaluators see that the cross-border structure is necessary and manageable. Do not claim a document is universally mandatory unless the current Call 12 guidelines or the relevant funding body says it is.

What makes a persuasive project

A strong proposal connects an identifiable market or user need to an R&D plan that can address it. The consortium should show a clear reason for international cooperation: for example, partners may contribute different technical capabilities, access to a test environment, specialised manufacturing, or knowledge of a target market. The proposal should explain what each partner delivers and how that contribution changes the outcome. A partner list without real interdependence is difficult to justify as collaborative R&D.

Set milestones that demonstrate progress and reduce uncertainty. Distinguish research questions from development work, explain technical and commercial risks, and show how the team will respond if an assumption fails. Describe how the result can be adopted, produced, licensed, or sold, and identify the evidence behind that plan. Avoid unsupported market-size claims and vague promises. Budget detail should match the work: staff time, equipment, materials, testing, and subcontracting should have clear owners and a defensible connection to tasks.

Common avoidable problems

• Treating central eligibility as the whole funding decision. Check each partner’s national conditions as well as the seven international criteria.
• Assuming old country terms still apply. Call 12’s funding information is still being confirmed; verify it again before the call opens and before submission.
• Leaving the budget split until late. Test the 50% SME threshold and 70% caps while roles are still adjustable.
• Using partners as endorsements only. Give each participant a defined contribution and budget tied to the shared project.
• Confusing a planned date with an open window. Call 12 is announced, but the application window begins on 17 December 2026.
• Submitting at the last moment. Allow time for partner review, platform issues, and any country-specific requirements before the deadline.

Practical decision check

Eurostars is worth pursuing when your SME can lead a real international R&D effort, partners fill distinct roles, and the project has a plausible commercial outcome. Before committing to full proposal work, make sure the core eligibility arithmetic works, every partner has checked its national route to funding, and the consortium can explain why the work should be done together. If any of those points is unresolved, use the preparation period to resolve it before the call opens. For final dates, guidelines, country conditions, and platform instructions, use the official Call 12 page and the Eurostars programme page.