Eurostars is part of the European Partnership on Innovative SMEs. The partnership is co-funded by the European Union through Horizon Europe.

Eurostars has a centralised evaluation process that is managed by the Eureka Association. The evaluation process takes three to four months.

Evaluation timeframe

• Approximately 1 week after the Eurostars deadline, you will be informed about your application’s eligibility.
• Approximately 7 weeks after the Eurostars deadline, you will be informed of the results of the three remote experts’ review and the legal and financial viability check.
• Approximately 13 weeks after the Eurostars deadline, a ranking list is endorsed by the the Eurostars High-level Group. You will be informed whether your application is above or below the quality threshold to be considered for funding.
• Approximately 16 weeks after the submission deadline, an official letter confirms whether your project has been earmarked for funding by your national funding body.
• If your project is approved for funding, the main participant must provide a copy of the final Consortium Agreement to the Eureka Association within 6 weeks.

Evaluation steps

Eligibility check

Applications are checked against the set eligibility criteria.

• Applications that meet the eligibility criteria will progress to the remote evaluation and the legal and financial viability check.
• If any criterion cannot be met, the application will be deemed ineligible and rejected.

Expert evaluation

Each eligible application is examined remotely by three experts who are commissioned by the Eureka Association and who work individually. The experts assess the applications based on a set of evaluation criteria and produce a report with scores, justifications and commentary.

Who are the experts?

Eureka’s experts must:

• Hold a higher education diploma (Master’s degree or higher);
• Possess a minimum of 10 years of professional experience in their field(s);
• Be fluent in English.

Project officers from our national offices (who have a technical scientific or engineering background) match three suitable experts from our experts pool to each application.

Experts from countries represented in the application consortium cannot evaluate the application.

In your application form, you have the opportunity to indicate organisations or individuals that you would like to exclude from evaluating your application.

Evaluation criteria

Each application is assessed against three criteria and their sub-criteria:

Quality and efficiency of the implementation

• Quality of the consortium
• Added value through cooperation
• Realistic and clearly defined project management and planning
• Reasonable cost structure

Impact

• Market size
• Market access and risk
• Competitive advantage
• Clear and realistic commercialisation plans
• Economic, environmental and societal impact

Excellence

• Degree of innovation
• New applied knowledge
• Level of technical challenge
• Technical achievability and risk

Scoring system

Each expert assigns a score from 1 to 6 to each sub-criterion, where 1 is the lowest score and 6 is the highest. Experts perform their evaluations independently and give unique justifications and commentary.

• The scores of the sub-criteria are averaged to provide the score for the main criterion. Averages that result in fractional parts of 0.5 and above are rounded up to the nearest integer. Fractional parts lower than 0.5 are rounded down to the nearest integer. As there are three experts rating three criteria, nine values of between 1 and 6 are generated.
• The average value for each of the main criterion is calculated from the previously calculated scores. The average value for all criteria must be greater than or equal to 3.6 otherwise the application is rejected.
• Each of the nine expert scores is added to provide the total score of the project.
• Applications are ranked by total score in descending order.
• A threshold is established so that only the best, most competitive projects (those with the highest total scores) progress to the review by the Independent Evaluation Panel, with the remaining being removed from the process.

Legal and financial viability check

In parallel with the evaluation performed by the three experts, national funding bodies conduct a legal and financial viability check on project applicants from their country to determine whether every applicant is eligible to receive public funding and if
organisations have the financial capacity to support their part in the project. This check is important for ensuring that public funding is well invested.

If a project participant is not eligible to receive public funding, the national funding body may inform them before the check ends and invite them to participate in the project by self-funding. If they accept, they will need to provide an official self-funding declaration. If the declaration is not received before the set deadline, the application cannot proceed further in the process.

Moreover, if one of the organisations in your consortium fails the legal and financial viability check, the entire application cannot proceed further in the process.

Your national funding body may contact you during the legal and financial viability check to request additional information. We recommend you make sure that your contact person is available during the first four weeks after the Eurostars deadline.

Panel ranking

Applications passing the remote experts evaluation and the legal and financial viability check will progress to the Independent Evaluation Panel. The panel is formed of a Chairperson and 12 to 20 experts.

The panel have access to the application form (including its annexes) and the remote experts’ assessments. They meet to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the applications against set criteria and the other applications.

Applications will be ranked and placed into groups between 1 and 6 according to their quality, with group 6 considered the best, and group 5 being the minimum grouping required to be recommended for funding.

Ethics appraisal process

All project activities carried out under Eurostars must comply with ethical principles and relevant national, European and international legislation. In addition, activities that are carried out in a non-EU country must comply with the laws of that country and also be permitted in at least one EU Member State.

The objective of the ethics review is to assist beneficiaries in addressing the ethics issues raised by their project and, if needed, to take preventive or corrective measures.

The ethics review is conducted for all applications progressing to the Independent Evaluation Panel and is performed in parallel with the panel’s check.

A panel of ethics experts meets to produce an ethics report for each application that progressed to the Independent Evaluation Panel.

Selection and funding of projects

The selection of projects is made on the basis of the raking list provided by the Independent Evaluation Panel.

Applications will be ranked and placed into groups between 1 and 6 according to their quality, with group 6 considered the best, and group 5 being the minimum grouping required to be recommended for funding. Applications in group 6 are considered excellent and will be automatically funded.

Applications in group 5 are considered very good quality and (where there is national funding is available) are selected to receive funding.

Receiving funding

Upon receiving the approval letter, each project participant must contact their national funding body to secure their funding and fulfil any other national requirements.

Final Consortium Agreement

If your project is approved for funding, the main participant must submit the final Consortium Agreement, signed by all project partners, within 6 weeks of receiving the letter of approval. We recommend that you contact a legal advisor to help with this process.

Note: The Eureka Secretariat is responsible for communicating information about the centralised evaluation process. The Eureka Secretariat cannot communicate about national regulations and procedures. We recommend that you discuss your application with your national funding body if you have questions about the application and evaluation stages

We monitor your project whilst it is running and once it is completed. To do this, all partners in your consortium must send reports (in English) to the Eureka Secretariat:

• Project progress reports
• Final report
• Market impact reports

You may have to provide additional monitoring reports to your national funding body. Contact your national funding body for guidance using our contact form.

If you do not complete and submit project reports, project funding could be withheld or your project could be withdrawn.

Project progress reports

The project progress reports help us monitor your running the Eurostars project. Each participant in your consortium must complete a project progress report every six months whilst the project is running, starting from the first six months after your official project start date until your project is completed.

The report has two parts: on your consortium and individual project partners. The first part is completed by the project’s main partner and the second part is completed by project partners or (where specified) by the main partner.

Your project progress reports should include a brief description of the major results and achievements during the reporting period, information on how you are cooperating with the consortium and progress made towards achieving your milestones and deliverables. It should also mention any deviations from the original project plan or any unexpected changes in the implementation of the plan.

You do not need to list detailed technical achievements or project costs.

Access and submit your project progress reports in our project platform.

Final report

After your project is completed (whether it was successful or not), each project participant must submit a final report. You will be able to submit a final report as soon as you declare that your project is complete in a project progress report.

In your final report, describe the results of your project, any benefits your organisation experienced and the strengths of your consortium.

In your final report you can also state whether you wish to be contacted by us for an article to be written about your project or company’s successes that will feature on our website and be promoted in our network.

Market impact report

Participants of successful projects must also complete market impact reports. Market impact reports are sent once a year for three consecutive years after your project has finished.

The reports allow us to continue to follow your success and commercialisation.

Any data that the Eureka Secretariat gathers in market impact reports is aggregated and anonymous. It is used for the quantitative analysis of the success of our Eurostars programme and provides us with feedback on how the programme might be adapted for improvement.

We monitor your project whilst it is running and once it is completed. To do this, all partners in your consortium must send reports (in English) to the Eureka Secretariat:

• Project progress reports
• Final report
• Market impact reports

You may have to provide additional monitoring reports to your national funding body. Contact your national funding body for guidance using our contact form.

If you do not complete and submit project reports, project funding could be withheld or your project could be withdrawn.

Project progress reports

The project progress reports help us monitor your running the Eurostars project. Each participant in your consortium must complete a project progress report every six months whilst the project is running, starting from the first six months after your official project start date until your project is completed.

The report has two parts: on your consortium and individual project partners. The first part is completed by the project’s main partner and the second part is completed by project partners or (where specified) by the main partner.

Your project progress reports should include a brief description of the major results and achievements during the reporting period, information on how you are cooperating with the consortium and progress made towards achieving your milestones and deliverables. It should also mention any deviations from the original project plan or any unexpected changes in the implementation of the plan.

You do not need to list detailed technical achievements or project costs.

Access and submit your project progress reports in our project platform.

Final report

After your project is completed (whether it was successful or not), each project participant must submit a final report. You will be able to submit a final report as soon as you declare that your project is complete in a project progress report.

In your final report, describe the results of your project, any benefits your organisation experienced and the strengths of your consortium.

In your final report you can also state whether you wish to be contacted by us for an article to be written about your project or company’s successes that will feature on our website and be promoted in our network.

Market impact report

Participants of successful projects must also complete market impact reports. Market impact reports are sent once a year for three consecutive years after your project has finished.

The reports allow us to continue to follow your success and commercialisation.

Any data that the Eureka Secretariat gathers in market impact reports is aggregated and anonymous. It is used for the quantitative analysis of the success of our Eurostars programme and provides us with feedback on how the programme might be adapted for improvement.