Eureka LinkUp call for projects: connecting regions for innovation

This project call is for research and development (R&D) projects in all thematic areas or application domains.

26 May 2025: Call opens
16 June 2025: Webinar for applicants
10 September 2025: International submission deadline (national submission deadlines may differ, please see ‘Applying’ below)
10 December 2025: Consensus meeting
December 2025 to April 2026: Projects can begin (expected)

Albania (National Agency of Scientific Research and Innovation, NASRI) funding

NASRI has an annual budget of 200,000 euro for this call for projects.

Participants from Albania can receive a grant of up to 50,000 euro per project per year. The percentage of eligible project costs that can be funded depends on the type of organisation:

• Up to 80% of eligible project costs for universities, research organisations, startups, small companies, and SMEs
• Up to 75% of eligible project costs for midcap companies
• Up to 65% of eligible project costs for large companies

Eligible costs are equipment costs, travel costs, personnel costs, external development services and other development costs.

Austria (Austrian Research Promotion Agency, FFG) funding

FFG has an open budget for this call for projects.

In Austria, all companies are eligible to apply, with cooperation opportunities for universities and research institutions. Funding for Austrian project partners is provided through the FFG General Programme under enhanced Eureka conditions. The funding is granted in the form of non-repayable grants, and the maximum funding rate depends on the type of organisation:

• Up to 60% of eligible costs for startups and small companies
• Up to 50% of eligible costs for medium-sized companies
• Up to 40% of eligible costs for large companies
• In the case of a company-led project where a research institution participates as a subcontractor, the costs of the research institution are covered according to the total project funding rate. However, third-party costs may not exceed 50% of the total project costs.
• In the case of a collaborative project (consortium), the cost share of research institutions is co-funded at 50%.

This is an open call, which means all topics are welcome.

More information is available on the FFG website.

Montenegro (Ministry of Education, Science, and Innovation) funding

The Ministry of Education, Science, and Innovation has a budget of 100,000 euro for this call for projects.

Participants from Montenegro can receive a grant of up to 50,000 euro per project per research year. Up to 100% of eligible costs can be funded for SMEs, large companies, universities and research organisations.

Eligible costs are:

• HR costs: employed on innovative project (max 25% of national co-funding)
• Material costs (medium-sized or small-sized equipment, raw material, parts, etc.)
• Development services or development costs (subcontracting)
• Costs for participation on relevant events (entry fees, transport, per diem, accommodation)
• Administrative costs and overheads.

The total amount awarded to single beneficiary may not exceed 300,000 euro for 3 fiscal years period (de minimis rule).

Serbia (Ministry of Science, Technological Development and Innovation, NITRA) funding

NITRA has an open budget for this call for projects.

Participants from Serbia can receive a grant of up to 50,000 euro per project year. Up to 50% of eligible project costs can be funded for universities and research organisations.

This is a bottom-up call with no thematic restrictions.

Eligible costs are salaries, equipment costs (amortisation), travel costs, development costs.

More information is available on the website of NITRA.

Slovenia (Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Innovation, MHESI) funding

The Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation has an open budget for this call for projects.

Participants from Slovenia can receive a grant of up to 450,000 euro. The percentage of eligible project costs that can be funded depends on the type of organisation:

• Between 60% and 80% of eligible project costs for startups and small companies
• Between 50% and 65% of eligible project costs for midcap companies
• Between 50% and 80% for SMEs
• Between 40% and 55% of eligible project costs for large companies

Projects must be consistent with the environmental principle of ‘do no significant harm’ (DNSH).

More information is available on the MHESI website.

Türkiye (TÜBİTAK) funding

TÜBİTAK has an open budget for this call for projects.

Participants from Türkiye can receive a grant. The percentage of eligible project costs that can be funded depends on the type of organisation:

• Up to 75% of eligible project costs for SMEs
• Up to 60% of eligible project costs for large companies

All companies that are resident in Türkiye can apply for funding. Only companies participating in international projects are funded within this programme, but universities and research centres can be funded as subcontractors. Turkish applicants must complete their national application through the TÜBİTAK website within six weeks after the Eureka LinkUp call application. For details, please refer to the 1509 – TÜBİTAK International Industrial R&D Projects Support Program.

Each ministry or funding agency will fund organisations according to local laws, rules, procedures and available budget.

If your ministry or funding agency does not have funding for organisations like yours, you can still join a project. Contact your ministry or funding agency for information about other funding options or self-funding.

Eureka has limited eligibility criteria for organisations participating in a Network Projects consortium:

• Your project idea must represent international cooperation in the form of a specific project.
• The project must be directed at researching or developing an innovative product, process or service with the goal of commercialisation.
• The project must have a civilian purpose.
• Your consortium must include at least two independent legal entities from a minimum of two Eureka countries.
• No single organisation or country can be responsible for more than 70% of the project budget.

This call for projects has additional criteria for organisations to be eligible to receive funding.

Albania (NASRI) eligibility

To be eligible, applications must be submitted from a collaboration (through a signed agreement) between at least one Higher Education Institution (HEI)/ University and one private company (business).

• The duration of your project may not exceed 36 months
• Your project consortium must have at least one company.
• All partners must express the will to cooperate and develop a new product, process, or service.
• Your project must benefit all partners and all partners must participate.
• Your product, process, or service must be innovative and there must be a technological risk involved.

Austria (FFG) eligibility

All for-profit companies registered in Austria are eligible for funding, with cooperation possibilities for universities and research organisations.

Montenegro (Ministry of Education, Science, and Innovation) eligibility

• The consortium must include at least one Montenegro-based company
• The company must be actively involved in at least 40% of development activities, and accordingly must implement at least 40% of national co-funding on the project

Serbia (NITRA) eligibility

• Only consortia of the Serbian industrial and the research partners are eligible for funding.
• Public funding is available to universities and scientific institutes.
• Companies must cover their own project costs.

Slovenia (MHESI) eligibility

Beneficiaries of the national public tender may be large, medium, small, and micro enterprises from Slovenia and must meet both the general conditions of the international call and the national conditions of the public call for proposals for the allocation of incentives within the framework of the Eureka 2025-2029 initiative (JR Eureka 2025), which will be published at the end of June 2025.

On the date of application, the applicant may not have overdue liabilities of 50 euro or more from mandatory duties or non-tax obligations as per the law on Financial Administration.

Türkiye (TÜBİTAK) eligibility

Only companies involved in international projects are directly funded, Turkish applicants must complete their national their national application via the TÜBİTAK website.

Your project application will be reviewed according to our Network projects evaluation methodology.

1. Impact

• Is the market properly addressed (i.e. size, access and risks)?
• Is the value creation properly addressed (i.e. employment opportunities and environmental and societal benefits)?
• What are the competitive advantages of your project (i.e. strategic importance, enhanced capabilities and visibility)?
• Are your commercialisation plans clear and realistic (i.e. return on investment, geographical and sectoral impact)?

2. Excellence

• What is the degree of innovation? (i.e. is the proposed product, process or service state-of-the-art? Is there sufficient technological maturity and risk)?
• How is the new knowledge going to be used?
• Is your project scientifically and technically challenging for consortium partners?
• Is the technical achievability and risk properly addressed?

3. Quality and efficiency of implementation

• What is the quality of your consortium (i.e. balance of the partnership and technological, managerial and financial capabilities of each partner)?
• Is there added value through international cooperation?
• Is your project management and planning realistic and clearly defined (i.e. methodology, planning approach, milestones and deliverables)?
• Is your cost structure reasonable (i.e. costs and financial commitment for each consortium partner)?

4. Overall perception

Experts will list three positive and negative points to your application and finally state whether they recommend your project for public investment.

Your national funding body may carry out a further evaluation (performed by the national project coordinator and technical experts) according to national rules before allocating funds to successful applicants.

Albania (NASRI) has additional steps for evaluation:

1. Formal evaluation by the national funding authority (AKKSHI/NASRI),
2. Expert technical evaluation by a commission of experts in the field,
3. Review and approval by the Board of Administration.

Austria (FFG) has additional steps for evaluation:

In addition to the Eureka application, the national application must be submitted via eCall by 12 September 2025. FFG internal experts carry out the evaluation of the national application. Funding decisions for national applications submitted until 12 September 2025 will be published after the Advisory Board Meeting (Beiratssitzung) on 4 December 2025.

Serbia (NITRA) has additional steps for evaluation:

A formal two-step evaluation is carried out according to the basic administrative criteria (Ministry) and national criteria defined in the Act for Funding (done by national experts).

More information is available on the website of NITRA.

Slovenia (MHESI) has additional steps for evaluation

The project evaluation is carried out by external experts after a review of the implementation of the national conditions of the public tender.

Türkiye (TÜBİTAK) has additional steps for evaluation

TÜBİTAK carry out a further evaluation (performed by the technical experts) according to national rules before allocating funds to successful applicants.

1. Contact your national funding body using the contact form on Eureka’s website to discuss your project idea, financial viability, eligibility and national procedures.
2. Create an account on our application portal (one per consortium) and select the funding opportunity you want to apply to.
3. Using the portal, complete one application form per consortium (in English) and invite other consortium partners to fill in a partner form.
4. Upload a GANTT chart (one per consortium), a signed and completed co-signature form (which you can download from the platform) and any additional required annexes.
5. Your application will be checked for completeness and eligibility before being reviewed using a standard evaluation procedure. If successful, your project will receive a Eureka label.
6. Your national funding body may carry out a further evaluation (performed by the NPC and technical experts) according to national rules before allocating funds to successful applicants.
7. The final step is to complete and sign a consortium agreement (CA). We recommend that you seek legal advice when drafting your CA.

Additionally, each applicant must submit all required documents to their respective national funding authority and meet its due diligence process requirements.

Albania (NASRI) has additional steps for applying:

Albanian applicants to this call must also submit a related national funding application according to the national rules.

Austria (FFG) has additional steps for applying:

In addition to the Eureka application, Austrian participants must submit a separate national application by 12 September 2025, at the latest, to FFG General Programmes (Basisprogramm) via eCall on the FFG website.

The project must fulfil the national criteria (“Basisprogramm-Leitfaden”). Detailed information about national rules and procedures is available on the FFG website.

Serbia (NITRA) has additional steps for applying:

In addition to the Eureka application, the Serbian participant must submit to the Ministry. a separate national full project proposal and Consortium Agreement.

Slovenia (MHESI) has additional steps for applying

National applications will be possible after the public call for applications is published, (expected at the end of June) via the Digital Forms ARIS.

Türkiye (TÜBİTAK) has additional steps for applying

For more information and national rules please visit the TÜBİTAK website.

Eureka LinkUp call for projects webinar

Join a webinar about this call on 16 June 2025 at 2pm CEST.

Find out more and register

Download the call text as a PDF