Eurostars is part of the European Partnership on Innovative SMEs. The partnership is co-funded by the European Union through Horizon Europe.
To apply, you must fulfill seven eligibility criteria:
- The project consortium is led by an innovative SME* from a Eurostars country.
- The project consortium is composed of at least two entities that are independent from one another.
- The project consortium is composed of entities from at least two participating countries with a minimum of one organisation from an EU or Horizon Europe Associated Country.
- The budget of the SMEs from the participating countries (excluding any subcontracting) is 50% or more of the total project cost.
- No single participant or country is responsible for more than 70% of the budget of the project.
- The project duration is 36 months or less***.
- The project has an exclusive focus on civil applications.
*We define an innovative SME as any SMEs with the ambition to collaborate on R&D and innovation with international partners to develop new products, processes and services for European and global markets. Innovative SMEs do not need to have a proven track record of R&D activities.
R&D: “Research and experimental development (R&D) comprise creative and systematic work undertaken in order to increase the stock of knowledge – including knowledge of humankind, culture and society – and to devise new applications of available knowledge.” (OECD Frascati Manual 2015, p. 44)
Innovation: “a new or improved product or process (or combination thereof) that differs significantly from the unit’s previous products or processes and that has been made available to potential users (product) or brought into use by the unit (process).” (OECD Oslo Manual 2018, p. 20)
**Eurostars countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and the United Kingdom. (As of 1 January 2024, entities established in the United Kingdom are considered to be established in a Horizon Europe Associated Country).
***Eurostars countries that are not a European Union Member State or a Horizon Europe Associated Country: Canada, South Korea, Singapore, South Africa and Switzerland.
***If justified, you may be permitted an extension after your project has started. This must be approved by the Independent Evaluation Panel, Eureka Secretariat and relevant national funding bodies.
Please read all our guidelines before submitting a project application. If you do not meet all our eligibility criteria, your application will be rejected.
National criteria: Ministry for Universities and Research (MUR)
The Ministry for Universities and Research (MUR) has additional national criteria for projects to be eligible to receive funding. Decreto legge n. 83/2012, Decreto Ministeriale n. 1314 del dicembre 2021, Linee guida al DM del 26 luglio 2016 n. 593 and procedure operative per il finanziamento dei progetti internazionali are applicable for the Eurostars programme. Find these documents here. Specific eligibility rules and conditions for each call are published in the Avviso integrativo nazionale:
- Italian participants must adopt necessary accounting and administrative measures for allocating resources.
- Participating organisations (companies, public and private research organisations and universities) must be based in Italy and meet EU requirements.
- There must be at least one Italian SME in your consortium, and the SME(s) must be responsible for more of the project costs and activities than the other Italian participants.
- Italian participants must not be defaulting on any payments or funding received by MUR.
- Italian participants must not have requested or received funding for the same research or development activities.
- Italian participants must respect law D. Lgs. n. 159 del 06/09/2011 e successive modificazioni ed integrazioni.
- Italian participants must not be following bankruptcy proceedings (as stated in art. 5.4b of DM 593/2016) or a qualify as a company in difficulty (according to EU definitions).
- Italian participants must comply with obligations in the contributory and social security regulations (DURC).
- The Italian participant’s legal representative’s judicial and pending records must be negative.
- All privately funded Italian participants must fulfil the following financial criteria (based on their last approved balance sheet):
- Net assets (capitale netto/ CN) must be greater than the sum of project costs for which the participant has requested funding in the year (CP) minus the sum of contributions received, approved or requested for these projects (I) divided by two: CN > (CP – I)/2
- Financial charges (oneri finanziari/ OF) divided by turnover (fatturato/ F) must be less than 8%: OF/F < 8%
In addition to the Eurostars application, Italian participants must submit further documentation (signed) to MUR, through their national web platform. Information about these required documents can be found in the platform itself and in the procedure operative per il finanziamento dei progetti internazionali.
These additional national documents must be submitted before the same Eurostars programme deadline. Any participant who does not submit the national documents (signed) by the Eurostars deadline will not be eligible for funding.
The next steps
Read all our guidelines before submitting your project application.
Check your financial viability. Our tool indicates whether you have the financial capacity to support your costs in the project.
