EU Funding for Startups and SMEs in 2026

EU Funding Calls 2027: The Grant Calendar for Startups, Month by Month

TL;DR: EU funding calls 2027 are already on the calendar: on 26 October 2026 the EU Funding & Tenders Portal listed 377 open or forthcoming topics with a 2027 deadline, 309 of them under Horizon Europe. Only a few dozen suit a startup. Plan around Women TechEU (14 January, 1 April, 8 July), Creative Europe MEDIA (14 January, 2 February), Eurostars Call 12 (4 March), Horizon Europe cluster calls you join as a partner and the EIC Pre-accelerator for Widening countries (18 November). EIC Accelerator dates are still draft. Below: a month-by-month calendar, a fit table, a back-planning template and a worked example.

EU funding calls 2027 matter more than usual because 2027 is the last year of the EU's 2021–2027 budget. The main Horizon Europe Work Programme 2026–2027, adopted by the Commission on 11 December 2025, is the last one of the period, and the next programmes start in 2028 under new rules. If you want EU money before that switch, the 2027 deadlines are the ones you can still plan for.

This calendar is for founders, not research offices: it keeps only calls where a startup can apply alone or join a consortium as a partner. Every date comes from the EU Funding & Tenders Portal, the European Innovation Council (EIC), Eureka or the programme's own site, checked on 26 October 2026.

How the 2027 EU funding year works

Three kinds of dates shape a startup's EU funding year:

Fixed cut-offs for single companies. Women TechEU, the EIC Accelerator and Creative Europe MEDIA let one company apply alone. Miss a cut-off and you wait for the next one, sometimes a full year.
Consortium deadlines. Horizon Europe cluster calls and Eurostars need partners from several countries. The deadline is the end of a three-to-six-month process of finding partners and writing together, not the start.
Rolling and cascade calls. EU-funded projects and the EIT communities hand out smaller grants through their own open calls all year. These rarely appear far in advance, so they belong on a watch list, not in a fixed calendar. Our guide to cascade funding explains how they work.

A date is only final once the call is published. The Commission had not adopted the EIC Work Programme 2027 by 26 October 2026, so 2027 EIC dates below are marked "draft". The EIC presents its 2027 opportunities at online info days on 19 and 20 November 2026.

The 2027 calendar for startups, month by month

Date (2027)	Call	Who it suits	Status on 26 Oct 2026
13 January	EIT Health open call (business plan 2026)	Health innovators; read the call text	Open
14 January	Women TechEU, full proposals	Women-led deep tech startups	Open
14 January	Creative Europe MEDIA: innovative tools and business models (€14 million)	Media-tech and audiovisual companies	Open
28 January	EIT Urban Mobility open call	Mobility innovators	Open
2 February	Creative Europe MEDIA: video games and immersive content (€13.5 million)	Game and XR studios	Open
2 February	Horizon Europe Cluster 4, Industry	Consortia with industrial SMEs	Open since 13 Oct 2026
3 February	EIC Accelerator, full proposals	Single startups with a prototype	Draft
17 February	Horizon Europe Cluster 1, Health (single stage)	Consortia with health-tech SMEs	Opens 29 Oct 2026
4 March	Eurostars Call 12	R&D SMEs with a partner abroad	Opens 17 Dec 2026
18 March	Horizon Europe Cluster 4, Digital	Deep tech and AI consortia	Opens 17 Nov 2026
31 March	Horizon Europe Cluster 5, Batteries and Energy	Energy and battery consortia	Opens 3 Dec 2026
1 April	Women TechEU, full proposals	Women-led deep tech startups	Open
1 April	EIC Accelerator, full proposals	Single startups with a prototype	Draft
8 July	Women TechEU, last full-proposal deadline	Women-led deep tech startups	Open
1 September	EIC Accelerator, full proposals	Single startups with a prototype	Draft
16 September	Horizon Europe Cluster 1, Health (single stage)	Consortia with health-tech SMEs	Forthcoming
16 September	EIC Transition	Teams turning research results into products	Draft
14 October	EIT Urban Mobility open call (also 28 April, 3 June, 25 August)	Mobility innovators	Open
3 November	EIC Accelerator, full proposals	Single startups with a prototype	Draft
18 November	EIC Pre-accelerator, Widening	Deep tech startups in Widening countries	Opens 5 May 2027

More Horizon Europe cluster deadlines: Climate (4 March), food and bioeconomy two-stage calls (8 April), Mobility (14 April), Space (2 September), Clean Industrial Deal (15 September), Civil Security (4 November) and Energy (1 December). EIT Culture & Creativity has an open call closing on 15 March.

Sources: EU Funding & Tenders Portal, EIC, Eureka and national Eurostars agencies, 26 October 2026. "Draft" dates come from the unadopted EIC Work Programme 2027. EIT open calls under one business plan can cover several separate competitions, so read each call text.

Two dates from late 2026 still count for your 2027 plan: the EIC Accelerator full-proposal cut-off on 4 November 2026 and the end of the SME Fund 2026 on 4 December 2026 (or earlier if the money runs out). The EUIPO has not announced an SME Fund 2027 yet; the 2025 and 2026 editions both opened in early February.

Which 2027 call fits your startup?

Use the stage you will be at on the deadline, not today.

Your situation in 2027	Best-fit calls	Money	Apply alone?
Women-led deep tech, early stage	Women TechEU	€75,000 grant plus coaching	Yes
Working prototype, ready to scale	EIC Accelerator	Grant under €2.5 million plus €1–10 million equity	Yes
Deep tech at lab stage in a Widening country	EIC Pre-accelerator, Widening	€0.5–1 million per grant, about 60 grants, €40 million in total	Read the call text when it opens
R&D project with a partner abroad	Eurostars	National funding under each country's rules	No, at least two countries
Game, XR or media-tech company	Creative Europe MEDIA	Lump-sum and project grants	Yes, check each topic
Strong technology, no capacity to lead	Horizon Europe cluster calls	Your share of a project, often worth €4–20 million in total	No, join as a partner
Small budget, quick test of an idea	EIT and cascade open calls	Usually tens of thousands of euros	Yes

If your answer is "none of these", you probably need a different kind of money first. Our guides to startup funding in Europe and EU grants for small businesses cover loans, regional grants and free services.

Plan backwards: when to start for each deadline

The date on the portal is the day you press submit. The work starts much earlier:

Call type	Start this long before the deadline	Why
Women TechEU	6–8 weeks	You must pass the eligibility check first (weekly cut-offs)
EIC Accelerator full proposal	4–6 months	The short application, a pitch video and a positive result come first
Eurostars	3–4 months	Partner agreement, national pre-checks and a joint budget
Horizon Europe cluster call (as a partner)	3–6 months	Coordinators fill their consortia early
Creative Europe MEDIA	6–8 weeks	Budget and work plan, often as a lump sum
EIT and cascade open calls	2–4 weeks	Short forms, but calls are announced late

So for Eurostars on 4 March 2027, start the partner search in November or December 2026.

Copyable 2027 deadline planner

Fill one block per call you are serious about. Three is plenty for a small team.

2027 EU FUNDING PLANNER (one block per call)

Call name and topic ID:
Deadline (date, time, time zone):
Status: open / forthcoming / draft   Last checked on: [date]
Single applicant or consortium:
Money: [grant size, co-funding rate, equity part]

Fit check (yes / no):
  [ ] Our company type and country are eligible
  [ ] Our stage (TRL, revenue, team) matches the call
  [ ] We can show the result the call asks for
  [ ] No other public grant pays for the same costs

Backwards plan:
  Start writing:          [deadline minus N weeks]
  Partners confirmed:     [date]   (consortium calls)
  Budget frozen:          [date]
  Internal review:        [deadline minus 10 days]
  Submit:                 [deadline minus 2 days]

Owner: [name]   Reviewer: [name]
Plan B if we miss it: [next cut-off or another call]

Submitting two days early is not optional. The Women TechEU organisers reported that more than 58% of applications in an earlier call arrived on the last day, and the portal makes no exceptions for traffic jams.

Worked example: a two-founder climate-tech startup

Take a generic case: two founders in Lisbon build sensor software for industrial heat pumps, with a pilot customer, a prototype at TRL 6, €200,000 from angels and a woman co-founder holding 50% of the shares. Their 2027 plan:

When	Action	Call
November 2026	Pass the Women TechEU eligibility check; start partner talks with a German research centre	Women TechEU, Eurostars
14 January 2027	Submit the Women TechEU full proposal	Women TechEU
January–February 2027	Send the EIC Accelerator short application	EIC Accelerator
4 March 2027	Submit Eurostars with the German partner	Eurostars Call 12
March 2027	Offer their pilot data to a Cluster 5 energy consortium as an SME partner	Horizon Europe, 31 March
1 September 2027 (draft)	Submit the EIC Accelerator full proposal, using Women TechEU and Eurostars results as proof	EIC Accelerator

Women TechEU allows up to €1 million of equity raised before you apply, so their angel round does not block them. They spread the risk: one small solo grant, one consortium project and one large bet later in the year, and no two grants pay for the same costs.

Portugal is a Widening country, but at TRL 6 the EIC Accelerator fits them better than the EIC Pre-accelerator.

Where to check the dates as they change

EU Funding & Tenders Portal. Search by programme, then filter by "open" and "forthcoming". Forthcoming calls show the planned opening date and budget. Our step-by-step guide on how to find open EU funding calls shows the filters that matter.
EIC website. Watch it for the adopted EIC Work Programme 2027, which turns the draft dates into final ones.
Eureka and your national Eurostars agency. National budgets and rules differ by country.
Monthly news. Mean CEO's EU Funding News on blog.mean.ceo lists newly opened calls for startups every month.

Who should apply and who can skip it

Use this calendar now if you plan to apply for EU money in 2027, have a product or prototype, and can give a proposal several focused weeks. Pick two or three dates, not ten.

Skip it for now if you have no product yet, no one on the team can write for weeks, or you need cash within three months. EU money is slow: Horizon Europe aims to tell applicants the result within five months of the deadline and to sign the grant within eight. Start with our EU funding readiness checklist and come back in a quarter.

Related EU funding guides

Want to test your idea before writing a proposal? The Fe/male Switch startup game walks you through building a startup step by step.

FAQ

What EU funding calls open in 2027 for startups?

For single startups, the main fixed dates are Women TechEU (14 January, 1 April and 8 July 2027), Creative Europe MEDIA (14 January and 2 February) and the EIC Accelerator (four draft cut-offs). For startups with partners, there are Eurostars Call 12 (4 March) and dozens of Horizon Europe cluster calls between February and December 2027.

When are the EIC Accelerator deadlines in 2027?

The draft EIC Work Programme 2027 lists full-proposal cut-offs on 3 February, 1 April, 1 September and 3 November 2027. The Commission had not adopted it by 26 October 2026, so the dates can still move. Short applications can be sent at any time.

Is 2027 the last year for Horizon Europe funding?

2027 is the last year of the current 2021–2027 budget, and the Work Programme 2026–2027 is the last one of Horizon Europe. Calls with 2027 deadlines still fund projects that run for several years. The Commission has proposed the next EU research programme for 2028–2034.

Can a startup apply to several EU calls in the same year?

Yes. You can apply to Women TechEU, Eurostars and the EIC Accelerator in the same year, as long as each programme's rules allow it and no two grants pay for the same costs. Some programmes limit repeat wins, so check each call text.

When does Eurostars Call 12 close?

Eurostars Call 12 closes on 4 March 2027. National agencies say the call opens on 17 December 2026. Your consortium needs at least two independent partners from two Eurostars countries and must be led by an SME.

About the Author

Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.

Violetta Bonenkamp

2026-10-26 11:21