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1. The Accelerator shall aim to support essentially market-creating innovation. It shall support only single beneficiaries and shall mainly provide blended finance. Under certain conditions, it may also provide grant-only and equity-only supports. The Accelerator shall provide the following types of support:

(a) blended finance support to SMEs, including start-ups, and, in exceptional cases, small mid-caps, carrying out breakthrough and disruptive non-bankable innovation;

(b) a grant-only support to SMEs, including start-ups, carrying out any type of innovation ranging from incremental to breakthrough and disruptive innovation and aiming to subsequently scale-up;

(c) equity-only support to non-bankable SMEs, including start-ups, carrying out breakthrough and disruptive non-bankable innovation may also be provided;

(d) equity-only support required for scale-up to non-bankable SMEs, including start-ups, and non-bankable small mid-caps, including entities which have already received support in line with points (a) to (c), carrying out breakthrough and disruptive non-bankable innovation in the critical technologies referred to in Article 2(1)(a) of Regulation (EU) 2024/795 of the European Parliament and of the Council (). Grant-only support under the Accelerator shall be provided only under the following cumulative conditions:

(a) the project shall include information on the capacities and willingness of the applicant to scale-up;

(b) the beneficiary shall be a start-up or an SME;

(c) a grant-only support under the Accelerator shall be provided only once to a beneficiary during the period of implementation of the Programme for a maximum of EUR 2,5 million.

When providing equity support, the EIC shall strive to crowd-in other investors. However, in order to effectively support non-bankable innovation, equity support can be provided without crowding-in other investors, particularly for but not limited to breakthrough and disruptive non-bankable innovation in the technologies referred to in Article 2(1), point (a), of Regulation (EU) 2024/795.

2. The beneficiary of the Accelerator shall be a legal entity qualifying as a start-up, an SME or in exceptional cases as a small mid-cap intending to scale up, established in a Member State or associated country. The proposal may be submitted either by the beneficiary or, subject to the prior agreement by the beneficiary, by one or more natural persons or legal entities intending to establish or support that beneficiary. In the latter case, the funding agreement shall be signed only with the beneficiary.

3. A single award decision shall cover and provide funding for all forms of Union contribution provided under EIC blended finance.

4. Proposals shall be evaluated on their individual merits by independent external experts and selected for funding through an open call for proposals with cut-off dates, based on Articles 27, 28 and 29, subject to paragraph 5 of this Article.

5. The proposals submitted shall be evaluated on the basis of the following award criteria:

(a) excellence;

(b) impact;

(c) the level of risk of the action that would prevent investments, the quality and efficiency of the implementation, and the need for Union support.

6. With the agreement of the applicants concerned, the Commission or the funding bodies implementing the Programme (including the EIT's KICs) may directly submit for evaluation under the award criterion referred to in point (c) of paragraph 5 a proposal for an innovation and market deployment action which already fulfils the award criteria referred to in points (a) and (b) of paragraph 5, subject to the following cumulative conditions:

(a) the proposal shall stem from any other action funded under Horizon 2020, from the Programme or, subject to an exploratory pilot phase to be launched under the first work programme, from national and/or regional programmes, starting with the mapping of the demand for such a scheme, detailed provisions of which shall be laid down in the specific programme referred to in point (a) of Article 1(2);

(b) the proposal is based on a project review which was carried out within the previous two years assessing the excellence and the impact of the proposal and subject to conditions and processes further detailed in the work programme.

7. A Seal of Excellence may be awarded subject to the following cumulative conditions:

(a) the beneficiary is a start-up, an SME or a small mid-cap;

(b) the proposal was eligible and has passed the applicable thresholds for the award criteria referred to in points (a) and (b) of paragraph 5;

(c) the activity would be eligible under an innovation action.

8. For a proposal having passed the evaluation, independent external experts shall propose a corresponding Accelerator support, based on the risk incurred and the resources and time necessary to bring and deploy the innovation to the market. The Commission may reject, for justified reasons, a proposal retained by independent external experts, including due to non-compliance with the objectives of Union policies. The Programme Committee shall be informed of the reasons for such a rejection.

9. The grant or the reimbursable advance component of the Accelerator support shall not exceed 70 % of the total eligible costs of the selected innovation action.

10. The conditions for implementation of the equity and the repayable support components of the Accelerator support are set out in Decision (EU) 2021/764

11. The contract for the selected action shall establish specific measurable milestones and the corresponding pre-financing and payments by instalments of the Accelerator support. In the case of EIC blended finance, activities corresponding to an innovation action may be launched and the first pre-financing of the grant or the reimbursable advance paid, prior to the implementation of other components of the awarded EIC blended finance. The implementation of those components shall be subject to reaching specific milestones established in the contract.

12. In accordance with the contract, the action shall be suspended, amended or, if duly justified, terminated if measurable milestones are not reached. It may also be terminated where the expected market deployment, especially in the Union, cannot be met. In exceptional cases and upon advice by the EIC board, the Commission may decide to increase the Accelerator support subject to a project review by independent external experts. The Programme Committee shall be informed of such cases.