EPIC-X is a European acceleration initiative designed to empower women-led deep-tech startups to grow, connect, and scale across Europe. Funded by the European Union under the Horizon Europe European Innovation Ecosystems (EIE) programme, EPIC-X focuses on 16 moderate and emerging innovator countries, helping close the innovation gap and strengthen regional excellence.

This Open Call will provide equity-free Lump Sum Grants to selected startups. Each selected company will receive a €60,000 grant to strengthen its business strategy, accelerate market growth, and enhance its innovation capacity within the six-month Acceleration+ Programme. This includes €20,000 dedicated to 15-20 days for personalised business coaching.

This is the only open call to be implemented within the project’s duration, supporting a total of 20 women-led startups across the 16 moderate and emerging innovator countries (as defined in the 2023 European Innovation Scoreboard).  

SUBMISSION: 

The Application form consists of a single document to be completed and submitted by each applicant. It must include administrative information about the applicant, a description of the proposed project or action (aligned with the evaluation criteria), an Ethics Self-Assessment, formal declarations, and a projected budget. In addition, applicants are required to upload a 2-minute pitch video and the supporting documents to the verification of the eligibility of the applicant, namely:  

1. Annex 1: Legal Entity Form and official related supporting documents 
2. Annex 2: Women’s leadership declaration and description of the leadership structure 
3. Annex 3: Business coaching plan  
4. Annex 4: Market fit or/and investment documents 
5. Annex 5 (found within the last section of the online application form): Declaration of Honour 

Important to note when submitting your application, it must:  

1. be submitted by January 5, 2026 at 17:00 CET  
2. be submitted electronically – paper or emails submissions are not accepted – through the EU Survey Link  
3. be submitted in English  
4. respect the number of characters, as indicated in each section of the Application form  
5. be submitted by an eligible applicant (review section 2.2 of the full Open Call Guidelines).  

Note: Applicants are allowed to submit multiple proposals for different projects under this call. However, it is important to note that only one proposal can be awarded funding, as the maximum grant limit of EUR 60,000 per third party/beneficiary applies under the Financial Support to Third Parties mechanism. If there are several proposals for very similar projects, only one application will be accepted and evaluated; the applicants will be asked to withdraw one of them (or it will be rejected). 

EVALUATION & SELECTION: 

All submitted applications will be assessed through a clear, fair, and transparent evaluation process, based on predefined criteria aligned with the objectives of the EPIC-X project. The evaluation and selection process will adhere to EU standards of transparency, equal treatment, conflict of interest and confidentiality.  

All applications will go through the following steps: 

Step A: Administrative & Eligibility Check  

The EPIC-X Consortium will complete the Administrative and Eligibility Check. Only those applications that meet all requirements outlined above will pass to Step B. 

Step B: Evaluation of Eligible Projects 

All admissible and eligible applications will be evaluated by a panel of jury members, made up by consortium partners and the ecosystem builder representing the applicant's respective country. Each application will be assessed by four jury members following a two-stage process, first reviewing the summary and pitch-video, and then the full application dossier. To uphold the integrity of the evaluation, all jurors are required to sign a declaration of confidentiality and absence of conflict of interest, and must adhere to strict standards of impartiality, transparency, and fairness throughout the process. Any juror with direct or indirect interest in an application will be excluded from evaluation of that proposal. The evaluation will be based on a two-stage approach: 

B.1. Stage 1 – Relevancy Pre-Screening  

Jury pairs will assess the summary section and the 2-minute pitch video of each application. This assessment will be conducted on a scale from 0 to 10 points, reflecting the degree of relevancy alignment with the objectives of EPIC-X and the Open Call.  

Only proposals that achieve an average score equal to or above the threshold of 5 points will move forward. From these, a maximum of the 15 highest-ranking proposals per country will be shortlisted to proceed to stage B.2 Stage 2 – In-Depth Full Application and Evaluation.  

B.2. Stage 2 – In-Depth Full Application Evaluation  

Each juror will conduct an in-depth full application evaluation. The Evaluation will be based on a 100-point score considering the following criteria and weighting as per full Open Call Guidelines (insert link) 

Step C: Ranking and Selection  

A Ranking Meeting will be held with all jurors. During this meeting, the numerical rankings will be presented, based on the outcomes of the Stage 2 – In-Depth Full Application Evaluation plus the awarding of bonus points. Applicants will receive 5 bonus points if they can demonstrate prior recognition as a scale-up or innovator within key EU or national programmes. Specifically, if they have been identified as a scale-up in Horizon Europe (e.g., through the EIC Scaleup 100 or EIT-supported companies), are part of the Digital Europe Programme (e.g., through European Digital Innovation Hubs), or have received funding from national programmes, particularly those certified under the “Plug-in” schemes.  

Based on the final scores, a ranking list will be established. The top-ranked application in each of the 16 eligible countries will be awarded. In addition, the four highest-scoring proposals across all 16 countries will also receive funding, respecting a maximum limit of three awarded beneficiaries per country. This ranking process ensures a fair, transparent, and balanced distribution of support, promoting geographical diversity and excellence across all participating regions.  

In the event of a tie in the final scores, the following criteria will be applied sequentially to determine the final ranking:  

1. Final score in the C.1 Quality and Feasibility of the Work Plan  
2. Final score in the A.1 Relevance to the EPIC-X Scope  
3. Final score in the B.1 Impact on Growth, Market Positioning and Sustainability