The European Commission is considering the creation of a “fast-track” mechanism that would give selected Horizon Europe projects easy access to the forthcoming European Competitiveness Fund (ECF). According to Ekaterina Zaharieva, the commissioner responsible for start-ups, research and innovation, this would target collaborative research projects in Pillar 2 of Horizon Europe and start-up teams supported by the European Innovation Council (EIC), part of Pillar 3 of Horizon Europe.
“We believe that the most promising projects from the second pillar, and I would add the third pillar, should have [. . .] fast-track access to the next step, the ECF,” she said at the Forum Europa in Brussels on December 5.
Zaharieva suggested that an “accelerator” mechanism in Pillar 3 of the next iteration of Horizon Europe could boost the chances of innovative start-ups scaling up in Europe. At the moment, many fail to reach the commercial stage or end up leaving the EU.
The creation of a funding fast track would be a further example of the close coordination promised between Horizon Europe and the ECF after 2028. The ECF, jointly managed by the Commission directorates for research and industry, is already expected to dictate priorities in Pillar 2 of Horizon Europe.
The Commission was unable to provide further detail of the mechanism that Zaharieva has in mind. It was also news to Ana Barjasic, a member of the EIC board, although she said that it was consistent with current thinking about how the next Horizon Europe would operate. “There is a general principle of complementarity, and it is expected that EIC companies access ECF support as they scale,” she told Science|Business.
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Zaharieva also said that it was important for large, well-established companies to invest in Europe’s start-ups and buy their products and services, enabling them to stay in Europe and grow. Efforts would be made to raise awareness of the technologies on offer from start-ups across Europe, and to encourage other organisations, including governments, to buy from them.
Turning to the Scaleup Europe Fund, due to make its first investments in spring 2026, Zaharieva said that the private sector had already committed €1.5 billion towards the €5-billion target for the fund. She added that another €1 billion would come from the EIC, although “we are not decreasing the funds in the instruments that we have in the EIC.”
The EIC is expected to receive the bulk of the €38.7 billion planned for Pillar 3 of Horizon Europe in the next phase of the programme, nearly three times the present allocation.
Finally, Zaharieva noted that the plan to simplify company creation across the EU, known as the 28th regime, would be accessible to all companies and not just those judged to be innovative, as had been initially suggested.