National and international guidelines
Eurostars has an international and national part. Only if you won the international call are you eligible to submit a national application and can you receive the funding. The national application criteria differ per country, to find out your national funding body and their contact details, go to www.eurekanetwork.org/countries/netherlands/ and press change country to select the nation you’re from.
International guidelines
To apply, you must fulfil 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 of one another.*****
- The project consortium is composed of entities from at least two Eurostars countries with at least one organisation coming 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.
Business benefits for participants
- Companies experience an average of 15% annual turnover increase
- 69% of companies enter new markets and 68% achieve improved market shares
- R&D relationships transform into business relationships
- Increased visibility of organisations in their specialist fields
- Eurostars is a competitive programme that sees an average of 29% of project applications receive funding.
*We define an innovative SME as any small and medium-sized enterprise 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.
***Eurostars countries which are not an EU member state or a Horizon Europe Associated Country: Canada, South Korea, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
****If justified, you may be permitted an extension after your project has started. This request will undergo an evaluation to determine whether the extension of the project is duly justified by the participants. It must be approved by the Eureka Secretariat and the relevant national funding bodies.
*****Meaning that neither is under the direct or indirect control of the other or under the same direct or indirect control as the other. For the full definition, please read the guidelines “Eurostars eligibility guidelines”.
