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Eurostars: funding international SME R&D.

Eurostars 3 funds international collaborative R&D projects led by innovative SMEs. It is bottom-up and open to any civilian technology field, and each partner is funded by its own national funding body, with German partners receiving up to EUR 500,000 per project.

At a glance

Part of the Eureka Network, co-funded by the EU through Horizon Europe as the European Partnership on Innovative SMEs.
Funds transnational, market-driven R&D projects led by an innovative SME.
No thematic priorities: open to any civilian technology field, from medtech to cleantech to software.
37 participating countries; programme budget EUR 1.6 billion for 2021 to 2027.
Each partner is funded nationally; German partners together receive a maximum of EUR 500,000 per project, at national rates.
Two calls per year with fixed deadlines; average project budget around EUR 1.5 million.
Competitive: roughly 500 applications per call, around 100 funded.

1. What is Eurostars 3?

The programme's place in the European funding system and what makes it distinctive.

Eurostars is the largest international R&D funding initiative led by innovative SMEs. It sits within the Eureka Network and is co-funded by the European Union through Horizon Europe. Its defining feature is that it is fully bottom-up: there are no predefined themes or challenges, so SMEs from any civilian sector can apply with their own project idea. Funding is decentralised, meaning each participant is paid by its own national funding body according to national rules, while the project as a whole is evaluated centrally and transparently.

2. What it funds

The kind of project and maturity stage that fits.

Eurostars funds collaborative, market-driven R&D and innovation projects aimed at products, processes, or services that can be commercialised quickly. Projects typically run from proof of concept through to a validated prototype or pilot, and market entry is expected within about two years after the project ends. Only project costs directly related to R&D are eligible, and only civilian applications qualify.

3. Eligibility criteria

The seven conditions a consortium must meet, which are checked strictly.

A project application must satisfy seven criteria:

The consortium is led by an innovative SME from a Eurostars country.
It is composed of at least two independent entities from at least two Eurostars countries, with at least one organisation from an EU or Horizon Europe associated country.
The combined budget of the SMEs from participating countries, excluding subcontracting, is at least 50 percent of the total project cost.
No single participant or country accounts for more than 70 percent of the budget.
The project lasts no more than 36 months.
The project has an exclusive focus on civilian applications.
A central, transparent evaluation selects the projects.

The consortium may also include large companies, universities, and research organisations alongside the leading SME. Fully self-funded consortia are not eligible: at least one partner must receive national public funding.

4. How much you get

How funding is decided nationally and the German ceiling.

Funding is national, so the rate depends on the country and the type of organisation. The German share is capped: German project partners together receive a maximum of EUR 500,000 in funding per project, at the national funding rate. Because each country sets its own rules and budget, partners should check their own national funding body's conditions, and in some calls individual countries make no budget available, meaning their partners can only participate on a self-financing basis.

5. Calls and how to apply

The two-call rhythm, the platform, and the two-part application logic.

There are two calls per year with fixed deadlines, submitted electronically through the Eureka project platform (myeurekaproject.org). The application has two parts: the international proposal must first be approved in the central evaluation, after which each partner requests national funding from its own authority. From the submission deadline to the project start it takes roughly seven months. The process is competitive, so an early start and a well-prepared, clearly commercialisable proposal matter.

6. Notes

When Eurostars is the right tool and how it relates to other instruments.

Eurostars is the natural choice when an SME wants to run an international R&D collaboration and is comfortable with a competitive, deadline-driven process. For purely national projects, ZIM (which also has an international cooperation route) or the Forschungszulage are usually simpler. As with all grants, Eurostars funding cannot be used to fund the same costs that another instrument, including the Forschungszulage, already covers.

7. Central rules versus national funding

Eurostars is one programme with two layers, and getting them straight is the key to a clean application.

The central layer (run by the Eureka Secretariat for all countries) sets who may be in the consortium and how the project is judged: an SME-led consortium of at least two partners from at least two participating countries, with SMEs carrying at least 50% of the project costs and no single partner or country above 70%, a civil-purpose R&D project of up to 36 months, and a route to market within about two years. The national layer decides the money: each partner is funded by its own country, against its own eligible-cost rules and rate. For German participants, funding comes from the BMBF through the project agency at the national rate, and it is paid as a non-repayable grant. The consequence is important: the consortium must satisfy the central rules and every partner must be fundable in its own country, or the project stalls regardless of how strong the idea is.

8. Eligible and ineligible costs (Germany)

What Germany funds is R&D up to a prototype, and the boundary is where many budgets go wrong.

Eligible for German participants are the R&D costs of the project up to TRL 6 (a demonstrated prototype): the project personnel, project-related equipment and material, and defined subcontracting, built up on the national cost basis with an overhead treatment. Ineligible is everything beyond that boundary: development to series or market readiness, marketing strategies and activities, business-plan writing, routine work without research character, and anything committed before the application is admissible. Because the German line funds research and not the run to market, a budget that quietly includes go-to-market costs will be trimmed, so the scope has to be drawn at the prototype.

9. How it's evaluated

One central evaluation produces one ranking that every country uses, which is unusual and worth understanding.

Unlike a national programme where the funder evaluates, Eurostars is assessed centrally: independent international experts score each proposal once, and the result is a single ranking list used by all participating countries. Proposals are judged on the quality and innovation of the R&D, the strength of the market case and commercialisation plan, and the balance and capability of the consortium. Scores above the threshold are ranked, and funding follows the ranking until each cut-off's budget is exhausted, so a proposal must not only pass but rank well. The cut-offs are the binding dates; the German national funding step is a fast follow-on once your project is selected centrally.

10. Common mistakes

The errors that most often sink a Eurostars application, almost all of them structural.

A non-compliant consortium: missing the SME lead, the two-country rule, the EU/Associated requirement, the SME-at-least-50% share or the 70% cap, any one of which means rejection before evaluation.
A partner that cannot be funded in its own country, which leaves a hole in the project even if the proposal scores well.
Budgeting beyond TRL 6 on the German side, mixing market-readiness and marketing costs into an R&D budget.
Treating it as non-competitive: meeting the rules is necessary but not sufficient, the ranking decides.
Underestimating the two-stage nature, and missing the fast national follow-on after central selection.

11. The timeline, end to end

The binding dates are the two annual central cut-offs; the German national step is a fast follow-on.

Shape the project and consortium (weeks to months), build a compliant consortium and check every partner's national funding and budget.
Prepare the international application (weeks), draft the proposal, work plan and budget, with German costs via the DLR cost tool.
Submit centrally by the cut-off, one international application via the Eureka platform.
Central evaluation and ranking (about three months), three experts assess and an Independent Expert Panel produces the ranking binding for all countries.
National application in Germany (within two weeks of the invitation), ranked partners submit to DLR-PT via easy-Online, with a German summary and exploitation plan.
Decision, grant and start, on approval the grant is issued, the project starts afterwards and runs up to 36 months, with results to market within two years.

There are two cut-offs a year; missing one means waiting for the next, and there is no legal entitlement to funding.

12. What to prepare

Two stages, two document sets. The central proposal is the competitive document; the German national application is a fast, focused follow-on.

Stage 1, the international application (Eureka platform): the project proposal (objectives, innovation and R&D content, work plan, consortium roles, budget and route to market within two years); the consortium and budget data demonstrating the central rules; the German cost calculation prepared with the DLR online cost tool; and self-funding declarations for any partner not nationally funded.

Stage 2, the German national application (DLR-PT, via easy-Online, within two weeks): the easy-Online application (AZK/AZA); a German summary of the sub-project with its work packages; an exploitation plan (Verwertungsplan); and the SME self-classification with evidence of a German establishment.

13. Industry examples

Eurostars is technology-open, funding R&D in any civil field, so the range follows the consortium's idea, not a sector list. These are illustrative project shapes, not named beneficiaries.

A German software SME building an AI-driven product with a partner in another Eurostars country.
A medical-technology SME developing a device with a research partner; with a German SME in the consortium, the research partner can be funded up to 100% in Germany.
A clean-tech SME developing an energy or environmental technology to a prototype with an international partner.
A materials or manufacturing SME developing a new process with a complementary partner abroad.
A photonics or quantum SME collaborating across borders on a deep-tech component.
An agri-food or biotech SME developing a new product for European and global markets.

The common thread is the Eurostars logic: an innovative SME leading a cross-border, market-oriented R&D project to a prototype, with results to market within two years. A purely national, non-civil, or beyond-TRL-6 project points instead to a national programme such as ZIM or KMU-innovativ.