Impact Funding Framework

Yes, as long as you meet the eligibility criteria as set out in the guidelines, you do not need to be a member of the EIT Food community to apply for this funding. Please note that one-person legal entities are not eligible to participate in this call. Please note that one -person legal entities are not eligible to participate in this call.

Yes, as per the eligibility criteria, a minimum of two organisations from two eligible countries are required. The two organisations should also be from two different sides of the knowledge triangle (an enterprise plus an education or research partner). ‘Collaborative’ programmes should be collaborative and pan-European in design. Proposals should be aimed at integrating innovation, skills and business creation across whole value chains, responding to one or more of our Mission targets and considering related strategic challenges.

Single projects: Commercial projects can request a maximum EIT grant funding of €1,000,000 over a period of no longer than 18 months initially whereas not-for-profit ones can request €100,000 per project over the same period.

Collaborative programmes: the total programme budget requested from EIT Food can be a contribution of no more than €1,000,000 per year for up to 2 years. This can include programme management costs and also monitoring and evaluation for impact performance.

Collaborative programmes are likely to be multiannual and involve multiple organisations. As such programme budgets should be in line with the size of programme proposed. All proposals are evaluated against a clear set of criteria including Value for Money. The budget must therefore be commensurate with the workplan and proposed outcomes detailed.

The co-funding rate applies at project level. This means that individual organisations may agree within their consortium to provide different levels of co-funding. For some consortia, this may mean that one organisation provides no co-funding at all, while others provide greater than 30%. This is at the discretion of the applying consortium.

EIT Food is a pan-European network of food system changemakers. In addition to funding innovative ideas, we run skills programmes, entrepreneurship mentorship schemes and public engagement programmes.

Collaborative Programme proposals should seek to make the best use of what we already have in place, whether its finding connections between skills and innovation projects along a value-chain, or using our existing business programmes to implement outcomes. Perhaps your programme includes trialling an innovative technology however you have no commercial test bed environment –butwedo. Itcouldbethatyouhavethebasisofasuccessfuleducationprogrammethatcouldbe rolled out across Europe using our course development or online provision expertise. We invite proposals to suggest how you can best use our existing assets and infrastructure to further accelerate outcomes towards impact.

When it comes to consumer engagement, if you would like to collaborate with the Consumer Observatory, you need to reach out to them before submitting your proposal here Consumer Observatory - EIT Food.

No, existing EIT Food programmes like Seedbed, FAN and EIT Food Masters Label programmes are managed outside of this funding framework.

You should be able to identify and detail programme expenditure in your accounts. Eligible expenditure can be allocated towards the 30% co-funding. Full project cost eligibility can be found under the Horizon Europe regulations. Please refer to Article 6 of the Model Grant Agreement and the Annotated Model Grant Agreement.

In this context, by “commercial” we mean projects with outcomes which potentially lead to trading profits via fees, sales or other income to an organisation or organisations funded under the project.

Examples of this may include profit from service fees, licensable or sale -able Intellectual Property or

know-how, product sales, establishing a spin-out vehicle for investment or trading purposes, etc.

Commercial projects also include those with benefit to linked third parties such as group companies and discounted trade between linked parties. All such projects must have a strong commercialisation strategy.

“Not-for-profit” applies where a proposal is aimed primarily at delivering outcomes leading to not- for-profit impacts (those not aimed directly at generating trading profits, income for distribution to shareholders, or similar). These could be social, environmental, health or consumer behaviour interventions, or products, services or learning resources being made available on a verifiable “cost - recovery only” or free at point-of-use basis.

Existing EIT Food consortia can apply for new activities.

If part of your programme includes an activity that produces a commercial return, or creates an equivalent commercial value, such as an equity interest in new businesses, we’ll ask the relevant benefiting partner to give a commitment to share some of that return as a form of reinvestment in our community under our Success Sharing Mechanism. For more guidance on the Success Sharing Mechanism, please see our Success Sharing Mechanism FAQ or to the webinar.

We’ll typically ask for a proportionate share in commercial gains you make. Your application should include a forecast of what that repayment might be.

Where we agree to fund activities generating limited cost-recovery income, we do so on the understanding that in lieu of a share in income on that funding, you must be able to demonstrate significant social return on investment in line with the impact measurement framework in our Strategic Agenda 2021- 27.

As of 1 January 2024, the UK is officially a third country associated to Horizon Europe. Therefore, entities in the United Kingdom are eligible to EIT Food funding. Please refer to Horizon Europe Associate Countries.

The Association Agreement between the European Union and Switzerland is expected to be signed by November 2025.

In this transitional period, Swiss entities are treated as third-party recipients of financial support who are neither from: EU Member State, nor country associated with Horizon Europe, nor country listed as low- to middle-income countries. As such, they can receive up to EUR 60 000 per grant agreement if duly justified. The situation is constantly changing, please reach out to check the latest status.

You are able to submit an improved proposal and should take into consideration the feedback that is provided as part of the evaluation process. The timetable for submission windows is outlined in the Guidelines.

Under the Important Documents section, you can download templates for the application form. Additionally, with the Handbook to Applicants, you have a complete guide to the application form.

General guidance on cost eligibility is included in call guidance. More details can be found in Horizon Europe Annotated Grant Agreement document. For country specific finance and legal questions please feel free to reach out to Horizon Europe National Contact Points.

Recipients of financial support who are neither from: EU Member State, nor country associated with Horizon Europe, nor country listed as low- to middle-income countries in the “List of Participating Countries in Horizon Europe” document can receive up to EUR 60 000 per grant agreement if duly justified.

It is mandatory to use Core EIT KPIs, which you can find here (LINK). The guidelines state that ‘each programme should specify an appropriate choice and volume of the standard EIT Food KPIs to be delivered over the programme duration’. There is no minimum, but selected KPIs should align with the proposal. In Single projects participants should at least declare one of the two core KPIs (Marketed Innovations (EITHE02.4) or Start-ups created of/for innovation (EITHE04.4).

The consortium will receive pre-financing once validation of all consortium members is complete and all contracts are signed. Following payments are dependent on KPI and Deliverables timely reporting.

For more details on the validation and onboarding of consortium members please refer to the Annex 4 of the call guidelines.