Proof-of-Concept Co-Financing Instrument

EIT Food facilitates corporate innovation by connecting world-leading industry with impactful agrifood startups. The purpose of the PoC Co-Financing Instrument is to financially de-risk the commercial activities of agrifood startups that will ultimately result in impactful technologies, products, and services reaching the market and scaling further in the food sector.

Usually, the first step towards a long-term collaboration between a startup and a potential corporate customer is a proof-of concept or small-scale pilot project. Once this kind of experiment was deemed successful from both sides, it will ideally lead to a bigger scale pilot project or the start of commercial activities. The extra support that EIT Food can offer at this stage is to financially de-risk startup-corporate experiments in an attempt to promote the commercial success of their solutions.

EIT Food is looking to de-risk startup corporate collaborations. In this context, EIT Food targets proof-of-concepts and small-scale pilot projects between startups and prospective corporate clients with less than €60k in project costs. Proposed projects must exhibit a clear pathway towards commercial success. Project activities should therefore be strictly related to deliver on the proof-of-concept or pilot project proposed together with the corporate client. Example projects include but are not limited to: Sample creation, field trials, functionality and property tests, & efficiency assessments. 
 

There are two cut-off dates for this call:
Cutoff date 1: 31/07/2026
Cutoff date 2: 30/11/2026 (final deadline)

After each of the two cutoff dates, submitted applications will be evaluated by expert panels.