EPICENTRE 2nd open call

• October 13, 2023
• Andrew

EPICENTRE is a project funded by the Single Market Programme (SMP), call Joint Cluster Initiatives (Euroclusters) for Europe’s recovery, from the European Commission.

Through these open calls, EPICENTRE envisions to create new cross-sectoral/border value chains by establishing a SMEs – Clusters – Mid-Caps and Corporates in the following areas: ICT, Fintech, Health and Agri-food. It is a program of accompaniment, acceleration, validation, and transfer to the market innovative solutions between SMEs and Mid-Cap and Big Companies (corporates) in 2 calls for proposals.

SMEs and Startups will be invited to submit a project proposal to solve a set of challenges provided by the Corporates from the Health, Agrifood and Digital-Fintech sectors. The applications selected, will enter the EPICENTRE Acceleration program and enrol in the EPICENTRE Academy.

EPICENTRE Acceleration Program is a 3-step funnel acceleration programme divided in the LAUNCH, SUSTAIN and DRIVE phase. Within the program, the beneficiary SME’s projects will receiving training via the EPICENTRE Academy. Each phase looks forward to advancing SMEs projects to achieve at least TRL 8, in collaboration with Corporates and by enhancing their hard and soft skills and competences, with an innovation and entrepreneurship approach.

Eligibility conditions

To be eligible to apply for EPICENTRE Call for Proposals, your company must meet the following requirements:

• Be legally established in an EU Member States or in countries associated to the SMP
• Belong to the value chain of the Health, Agri-food, Digital- ICT and Fintech sectors.
• Be a SME (including startup) according to the EU definition

Number of funded projects (per phase):

• LAUNCH PHASE: 25 SMEs-projects selected
• SUSTAIN PHASE: 13 SMEs-projects selected
• DRIVE PHASE: 3 SMEs-projects selected

Information about the call: 

Opening date:4th October 2023
Deadline: 5th December 2023 (17h CET)
Result publication: January 2024
Maximum funding support per SMEs project (all the 3 phases): 

• 42.400 – EPICENTRE Acceleration Program
• 6.850 – EPICENTRE Academy
• 49.250 – Total