Evaluation and decision

Formal requirements for your application

In a first step, the Eureka Secretariat and the national funding agencies check whether your application meets the formal requirements:

• Your consortium is led by an innovative SME from a Eurostars country.
• Your consortium includes at least two independent organisations.
• Your consortium includes organisations from at least two Eurostars countries, with at least one organisation from an EU country or from a country associated with Horizon Europe.
• The budget of the SME or SMEs from a Eurostars country contributes 50% or more of the total project costs, excluding subcontracting.
• No single participant or country is responsible for more than 70% of the project budget.
• The project duration is 36 months or less.
• The project has an exclusively civilian purpose.
• None of the project partners is involved in pending bankruptcy proceedings, is insolvent or has been convicted of illegal practices.

Content-related criteria for evaluating your application

• Quality of the consortium
• Added value through international cooperation
• Innovation content compared with the current state of the art
• Contribution to improving knowledge
• Level of technical challenge
• Achievability of the objectives set and appropriate risk reduction strategy
• Feasible and clearly defined project management
• Appropriate and rational cost structure
• Realistic market potential and commercial impact
• Market access and risks
• Expected competitive advantage
• Clear and realistic planning of market launch

Decision by the evaluation panel and participating countries

Based on the evaluation of form and content, an independent evaluation panel draws up a ranking list of all applications submitted. The highest-ranked applications will be funded with the highest priority. Applications below a certain score will be rejected.

Once the ranking list has been approved by the participating countries, the process begins for synchronising funding. Each country has a reserved funding budget for Eurostars and allocates this to the applications that received a positive evaluation. If the number of positively evaluated applications exceeds the available budget, the countries will check whether the funding budget can be increased. Approved applications that cannot be funded by the countries will be rejected, unless the partners decide to cover the full costs of the project themselves.

If your application is approved

As a project partner, you will receive the evaluation results from the Eureka Secretariat by e-mail. Once the funding has been synchronised, the Eureka Secretariat will rule on the approval or rejection of applications by e-mail.

After the Eureka Secretariat has communicated the evaluation results, Swiss applicants with an approved application will be contacted by Innosuisse and invited to take part in contract negotiations.

If your application is rejected

You have two options: you can revise and resubmit your application, or you can object to the evaluation decision. As an applicant, you will be sent all the evaluation documents, which you can then use to revise your application before resubmitting it.

Objecting to the evaluation
The project lead for a rejected application may submit an appeal to the Eureka Secretariat within one month of being notified of the rejection. You may only object to procedural errors. The evaluation performed by the external experts or by the independent evaluation panel is not open to appeal, neither is the evaluation resulting from the initial financial viability assessment by the national funding bodies.

Appeals must be sent in writing and by registered mail to the following address:
Eurostars Redress Committee
Eureka Association
Avenue de Tervuren 2
1040 Brussels
BELGIUM

Only one appeal may be filed per application. The guidelines for submitting an appeal can be found on the Eurostars website.