Women Tech.EU initiative
Women Tech.EU initiative · HORIZON-CSA · Needs partners
What this call funds
This call funds a single consortium to run the Women TechEU initiative, a program that gives small grants to early stage women led deep tech startups across Europe. The consortium itself will manage calls, evaluate applicants, hand out funding to selected startups, and connect them with mentoring, networking and the wider EIC community. Most of the money must flow straight through to the startups as third party grants, not be spent by the consortium itself.
deep tech · sme scaleup · gender equality · social innovation
Who wins this
A consortium experienced in running startup support schemes across Europe, able to organise multiple calls per year, evaluate applicants, and distribute grants to women led deep tech startups while providing promotion, mentoring links and reporting to the European Commission.
Could you win this call?
Only the website is required.
The call in detail
- Funding model
- Budget-based. Reimbursement of actual eligible costs
- Submission
- Single-stage submission (full proposal at once)
- Cut-off dates (4)
- 16 Sep 2026 · 14 Jan 2027 · 1 Apr 2027 · 8 Jul 2027
- Partners
- Required. The call asks for a consortium: a group applying together, typically 3+ organisations from 3+ countries.
- Support to third parties
- At least 75% of the total proposed budget must be allocated to financial support to third parties, with a maximum of EUR 75,000 granted to each third party startup.
- Also required
- Only one project will be funded under this call, the consortium must run at least two calls for proposals per year for two years with a possible one year extension, and third party startups must be early stage deep tech companies founded or co-founded by a woman in a top management position, registered in an EU Member State or Associated Country for at least six months.
- Eligible countries (45)
- Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Israel, Türkiye, Ukraine, Serbia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Georgia, Armenia, Moldova, Tunisia, New Zealand
Read the full conditions from the official call ›
General conditions 1. Admissibility Conditions: Proposal page limit and layout are described in Annex 2 (A. Admissibility) of the EIC Work Programme 2025. Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System. 2. Eligible Countries are described in Annex 2 (B. Eligibility) of the EIC Work Programme 2025. 3. Other Eligible Conditions are described in Annex 2 (General conditions for proposals) of the EIC Work Programme 2025. 4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion described in Annex 2 (C. Financial and Operational Capacity) of the EIC Work Programme 2025. 5a. Evaluation and award: Award criteria, scoring and thresholds are described in Annex 2 (D. Award criteria) of the EIC Work Programme 2025. 5b. Evaluation and award: Submission and evaluation processes are described in Annex 2 (F. Procedure) of the EIC Work Programme 2025. 5c. Evaluation and award: Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement are described in are described in Annex 2 (F and G) of the EIC Work Programme 2025. The granting authority can fund a maximum of one project. 6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants are described in Annex 2 (G.Legal and financial set-up of the grant agreements) of the EIC Work Programme 2025. The consortium will provide financial support to the third parties in form of grants. The consortium must allocate at least 75% of the total proposed budget to financial support to third parties. The maximum amount to be granted to each third party is EUR 75 000. The grants aim to finance supporting activities of the selected companies such as evaluating and refining products/services, design, user experience, upgrading the business model, updating the business plan and growth strategy, finding partners and investors, market validation, etc. Specific conditions FINANCIAL SUPPORT TO THIRD PARTIES Where the specific call/topic conditions allow for financial support to third parties, the applicants must clearly describe in their proposal the objectives and the expected results, including the elements listed in the application template. The following conditions must also be fulfilled: projects must publish their open calls widely and adhere to EU standards of transparency, equal treatment, conflict of interest and confidentiality; all calls for third parties and all calls that are implemented by third parties must be published on the Funding & Tenders Portal, and on the beneficiaries’ websites; the calls must remain open for at least 2 months; if submission deadlines are changed, this must immediately be announced and registered applicants must be informed of the change; projects must publish the outcome of the calls without delay, including a description of third-party projects, the date of the award, the duration, and the legal name of the third party and country of establishment; the calls must have a clear European dimension. EIC Work Programme 2025