European Startup and Scaleup Hubs pilot

This action builds upon the EU’s strategic vision outlined in the EU Competitiveness Compass, the EIC scaling strategy (the term strategy refers to a set of actions launched under the EIC to support scaleups in particular the EIC STEP Scale Up scheme and the EIC Scaling club), and the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy. It aligns with the objectives of strengthening Europe’s deep tech capabilities, increasing regional innovation cohesion and supporting the growth of globally competitive companies.

While Europe generates world-class research, European deep tech startups often struggle to scale into global champions. The European Startup & Scaleup Hubs (ESSH) pilot will address this structural weakness by creating strong networks of European leading and emerging startup ecosystems that bring together research and higher education institutions, research and technology organisations, corporates, entrepreneurs and investors, while also encouraging these innovation hubs to expand their activities.

The action aims to pilot two networks of around 10-18 ESSHs — highly capable startup and scaleup hubs building on the research strength of leading higher education institutions and research and technology organisations, demonstrating strong track records in venture building, scaling, and investment attraction as well as providing networking opportunities and entrepreneurial education. These hubs shall collaborate across borders to:

1. Better interconnect their innovation ecosystems to support the scaling of deep tech startups through better access to research, talents, corporates, capital, infrastructures, facilities and mentoring.
2. Foster shared infrastructure and expertise, including access to labs, facilities, research departments, and innovation services in particular by enabling the organization of specialised visits amongst ESSHs and short term mobility of researchers, innovators and ESSH staff in the network, to access services from other ESSHs.
3. Set up a highly selective acceleration programme for high performing startups (“European combinator”), also open to companies from non-EU countries. It would be based on a competitive selection process and provide structured development support over a few months to the most promising early-stage startups, including mentoring, networking opportunities and Demo Days where startups can pitch to a large audience of investors to secure funding.
4. Provide networking opportunities through common startups and entrepreneurial dedicated events such as meet ups, pitch days, startup weekends, startup boot camps, hackathons etc.
5. Support the development of both local and network-partner startups, including EIC-supported ventures, especially by directing them toward relevant services (Enterprise Europe Network (EEN), EU industry cluster organisations,  European Digital Innovation Hubs (EDIH), Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) of the European Institute of Innovation and technology (EIT)) and other EU, national, regional or local supporting instruments.
6. Bridge regional gaps by integrating less-connected hubs into the network via mentoring, shared services, and capacity building.

Particular attention should be paid to enable deep tech spinoffs, startups and scaleups accessing resources, services and contacts not directly available in their local innovation hubs to facilitate the expansion of their operations in the single market.

Available budget: €40 million

Online Info session

On 22 October 2026, the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA) and the Directorate-General for Research & Innovation (RTD), are organising an informative webinar about the "European Startup and Scaleup Hubs" call. To find out more, visit https://marine-ireland.ie/events/online-info-session-european-startup-scaleup-hubs-call