All you need to know about EU funding

Although Norway is not a member of the EU, it has harmonized its laws and regulations with those of the Union in many areas. Norwegian R&D is also closely intertwined with the EU, as Norway is a part of the Union's many innovation and funding programs.

For companies, academics, and other institutions in the life science, health tech, and cancer sectors, EU grants are important. 

The essentials of EU funding

We sat down with EU advisors Sergio Ferreira from Norway Health Tech and Marine Jeanmougin from Oslo Cancer Cluster to dissect the essentials in EU funding. Here’s what we found:  

Even though there’s fun in funding, without doing the proper groundwork, applying for EU grants can just as easily be a painful experience, and what EU advisor Sergio Ferreira calls HARDCORE applications (Highly Appreciated but Rejected Despite Continuous Resubmitting). 

EU grants are doubtlessly high threshold opportunities, so going into the application process will always be demanding. Remember that there are no shortcuts; the only way to the finish line is through hard, targeted, and persistent work, which means what could look like shortcuts are more likely to be short circuits. 

However, keep in mind that Norway is punching above its weight and doing better than the average EU country, thanks to the great support available. So even though EU funding applications can be daunting, it's well worth the effort if you build a strong case and have solid partners in place. 

Two basic principles 

The different EU instruments are based on two basic principles: market failure and additionality.

EU funding to address market failure or sub-optimal investment situations is aimed at niches with high impact or high societal need. Additionality means that EU funding should de-risk projects, crowd in private capital, or make a project happen faster or at a larger scale than the market can do on its own. 

Are you a member of Oslo Cancer Cluster and have questions about EU funding? Please contact Marine Jeanmougin, Lead EU Affairs & Digital Innovation.

Technology readiness levels 

There are a lot of soft funding instruments, operating at different stages in a development cycle. They become relevant when a company is entering a certain technology readiness level based on the TRL scale, a measurement of technological or conceptual maturity. The scale goes from 0 to 9, ranging from an idea on paper to something deployed in the real world.

Read more about the TRL scale at the Euraxess webpage.

Planning a great application 

How do you navigate the available instruments? It all starts with your strategy, the impact you want to make, and how you plan to go from idea to market and hopefully world dominance.

These are the steps our EU advisors suggest you take: 

• Define your strategic policy driver: Clarify the societal challenge you are addressing. 
• Map out your strategic  R&D path: Map out the EU grants as an integral part of your long-term strategy, and include private funding and other options in your mapping. 
• Stay on the lookout for funding possibilities: Use your network and community advisors to better understand funding possibilities.  
• Connect with strategic partners in research and business: most EU funding schemes demand cross-border collaboration with partners in at least three EU or Associated countries (read more about associated countries here: https://eufunds.me/what-are-associated-countries-in-horizon-europe/). Place your solution in the value chain and identify and nurture key partners early on. 
• Connect with advisors: Identify the right advisors to help you throughout the process (Innovation Norway, The Research Council, Clusters, etc.). 
• Write a great application! Easier said than done, we know. But try to make your application clear, consistent, and attractive.  

How the application is evaluated 

All proposals are evaluated by a set of criteria: excellence, impact, qualit,y and efficiency of implementation.  

Before anyone reads your application, the Commission checks whether you and your project are even allowed to apply and meet the basic criteria on which the schemes are based. This is the eligibility step. 

Excellence means that the proposal must address the objectives and priorities in the call text with a disruptive solution. Furthermore, the problem tackled must be well-defined, and the approach and methodology must be sound and innovative. 

Impact points to what changes or benefits the project outcomes will create: policy, economic, societal, health, environmental, etc. This criterion is being given more significance, aiming at increasing market and economic development.  

Efficiency of implementation boils down to: Is your project the best use of EU funds, and are you the best team to carry it out? Is there a credible plan for uptake, exploitation, dissemination, communication, and sustainability of results after the funding ends? It’s all about the process 

Your application will be evaluated in five steps: 

• Step 1. Admissibility and eligibility check
• Step 2. Individual evaluation by several experts (minimum three)
• Step 3. Consensus group: experts discuss to agree on a common standard, including comments and scores for each proposal
• Step 4. Panel review: The expert panel reaches an agreement on the scores and comments for all proposals within a call, checking consistency across evaluations
• Step 5. The Commission/Agency reviews the results of the experts’ evaluation and puts together the final ranking list

EU programs to consider 

Here are examples of EU instruments, sorted by TRLs, that are relevant for the health and life science companies. For more information about programs, contact your cluster, and we will guide you through the process.  

• EIC Pathfinder (TRL 1-3): Taking forward breakthrough deep tech projects with a high degree of scientific and technological ambition and risk and potential to create a new market (TRL 1-4).
• Horizon Europe - RIA (TRL 3-6): Funds research and innovation action (RIA) that establishes new knowledge and/or explores a new or improved technology, product, process, service, or solution.
• Women Tech EU (TRL 3-6): Grants to support women-led deep tech companies, accompanied by business support services to each grantee. Read more at WomenTechEU.
• Innovative Health Initiative (TRL 4-7): Funds projects that will address public health needs, improve patients' lives, and boost the competitiveness of Europe's health industries.
• Eurostars (TRL 5-7): Funds Norwegian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and co-developers that carry out research and development may seek funding for R&D projects.
• EIC Accelerator (TRL 6- 9): Funds to develop and scale-up innovations with the potential to create or disrupt markets (TRL 6-8).
• Horizon Europe - IA (TRL 6-9): Innovation Actions (IA) fund activities close to market, i.e., later-stage innovation. Typical IA activities (from the official definition) are prototyping, testing, demonstration, piloting, large-scale product validation, and market replication.