General terms and conditions for the EUopSTART Horizon Europe Call 2026
The purpose of EUopSTART is to itensify the participation of Danish companies and Research Organizations in European research and innovation. That is why EUopSTART offers grants to fund Danish companies and Research organizations’ preparatory activities in drawing up applications for Horizon Europe.
In 2026, there are four application deadlines/cut-offs:
Please note: You can only apply for EUopSTART when the workprogramme or call date has been published or pre-published by the European Commission.
During 2026, you can apply for funding from EUopSTART for calls with an application deadline no later than 31 December 2027.
You can apply for funding from EUopSTART once the final work programme has been published (or, for calls without a work programme, once the call deadline has been announced), or when the EU has pre‑published a draft work programme on the Funding and Tenders Portal and the Agency for Higher Education and Science has opened for EUopSTART applications via a link on this site.
If you apply for EUopSTART for the second stage of a two-stage proposal, you can only apply for EUopSTART if you have been invited for stage 2. Documentation for invitation to stage 2 can be attached to the application.
After each cut-off the Agency for Higher Education and Science will process the applications which have been received since the last cut-off date.
The Agency will perform an individual, qualitative evaluation of all applications, see the evaluation criteria in section 3.2. Grants will be awarded to those applications which the Agency assess as best meeting the criteria. Unsuccessful applications may be resubmitted before the subsequent cut-off date.
In order to be eligbile for a grant, applications must meet the requirements described in the following subsections.
EUopSTART provides funding for project coordinators, partners in project consortia’s and mono-beneficiaries who are preparing a project proposal for Horizon Europe.
Companies and research organizations (GTS) can apply for EUopSTART funding. It is not possible to apply for EUopSTART on the behalf of other organizations. Applications submitted by third parties will not be processed.
EUopSTART grants are given to applicants based in Denmark. It is the organization, not the individual researcher or employee, who receives funding from EUopSTART.
It is only the individual researcher or employee from the potential grant receiver, who can function as contact person and send the application. Applications submitted by third parties or where third parties are the contact person, will not be processed.
Companies will receive funding from EUopSTART in accordance with the de minimis regulation on state aid (Commission Regulation (EU) nr. 2023/2831 of 13 December 2023 in the application of Articles 107 and 108 in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union to de minimis aid – the general de minimis regulation).
The de minimis regulation means that a company that applies for funding over a period of three years is permitted to have received a maximum of EUR 300,000 in state aid. Please note there are specific de minimis regulations for companies in the agriculture sector (*) as well as fishery and aquaculture sector (**).
The company must be able to document that the maximum amount has not been exceeded at the time of application. This must be documented by signing a State Aid de Minimis Declaration. The declaration is provided below as well as in the electronic application form. The declaration must be signed and submitted with the application form. It is the company’s responsibility to inform the Agency of any changes to the declaration from the time of application until the time of award.
Template for the de minimis declaration:
EUopSTART: De minimis-declaration
Only companies that meet the EU criteria for being an SME are eligible to receive EUopSTART funding for preparing applications for the EIC Accelerator and for Eurostar.
You can find the SME definition on the website of the European Commission.
Eligible companies must:
Please note: Companies can only submit max. 1 application to EUopSTART per cut-off.
For the EIC Accelerator, you may only apply for a grant for step two of the instrument. Grants are not awarded for preparing an application for step one. Therefore, you can only submit your application to EUopSTART once you are approved to apply for step two. Applicants for the EIC Accerlator must attach documentation of approval for step two (e.g. e-mail or screen dump) to their application to EUopSTART.
You cannot apply for a grant to prepare an EIC Accelerator step 1 application.
You can apply for EUopSTART funding for writing your proposal for a large number of Horizon Europe sub-programmes, including calls for partnerships and missions (see section 2). However, only calls where the funds are made subject to competition are eligible.
The amount of the grant depends on the activity for which the grant is requested.
Specific rules apply to applications for EU projects following the two-stage procedure: if you are the coordinator of the consortium, you can apply for DKK 75,000 for stage one. The grant amount for stage 2 is the same as above. Specific rules apply for applicants to EIC and ERC, see section 1.5 and 3.1.
Please see the table in section 2 for specific grant amounts for the different programmes.
Top-up grants may not be applied for subsequently, and grants will not be awarded retroactively. You may therefore not apply for funding for activites which you have undertaken in advance of your application for EUopSTART funding.
The grant period must be at least 30 calendar days. It starts on the date of submission of the application to EUopSTART and ends no later than the deadline for submitting the application to the selected Horizon Europe sub-programme.
Expenses falling outside of the grant period will not be covered by the EUopSTART grant.
Please note: You must submit you application to EUopSTART no later than 30 calendar days before your EU deadline.
You may apply for funding to cover eligible expenses defrayed during the grant period, and which are relevant and necessary, and relate directly to preparation of the application.
For all types of applications, you can apply for funding to cover:
Please note: An EUopSTART grant may not be used to fund research activities.
You can apply for funding to cover up to 50% of your expenses. The maximum amount is shown in the table in section 2. The payroll costs must be calculated using a set hourly rate of DKK 600/hour. No subsidy is provided to cover overhead costs. The expenses must be itemised exclusive of VAT.
If you have expenses for external assistance, you must, as part of the application, upload an invoice for the external assistance.
Self-financing may consist of either cash or the value of staff hours (based on DKK 600/hour) contributed to the EUopSTART project.
There are some restrictions:
The Danish Agency for Higher Education and Sciences “Terms and conditions for grants” apply to the disbursement, use and administration of all grants. You can always find the current version on the Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science’s website:
The Agency’s terms and conditions for grants
The following table provides an overview of the sub-programmes covered by EUopSTART, the different funding opportunities and the corresponding maximum grant amounts. Programmes and Horizon Europe sub-programmes that are not mentioned here, are not covered by EUopSTART.
|
Instrument/application type |
Grant amount in DKK per partner |
Grant amount in DKK per coordinator |
|
Horizon Europe, Pillar I: Scientific excellence |
||
|
Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions |
DKK 75,000 |
DKK 150,000 |
|
European Research Council (ERC) Synergy Grant |
75.000 kr. |
75.000 kr. |
|
COST |
0 kr. |
75.000 kr. |
|
Horizon Europe, Pillar II: Cluster-programmes |
||
|
Trin 1-ansøgning (RIA, IA, CSA) |
75.000 kr. |
150.000 kr. |
|
Trin 1-ansøgning i 2-trinsansøgning (RIA og IA) |
75.000 kr. |
75.000 kr. |
|
Trin 2-ansøgning i 2-trinsansøgning (RIA, IA) |
75.000 kr. |
150.000 kr. |
|
Horizon Europe, Pillar III: Innovative Europe |
||
|
European Innovation Council |
75.000 kr. |
75.000 kr. |
|
European Innovation Ecosystem |
75.000 kr. |
75.000 kr. |
|
Eurostars |
75.000 kr. |
75.000 kr. |
For an application to be eligible for funding, the project must fall within the scope of the relevant Horizon Europe call or sub-programme.
The applicant must be eligible for funding (see section 1.3), and the grant period must have a minimum duration of 30 days (see section 1.8). Funding may be requested for EU calls with deadlines no later than 31 December 2027.
Companies must attach a signed de minimis declaration (see section 1.3), and applicants to the EIC Accelerator must also attach documentation of an approved Step 1 application (see section 1.5).
It is a requirement that the project for which you are seeking EUopSTART funding to prepare includes at least three partners. For the ERC Synergy Grant, the requirement is a minimum of two partners. The EIC Accelerator and Eurostars programmes, as well as applications to EIC Pathfinder and EIC Transition with a single applicant or two partners, are exempt from this rule.
Furthermore, disbursement of the grant is conditional upon submitting an application to the relevant research or innovation programme under Horizon Europe to which the EUopSTART application relates, and that no significant changes are made to the project compared to the information provided in the EUopSTART application. The Horizon Europe application must meet all formal requirements in order to be evaluated.
The Agency will assess your application on the basis of all material submitted on time. Material submitted after the deadline will generally not be taken into consideration. The project will therefore be evaluated solely on the basis of the application. However, the Agency reserves the right to request additional documentation.
Applications that do not meet the general formal requirements will not be evaluated.
Eligible applications are assessed on a scale from 1–5 for each of the following evaluation criteria:
Applications are assessed according to the above criteria using the following scale:
Eligible applications must achieve a total score of at least 6 to be considered for funding.
If the Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science receives more applications than the available budget can support, funding will be awarded to the applications that best meet the criteria.
In cases where a large number of applications receive the same score and there are insufficient funds to support all applications with that score, the Agency may apply the following sub‑criteria, in order of priority, to rank them:
The evaluation criteria form the basis for the Agency’s assessment of applications and its decisions on the allocation of funding. There is competition between applications, and therefore it is not guaranteed that an application will receive EUopSTART funding even if all criteria are met.
Applicants are encouraged to use the electronic EUopSTART application form. The application form can be found on E-grant:
The electronic application system of the Ministry of Higher Education and Science, e-grant
*)Find the Agriculture de minimis Regulation on the European Commission’s website:
Agriculture de minimis Regulation
**)Find the Fisheries and Aquaculture de minimis Regulation on the European Commission’s website:
Fisheries and Aquaculture de minimis Regulation
Contact the Grants Unit
Weekdays: 09:00–12:00
Tel.: +45 33 92 92 00
Email: bevilling@ufm.dk
Contact E-grant Support
Weekdays: 09:00–12:00
Tel.: +45 33 92 91 90
Email: support.e-grant@ufm.dk
Contact Emma Emilie Højer Lindgreen-Winther,
Special Adviser
Tel.: +45 72 31 78 99
Email: ehw@ufm.dk
