EIT Food Proof-of-Concept Co-Financing Instrument, the client pays 60%

What it is, per the EIT Food call guidelines (version 3/2026, last changed 20 October 2026 per its version table): money for a proof-of-concept or small pilot between an agrifood startup and a prospective corporate client, with project costs under €60,000. The whole call has a maximum budget of €1.5 million across cut-offs on 31 July, 30 September, 30 October and 30 November.

• Who applies: one startup alone. It must be a micro or small company, legally incorporated in an EU or Horizon Europe country with at least 12 months of business activity, and its solution must fit one of three EIT Food Missions.
• The client: a signed letter of intent with EIT Food is mandatory. The client needs annual turnover of at least €1 billion, or documented open innovation capability that EIT Food judges sufficient.
• The money: up to €60,000 per application, for 1 to 12 months, with a latest start in April 2027. Half is paid as pre-financing when the agreement is signed, half after the deliverable is accepted.
• The terms: the subgrant template has no equity clause and says results belong to the party that generated them. The one KPI is a marketed innovation with at least €10,000 of documented sales, monitored for up to five years after the project ends; the KPI definition itself says three.
• The selection: at least two external evaluators score Excellence (35%), Impact (35%) and Implementation (30%). The threshold is 3.5 out of 5, and proposals are funded "until the funding is exhausted". Applicants hear within 30 days of submission, then a 30-day standstill follows.

Who pays: the subgrant comes from EU money. The guidelines say the funding is implemented under grant agreement GA 101269771 and depends on the EIT paying funds to EIT Food. The client pays a separate fee to EIT Food of 60% of the project budget "to ensure financial sustainability" of the programme. By our arithmetic, a €60,000 budget means a €36,000 fee. At most 25 awards of €60,000 fit into €1.5 million, also our arithmetic.

Differences between the documents: the call page lists "Cutoff date 2" twice, and so do the guidelines, while the dates run 31 July to 30 November. The subgrant template says it takes effect on 1 March 2026 and ends on 31 December 2026, which does not fit a start as late as April 2027. It also pays on delivery, while the guidelines pay half up front.

Not published: how many startups applied or were funded at the three earlier cut-offs, how much of the €1.5 million is left, what share of the project budget the startup must co-fund, and what EIT Food does with the client fee.