This blog post provides up-to-date success rates for popular innovation grant funding competitions, including Innovate UK Smart Grants and the EIC Accelerator.
Innovate UK
Innovate UK Smart Grants has two streams: in stream 1, projects should have total costs under £500k and take no longer than 18 months to complete. In stream 2, projects must be collaborative, cost between £100,000 and £2 million, and last between 19 and 36 months. The competition, which typically takes place every quarter, had the following success rates in 2021:
- Stream 1 – 10.17%
- Stream 2 – 12.99%
- Stream 1 – 6.98%
- Stream 2 – 7.24%
- Stream 1 – 3.13%
- Stream 2 – 3.47%
From this, we can see that Innovate UK Smart Grants had an average success rate of 6.76% for Stream 1 and 7.9% for Stream 2 in 2021.
EIC Accelerator
The EIC Accelerator is extremely competitive – by the end of Horizon 2020, it had a success rate of just 2-3%! This led to the introduction of a new three-stage application process under Horizon Europe: 1) Short application > 2) Full application > 3) Face-to-face interview. Short applications can be completed at any time and, if successful, the applicant can proceed to the full application stage.
It is unclear how many short applications were submitted in 2021 as these can be completed at any time. However, we know that there were a total of 1910 full applications (801 in June and 1109 in October). 164 companies received funding, meaning 8.5% of companies who made it to the full application stage were successful.
Eureka Eurostars
Eureka Eurostars has an overall success rate of 29%, with the programme making €1.75 billion of public/private investment since 2014.
RedKnight
RedKnight’s success rate stands at 38.3% – far above the average success rates for Innovate UK and European Commission grants! If you would like to discuss working together, please contact us to arrange a free consultation.
