Rising Innovators category
Horizon Europe · Grant topic
Summary
Not an R&D call a Polish company can use, by Scindu's rule.
Awards individual young women founders or co-founders for innovation, subject to age, residence, and organisation eligibility requirements.
- Who can apply
- Companies cannot apply: individual.
- Amount
- €100,000Indicative budget
- Deadline
- 01 Dec 2026 01:00 CETin 38 days
- Status
- Openopened 2 Sept 2026
Machine-classified from the call text; check eligibility at the source.
Description
Expected Impact:
The prize will boost public awareness of the potential, importance and contribution of women to the EU innovation ecosystem and create strong role models, inspiring more women to become innovators themselves.
Expected Outcome:
The prize will boost public awareness of the potential, importance and contribution of women to the EU innovation ecosystem and create strong role models, inspiring more women to become innovators themselves.
Objective:
The European Prize for Women Innovators celebrates the women entrepreneurs behind Europe’s game-changing innovations, so that they may inspire other women and girls realise their full potential as the EU’s future scientists, innovators, and tech leaders.
This prize supports a culture within research and innovation organisations and companies allowing women to become the innovators and entrepreneurs of tomorrow.
The prize is awarded every year to women from across the EU and countries associated to Horizon Europe, who have transformed their ideas into disruptive innovations to benefit people and the planet and who are inspiring leaders.
As for the previous edition, the 2027 European Prize for Women Innovators is organised in coordination between the Agency and the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT). The winners are chosen by an independent expert jury.
The prize has three categories, two funded by the EIC (the Women Innovators and the Rising Innovators categories) and one by the EIT (the EIT Women Leadership category). The Rules of Contest apply to both the EIC and EIT prize categories.
Scope:
The European Prize for Women Innovators celebrates the women entrepreneurs behind Europe’s game-changing innovations, so that they may inspire other women and girls realise their full potential as the EU’s future scientists, innovators, and tech leaders.
This prize supports a culture within research and innovation organisations and companies allowing women to become the innovators and entrepreneurs of tomorrow.
The prize is awarded every year to women from across the EU and countries associated to Horizon Europe, who have transformed their ideas into disruptive innovations to benefit people and the planet and who are inspiring leaders.
As for the previous edition, the 2027 European Prize for Women Innovators is organised in coordination between the Agency and the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT). The winners are chosen by an independent expert jury.
The prize has three categories, two funded by the EIC (the Women Innovators and the Rising Innovators categories) and one by the EIT (the EIT Women Leadership category). The Rules of Contest apply to both the EIC and EIT prize categories.
Who can apply, in detail
- Applicant types
- Individual
- Purpose
- Other
- R&D relevance
- 1 of 3
- Poland eligible
- Yes
- Country limit
- Applicants must reside, and their organisations must be established, in EU Member States including OCTs or Horizon Europe associated countries.
- Region
- Any
- Consortium
- Single applicant
- Readiness level (TRL)
- —
- Topics
- Young women innovators
- Entrepreneurship
- Innovation recognition
Machine-classified from the call text; check eligibility at the source. 23 Oct 2026
Conditions
Typed facts extracted from the source documents by Scindu's grant-data review. Each value keeps its own conditions. Unknown means unstated, not zero or unlimited.
- Applicant restriction
- The Rules state both that applicants must be under 35 at the start of the 2026 call year and that Rising Innovators must be born on or after 1 January 1991. These criteria conflict at the boundary: a person born on 1 January 1991 is 35 on 1 January 2026, so the birth-date clause includes someone excluded by the under-35 clause. The Rules do not state which criterion controls for this boundary; clarification is unresolved.
Applies only to EIC Rising Innovators. Preserve both express criteria; do not treat them as coextensive. For a 1 January 1991 birth date, the birth-date clause includes the applicant but “under 35 at the start of the call year” excludes them. The applicable interpretation is unresolved in the published Rules.
- Applicant restriction
- Company/organisation must be established in an EU Member State including OCTs, or a Horizon Europe associated country, and be registered or incorporated before 1 January 2025.
Organization-location/registration and applicant residence are separate criteria.
- Applicant restriction
- Applicant must be the founder or co-founder of the company or organisation.
A co-founder is someone who started the company with at least one other person; proof may be requested.
- Applicant restriction
- A previous EU or Euratom prize recipient cannot receive a second prize for the same activities.
- Applicant type
- Applicant must be a woman applying as a natural person, not as a legal entity.
Rules footnote defines “woman” to include cis women and transgender women legally defined as women.
- Application restriction
- Applicants eligible for more than one category may apply to only one; where multiple applications are submitted, only the latest is considered and all others are rejected as ineligible.
- Eligible geography
- Applicant must be legally residing in an EU Member State (including OCTs) or a country associated to Horizon Europe.
Residence is determined for the natural person under national law, separately from the company/organisation condition.
- Other condition
- Applications are electronic through the Funding & Tenders Portal. Part A is completed online and Part B uses the submission-system technical-description template. A mandatory video is at most 90 seconds and 100 MB, uploaded as a .zip annex; Part B may not exceed 15 pages.
Rising category additionally requires age proof; EIT Women Leadership requires EIT Community-link proof. Submission templates are inside the portal system.
- Other condition
- A jury evaluates admissible, eligible applications against Breakthrough innovation, Impact and Inspiration; minimums are 6/10 per criterion and 18/30 overall. If more than 500 applications arrive in one category, the best 500 are preselected for jury review.
- Other condition
- The awarding authority may decide not to award any prize or to cancel the call, depending on applications received and evaluation results.
- Other condition
- Call opened 2 September 2026; deadline is 1 December 2026 at 17:00 CET (Brussels).
- Other condition
- If applications tie for a rank in a category, that rank’s prize is divided equally among the tied applications; prize money is paid after the award ceremony if all requested documents have been submitted.
- Other condition
- The Rules define “woman” as a cis woman or a transgender woman who is legally defined as a woman.
Amounts and costs
- Indicative budget
- €100,000
Topic budget as stated in the portal's budget table. Lump-sum and per-project limits are in the call conditions.
- Call allocation
- €100,000
Aggregate pool for Rising Innovators; distinct from individual-ranked cash prize amounts and not a project grant ceiling. The Rules reserve the right not to award prizes or cancel the call.
- Prize, first place
- €50,000
Rising Innovators; cash recognition prize for the first rank, not project-grant funding or salary. Rules state that when applications tie for this rank/category the prize amount is equally divided among tied applications; payment follows the award ceremony after requested documents are submitted.
- Prize, second place
- €30,000
Rising Innovators; cash recognition prize for the second rank, not project-grant funding or salary. Rules state that when applications tie for this rank/category the prize amount is equally divided among tied applications; payment follows the award ceremony after requested documents are submitted.
- Prize, third place
- €20,000
Rising Innovators; cash recognition prize for the third rank, not project-grant funding or salary. Rules state that when applications tie for this rank/category the prize amount is equally divided among tied applications; payment follows the award ceremony after requested documents are submitted.
Source documents
Call facts
- Opens
- 2 Sept 2026
- Deadline model
- Single-stage
- Programme
- Horizon Europe · 2021 - 2027
- Call
- HORIZON-EIC-2026-PRIZE-WIP · The European Prize for Women Innovators
- Types of action
- HORIZON Recognition Prize
- Source
- ec.europa.eu
- Checked
- 24 Oct 2026
- Portal updated
- 16 Oct 2026
- Review status
- Partial review
- Reviewed
- 23 Oct 2026
This is a summary of the source page, not the official text. Eligibility, conditions and the submission system are at the source.