EIT Regional Innovation Booster Hungary 2027
ClosedDescription
The EIT Regional Innovation Booster (EIT RIB) Hungary seven-month international market-access programme for Hungarian start-ups. With the support of the Hungarian National Innovation Agency, it supports mature, innovation-driven Hungarian companies to validate, enter and grow in a new European market. A single cohort of 8 companies will be selected and equipped with a validated market entry strategy, concrete connections in their target market, and the operational know-how to act on them. At the heart of the programme is a Buddy system that pairs each company with an experienced operator who already knows the chosen target market and sector. This is complemented by expert mentoring, a programme of workshops and guest speaker sessions, and a EUR 2.500 conference and travel grant to support in-person engagement in the target market. The programme runs from December 2026 to June 2027 and is structured in two consecutive phases. Phase 1: Market Preparation (Months 1–3) Selected companies validate their target market with 20 hours of 1:1 expert mentoring, assess their readiness for international expansion, and build an executable market entry strategy. Phase 2: Market Expansion (Months 4–7) Each company works up to 40 hours with its matched EIT RIB Buddy to start entering the chosen target market, supported by continued workshops and guest speakers, international matchmaking, and optional participation in EIT Community events. To be eligible, applicants must: -Be a for-profit SME (according to the EU definition) registered in Hungary -Have at least 3 full-time employees (FTEs) at the time of application -Hold full ownership of, or exclusive commercialisation rights to, the intellectual property behind the solution to be taken abroad -Have a novel product, service, technology or deep tech solution with demonstrated product-market fit in Hungary and proven commercial traction -Operate in one of the EIT thematic areas: Climate, Digital, Food & Agritech, Healthcare, Energy and Renewables, Raw Materials, Urban Mobility, or Culture & Creativity.
Beneficiary & submission
Proposals should be submitted through the official EIT Urban Mobility Programmes Portal (NetSuite), accessed here.
Further instructions for the submission of proposals are found in the EIT Regional Innovation Booster Hungary 2027 Call Manual, Section 7.2.
Proposals will first be checked for admissibility and eligibility, Call Manual Section 5. Proposals found admissible and eligible will be evaluated against the award criteria by an Evaluation Panel, consisting of two external expert evaluators and one internal expert evaluator from the KICs participating in this Call. See section 6.2 of the Call Manual. The external expert evaluators will produce a Summary Evaluation Report for each proposal assessed.
A ranking list will be created to select 8 Hungarian start-ups taking part in the EIT Regional Innovation Booster Hungary 2027 Programme, each of them equal and over 18 points out of 30. If the number of eligible, high-quality proposals exceeds the available places, a reserve list will be established.
Further information
Applications must be submitted through the EIT Urban Mobility Programmes Portal (NetSuite). Detailed information on the submission and evaluation process is available on the EIT Urban Mobility website (Call page accessible here), and in the Call Manual (accessible here).
For further information, the Guidelines for Applicants are accessible here. Register to the information session on 21st September, find more information on how to register here.