Women TechEU – Eligibility strand
The Women TechEU 2 EIC project is on a mission to ignite the potential of women-led early-stage startups in deep tech. 160 talented women entrepreneurs from across the European Union and Horizon Europe associated countries eligible for this call will be receiving direct support. With 75k€ grant (non-diluting finance) and a personalised business development programme, the project will be paving the way for these innovators to shine as leaders in deep tech innovation across Europe.
About the Women TechEU – Eligibility strand
The Women TechEU 2 EIC project is on a mission to ignite the potential of women-led early-stage startups in deep tech. 160 talented women entrepreneurs from across the European Union and Horizon Europe associated countries eligible for this call will be receiving direct support. With 75k€ grant (non-diluting finance) and a personalised business development programme, the project will be paving the way for these innovators to shine as leaders in deep tech innovation across Europe.
This project is a continuation of the Women TechEU scheme that was first managed by EISMEA (European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency) from 2021 to 2023 and by another consortium during 2024 – 2026, and it has now become a fully-fledged cascade funding project that is run by an EU-wide consortium made up of different innovation ecosystem players, representatives of women entrepreneurs and also investors.
Over a two-year period, the project will award a total of €12 million in non-dilutive funding through an open call with four competitive submission deadlines. For each deadline, 40% of the funding will be allocated to startups from widening regions.
Each selected startup will receive tailored support designed to unlock its full potential, including access to a comprehensive menu of business development services and one-to-one mentoring from an expert. The six-month support programme will be co-designed by the entrepreneurs and the programme team, with clearly defined, individualised development KPIs.
This structured support will ensure a smooth and sustained scale-up of each business, while also preparing participants to successfully apply for further funding opportunities such as the EIC Accelerator and Pre-Accelerator programmes.
Why Apply to Women TechEU?
Building a deep tech company is challenging for any founder, but women entrepreneurs continue to face additional obstacles when it comes to accessing investment, strategic networks, and visibility within the European innovation ecosystem. As a result, many promising startups struggle to secure the resources needed to transform breakthrough technologies into scalable businesses.
Women TechEU was created to address this challenge by providing targeted support to women-led deep tech startups at a critical stage of their growth journey. Rather than focusing solely on financial assistance, the programme combines funding, mentorship, and ecosystem access to help founders strengthen both their technological development and business strategy.
The initiative seeks to empower women entrepreneurs who are developing innovative solutions based on advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence, biotechnology, clean technologies, advanced materials, robotics, quantum technologies, and other deep tech fields. Through Women TechEU, selected startups gain the tools and expertise needed to accelerate product development, validate market opportunities, and prepare for future investment rounds.
One of the programme’s key strengths is its focus on long-term growth. Participants benefit from tailored coaching and mentoring delivered by experienced women experts, as well as access to investors, industry leaders, innovation hubs, and European stakeholders that can support their international expansion and commercialisation efforts.
In addition to the business acceleration services, selected startups receive €75,000 in non-dilutive funding, enabling them to advance their technology and business objectives without sacrificing equity. This financial support can be used to strengthen product development, market validation activities, customer acquisition strategies, or investment readiness initiatives.
For ambitious women founders, Women TechEU represents more than a funding opportunity. It is a gateway to a European community of innovators, investors, and experts committed to increasing the representation of women in deep tech and fostering the next generation of technology leaders. By joining the programme, startups can accelerate their growth, enhance their competitiveness, and position themselves for future success within the European innovation landscape.
Who Can Apply?
Women TechEU targets early-stage women-led deep tech startups. In this section, specific criteria and conditions are outlined, establishing eligibility for potential beneficiaries:
1. The founder or co-founder must be the woman and will (if selected) participate in the programme. Woman is considered co-founder if she acquired shares from the company within one year from the date of registration of the company.
2. Women leadership: Women legally recognised as founders or co-founders of the company. The founder or co-founder of the company must also currently hold a top management position (CEO, CTO, CSO or equivalent) within the same company. It will be also required that women hold at least 25% of the shares in the CAP table (capitalisation table) of the company.
3. Established country: the applicant must be established in an EU Member State and their outermost regions or Horizon Europe Associated Country eligible for this call. For details, please check the guidelines.
4. Early-stage startup:
a. The legal entity must be registered for a minimum of six months and a maximum of five years at the time of the eligibility cut-off date they are submitting for.
b. Under Horizon Europe, a ‘startup’ should be understood as an autonomous SME in the early stage of its life cycle, including those that are created as spin-offs from university research activities.
5. Deep tech: Deep tech innovation aims to provide concrete solutions to our societal problems by finding its source in a deep interaction with the most recent scientific and technological advances and by seeking to produce a profound impact in the targeted application areas.
6. Not previously funded for the same activities by another EU Programme: To avoid double funding, neither the full application or any of its parts have benefited from previous Women TechEU initiatives or the EIC Accelerator.
7. Not part of Women TechEU 2 EIC beneficiaries: Women TechEU 2 EIC consortium partners, their affiliated entities, employees, and subcontractors are not allowed to submit a proposal and therefore to receive any financial support through the open call.
How to Apply to Women TechEU
The application process for Women TechEU is divided in 2 strands. First, applicants must verify their eligibility status, and once they are validated, they will be moved (if eligible) to the second stage, the Full Proposal strand.
Both steps are done through the Sploro platform. Specifically, the first step is an easy one, comprised by a very straightforward form where applicants will have the chance to see if they are eligible while filling the form. A direct link can be found in the Women TechEU website and here.
After the the eligibility check, Women TechEU will send an Eligibility Letter with the results , through the Sploro Platform. This Eligibility Letter will be sent no later than one week after the cut-off the application has been submitted to.
The second step, the Full Proposal strand submission, will be done only for those evaluated as eligible. A direct link will be sent to them in the Eligibility Letter. This second strand will consist in a more complete form divided in different sections: Legal and contact information, Impact, Excellence, Implementation and Ethics self-assessment.
Four different submission deadlines will be during the project lifecycle, giving the opportunity to the applicants to re-apply in case they result non-selected during the evaluation phase.
Evaluation and Selection Process for Women TechEU
As mentioned, the application process for Women TechEU is divided into 2 strands, so there will be 2 moments of evaluation:
Eligibility check strand validation
Applicants complete the eligibility form to verify compliance with the programme requirements (see Who Can Apply? section). An automatic filtering to discard non-eligible proposals will follow the shortlist of Eligibility criteria check.
Full proposal evaluation process
After each submission deadline, the proposals are evaluated in six steps:
- Verification that all documents and text are in English and properly filled out.
- The applications that pass this filter will move to a flags check to validate that the startups are not grant survivors, are growth-oriented, are interested in scaling and raising investment, and have an IP policy. At each submission deadline, a maximum of 350 applications will move to external evaluation.
- Third step is the external evaluation by a panel of two external evaluators per proposal that will score the proposals based on 3 criteria: Excellence, Impact and Implementation.
- To avoid discrepancies based on biases from evaluators, normalization will be applied to all the evaluations. The normalization step guarantees a more balanced distribution of scores and reduces the possibility of biases and distortions. A consensus meeting will be organised if the scores of the two evaluators are very divergent (over 20% after normalisation).
- Ethics evaluation: all applicants will fill in the standard ethics form from Horizon Europe. Pre-selected applicants will follow a deeper ethics screening by external experts.
- Final decision. The pre-selection will be based on the scoring mechanism and will include a tie-sorting mechanism published in the guidelines.
Applicants will receive an Evaluation Summary Report that includes the feedback of the external evaluators so that they identify the points of improvement maximum eight weeks after submission deadline closure. Pre-selected applicants will undergo a thorough legal validation process before proceeding to signing the Sub-grantee agreement.
Women TechEU programme
This unique Women TechEU Programme offers:
- Service 1 – Women mentors (one meeting per month during 6 months).
- Service 2 – Investor readiness.
- Service 3 – Export Readiness Check.
- Service 4 – Soft Skills Training.
- Service 5 – Sales Strategy.
- Service 6 – Environmental Impact Assessment.
- Service 7 – High Impact Events.
- Service 8 – Peer-meetings and local chapters.
- Service 9 – Perks programme and Community.
At the moment of submission, the applicant will select her top three services that she would like to get from Women TechEU project. During the execution of the Programme of Services selected services from the EIC Business Accelerator Service will also be offered.
Following the M3 Programme evaluation. Selected startups will move to a new phase called “Paving the way”. These startups have access to services meant to support their scaling-up:
- Service 10 – Fast Track to EIC Accelerator.
- Service 11 – Open Innovation and Corporate Access.
- Service 12 – Targeted meetings with investors.
Important Dates
InfoDays in 2026:
- 1st InfoDay: 25 June 2026 at 10:00h CEST (Brussels time)
- 2nd InfoDay: 08 July 2026 at 10:00h CEST (Brussels time)
- 3rd InfoDay: 06 August 2026 at 12:00h CEST (Brussels time)
- 4th InfoDay: 15 September 2026 at 16:00h CET (Brussels time)
- 5th InfoDay: 10 November 2026 at 16:00h CET (Brussels time)
Eligibility strand Cut-off Deadline: Weekly cut-offs every Tuesday at 17:00 CE(S)T (Brussels time) until 13th July 2027 at 17:00 CEST*. First cut-off 30 June 2026 at 17:00 CEST.
Full proposal strand. Only the eligible startups will be invited to submit the Full Proposal. This strand is continuously running with 4 submission deadlines for evaluation:
- Opening: 15/07/2026
- Submission deadline 5: 16/09/2026, 17:00h CEST*, Brussels time
- Submission deadline 6: 14/01/2027, 17:00h CET*, Brussels time
- Submission deadline 7: 01/04/2027, 17:00h CEST*, Brussels time
- Submission deadline 8: 08/07/2027, 17:00h CEST*, Brussels time
More Information
- For any question about the process there is a general email address available at helpdesk@womentecheurope.eu.
- Guidelines, application form (editable in word), FAQS: https://womentecheurope.eu/active-calls/
- Application link: https://cascadefunding.sploro.eu/apply/program/women-techeu-eligibility-strand
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