Eurostars: the programme for innovative SMEs

Among the public funding instruments dedicated to SMEs that carry out research and development, Eurostars occupies a particular position. It is not strictly a European Union call, but an international cooperation programme that funds collaborative projects between companies from different countries. It has a feature that makes it interesting for companies in Switzerland: the country participates, and Swiss companies can access it. Let’s look at how it works and who it suits.

What Eurostars is

Eurostars is the main funding programme within the Eureka initiative, the intergovernmental network for cooperation in research and innovation. It is co-financed by the participating countries and by the European Union, and it is aimed specifically at SMEs that carry out research and development activities (so-called R&D-performing SMEs).

The objective is to support innovation projects that are close to market: not basic research, but the development of products, processes or services with a concrete prospect of commercialisation within a reasonable horizon from the end of the project.

The key feature: international collaboration

The element that defines Eurostars is the obligation of transnational cooperation. A single company does not apply for an internal project: a consortium is presented, made up of partners from at least two different participating countries. The project must be a genuine collaboration, not a sum of separate activities.

Some recurring principles (the precise rules must always be checked in the current call):

• The consortium must include partners from several Eureka countries.
• The leading role falls to an R&D-performing SME, which is typically the coordinator and bears a significant share of the project.
• No single partner or country should concentrate an excessive share of the budget: the balance of the collaboration matters.

This setup has a practical consequence: even before the dossier, you need the right partner abroad. A good project with a weak consortium does not pass.

Who can apply and what it funds

The typical applicant is an innovative SME with its own research and development activity, wishing to carry out an ambitious project in collaboration with international partners. Large companies, universities or research centres can also take part in the consortium, but the centre of gravity remains the SME.

Eurostars funds the costs related to the R&D project — personnel, development activities, some associated expenses — according to the funding rules of each country. And this is an essential point.

How funding works in Switzerland

Eurostars has a decentralised funding structure: the evaluation of projects is international and centralised, but funding to the individual partners comes from their respective country, according to its national rules. Concretely:

• The project application is a single one, submitted by the consortium at international level.
• Selection takes place through a joint evaluation and a ranking.
• Each partner, however, receives the contribution from their own country, with national terms and conditions.

For the Swiss company this means that the conditions applicable to its part depend on the Swiss rules for participation in the programme, which must be verified case by case. It is an aspect to clarify before setting the budget, not after.

What it takes for a competitive application

Eurostars is selective. A dossier with concrete chances presents certain features:

1. A genuinely innovative project with a clear technological leap, not a mere incremental development.
2. An authentic collaboration: the partners integrate, each brings complementary skills, the roles are clear.
3. A credible market prospect: it explains how and when the result will become a product or service.
4. A solid work plan: consistent objectives, work packages, timelines and budget.
5. Capacity to deliver: the consortium has the technical and financial resources to complete the project.

The most common mistakes are an unbalanced consortium, a weak innovation masked by ambitious language, and a vague commercialisation prospect.

How to set up the path

Applying well takes time and sequence. First you define the project idea and assess whether it has the required level of innovation. Then you build the consortium, seeking the right international partner. Only at that point do you write the dossier, taking care of the consistency between objectives, work plan and budget, and clarifying the funding conditions for the Swiss part.

SIH ONE is an AI-native fiduciary group and supports innovative SMEs in integrating public funding into their strategy: from assessing the project’s eligibility to structuring the budget and the administrative aspects, so that energy stays on the content and is not dispersed in bureaucracy.

Do you want to assess whether your R&D project can apply for Eurostars? Let’s talk about it.