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SMEs & startups
Grant programmes, rules and terms that matter for SMEs & startups: 39 knowledge base articles.
Programmes3
- Digital Europe Digital Europe (DIGITAL) is the EU programme for 2021–2027 with a budget of over €8.1 billion that funds the deployment of digital technologies: supercomputing, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, digital skills and their uptake in business and the public sector. Ukraine has been associated since 2022, but only to four objectives. The typical rate is 50%, so applicants fund the other half.
- Horizon Europe Horizon Europe is the EU framework programme for research and innovation for 2021–2027, with a budget of roughly €93.5 billion – the largest such programme in the world. It funds fundamental science, applied research against societal challenges and breakthrough innovation, and Ukraine takes part in full as an associated country.
- LIFE LIFE is the only EU programme devoted entirely to the environment and climate action, with a budget of €5.432 billion for 2021–2027. It runs through four sub-programmes: nature and biodiversity, circular economy, climate action, and the clean energy transition. Ukraine has been associated to LIFE since 2022, so a Ukrainian organisation can be a full beneficiary.
Programme sections16
- Circular Economy and Quality of Life The circular economy and quality of life sub-programme holds €1.345 billion for 2021–2027. It funds waste management, resource efficiency, water and air quality, noise reduction and chemical safety, and the co-financing rate here is 60%. LIFE
- Clean Energy Transition: a rate of up to 95% The clean energy transition sub-programme holds €997 million for 2021–2027 and carries the highest co-financing rate in LIFE, up to 95%. It funds not equipment but the removal of non-technological barriers: policies, skills, financing schemes and the preparation of investment projects. LIFE
- Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation The climate change mitigation and adaptation sub-programme holds €947 million for 2021–2027. It funds cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, the adaptation of territories to the effects of climate change and climate governance, at a co-financing rate of 60%. LIFE
- Common mistakes and reasons for application rejection Most Horizon Europe proposals are rejected not for a weak idea but for predictable failures: drifting from the topic scope, unmeasurable expected results, a consortium duplicating expertise instead of complementing it, and a work plan that does not match the narrative. Learning this list beats waiting a year for the next call. Horizon Europe
- EIC Accelerator: a grant plus an equity investment The EIC Accelerator is the largest EIC instrument, with a 2026 budget of around €634 million. It combines a grant of up to €2.5 million with a direct investment of €1 to €10 million in exchange for a stake taken by the EIC Fund. A single company applies, and selection runs through a short application, a full application and a jury interview. Horizon Europe
- EIC Pathfinder: the earliest stage of a breakthrough technology EIC Pathfinder funds research into a breakthrough technology at the earliest stage, when no market prospect is yet visible. The 2026 budget for the strand is around €262 million, grants reach €4 million, the funding rate is 100% and the model is a lump sum. Horizon Europe
- EIC Transition: from a result to market readiness EIC Transition funds taking an existing scientific result to a state fit for market entry. The 2026 budget for the strand is around €100 million, grants reach €2.5 million, and the entry ticket is a result from Pathfinder, ERC Proof of Concept or another eligible project. Horizon Europe
- ERC: six frontier research schemes The European Research Council funds frontier research on a single criterion, scientific excellence, with no set topics, no consortium and no requirement of practical application. Six schemes: Starting, Consolidator, Advanced, ERC Plus, Synergy and Proof of Concept, from €150,000 to €10 million. Success rates in the 2025 calls were around 10–12%. Horizon Europe
- Horizon Europe budget calculator The Horizon Europe budget rules define which costs may be charged to a grant and how: personnel by actual salary and productive hours, equipment by depreciation in proportion to project use, plus subcontracting and indirect costs at a flat rate. Knowing them at proposal stage decides whether your budget survives evaluation. Horizon Europe
- Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions: mobility programmes Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions fund people rather than topics: researcher mobility, doctoral programmes and training. Payments are made at fixed monthly unit rates rather than against actual costs, and both individual researchers and institutions can apply. Horizon Europe
- Pillar 2: Clusters – 6 thematic clusters The clusters are the six thematic areas of Horizon Europe Pillar 2, funding applied research against specific societal challenges: health; culture and society; civil security; digital, industry and space; climate, energy and mobility; food, bioeconomy and environment. This is where the bulk of consortium calls sits. Horizon Europe
- Pillar 3: European Innovation Council (EIC) The European Innovation Council is the part of Horizon Europe for high-risk breakthrough innovation, from early idea to market. Its distinguishing feature is blended finance – a grant alongside a direct equity investment in the company – and most of its instruments are applied for by a single company rather than a consortium. Horizon Europe
- Structure of a successful application: Excellence, Impact, Implementation A Horizon Europe proposal is assessed against three criteria, and Part B mirrors them: Excellence – how ambitious the objectives and how convincing the methodology; Impact – what change it brings and how that is measured; Implementation – whether the work plan, roles and budget are realistic. What an evaluator looks for matters more than length. Horizon Europe
- Submitting an application: the Funding & Tenders Portal step by step Applying to an EU call runs through the Funding & Tenders Portal as a sequence of steps: an EU Login account, registering the organisation to obtain a PIC, choosing a topic, preparing Parts A and B of the proposal, and submitting through the system before the call closes. Each step has its own timing and requirements, and underestimating them is what most often derails a last-day submission. Horizon Europe
- Ukrainian participants: statistics and cases Ukraine participates in Horizon Europe as an associated country with full access to every part of the programme, and the national financial contribution is currently suspended. Ukrainian institutions may coordinate projects, and separate mechanisms support displaced researchers and deep-tech companies. Horizon Europe
- Widening Programme: opportunities for Ukraine Widening is the strand of Horizon Europe created to close the participation gap between countries with different research capacity. Ukraine is a Widening country, so Ukrainian institutions may coordinate Twinning, ERA Chairs and Excellence Hubs projects, and join already-funded consortia through the Hop-on Facility. Horizon Europe
Glossary20
- Affordable Loans 5-7-9%: programme terms in 2026 Affordable Loans 5-7-9% is a Ukrainian state programme under which a business borrows from a bank and the state compensates part of the interest. It is not a grant: the borrower repays the principal and pays the reduced rate. For investment purposes the rate is 5, 7 or 9 per cent a year depending on the size of the business and the growth in jobs.
- CFS: Certificate on the Financial Statements A CFS is a report by an independent auditor who checks, under agreed-upon procedures, the costs declared in a beneficiary's financial statements. In Horizon Europe it is required only at the final payment and only for a participant whose requested EU contribution reaches EUR 430,000. Below the threshold no certificate is needed and its cost is not reimbursed. Horizon Europe
- Consortium Agreement A consortium agreement is an internal written contract between project partners on governance, distribution of funds, liability and intellectual property. The funder neither signs nor reviews it. In EU grants it should be concluded before the grant agreement is signed, so the text has to be read and negotiated during grant preparation, not after the project starts.
- Eligible and Ineligible Costs Eligible costs are the costs a donor agrees to cover with the grant because they meet the conditions of the agreement: actually incurred during the project, foreseen in the budget, necessary for its implementation and backed by documents. Anything that fails these conditions, or is expressly excluded by the agreement, is rejected at the check, and the organisation covers that money itself.
- eRobota: state grants for business eRobota is the Ukrainian government’s programme of non-repayable grants for business, running since July 2022. In 2026 it covers the Vlasna Sprava grant for starting and scaling a business and grants for processing plants, orchards, greenhouses and produce storage. Applications go through the Diia portal, and in return the applicant commits to create jobs and pay taxes.
- Final payment and closing the grant The final payment is the closing settlement of a grant: the donor determines the final amount from accepted costs and deducts everything already paid. The difference can be positive or negative, in which case part of the advance has to be repaid. In Horizon Europe the payment is due within 90 days of receipt of the final report. Horizon Europe
- Financial statement for a grant A financial statement is the part of the periodic report in which each participant declares its eligible costs for the reporting period. In EU grants it is filled in on the Portal in euros, signed by an authorised person of the organisation, and due within 60 days of the end of the period. The interim or final payment depends on its acceptance.
- Foreign currency account and receiving a grant in foreign currency To receive a grant in euros or dollars, an organisation or a sole proprietor opens a foreign currency current account with a Ukrainian bank and gives the donor the IBAN and the bank’s SWIFT code. National Bank Resolution No. 18 does not require foreign currency receipts to be sold, but transfers abroad are restricted, so returning a balance or paying a foreign partner is planned in advance.
- Grant Agreement Preparation (GAP) Grant Agreement Preparation (GAP) is the stage between the evaluation result letter and the signature of the grant agreement. In Horizon Europe applicants must be informed within 5 months of the deadline and the agreement signed within 8, leaving about three months. In that time the consortium turns the proposal into annexes to the agreement, while organisations are validated and appoint a LEAR. Horizon Europe
- Grant or subsidised loan: which should a business choose A grant is not repaid, but you answer for it with results: jobs, taxes and reports. A subsidised loan is repaid with interest, yet the money arrives faster and can be spent more freely. A grant fits when the project matches the programme terms and you are ready for monitoring, a loan when speed, amount and flexibility matter.
- Grants for sole proprietors: taxation The Tax Code of Ukraine expressly removes from a sole proprietor’s income only budget grants and earmarked funds from budgets and social insurance funds. On that basis the tax service does not treat a state eRobota microgrant as single-tax income. For a grant from a foreign donor or a foundation there is no direct rule: it may be counted as income, so check with the tax office first.
- Orchard and greenhouse grants: amounts, land, obligations The orchard and greenhouse grants are two agricultural strands of Ukrainian state support for business. An orchard, berry field or vineyard gets up to UAH 400,000 per hectare, capped at UAH 10 million, and a modular greenhouse UAH 2 to 7 million depending on area. The state normally covers up to half of the project cost, and the rest is the applicant’s own contribution.
- Partner Search for a Consortium Partner search means finding the organisations you will apply with to a call that requires a consortium. The main free channels are Partner Search on the Funding & Tenders Portal, National Contact Points, the Enterprise Europe Network, brokerage events and the CORDIS project database. For a newcomer, joining a consortium that is already forming is usually more realistic than building one.
- Processing plant grant: terms and co-financing The processing plant grant is non-repayable state support of up to UAH 8 million for equipment for manufacturing businesses in Ukraine. The state covers 50 to 80 per cent of the project cost and the applicant funds the rest. In return you must create at least five jobs and pay taxes equal to the grant within three years.
- Record-keeping after the grant ends After a grant ends, project records must be kept for several more years, because the donor may check costs after the last payment. In EU grants this is five years after the final payment, or three for grants of up to EUR 60,000. If a document is missing when a check comes, the related cost is rejected and the money has to be repaid.
- Registering an international technical assistance project in Ukraine State registration of a technical assistance project is an entry in the register kept by the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, confirmed by a registration card. Without it the grant can still be received and spent, but tax and customs exemptions are unavailable and a foreign implementer cannot be accredited. The recipient then reports twice a year.
- Timesheets (time records) A project timesheet is the evidence of how much time a specific person spent on the grant itself. The amount of personnel costs depends on it. In Horizon Europe hourly timesheets can be replaced by a monthly declaration of days, and costs are calculated as a daily rate multiplied by the number of days worked on the action.
- Ukraine Facility The Ukraine Facility is the EU’s support instrument for Ukraine for 2024–2027 worth up to €50 billion: up to €33 billion in loans and up to €17 billion in non-repayable support. It is mostly not a grant programme to apply to: the bulk goes to the state budget. Money reaches businesses, municipalities and NGOs through banks, financial institutions, state programmes and individual calls.
- VAT and customs exemption in technical assistance projects Goods and services paid for by a registered international technical assistance project and listed in its procurement plan are supplied in Ukraine without VAT, and imported goods are free of import charges. The exemption is tied to the registration card and the procurement plan, not to the word grant in a contract, so a paperwork mistake turns into a tax reassessment for the supplier.
- Vlasna Sprava grant: amounts, terms and obligations Vlasna Sprava (Own Business) is a Ukrainian state grant for starting or scaling a business. Since September 2026 it runs under a single procedure: UAH 100,000 to 300,000 for a start and UAH 500,000 to 1.5 million for scaling, with top-ups for young people, veterans, frontline regions and priority sectors. In return the recipient must pay taxes equal to the grant.
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