1. EUopSTART – General Terms and Conditions
1.1. Purpose
The purpose of EUopSTART is to intensify the participation of Danish research institutions and enterprises in European research and innovation. That is why EUopSTART offers grants to fund Danish enterprises' and research institutions' preparatory activities in drawing up applications for a selected number of European research programmes under Horizon Europe.
1.2. Call Deadlines and Procedures
In 2025, there are three application deadlines/cut-offs.
- Tuesday 25 February 2025 at 12:00 p.m. noon (CET) - open for submission
- In May 2025 – the date will be announced soon
- In September 2025 - the date will be announced soon
Please note: You can only apply for EUopSTART when the work programme or call deadline has been (pre-)published by the Commission!
During 2025, you can apply for funding from the EUopSTART scheme for EU calls with an application deadline no later than 31 December 2026.
You can apply for funding from EUopSTART when the final work programme (call deadline for calls without work programme) has been published or when the EU has pre-published a draft work programme on the Funding & Tenders Portal and the Agency for Science and Higher Education has opened for EUopSTART applications via a link on this site. If you apply for EUopSTART for a two-stage procedure EU proposal, you can only apply for EUopSTART if you have been invited for stage 2.
After each cut-off the Ministry for Higher Education and Science will process the applications which have been received since the last cut-off date.
The Agency will perform an individual, qualitative evaluation of all applications; see the criteria in section 4.2. Grants will be awarded to those applications which the Agency assesses as best meeting the criteria. Unsuccessful applications may be resubmitted before the subsequent cut-off date.
In order to be eligible for a grant, applications must meet the requirements described in the following subsections.
1.3 Who can Apply for Funding?
All organisations (public, including municipalities and regions, as well as private) eligible and approved to apply for funding from Horizon Europe (see section 1.4.) may apply for EUopSTART grants. It is not possible to apply for EUopSTART on behalf of other organisations. Applications submitted by third parties will not be processed.
EUopSTART grants are given to applicants based in Denmark. It is the organisation, not the individual researcher or employee, who receives funding from EUopSTART.
Please note that legal entities that wish to participate in Horizon Europe research programmes must have sufficient financial resources to enable them to co-finance their project participation on an ongoing basis and to document the wage costs of participation.
In addition, participants must have the necessary research/innovation capacity and ability to engage in international, high-level research and innovation collaborations. Through the research and innovation projects under Horizon Europe, the project participants must contribute to the development of new, ground-breaking knowledge and technology that in the long term can help solve some of the major societal challenges in Europe and globally.
1.4 Which European Research Programmes are Covered?
You can apply for EUopSTART funding for writing your proposal for a major number of Horizon Europe sub-programmes, including calls for partnerships and missions (see section 3). However, only calls where the funds are made subject to competition are eligible.
1.5. The Amount of Subsidy
The amount of the grant depends on the activity for which the grant is requested. Read more in section 2 and see the table in section 3.
- If you are coordinating a consortium with more than 3 partners and you coordinate the proposal for Horizon Europe, you can apply for a grant of up to DKK 100,000 for the full proposal.
- If you are a mono-beneficiary or if you are coordinator for a consortium of 1-3 partners and you are coordinating the proposal for Horizon Europe, you can apply for a grant of up to DKK 75.000 to prepare full proposal.
- As a partner in a consortium, you can apply for a grant of up to DKK 75,000 to prepare a full proposal.
Specific rules apply to applications for EU projects following the two-stage procedure: If you are the coordinator of the proposal, you can apply for up to DKK 75,000 for stage one and DKK 100,000 for the stage two. If you are a partner in a two-stage proposal, you can only apply for a grant for preparing stage two of up to DKK 75,000.
Se below for special rules applying for applicants for EIC and ERC.
Please see the table in section 3 for the specific grant amounts.
Top-up grants may not be applied for subsequently, and grants will not be awarded retroactively. You may therefore not apply for funding for activities which you have undertaken in advance of your application for EUopSTART funding. A grant award is valid from the date on which the Agency receives your application and until the deadline for submission of the application to Horizon Europe.
1.6. The Grant Period
The grant period must be at least 30 calendar days. It starts on the date of submission of the application to EUopSTART and ends no later than the deadline for submitting the application to the selected Horizon Europe sub-programme.
Expenditure falling outside the grant period will not be covered by the EUopSTART grant.
Please note that you must submit your application to EUopSTART no later than 30 calendar days before your EU deadline.
1.7. Eligible Expenses
You may apply for funding to cover eligible expenses defrayed during the grant period, and which are relevant and necessary, and relate directly to preparation of the application.
For all types of applications, you can apply for funding to cover:
- payroll costs for the applicant organisation's staff.
- relevant travel and per diem expenses for the applicant organisation's staff, and expenses for hosting meetings, seminars and the like.
- external assistance (consulting services paid for against invoices).
Please note that an EUopSTART grant may not be used to fund research activities.
You can apply for funding to cover up to 50% of your expenses. The maximum amount is shown in the table in section 3. The payroll costs must be calculated using a set hourly rate of DKK 600/hour. This hourly rate also includes overheads. Expenses must be itemised exclusive of VAT.
Funding for external assistance may amount to no more than 70% of the total grant which the applicant applies for.
Only grant holders may act as designated contacts and assume responsibility for submission of an application.
Self-financing may consist of either cash or the value of staff hours (based on DKK 600/hour) contributed to the EUopSTART project.
Note, however, the following restrictions:
- additional funding will not be awarded if multiple partners apply for EUopSTART for preparation of the same EU application
- EUopSTART funding for the same EU application must be applied for only once. The Agency does not award funding to the improvement or update of an application which has already received an EUopSTART grant.
- funding applications cannot be accepted for expenses already funded by another public-sector fund.
The Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science’s "Terms & Conditions for Grants" applies to the disbursement, utilisation and administration of all grants. The current version is published at the Agency's website:
2. Special Terms and Conditions Applicable to Grants for Enterprises
2.1. Who is Eligible for Funding?
Eligible enterprises must:
- not have been declared bankrupt or be in suspension of payments.
- not have any past due debts to any public authority (including any debts to a public authority for which the payment-due date has been exceeded).
- meet the EU's requirements for SME validation, and be eligible for funding according to this.
Private-sector enterprises will receive funding from EUopSTART in accordance with the de minimis rule on state aid (Commission Regulation (EC) No 2023/2831 of 13 December 2023 on the application of Articles 107 and 108 in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union to de minimis aid – the general de minimis regulation).
The de minimis rule means that an enterprise that applies for funding over a period of three years is permitted to have received a maximum of EUR 300,000 in state aid. Please note there are specific de minimis regulations for enterprises in the agriculture sector (*) as well as fishery and aquaculture sector (**).
Private-sector enterprises must be able to document that the maximum amount has not been exceeded at the time of application. This must be documented by signing a State Aid De Minimis Declaration. The declaration is provided below as well as in the electronic application form. The declaration must be signed and submitted with the application form.
For more information about de minimis aid, please consult the European Comission’s website:
- Information about de minimis aid (European Comission)
- Template for the de minimis declaration (ufm.dk)
N.B.! Enterprises must submit no more than one application to EUopSTART per cut-off.
2.2. Special Terms and Conditions for SMEs
Companies can only submit one application for each deadline.
Only enterprises that meet the EU conditions for claiming SME status are eligible for EUopSTART grants for preparing applications for EIC Accelerator and Eurostars programme. The SME definition is available at the European Comission’s website:
Applicants for Eurostars
Danish SMEs seeking to apply for funding to participate in the Eurostars programme are also required to meet the following conditions at the time of application:
- they must be research-intensive SMEs
- they must be able to document that they have the scientific and financial resources to complete their share of the Eurostars project.
2.3 Specifically Concerning Applications for Eurostars
Danish SMEs seeking to apply for funding to participate in the Eurostars programme are also required to meet the following conditions at the time of application:
- they must be research-intensive SMEs.
- they must be able to document that they have the scientific and financial resources to complete their share of the Eurostars project.
2.4. Specifically Concerning Applications for EIC Accelerator
For the EIC Accelerator, you may only apply for a grant for step two of the instrument. Grants are not awarded for preparing an application for step one. Therefore, you can only submit your application to EUopSTART once you are approved to apply for step two. Applicants for the EIC Accelerator must attach documentation of approval for step two (e.g. e-mail or screen dump) to their application to EUopSTART.
No grant is given to prepare an application for EIC Accelerator stage 1.
3. List of Funding Opportunities and Amounts
The following table lists the Horizon Europe programmes that are covered by EUopSTART funding, the various funding opportunities and the associated maximum grants available. Programmes that are not mentioned here are not covered by EUopSTART.
Type of EU Proposal |
Grant Amount
|
Grant
|
| Horizon Europe, Pillar II: Cluster Programmes & Pillar III: Research Infrastructures | ||
| Stage 1-proposal for 2-stage call | - | 75,000 |
| Stage 2-proposal for 2-stage call | 75,000 | 100,000 |
| Single-stage proposal/full proposal | 75,000 | 100,000 |
| Proposals for EU missions and partnerships under Horizon Europe will receive funding according to the same principle as above. |
0/75,000 |
75,/100,000 |
|
Horizon Europe, Pillar I: Scientific Excellence |
||
|
Marie Skłodowska- |
75,000 |
100,000 |
| European Research Council (ERC) Synergy Grant |
75,000 |
- |
|
COST |
0/75.000 |
75.000 |
| Horizon Europe, Pillar III: Innovative Europe | ||
| European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator, full proposal step two |
|
- |
| EIC Pathfinder | 75,000 | 100,000 |
| EIC Transition | 75,000 | 100,000 |
| European Innovation Ecosystems (EIE) |
75,000 | 100,000 |
| Eurostars | 75,000 | 100,000 |
4. How to Apply
4.1. General Requirements for the Application
It is a requirement for obtaining an EUopSTART grant that the project is in scope of the Horizon Europe call or topic that the application relates to.
The applicant must be eligible for funding (see section 1.3.) and the grant period must be of a minimum duration of 30 days (see sections 1.6. and 1.7.). The application must be written in Danish or English. You can apply for funding from the EUopSTART scheme for EU calls with an application deadline no later than 31 December 2026.
SMEs must attach the signed de minimis declaration (see section 2.1.) and applicants for the EIC Accelerator must also attach documentation of the invitation to step two (see section 2.4.).
It is a requirement that there are at least three partners in the project which constitutes a basis for the EUopSTART application.. However, ERC Synergy Grant requires at least two partners. The EIC Accelerator and Eurostars schemes, single applicants and two partners proposals for the Pathfinder and Transition schemes are exempted from this rule.
It is also a prerequisite for the payment of grants that an application is submitted to the Horizon Europe sub-programme to which the EUopSTART application relates and that no significant changes are made to the project in relation to the information provided in the EUopSTART application. The Horizon Europe application must fulfil all formalities in order to be evaluated.
4.2. Processing of Applications
The Agency will process your application on the basis of all material submitted in a timely manner. Post hoc submissions are, as a rule, not admissible. This is why the project will only be evaluated on the basis of the application. However, the Agency reserves the right to collect further documentation.
Applications that do not meet the general and formal requirements will not be evaluated.
Applications that are eligible for funding will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
- the applicant has described the concept for the research and development project in explicit and concrete terms (purpose and content). The description must be comprehensible to lay persons.
- the applicant gives a convincing account of how the project concept relates to the EU call (topic) or sub-programme for which the funding application is being made.
- the applicant accounts for the way in which the combination of the project concept and the applying organisation/outlined consortium match the proposed sub-programme, EU call and project type.
If the Agency receives a number of applications whose total sum exceeds the funds available, grants will be awarded to those applications that are assessed as best meeting the criteria.
In case a large number of applications are assessed equally, the agency can further prioritize applications for grants according to the following sub-criteria, in order of priority:
- The applicant is coordinator for a large consortium (more than 3 partners)
- The applicant is mono-beneficiary
- The applicant is coordinator for a small consortium (<3 partners)
- The applicant is partner in a consortium
The evaluation criteria form the basis for the Agency's evaluation of applications and its grant-award decision. As this is a competitive call for funding applications, fulfilment of the criteria is no guarantee that funding will be awarded.
4.3. Link to the Application Form
The electronic application form for EUopSTART is to be found in the e-grant system:
(*) Find more information about de minimis regulation for undertakings in the primary production of agricultural products:
(**) Find more information about de minimis regulation for undertakings in the fishery and aquaculture sector:
Questions about your grant?
Contact the granting unit
Weekdays: 09.00-12.00
T. +45 33 92 92 00
E-mail: bevilling@ufm.dk
Technical questions for e-grant?
Contact e-grant support
Weekdays: 09.00-12.00
T. +45 33 92 91 90
E-mail: support.e-grant@ufm.dk