Warped flywheel. Companies don’t want this money. Why?

– In the years 2021–2025, only about 50 entities from Poland received funding under the EIC, including the Pathfinder, Transition and Accelerator paths for a total amount of EUR 32.8 million. Of these, only ten (EUR 23.8 million) are accelerator projects, which are closest to the market. That’s an average of two projects a year. On a European scale, we are… second from last. We only skip Bulgaria – says Mateusz Sagan, the Polish ambassador of the program, in Business Insider.

Only 0.5% went to Polish companies. from the pool of money already spent, and the total EIC budget for 2021-2027 is EUR 10 billion, of which approximately EUR 6.5 billion has already been spent. EIC (European Innovation Council) is the flagship EU instrument financing advanced technological projects – from basic research to business entry into the global market. For Poland, the current financial perspective is already lost. Why are Polish companies not interested in EIC? For at least two reasons.

Polish companies treat themselves with taste

The European Innovation Council (EIC) is a key program of the European Union under Horizon Europe, supporting breakthrough technologies, startups and high-risk small and medium-sized enterprises. It offers grants and capital investments (mainly EIC Accelerator, Pathfinder, Transition) for the development of deep tech innovations.

The SME sector (micro, small and medium-sized enterprises) accounts for as much as 99.8 percent. all companies in Poland. They employ over 6.9 million people (over half of the working population) and generate nearly half (approximately 45-46%) of GDP. The main financing instruments in EIC are the paths mentioned by Mateusz Sagan:

• Accelerator (€634 million in 2026): Aimed at startups and SMEs (single entities) to scale breakthrough innovations. It offers grants of up to EUR 2.5 million (70 percent of the costs) and capital investments from EUR 0.5 to EUR 15 million.

• Pathfinder (EUR 262 million in 2026): For research teams conducting visionary research on new technologies (grants up to EUR 4 million).

• Transition (EUR 100 million in 2026): To transform Pathfinder research results into market innovations – grants up to EUR 2.5 million.

– When other countries build fast-growing champions on this money, we treat it with gusto – admits Mateusz Sagan.

Money from the EU is systematically escaping from Polish companies

There are two reasons for this situation. The first is poorly funded basic research. There is no shortage of examples: graphene, perovskites, new material technologies and modern molecules and drugs. – Scientists with PhDs earn PLN 4,000–5,000. PLN, they flee abroad, or even complete their PhDs outside Poland and stay there – explains Mateusz Sagan.

The second reason is intermediaries and the way the Polish grant system functions – from NCBR, through PARP, to regional operational programs. – Applicants are not prepared to compete with the best in Europe. Additionally, we are faced with a very difficult system of functioning of intermediary institutions in Poland, which additionally discourages many people from applying – says Mateusz Sagan and adds: – In Poland, a company applying for funding is automatically treated as a fraud by the institutions responsible for financing. It is assumed in advance that he wants to steal public money, spend it badly, and not miscalculate it.

The EIC program focuses on clearly defined areas: renewable energy sources, health care, advanced technologies such as AI, quantum computing, semiconductors and broadly understood space tech. Improving the production of windows or asphalt is not an option here.

Opportunity for Poland is a pilot version of the accelerator intended for the so-called emerging countries in the EU such as, among others, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia and Malta, the so-called “EIC Pre-Accelerator” – grant up to PLN 500,000 euros just to prepare for the actual full target application under the EIC Accelerator. Approximately 3,200 applications were submitted during the pilot, including almost 100 from Poland.