One-liner: EU programme (Women TechEU 2 EIC) backing women-led early-stage deeptech startups with a €75,000 equity-free grant plus a personalised business-development package (mentoring, coaching, training). Live now and continuing — the EIC confirmed (12 Jun 2026) another €12M round.
Status: OPEN — 2026 restart with rolling weekly cut-offs. Supersedes the old "urgent — verify" note. 2026-07-15 recheck: still OPEN and on schedule (authoritative source womentecheurope.eu/active-calls re-read live) — opening 1 Jun 2026, weekly Tuesday 17:00 CEST cut-offs, first 30 Jun 2026. The page now displays the final cut-off as 14 Jun 2027 (the 2026-07-05 capture read it as 13 Jul 2027 — treat as a minor page-copy drift, not a schedule change; the call runs weekly for ~a year either way). Note — do not confuse with the predecessor: the older EISMEA-run Women TechEU (2022–2026 editions, eismea.ec.europa.eu) concluded its final edition in March 2026 ("no more calls planned under the 2024-26 edition"). This page is the newer, distinct "Women TechEU 2 EIC" cascade-funding instrument run by the womentecheurope.eu consortium under the EIC — it is the live one.
What you get
- €75,000 in non-dilutive (equity-free) funding.
- A personalised business-development programme: mentoring, coaching and training for scale-up.
Who it's for
- Women-led early-stage deeptech startups established in Europe (EU + associated countries).
- "Women-led" and eligibility specifics are defined in the Guidelines for Applicants — read them before applying.
How to apply (two-stage process)
- Eligibility Strand first — confirm you meet the participation requirements via the
Applicant Platform (Sploro).
- Opens 1 June 2026 · weekly cut-offs every Tuesday 17:00 CEST · first cut-off 30 June 2026 · final cut-off 13 July 2027.
- Results communicated via the Sploro platform within ~1 week of each cut-off.
- Full Proposal — eligible applicants are then invited to submit a full proposal (full-proposal stage opens July 2026, with multiple submission deadlines).
- Read the Guidelines for Applicants and Annex 1 application form; submit well ahead of your chosen cut-off.
New (2026-07-05): Open Call for Evaluators — Women TechEU is also recruiting independent evaluators to assess Full Proposal applications. Opens 15 June 2026, closes 30 July 2026 at 15:00 CEST. Relevant for Valencia-ecosystem experts wanting a paid/recognized role in the EIC evaluation process (not a founder-facing benefit, but worth flagging to mentors/advisors in the network). Apply: Evaluators platform · Guidelines for Evaluators (PDF).
Key facts
- €75k equity-free · rolling weekly eligibility cut-offs to 13 Jul 2027 · run under the EIC (European Innovation Council).
- Locally, CEEI Valencia surfaces the call in its open-calls aggregator; the authoritative source is womentecheurope.eu.
Relations
- See also: CEEI Valencia
- See also: EIT KIC Accelerators
- See also: CDTI Sello de Excelencia EIC 2026
- See also: Deeptech (niche)
- See also: Female Entrepreneurship (support)
- See also: WA4STEAM