Open Horizons Open Call #2 offers up to €55,000 in equity-free funding, mentoring, and pilot co-development opportunities for women-led deep-tech startups. Apply by 29 Jan 2026.
About Open Horizons Open Call 2
Open Horizons is designed to facilitate the growth and internationalisation of startups by providing direct financial support and access to a robust acceleration programme. The initiative seeks to enable founders to scale their ventures, attract investment, and contribute to regional and sectoral innovation.
The purpose of Open Horizons Open Calls is to identify and select promising women-led, digital, and deep-tech startups in Europe, specifically at the early stages, offering them a unique opportunity to participate in a tailored open innovation programme. Designed to upscale the capabilities of innovative startups, the programme provides structured pathways to access significant investment and growth opportunities. The overarching goal of OC#2 is to support the development and enhance the investment potential of these startups, helping them scale their solutions and create long-term impact within the deep-tech ecosystem.
As part of this initiative, a curated set of real, market-driven challenges provided by leading corporates have been identified. These challenges represent concrete technological problems that require innovative, deep-tech solutions offering startups a unique opportunity to test, validate, and potentially co-develop their technologies with real-world applications and demand. Startups applying to this call will be invited to select one of the published challenges that aligns with their solution and propose how they can address it.
Why Apply to Open Horizons Second Open Call?
Despite progress in supporting women innovators, significant gaps remain. Independent analyses from the European Investment Bank show that women continue to face disproportionately high barriers in securing both funding and corporate partnerships.
Against this backdrop, Open Horizons stands out as a necessary initiative. It directly connects women-led deep tech and digital teams with corporate partners under a structured, risk-mitigating, and equity-free model.
The purpose of Open Horizons OC#2 is to actively involve women-led digital or deep-tech early-stage startups in Europe. This call seeks to identify and choose promising startups to participate in the programme. Through an open innovation process, startups will develop a project to solve an innovation challenge proposed by a corporation. The overarching goal is to offer support that nurtures the development and investment potential of these startups, with the ultimate aim of cultivating them into leading women figures in deep tech innovation within Europe.
The primary objective is to enhance the development and investment capacity of these startups, with the overarching aim of positioning them as leading women figures in advanced technological innovation across Europe.
This call offers a total of €440,000, up to €55,000 per beneficiary, to support the growth and development of startups. In addition, it includes a comprehensive acceleration programme providing business mentoring, tailored assistance, access to a wide network of key stakeholders, expert knowledge, and promotional opportunities.
Who Can Apply?
Open Horizons focuses on supporting women-led, digital and deep-tech startups in Europe, specifically in the early stages. This section outlines specific criteria and conditions, establishing eligibility for potential beneficiaries.
Here are the key definitions that guide the selection of beneficiaries:
- Established country:the applicant must beestablished in an EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country.
- Member States: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden.
- Horizon Europe Associated Countries: Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Faroe Islands, Georgia, Iceland, Israel, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Tunisia, Türkiye,Ukraineand the United Kingdom.
- SME:
Under Horizon Europe, a startup is understood as a small or medium-sized enterprise (SME) in the early stages of its life cycle. This includes newly established companies, particularly those created as spin-offs from university research activities, that aim to deliver innovative solutions and develop scalable business models. Such entities must be autonomous within the meaning of Article 3 of the Annex to Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC.
Therefore, startups must meet the criteria of an SME as defined in Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC, namely:
- Employing fewer than 250 persons (measured in Annual Work Units – AWU);
- Having an annual turnover not exceeding EUR 50 million, or an annual balance sheet total not exceeding EUR 43 million.
- Be autonomous within the meaning of Article 3 of the Annex to the above mentioned recommendation
- Early-stage startup:
Early-stage refers to the phase of a startup’s development, generally preceding the rapid growth phase. The following requirements must be met:
The legal entity must have been established at least six months before the submission of the application and must not have been established and operating for more than six years, counting backwards from the submission date of the application and;
- Startups must have raised €1M or less in equity
- Presence of women:
The startup must be founded or co-founded by a woman. The founder or co-founder of the company must also currently hold a top management position (CEO, CTO, CSO or equivalent) within the same company. It will also be required that women hold at least 25% of the shares in the CAP table (capitalisation table) of the company.
- Deep-tech/ Digital startups: To be eligible for the Open Horizons project, startups must clearly fall into one of the following categories: Deep-tech or Digital.
Digital and deep-tech startups are innovation-driven companies that build their value around technology, but differ in the nature of that technology. Deep-tech startups develop breakthrough solutions rooted in scientific research and advanced technologies such as AI, robotics, life sciences, advanced materials, clean tech, and next-generation computing. Their work pushes the boundaries of what current technologies can achieve and aims to deliver impactful, science-based solutions to complex societal challenges.
Digital startups, on the other hand, create innovative products and services by leveraging existing digital tools—such as software, mobile apps, cloud platforms, and data analytics—to transform processes, user experience, and business models across sectors like fintech, edtech, digital health, or e-commerce. While both contribute to the digital economy, only startups developing novel scientific or technological breakthroughs are considered deep-tech.
How to Apply to Open Horizons Open Call 2
All proposals must be submitted via the Cascade funding platform operated by SPLORO, which will be the entry point for submission and participation in the open call.
Proposal Requirements for Open Horizons Open Call 2
Eligibility criteria
All documents and application forms must be completed in English and all required documents must be uploaded.
The startup operates in the digital and/or deep-tech sector and is linked to the strategic domains listed in the call.
The startup is founded or co-founded by women holding a top management position (CEO, CTO or equivalent) at submission.
Women must own at least 25% of the company’s shares at submission.
The startup must be a legal entity.
The company is established in an eligible country/region, registered for at least 6 months, and operating for less than 6 years.
The startup meets the SME criteria (Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC):
< 250 employees (AWU)
Turnover ≤ EUR 50M or balance sheet ≤ EUR 43M
Autonomous as defined in the Recommendation
The company has not raised over EUR 1M in equity by the submission date.
The proposal is unique and not previously funded (no double funding).
The startup has no conflict of interest with consortium partners.
The company is not bankrupt and has no ongoing bankruptcy proceedings.
Automatic red flags check
This step involves an automated filtering process to assess whether startups align with the programme’s objectives. Four key indicators, or “red flags,” will be evaluated:
- Whether the startup has the capacity to survive without grants.
- Whether the company demonstrates a strong orientation towards growth.
- Whether the startup has an interest in scaling and attracting investors.
- Whether the startup is genuinely deep-tech-focused.
Only those applications that pass this automatic filtering will proceed to the next phase. The number of filtered applications will be limited to a maximum of 50 to ensure a manageable evaluation process.
In order to avoid fit-for-purpose proposals, the red-flags will be published only at the end of the project.
Before moving to the evaluation process an extra step has been included, namely ‘Alignment check by corporates’.
Corporate partners will verify whether each application aligns with the challenge they proposed. Only aligned applications will move to the Remote Evaluation phase.
Evaluation and Selection Process Open Call 2
The evaluation of Open Horizons proposals is based on a six-step approach:
- Eligibility check,
- Automatic red flags,
- Alignment check by corporates,
- Remote evaluation,
- Normalisation of results and
- Interview
Remote Evaluation
Two independent external evaluators (technical and business profiles) will assess each proposal against three criteria: Excellence, Implementation, and Impact, following EC standards and conflict-of-interest rules.
1) Excellence
Evaluators assess:
a) Alignment with the selected corporate challenge
b) Degree of innovation and feasibility
c)Technicalapproach and expected impact
d) Use of Open Science practices
2) Implementation
Evaluators assess:
a) Teamexpertiseand commitment
b) Clarity and logic of the activity plan
c) Quality and coherence of the Gantt chart for the 6-month period
d) Risk identification and mitigation measures
3) Impact
Evaluators assess:
a) Relevance, innovation potential, and ability to address a deep-tech challenge
b) Market readiness and feasibility of deployment
c) Contribution to green, digital, or social transitions
d) IPR strategy and alignment with the business plan
Evaluators will score each proposal from 0 to 5 for each criterion. To be considered for funding, proposals must score ≥3 in each criterion and ≥10 overall.
Additional Support Beyond Funding
The programme follows a structured two-phase format. In the first development phase, selected startups refine solutions to corporate-defined challenges, supported by funding, mentorship and expert guidance. This is followed by a five-month pilot, during which each startup implements its project with its corporate partner while receiving ongoing guidance, industry access and investor exposure.
After the pilot, startups move into a growth phase focused on scaling and unlocking new commercial and investment opportunities. This includes:
Corporate Venture Capital Engagement: Structured introductions to CVC teams to support follow-on funding or strategic partnerships aligned with corporate priorities and sustainability goals.
Commercial Opportunity Exploration: Meetings with potential customers inside and outside the partner corporations, facilitated by INNOVX and MIGROS, helping startups identify new use cases and markets.
Joint Venture Support: Where relevant, INNOVX will help initiate joint venture discussions to scale the solution and build long-term collaborative value.
Important Dates
- 2nd InfoDay Session: 12th of January 2026, 16:00 CET (Brussels)
- Submission Deadline: 29.01.2026, at 17:00H* CET (Brussels time)
- Remote Interviews: end of April 2026
- Acceleration Program: beginning of May – October 2026
Final Thoughts on Open Horizons Open Call 2
Only 2.1% of Venture Capital funding goes to women-led startups. OPEN HORIZONS is here to flip that stat. Its mission is to scale women-led digital and deep-tech startups by connecting them with corporations through paid pilots and follow-on agreements, empowering women entrepreneurs, bridging gender gaps in innovation, and fostering collaboration to drive cutting-edge solutions. Join Europe’s most ambitious programme for funding women-led deep tech and digital ventures and get a chance to receive up to €55,000 equity-free funding and support in corporate engagement, investment readiness, and scaling opportunities.
More Information
For further details on the Open Horizons project, please visit the official website and application platform:
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