EIT Health — Transformative Healthcare Instrument
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EIT Health
Free EIT Health intakeThe Transformative Healthcare Instrument funds a single healthtech SME to bring a solution closer to market: Biotech, MedTech, Digital Health & AI, or Biomarker/Diagnostics. It is not a standard grant. Every company that wins signs a Grant-to-Options-to-Equity Agreement, under which EIT Health receives options that can convert into shares in the company itself. The total call budget is €5,000,000 and up to 10 projects will be funded.
- Funding
- Between €300,000 and €500,000 per project, covering a maximum of 50% of total project costs. You secure the other half from your own resources, private funding or other grants. A request of exactly €500,000 triggers a financial capacity check.
- Who can apply
- One for-profit SME under the EU definition — no consortium. At least 4 FTE permanent salaried employees contracted for at least 50% of their working time, plus a CEO engaged on a full-time basis. Consultants and freelancers do not count towards the four. No listed shares and no ongoing IPO.
- Investment gate
- A closed Qualified Investment Round of at least €2,000,000 in total, with at least one new investor, closed between 24 June 2023 and 16 September 2026. It must be a priced round with a set valuation, and at least one new investor must be a professional investor deploying from an LP-financed fund.
- Maturity
- IML ≥ 5 for Biotech (safety/toxicity study stage), ≥ 6 for MedTech (initial clinical PoC), ≥ 7 for Digital (market validation) and ≥ 7 for Biomarker/Diagnostics, measured at the start of the project.
- Timeline
- Deadline 16 September 2026 at 16:00 CEST. Eligibility notification 7 October, remote evaluation outcome 28 October, online pitches 6–19 November, final award notification 9 December 2026. All projects start on 1 January 2027 and run for no more than 12 months.
- The equity condition
- The Grant-to-Options-to-Equity Agreement is signed at contracting and is a pre-requisite to the release of any funding. The contract template is public and its terms are concrete: EIT Health’s stake is capped at the grant awarded and converts mandatorily at your next financing round of €4,000,000 or more, at a 20% discount — no discount if that round closes within six months of signing. If no such round occurs, conversion follows at the maturity date, which the contract template sets at 15 January 2029 while the official FAQ still states 2030. A buy-out before conversion is possible for €2,000,000. Under the Equal Treatment clause, if you have recently signed convertible instruments, EIT Health may adopt those same terms. The agreement attaches to the company rather than the project, and where a holding structure applies, the parent company signs.
- Deadline
- 16 Sept 2026(closes 16:00 CEST — a hard deadline, late submissions are not considered)— 30 days remaining
- Max grant
- €300,000–500,000
Is this the right call for you? 8 conditions decide it
- 01Your qualifying round was a convertible note or a SAFE. The call document is explicit that these do not qualify — it must be a priced round with a set valuation.
- 02Your round closed outside the window. It must have closed between 24 June 2023 and 16 September 2026, which is the call opening minus 36 months, not the deadline minus 36 months.
- 03None of your new investors is a qualified, privately managed, profit-oriented professional investor deploying from an LP-financed fund. Business angels and strategic corporates alone are not enough.
- 04You are below the maturity threshold for your domain: IML 5 for Biotech, 6 for MedTech, 7 for Digital, 7 for Biomarker/Diagnostics. AI is not a separate category with a lower bar — it sits inside Digital Health & AI, at 7.
- 05You have fewer than 4 FTE salaried employees at 50% or more of their working time, or your CEO is not engaged full-time. Consultants and freelancers do not count.
- 06You cannot fund 50% of the project yourself. EIT Health funds at most half the total project costs, and the budget you submit must show the whole project, not just the funded part.
- 07You are already funded through another EIT KIC. This grant cannot be combined with other EIT or KIC funding.
- 08You are not willing to grant EIT Health options over equity in your company. Signing that agreement is a condition for the release of any funding at all.
Not a match on one of these? Then this call is not the one, which says nothing about the next. Calls open continuously: the free Match Report tells you which call does fit, or tells you plainly that none of them do, and our weekly digest tells you when a call you can enter opens.
Does EIT Health take equity in your company if you win the Transformative Healthcare Instrument?
Effectively yes, through options. Every successful applicant signs a Grant-to-Options-to-Equity Agreement before any funding is released. The investment is capped at the grant awarded. Conversion is mandatory at your next qualified financing round of €4,000,000 or more, at the lower of the current share price and the round price minus a 20% discount — the discount does not apply if that round closes within six months of signing. If no such round occurs, conversion follows at the maturity date, which the contract template sets at 15 January 2029 while the official FAQ states 15 January 2030. The company can settle all claims before conversion with a buy-out payment of €2,000,000. Under the Equal Treatment clause EIT Health may adopt convertible or option terms you have recently signed. The agreement attaches to the company rather than the project, and where a holding structure applies, the parent company signs.
Do you need a consortium for the EIT Health Transformative Healthcare Instrument, or can a single SME apply?
A single SME applies on its own. The call document addresses one applicant company throughout and never requires a consortium. One caution: the official FAQ mentions "consortium members" when explaining the payment schedule, which appears to be reused template text from a different EIT Health instrument. The call document is the higher-ranking source and is unambiguous.
What counts as the €2 million investment round — do SAFEs and convertible notes qualify?
They do not. The Qualified Investment Round must be a priced round with a set valuation; convertible notes and Simple Agreements for Future Equity are excluded by name. The round needs at least €2,000,000 of total investment within a 36-month period with at least one new investor contributing, and at least one of those new investors must be a qualified, privately managed, profit-oriented professional investor deploying from an LP-financed fund. The window is 24 June 2023 to 16 September 2026.
What innovation maturity level do you need at the start, and is AI judged separately?
The thresholds are IML ≥ 5 for Biotech at the safety/toxicity study stage, ≥ 6 for MedTech at initial clinical proof of concept, ≥ 7 for Digital at market validation, and ≥ 7 for Biomarker/Diagnostics. AI is not a separate domain with its own threshold: the official category is Digital Health & AI, which sits at 7 — the highest bar in the call, not the lowest.
How much do you have to co-finance, and when does the money actually arrive?
EIT Health funds a maximum of 50% of total project costs and you secure the rest from other sources. Payment runs on a cost-reporting model with two payments per year: a pre-financing payment, the first of which is made within three months of all contracts being signed and the project kicking off, and an annual balance payment after cost reporting. Projects start on a fixed date of 1 January 2027 and run for at most 12 months, so you carry a meaningful share of the project before the balance arrives.
Verified against BP2628_THI27_CallDocument_PUBLISHEDv3.pdf — version 3, 5 August 2026. Official source: https://eithealth.eu/opportunity/transformative-healthcare-instrument/ ↗
This is one of the best-paying open calls we track for a single company, and also the one where the decision is least about the writing. We check the round type, the maturity threshold for your specific domain and the options agreement with you before anything else, because those three decide the outcome long before an evaluator reads a proposal. If no priced round in your history clears the gate, we will tell you on day one rather than after you have spent a week on it.
Ready for EIT Health? Starting is free.
One structured intake, specific to this call. We confirm your fit, quote a fixed price, and only then decide together whether we write your EIT Health application. No obligation, no sales call.
Prefer your own language? Start the intake in Dutch, French, German, Spanish or Portuguese — we assess in your language and write the application in English.
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