Innovation Programmes
France and South Korea call for projects 2025
The national funding bodies from France – Bpifrance, and South Korea – Korea Institute of Advancement of Technology (KIAT) have allocated funding for organisations collaborating on international R&D projects.
You can submit your R&D project application for this call for projects between 12 May 2025 and 8 July 2025. Please see the ‘About this call’ section below for more information on the submission deadline. Your project consortium must include:
- at least one eligible French small or medium-sized enterprise (SME),
- at least one eligible South Korean company
The parties listed above must be unrelated parties (i.e. no direct, indirect, beneficial or constructive ownership interest between these parties.) and ensure no conflicting interests are present. The team should be led by a commercial company (main applicant) in the respective countries and may include other parties such as research institutes or universities.
Countries
About this call
Areas funded
This project call is for R&D projects in all thematic areas or application domains.
Timeline
- 12 May 2025: Call opens
- National submission deadline for both France and South Korea applicants:
- France – 8 July 2025, 17:00 CEST
- South Korea – 9 July 2025, 16:00 KST
- Brussels – 8 July 2025, 17:00 CEST
- November 2025: Projects can begin (expected)
Who can apply for this call
Eureka has limited eligibility criteria for organisations participating in a Network Projects consortium:
- Your project idea must represent international cooperation in the form of a specific project.
- The project must be directed at researching or developing an innovative product, process or service with the goal of commercialisation.
- The project must have a civilian purpose.
- Your consortium must include at least one France-based company and one South Korea-based company.
- No single organisation or country can be responsible for more than 70% of the project budget.
This call for projects has additional criteria for organisations to be eligible to receive funding.
Country information
France 🇫🇷
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Bpifrance has an open budget for this call for projects.
Participants from France can receive a loan of up to 3 million euro. The percentage of eligible project costs that can be funded depends on the type of organisation:
- 80% of eligible project costs for startups
- 60% of eligible project costs for small companies, midcap companies, and SMEs
- 0% of eligible project costs for large companies, universities, and research organisations
Companies with more than 2,000 full-time equivalent employees are not eligible for funding but can self-fund their project costs.
Research organisations and universities are not eligible for funding but can participate as subcontractors.
Additional eligibility criteria for applications from France
- The duration of your project may not exceed 36 months
- Your project consortium must have at least one company.
- All partners must express the will to cooperate and develop a new product, process, or service.
- Your product, process, or service must be innovative and there must be a technological risk involved.
Additional steps for applications from France
Before applying, you must contact your Chargé d’Affaires Innovation in your Bpifrance Regional Office to discuss the application with them.
Submit your national application (“demande d’aide à l’innovation”) on the Bpifrance En Ligne platform by 18 July 2025 at the latest. You will need to submit financial and technical documents requested by your Chargé d’Affaires Innovation.
More information is available on the website of Bpifrance.
Each ministry or funding agency will fund organisations according to local laws, rules, procedures and available budget.
If your ministry or funding agency does not have funding for organisations like yours, you can still join a project. Contact your ministry or funding agency for information about other funding options or self-funding.
South Korea 🇰🇷
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The Korean budget, provided by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) and managed by KIAT, is open to all applications from companies with registered R&D laboratories, research institutes and universities.
KIAT has an open budget for this call for projects.
Participants from South Korea can receive a grant of up to 500,000,000 South Korean won (approximately 305,716 euro with an exchange rate of ₩1.64/€1).
Project funding is comprised of government grants and civilian dues (cash and in-kind).
The amount of funding will vary depending on the type of organisation and project in accordance with Article 24 (funding criteria) and Article 25 (civilian dues) of the Common Operational Regulations for the Industrial Technology Innovation Programs.
Additional eligibility criteria for applications from South Korea
- Your project consortium must include at least one company (private enterprise). Research institutes and universities can also participate.
- Korean companies should have been in operation for more than one year after establishment; government (Korea Industrial Technology Association).
- Korean organisations must meet all eligibility criteria in accordance with local regulations.
Additional steps for applications from South Korea
- Submit a national application through KIAT’s Project Advanced Smart System, including Eureka’s application form (in English) before 9 July at 16:00 KST
- The total costs for each of the partners in your consortium should be reflected in your Eureka (SmartSimple) application and match your national application.
More information is available on the website of KIAT.
Each ministry or funding agency will fund organisations according to local laws, rules, procedures and available budget.
If your ministry or funding agency does not have funding for organisations like yours, you can still join a project. Contact your ministry or funding agency for information about other funding options or self-funding.
Application process
How to apply for this call
- Contact your national funding body using the contact form on Eureka’s website to discuss your project idea, financial viability, eligibility and national procedures.
- Create an account on our application portal (one per consortium) and select the funding opportunity you want to apply to.
- Using the portal, complete one application form per consortium (in English) and invite other consortium partners to fill in a partner form.
- Upload a GANTT chart (one per consortium), a signed and completed co-signature form (which you can download from the platform) and any additional required annexes.
- Your application will be checked for completeness and eligibility before being reviewed using a standard evaluation procedure. If successful, your project will receive a Eureka label.
- Your national funding body may carry out a further evaluation (performed by the NPC and technical experts) according to national rules before allocating funds to successful applicants.
- The final step is to complete and sign a consortium agreement (CA). We recommend that you seek legal advice when drafting your CA.
Additionally, each applicant must submit all required documents to their respective national funding authority and meet its due diligence process requirements.
How applications will be evaluated
Your project application will be reviewed according to our Network projects evaluation methodology.
1. Impact
- Is the market properly addressed (i.e. size, access and risks)?
- Is the value creation properly addressed (i.e. employment opportunities and environmental and societal benefits)?
- What are the competitive advantages of your project (i.e. strategic importance, enhanced capabilities and visibility)?
- Are your commercialisation plans clear and realistic (i.e. return on investment, geographical and sectoral impact)?
2. Excellence
- What is the degree of innovation? (i.e. is the proposed product, process or service state-of-the-art? Is there sufficient technological maturity and risk)?
- How is the new knowledge going to be used?
- Is your project scientifically and technically challenging for consortium partners?
- Is the technical achievability and risk properly addressed?
3. Quality and efficiency of implementation
- What is the quality of your consortium (i.e. balance of the partnership and technological, managerial and financial capabilities of each partner)?
- Is there added value through international cooperation?
- Is your project management and planning realistic and clearly defined (i.e. methodology, planning approach, milestones and deliverables)?
- Is your cost structure reasonable (i.e. costs and financial commitment for each consortium partner)?
4. Overall perception
Experts will list three positive and negative points to your application and finally state whether they recommend your project for public investment.
Your national funding body may carry out a further evaluation (performed by the national project coordinator and technical experts) according to national rules before allocating funds to successful applicants.
