Overview of Eureka

If your company is interested in new product development in collaboration with international companies you should look into the EUREKA programme.

EUREKA network does not fund projects but evaluates your collaborative project plan and endorses it as EUREKA approved project.  Irish company support for EUREKA projects is funded through the Enterprise Ireland R & D Fund.

EUREKA is a close-to-market R&D programme involving 37 European countries. Its principal objective is to strengthen the productivity and worldwide competitiveness of companies in Europe.

Results stemming from EUREKA projects are everywhere: gsm mobile phone technology; navigation systems; smartcards to support mobile and electronic commerce; film special effects software for cinema; state-of-the-art medical devices and technologies to monitor and limit environmental pollution.

By participating in international EUREKA workshops and brokerage events you can avail of the opportunity to meet potential partners for future R&D collaboration while keeping up-to-date with recent technological developments.

In EUREKA you and your collaborating partners decide for yourselves on the subject-matter, scale and duration of your R&D project.

Am I eligible?

Requirements for EUREKA Projects:

• The project must be built around innovative R&D with a strong industrial, market, and exploitation orientation,
• You should have at least one collaborating partner in another EUREKA member country,
• You must have secured project funding through the Enterprise Ireland R&D fund and
• The project must be non-military, and environmentally friendly.

Researchers in HEIs are eligible for funding if there is an Irish industrial partner also participating in the consortium.

Maximum funding available

We can provide companies with up to 50% financial support towards the cost of participating in such events.

For researchers in HEIs, 100% funding up to a maximum of €250,000 can be provided to cover additional research costs.

How to Apply/Call Close Dates and details?

For companies, funding to participate in a EUREKA project must be applied for through the Enterprise Ireland R&D Fund.

For HEIs, funding to participate in a EUREKA project must be applied for through the International Research Fund, for details, read IRF Guidelines.

Visit the EUREKA website for information on the Eureka project database and details of over 1,800 projects. You can also subscribe to this RSS feed of success stories from companies that have participated in Eureka projects

EUREKA Clusters

The EUREKA Clusters are longer-term, strategically significant industrial research initiatives.  They usually have a large number of participants and aim to develop generic technologies of key importance for European competitiveness, primarily in ICT. Successful projects are awarded the Cluster ‘label’.  The Clusters issue ‘Calls for Proposals’, usually once a year.

The projects must involve collaboration between independent organisations from at least two member countries. SMEs, large companies, third level colleges and research institutes may take part in EUREKA clusters. However, Enterprise Ireland will not support a college partner without participation by an industry partner. For a proposal to be successful there would have to be clear an obvious benefit to the Irish company e.g. increase in turnover, sales, employment etc, and to Ireland.

The EUREKA Clusters are:

CELTIC is an industrial R&D programme dedicated to communication techniques, systems and services.  It encompasses pre-development and experimentation of broadband and multimedia services, applications and equipment, including their control, operation, administration and management.

ITEA 4 - The emphasis in this cluster is on products and production processes with integrated circuits containing permanently built-in software programmes.  The target entities are likely to be the manufacturing firms engaged in such production, as well as circuit designers and specialised software houses.

EURIPIDES- In this cluster, projects must show technical innovation in the future product with the development of complete subsystems and systems making use of micro and nano-technologies, integration, interconnection and packaging.  

CATRENE (Cluster for Application and Technology Research on NanoElectronics) aims to deliver nano/microelectronics solutions that respond to the needs of society at large, improving economic prosperity in Europe and reinforcing the ability of the industry to be at the forefront of global competition.