The Eurostars program is being continued following a positive policy evaluation of Dutch participation in Eureka instruments. As a result, Eurostars remains an important instrument for market-oriented R&D in international consortia, with a direct focus on new products, processes, and services aimed at commercialisation.

This is relevant for innovative SMEs with international ambitions: Eurostars combines international knowledge and market access with a subsidy for R&D project costs, provided the consortium complies with the rules (including an SME as project leader and cooperation between at least two Eurostars countries).

What is Eurostars?

Eurostars is a program within the Eureka network that supports international, market-oriented R&D projects. Such projects are characterised by:

• an innovative SME leads the consortium (project coordinator);
• at least two independent organisations from at least two Eurostars countries; and
• its application- and market-oriented focus (development towards prototype/implementation and exploitation).

Why Eurostars is practical for companies

Eurostars is particularly interesting if you:

• want to develop faster with international complementary expertise (tech, test facilities, market access);
• have a clear business case (commercial application, route to market); and
• want to professionally document IP and collaboration (consortium agreements, roles, exploitation).

Eurostars in the Netherlands: grant amount and percentages

National grant rules apply to Dutch participants, including:

• maximum grant: € 500,000 per project for the Dutch project share;
• grant percentages of eligible R&D project costs:
  • SME: 50%
  • Knowledge institution: 50%
  • Large enterprise/other participants: 40%

(National conditions and available budget may vary per call; RVO publishes this per opening.)

Application process: two phases

A Eurostars application consists of two steps:

1. International submission via the Eureka platform (myeurekaproject).
2. 2. Following the international award, the national application to RVO follows (by invitation, within the national timeframe).

Next call: deadline March 19, 2026

The 10th call of Eurostars-3 is open from January 16th, 2026, to March 19th, 2026, 14:00 (CET).

This means that this is a logical moment to assess whether a Eurostars project fits within your innovation agenda, and to act in a timely fashion to:

• sharpen the project idea (scope, TRL ambition, route to market);
• build the consortium (roles, IP, operations);
• consistently develop work packages, planning, impact, and budget.

The Future: from project scoping to submission

Recently, as The Future, we guided a successful Eurostars application for RIFT and Evonik: ReWhire – Re-using waste hydrogen for iron oxide reduction. An industrial R&D project with clear technological development and scaling potential. (Further details regarding assessment and scoring are not public.)

We also handle the entire process for other organisations, consider:

• project scoping (technical core, innovation claim, scope definition, deliverables);
• consortium setup (partner roles, IP/exploitation, governance);
• application elaboration (work packages, impact, risks, planning, budget logic); and
• review & submission (consistency, compliance, and evidence-based substantiation).

Interested in exploring this?

Would you like to check if Eurostars fits your R&D roadmap and international collaboration ambitions? Contact us.