| Participant | Country | Type | Budget |
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The rule that catches most consortia
It is not the SME share — most consortia clear that comfortably. It is the 70% cap applied to countries, not just to participants. Two partners from the same country can each sit well under 70% individually while their combined country share breaks the rule. Consortia usually discover this late, when the budget has already been negotiated with everyone, and the fix means reopening it.
The second is the SME 50% test excluding subcontracting. Subcontracting does not count toward the SME share, so a consortium that pushes work out to subcontractors can fall below 50% without any partner's own budget changing. If you are near the line, subcontracting decisions are eligibility decisions.
Why the national layer exists at all
Eurostars is decentralised. Eureka runs one central evaluation, but the money comes from each partner's own national funding body, under that country's rules, budget and procedures. So there are effectively two eligibility tests: the central one this tool checks, and a national one for every single partner.
The consequence is blunt and worth quoting: if you do not provide the information your national or regional funding body requires, your organisation may be considered ineligible to receive public funding, and the project may be declared ineligible. One partner missing a national step can end the whole project — and the partner who misses it is usually the one who assumed the central submission was the whole job.
Eligible is not the same as fundable
Clearing the budget rules gets you evaluated. Upload the application and get an independent, criteria-aligned review against the native Eurostars 1–6 scoring and its 3.6 criterion thresholds — every finding located, explained and paired with a fix.
Sources and limits
The four numeric rules are the published Eureka Eurostars eligibility criteria: at least two independent entities from at least two Eurostars countries with at least one from an EU or Horizon Europe Associated Country; the consortium led by an innovative SME from a Eurostars country; SMEs from Eurostars countries carrying 50% or more of total project cost excluding subcontracting; no single participant or country above 70% of project budget; duration 36 months or less; and an exclusive focus on civil applications.
The national obligations shown are prompts, not a legal register. National rules, budgets, forms and deadlines are set by each funding body, change between calls, and are published per country on the live Eurostars call page. This tool tells you what to go and check and who to ask. It cannot tell you your country's current answer, and you should not treat it as though it can — confirm every item with your own national funding body before submission.
GrantWise is independent and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of Eureka, the European Commission or any national funding body.