Why planning for the EIC Accelerator matters?

In a cold and snowy February 2011, I was waiting for my plane back to Pisa from Stockholm Arlanda airport. I was intrigued by a quote on one of the walls at the gate: “Failing to plan is planning to fail”. This sentence has been credited to one of the greatest statesmen in human history. Of course I am not referring to Donald Trump, my young readers! You are not on Piers Morgan’s show here. The great statesman I am citing is Benjamin Franklin. His autobiography titled The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, is probably one of the best autobiographies out there and a fascinating journey throughout human nature teaching a lot of valuable lessons – including how key to success are hard work and planning.

To successfully navigate through the entrepreneurial journey and the EIC Accelerator, planning is not only vital, is key. In this short article, I will share our best practice we adopt at Lira when it comes to planning for the EIC Accelerator.

How long from start to finish?

We always recommend 4 months. The EIC Accelerator is a complex and lengthy format where one has to pay attention to every single detail. The last full application cut off date for this year is 05/10/2022. It would be best to start working on the application from the first/max second week of June.

The diagnostic module

In our infographic we suggest to allocate 1 week for the diagnostic module. It may seem a lot of time, in reality it gives the team the opportunity to familiarise with the platform, understand the complexity of the EIC Accelerator and the main areas to cover in the application. Call it the warming-up phase.

The short application

Best option would be to spend 1 month on the short application. You will be required to produce a 3-minute video, a 10-slide deck and go through at least 21 questions/1,000 characters including spaces on the online portal.

The full application

In 2021, 18% of all the full applications made to the face to face interview. This speaks volume on the importance of spending the right amount of time on the full application. We recommend 3 months to prepare a best-in-class pitch deck, the financial template and provide well put/comprehensive replies to at least 104 questions on the online portal. Bear in mind the number of questions/boxes is not fixed as it can vary depending on company/technology/industry/market segment. Do not forget to consider all the other annexes to be included at this stage of the submission process.

The face-to-face interview

2 to 3 weeks should be spent on training for the decisive 45′ minutes with the jury panel. You will face tough competition. In 2021, 48% companies were successful after the interview. Do not forget the first 10′ will be on the pitch deck submitted at the full-application stage. We will talk about the importance of the pitch deck in another article.

To sum up

The EIC Accelerator is an exciting and complex journey that requires both hard work and planning. To learn more about it, visit our Lira’s page and get in touch if you want to know how we can help you navigate through it.