Call for Startups, Entrepreneurs and Students: Straight2Market Program

Key Objectives

• Support the market launch of new or significantly improved food products.
• Facilitate PoCs between startups and retailers.
• Help entrepreneurs refine and test MVPs.
• Offer students tailored mentorship to engage with retailers.
• Drive innovation aligned with EIT Food’s Missions, including health, sustainability, and circular food systems.

Focus Areas

• Food Products:
  • Reduce risk of obesity & noncommunicable diseases (NCDs)
    • Products with reduced salt, sugar, and fats, or with improved nutritional profiles in line with European dietary guidelines.
  • Alternative sources:
    • Products using alternative proteins, new plant varieties, or innovative production techniques.
  • Reduce food waste & loss:
    • Products or processes based on revalorized or reintegrated food system side/waste streams.
  • Improve sustainability & circularity:
    • Products aligned with the EU Circular Economy Monitoring Framework, targeting CO₂ reduction, waste valorization, recycling, and innovation.
• Retail Technology Solutions:
  • Reduce food waste & loss:
    • Solutions that reduce food loss in retail operations and improve the customer experience.
  • Circular food systems:
    • Technologies that address sustainability and waste reduction challenges for retailers.
  • Resilient supply chains:
    •  Innovations using AI or digital tools to enhance supply chain robustness and adaptability.

Funding Information

• The total budget for this call is 300.000€. Recipients will receive a subgrant to fund their cost. This is cascade funding:
  • The project runs from July 2025 to July 2026. The maximum funding available for that period per application is 30.000€.
  • There is a 6 million EUR limit per participants from Member States of the European Union (EU) and from Horizon Europe Associate Countries for the whole 3-year Grant Agreement. Legal entities from nonHorizon Europe Associate countries can participate in consortia but are limited to funding of 60 000 over 3 years for a Grant Agreement. This funding is implemented under GA 01101912. In those limits are included all the EIT Funding awarded to an organization across all the activities and prizes for the 3-year grant agreement.

Eligibility Criteria

• Startup, scaleups and/or SMEs:
  • Applications will be accepted from organizations having the status of legal entities.
  • Be a SMALL sized company as defined in the EU recommendation 2003/361 (between 3 and 49 employees and less than 10 million turnover or balance sheet).
  • Comply with requests for documents during due diligence/validation.
  • PIC Number
• Entrepreneurs: BSc graduates, MSc students, graduates.
• Food product with an MVP: Food product with an MVP

For more information, visit EIT Food.