Seminar held by EARTO,featuring Davide Lombardo, Senior Expert, formerly Deputy Head of the STEP Task Force, European Commission, and Maud Noyon, Head of Sector, “Competitiveness, Financial Instruments and STEP” Unit, European Commission.

This webinar, held on 25 June 2026, aimed to provide a progress update, offer practical assistance, and prepare for the future of European funding. Representatives from the European Commission took turns presenting the STEP programme (Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform ) in its entirety.

1. Presentation of STEP

STEP is a European initiative that was launched in 2024 and that responds to the European Union’s desire to be more competitive against other global powers — an ambition notably affirmed in the Draghi and Letta reports. It aims to boost investment in innovation and competitiveness.

STEP is not, however, a new fund, since it brings together and redirects funding from 11 existing European programs, 5 of which are directly managed by the Commission (Horizon Europe, EU4Health, the Innovation Fund, etc.) and 6 others managed indirectly, allocated by the Member States. Indeed, the Member States and the European Commission redirect the money available within these 11 programs toward shared strategic priorities.

To date, this has made it possible to mobilize more than €29 billion in total, split almost equally between roughly €15 billion under direct management and €15 billion under shared management with the States (redirection of cohesion funds toward these strategic technologies by 20 Member States). However, to date, only €4 billion has actually been committed through local calls for projects. This leaves a massive budget of around €11 billion still available.

To fall within the scope of the platform, a project must either aim to reduce the European Union’s strategic dependencies, address labor or skills shortages, or develop/manufacture cutting-edge technologies in one of 4 defined sectors: digital technologies and deep tech, clean and resource-efficient technologies, biotechnologies, and — more recently added — defense.

Under the STEP regulation, to be eligible, each project must meet three cumulative conditions: the type of investment, the sector of activity, and the strategic contribution. Each of these conditions is subject to well-defined criteria detailed in the STEP regulation.

To roll out across Europe, STEP relies on three tools:

• The STEP portal, which brings together all funding opportunities on a single portal.
• The STEP Seal, a quality label that facilitates access to alternative funding.
• A support network via national contact points.

2. Focus on the STEP Seal

The STEP Seal is awarded during project evaluation. To date, 729 seals have been awarded: 374 for clean technologies, 254 for digital, and 101 for biotechnologies. They allow projects to use the seal as a springboard to access other public or private funding, such as ERDF or ESF+ funds.

Indeed, the STEP Seal offers greater visibility, as the projects that receive it are published on the dedicated dashboard from the STEP portal. For certain projects, the seal is also intended to facilitate connections with private investors.

However, the awarding of the STEP Seal shows certain limits. Obstacles are indeed observed notably with State aid, since it is difficult for Member States to fund these projects without running into difficulties with European competition rules. Unlike the former “Seal of Excellence,” the STEP Seal has not been able to benefit from special treatment or a specific exemption from the very strict rules governing “State aid” in Europe. To address this limitation, the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition is proposing a compromise: favoring State aid granted in advance (ex ante) for projects that collectively involve several European countries. If an innovation is carried out by several Member States at once, the risk that a single wealthy State captures all the benefits is considerably reduced.

Another issue encountered is the lack of funding through recovery plans (RRF). Regulations stipulated that projects holding a STEP Seal should be considered a priority by Member States when allocating funds from the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). In practice, however, no Member State has yet used these specific funds to support a STEP-labeled project.

3. What comes next for STEP?

As part of the new multiannual financial framework (2028–2034), which is currently being drawn up, the Commission has proposed the creation of a European Competitiveness Fund, with a massive budget of €451 billion. Since STEP ends at the close of the current budget period (2027), the program should be merged into the European Competitiveness Fund.

Regarding the Competitiveness Seal, the Commission wants to unify the various existing labels (STEP Seal, Seal of Excellence, etc.) under a single banner: the Competitiveness Seal.This will help encourage stronger synergies between different budgets and provide a single label recognized by both public funds and private investors. It should be noted, however, that labels obtained before the end of the program will remain valid for another 3 to 4 years after 2027 for the purpose of applying to regional cohesion funds, since these have a longer implementation timeline.

Today, STEP relies on 11 different programs, each with its own rules. Under the next financial framework, they will be governed by a single rulebook (“One Rulebook”), with the aim of consolidating this support with common, simplified rules for all project applicants, making the system clearer and more effective.

The current STEP web portal is a first attempt to centralize calls for tender managed directly by the EU as well as those managed by the regions. For the next financial framework, the Commission wants to go much further by creating a “Single Gateway,” which will centralize information and access to the entirety of European Union funding.

(Author’s note: the Funding and Tender portal is already supposed to centralize all opportunities. We hope it will serve as a starting point for the “Single Gateway.”)

A reform of the cohesion funds managed by the States will also take place under the next financial framework. This drive for simplification will also apply to funds managed by Member States, i.e., under shared management. The many current regional and national funds should be grouped together under large “National Plans” (NRPPs). Member States will then be required — drawing inspiration from what was initiated with STEP — to incorporate strong strategic objectives on competitiveness and innovation into these plans.

Further details on the webinar can be found at Camille’s LinkedIn post.

Authors: Camille MAISSE, Landry COCHARD