Does the Seal of Excellence give money?

Not by itself. It certifies that your proposal met all quality thresholds. Its value is downstream: many national and regional programmes offer dedicated funding lines or simplified procedures for Seal holders.

Which programmes award the Seal of Excellence?

Selected Horizon Europe instruments — most prominently the EIC Accelerator — award it to above-threshold proposals that were not funded due to budget limits.

What is the Seal of Excellence?

The Seal of Excellence is a quality label the European Commission awards to project proposals that scored above all evaluation thresholds in selected Horizon Europe instruments (notably the EIC Accelerator) but could not be funded because the call budget ran out. It certifies quality and unlocks alternative funding routes.

What it actually unlocks

A Seal is a portable evaluation: several member states and regions run funding lines that accept Seal-holding proposals with simplified or priority procedures — turning an "excellent but unfunded" EU application into a national grant. It also carries signal value with public banks and some private investors.

For a rejected-with-Seal founder the playbook is: identify your country's Seal-recognition instruments, resubmit there with minimal rework, and keep the EU resubmission option open for the next cut-off.

Official source: European Commission — Seal of Excellence.

Written by Tymofiy Badikov, founder of VIRA.space (Virtual Innovation Research Assistant) — operated by Space Tech Gateway Sp. z o.o., Kraków Technology Park. VIRA tracks live European space funding calls and checks your eligibility free: see live tenders.