Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF): Is Your Project Eligible?

The Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF) funds large collaborative R&D projects, but a strong company isn't enough on its own: the project has to pass a series of tests. With €40 million allocated to Call 8 and an arduous application process, you don’t want to be found ineligible on a technicality.

This guide sets out those tests in plain terms, so you can judge whether your project is a realistic candidate before you invest time in an application.

What kind of project does DTIF fund?

DTIF supports projects that deploy disruptive technologies, meaning technologies with the potential to create new products or change markets or the way businesses operate. The work must be industrial research, experimental development, or a mix of both, as defined in EU State aid rules. Fundamental research isn't funded, and neither are routine or periodic changes to existing products, production lines or processes, even when those changes are improvements. Importantly, funded projects are extraordinarily innovative, as implied by the name of the grant.

Projects are generally expected to sit at Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) 3 to 8. That runs from an experimental proof of concept (TRL 3) through to a complete, qualified system (TRL 8). Your project must also fit one of the Irish Research Priority Areas: ICT, health and wellbeing, food, energy and climate action, manufacturing and materials, or services and business processes.

A medical device company plans to take a proven concept for a new catheter system with better patient outcomes through laboratory validation and into a prototype demonstration. The work sits within TRL 3 to 8 and fits the health and wellbeing priority area.

A company that wants to add a new colour range to an existing device is making a routine change to a product that is already on the market, so that project wouldn't be funded.

It’s expected that the project will be multi-million euro project across multiple years. The average award size is €4 million across all DTIF calls to this point. In the previous call for projects, 41 applications were submitted for evaluation and 27 applications were approved for a record amount of funding of €159 million (making the average award size €5.9 million).

What are the hard eligibility rules?

Every application is checked against these conditions first. If it fails any of them, it's removed before the experts see it:

• The consortium requests at least €1.5 million over three years.
• The maximum project duration is three years, and projects shorter than two years are unlikely to be funded.
• The consortium has at least three independent partners seeking funding, including at least one SME and one other enterprise.
• Each funded partner is a client of Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland or Údarás na Gaeltachta, or an eligible Research Performing Organisation (RPO), at the date of application. Clients of Local Enterprise Offices aren't eligible.
• Enterprise partners are based in Ireland and registered with the Companies Registration Office, and the project work and claimable salaries are in Ireland.
• RPOs request no more than 50% of the total grant aid.
• Every partner confirms it has the financial and operational capacity to take part.

Irish semi-state bodies and public bodies can join as non-funded partners, but only if the project already has at least three other eligible partners.

What is an Undertaking in Difficulty, and could it rule you out?

DTIF operates under EU State aid rules, which don't allow aid to a company classed as an Undertaking in Difficulty. For most limited companies, that means one whose accumulated losses have wiped out more than half of its subscribed share capital.

Each enterprise partner must send in financial information before the call closes so its status can be checked, and failing to do so makes the application ineligible. There are different rules for young SMEs, so raise your company's position at the pre-eligibility stage.

Two companies each have €1,000,000 of subscribed share capital. Company A has accumulated losses of €300,000, which is 30% of its share capital, so it passes. Company B has accumulated losses of €2,000,000, which is 200% of its share capital, so it fails.

How are projects scored?

Eligible applications are reviewed by at least three independent international experts against four criteria, with a total of 300 marks available:

• Strength of the disruptive technology: 100 marks
• Economic impact and sustainability: 100 marks
• Excellence of the overall proposal and approach: 50 marks
• Quality and efficiency of the collaboration: 50 marks

Each criterion is scored from 0 to 100, and a project that scores below 60 on any one of them is removed from the process. Projects that pass are ranked by weighted score, and funding goes to the top-ranked projects until the call budget runs out. That means a project can be eligible and well scored and still go unfunded.

How much of your costs can DTIF fund?

DTIF pays a share of your eligible costs, not all of them. SMEs can receive up to 50%, large companies up to 40% and RPOs up to 100%. You must fund the rest from your own resources, and that contribution can't come from other State or EU funds or from another consortium member.

Which costs are eligible?

Costs must be relevant, reasonable and wholly necessary for the project, and they can only be incurred between the project start and end dates. For industry partners, the main categories are:

• Salaries for staff based in Ireland who work directly on the project, up to €150,000 a year per person. Staff are normally expected to spend at least 10% to 20% of their time on the project over a sustained period. Managing director and chief executive costs are generally not eligible, except in small enterprises, where up to 30% of their time may be accepted if it's critical to the project.
• Materials, where you choose the defined overheads approach, generally capped at 20% of your budget.
• Consultancy and contract research, which is available to SME partners only, must come from an arm's-length third party rather than a consortium member, and should be a minority of your costs. The maximum daily rate is €900 for short assignments.
• Capital equipment, depreciated over the time it's used on the project.
• External clinical trial costs up to phase 2A, where the results are a necessary input to the project.
• Overheads, at a flat rate of 20% under the simplified approach.

What doesn't DTIF fund?

Sales and marketing costs are never eligible. General production equipment, or equipment that will later become production equipment, isn't eligible, and building or renovation costs generally aren't either. Deposits or orders for equipment placed before the project start date aren't covered, and travel and subsistence is excluded for industry partners. You can't reclassify these costs as overheads to bring them back in.

How do you check your project before applying?

Every applicant must complete a pre-eligibility check with the Enterprise Ireland DTIF team before submitting a proposal, and applications for Call 8 close at 3pm on 3 February 2027. Use the check to test your consortium, project scope and TRL range against the rules above.

Key takeaways

• Eligibility is a project test as well as a company test. The work must be industrial research or experimental development in the expected TRL range, not fundamental research or routine change.
• The consortium rules are fixed. A missing SME, an ineligible partner or a failed Undertaking in Difficulty check ends an application before it's scored.
• DTIF funds a share of your costs. Plan your own contribution from the outset, and check that none of it comes from another State or EU fund.
• Sales, marketing, production equipment and buildings are out. Build your budget around salaries, consultancy, capital and the other eligible categories.
• Eligible isn't the same as funded. A weak score on any single criterion removes the project; the budget only goes to the top-ranked applications.

If you'd like a view on whether your project and consortium meet the DTIF criteria, contact Myriad to discuss your plans.