What Is FET Open?
FET Open is a European Union funding programme, managed by the Research Executive Agency, that backs the earliest, most speculative stages of scientific and technological research. Its premise is simple: the most radical new technologies — and the new markets they create — begin as high-risk ideas that conventional funding won't touch. FET Open exists precisely for those ideas.
The Six Gate Keepers
- Long-term vision — impact must reach well beyond the near future.
- Clear breakthrough — the work must be genuinely novel and ambitious, not incremental.
- Novelty — proposals must introduce an entirely new technology concept, not improve an existing one.
- Foundational character — the idea should seed a brand-new technology area.
- High risk, high gain — risk is acceptable, even expected; the potential societal payoff must justify it.
- Interdisciplinarity — applicants must demonstrate how they will forge new cross-disciplinary collaborations to reach a breakthrough.
Three Funding Lines and Who Can Apply
The FET programme divides into three tiers: FET Open (the widest net, targeting early-career researchers and high-tech SMEs); FET Proactive (building interdisciplinary communities around newly demonstrated promising fields); and FET Flagships (large-scale, long-term collaborations — examples include the Human Brain Project and advanced materials research).
Any legal entity is eligible — universities, research institutions, industry, technology-transfer organisations, or public authorities. The minimum requirement is a consortium of at least three independent participants drawn from at least three EU Member States or Associated States. Associated States include Norway, Israel, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, and others. Eligible costs cover personnel, travel, consumables, equipment, and publication.
Impact measurement is handled by FET-Traces, a dedicated research project carried out jointly by Fraunhofer ISI in Karlsruhe and AIT in Vienna, using bibliometrics, patent analysis, surveys, and workshops to assess FET's real-world effect.