EIT Manufacturing fallout

EIT Manufacturing, an European Union-backed manufacturing network, has entered liquidation after months of frozen funding left about 200 beneficiaries chasing roughly €15 million in unpaid grants. (sciencebusiness.net) The group filed for liquidation on March 25, 2026, after the European Institute of Innovation and Technology withheld payments during a fraud probe by the European Anti-Fraud Office, known as OLAF. Science|Business reported EIT Manufacturing had not received new funding from the parent agency since June 2024. (sciencebusiness.net) On April 7, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology said judicial liquidation proceedings were open and a court-appointed liquidator was handling claims. It told beneficiaries to file within two months from April 15 if they are based in France, or four months if they are based outside France. (eit.europa.eu) EIT Manufacturing was set up in 2019 as one of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology’s “Knowledge and Innovation Communities,” public-private networks that channel European Union money into startups, universities and industrial projects. The manufacturing community launched with 50 partners and was built to connect companies, researchers and entrepreneurs across Europe. (eit.europa.eu) Those networks do not usually pay every project directly from Brussels. They often use cascade funding, a pass-through model in which the central body receives European Union money and then distributes smaller grants to startups, universities and other participants through its own calls. (eitmanufacturing.eu) That structure became the pressure point here. The European Institute of Innovation and Technology said liabilities to beneficiaries sit with EIT Manufacturing ASBL, while it is cooperating with the liquidator; EIT Manufacturing’s own website says the association ceased operations on April 10, 2026. (eit.europa.eu) (eitmanufacturing.eu) The funding freeze followed OLAF findings that, according to an EIT spokesman quoted by Science|Business, identified “serious irregularities” in some calls for proposals and project selections. The same report said EIT had discussed a €163 million allocation for late 2025, but withheld the money after a second OLAF report in December 2025 found further irregularities. (sciencebusiness.net) Without that money, EIT Manufacturing tried to secure a bank loan to bridge the gap, according to Science|Business, but the lender wanted confirmation from EIT that future funding would arrive. EIT could not provide that letter, and the network ran out of cash. (sciencebusiness.net) The unpaid bills now land on organizations that already spent money expecting reimbursement. Sifted reported that more than 200 applicants were left without promised funds, with about half of them small and medium-sized businesses or startups. (sifted.eu) For those groups, the next step is not a new application round but an insolvency process. The opening of claims on April 15 gives creditors a route to seek payment, but it also confirms that one of the European Union’s manufacturing innovation vehicles is now being unwound in court. (eit.europa.eu)