The eligibility criteria for companies and research organisations differ between the participating countries / regions so it is important to check the program profile on the partner pages.

For most countries companies are eligible if they are SMEs following the EU definition, which is < 250 employees (full time equivalents) and < 50 M€ annual turnover or < 43 M€ balance sheet total.

However currently (click here for updates) for example Germany allows companies < 500 employees and Russia only companies < 100 employees.
Research organisations (Universities, Technical Universities, Fraunhofer,…) are eligible as partners with own funding if there is at least one company from the same country in most national /regional funding programs but for some (e.g. Russia) they may only be eligible as subcontractors.