European Innovation Council readies €17.5 million to support rapid growth of innovative companies
Innovative companies across Europe can now apply for up to €17.5 million in combined grant and equity financing to scale-up quickly and effectively through the EIC ‘Accelerator’ pilot, increasing support for ground-breaking concepts that could shape new markets or disrupt existing ones in Europe and worldwide. This comes following the announcement in March by the Juncker Commission of a €2 billion Enhanced EIC pilot, to turn Europe's scientific discoveries into businesses that can scale up faster.
To celebrate the start of this new scheme, Carlos Moedas, EU Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation said:
When we designed the European Innovation Council our top priority was to focus on the needs of our European innovators. This kind of entrepreneurs often need more funding and support than grant schemes alone can offer; the EIC Accelerator pilot will test a grant and equity blended financing model, paving the way for a fully-fledged European Innovation Council in the next EU research and innovation framework programme, Horizon Europe
The Accelerator pilot will support high-potential enterprises (mainly small and medium-sized - SMEs), with financing as well as coaching and mentoring, to develop and bring to market new products, services and business models that could drive economic growth, filling the market gap by support innovation considered ‘high-risk’ for private investors. It is complemented by the EIC Pathfinder Pilot, which supports advanced technologies/early-stage innovation. Together both instruments of the EIC cover the entire innovation chain.
Background
Currently in its pilot phase, the EIC will become a ‘fully-fledged’ reality from 2021 under the next EU research and innovation programme Horizon Europe (2021-2027). The Commission has proposed to dedicate €10 billion to the EIC under Horizon Europe for support to innovators through two main funding instruments – the Pathfinder for advanced research (for early-stage research) and the Accelerator, a blended financing model (grants plus equity).
The Commission will announce shortly the appointment of 15 to 20 innovation leaders to an EIC Advisory Board to oversee the EIC pilot, prepare the future EIC, and champion the EIC globally. In addition, a call for recruitment will be published in June to recruit a first set of “programme managers” with leading expertise in new technologies to provide full-time, hands-on support for projects.
Source: ec.europa.eu
Smart energy and adult care leading the latest round of UK funding
The Summer session of UK funding opens up with two key topics: Smart energy and Social care.
Smart, affordable energy is the aim of the recently opened Round 7 of the Energy Catalyst, which encourages the development of products and services that will help poorer households and enterprises in sub-Saharan Africa access to accessible electricity for the first time by 2021. On the other hand, increasing demand in adult social care services is the main drive for the next Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) competition, which aims to use technology to make adult social care provision more effective and efficient, and reduce demand on social care services.
Affordable energy in the sub-Sahara
Following what the World Energy Council defined as the ‘Energy Trilemma’, the Energy Catalyst will allocate up to £22 million (partly funded by the Department for International Development and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) to invest in innovative, market-focused energy technologies that will address:
- cost – reducing prices to make energy accessible to everyone
- emissions – generating cleaner energy with lower emissions
- security of supply –reliable infrastructure to keep energy flowing without disruption or shortage
The competition will run from 17 June 2019 to 18 September 2019 and it is going to be divided in three different strands, following different TRLs:
- early – feasibility study
- mid-stage – R&D stage
- late stage – prototype and pilot testing (testing or demonstration must be carried out in sub-Saharan Africa or South Asia by either a UK or international partner)
Better management for better care
The rapid increase in the demand for adult social care services, has put the currently available resources under pressure. Following such premise, the Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) competition, with funding provided by the GovTech Catalyst for Torfaen County borough council, aims at supporting projects that can use novel technologies to better track data in real-time on how the resources used in adult care are deployed and prioritised. This competition will be delivered over 2 phases:
- Phase 1: feasibility (running from 10 June 2019 to 17 July 2019)
- Phase 2: prototype development (open only to Phase 1 winners)
And it will be likely to fund 5 projects that shall include:
- using technology to improve the point of entry into adult social care
- creating more dynamic and flexible care systems that respond to changing needs
- making better use of evidence to inform commissioning both now and in the future
Source: Innovate UK
Our presence at the Eureka Global Innovation Summit 2019
May has been a rather busy month for our team, always on the move to promote and publicise our activities to the largest audience. This time, we embarked on a 3 day trip to Manchester to take part to the Eureka Global Innovation Summit 2019, the international meeting place for businesses and innovation agencies that took place between last 14 -16 May 2019. The event marked the return of the UK to the chairmanship of this important network after 22 years and the turnout couldn't have been more impressive: over 2000 delegates from 65 countries, with Belgium, Canada and South Korea sharing the centre stage, as each of these delegations organised receptions, networking events and specific workshops. South Korea, in particular, to celebrate the deeper involvement within the network, enjoyed a separate venue with a bespoke set of showcases and talks.
The 3 days of talks and workshops on international collaboration in innovation have been inaugurated by Science Minister, Chris Skidmore, whose speech not only set the but also highlighted some very interesting points on the direction the Government wants to take in terms of future policies, among which the commitment to invest 2.4% of the GDP in research and development by 2027, and the intent to maintain the UK within the next Horizon Europe programme despite of Brexit, clearly raised much interest and the approval of the delegates.
Overall, the event proved to be an unique opportunity for our company, as we had the chance to promote our business and activities to such a vast and international audience, as our delegate, Matteo Radice said: "The Summit gave me the great chance to sit at the table with some of the most influential figures in the global innovation landscape to discuss the future of international partnership and not only that! it was great to meet businesses and policy makers from as close by as Caerphilly and from as far as South Africa! Most of all, thanks to our success stories -and especially our BreathSpec project- RedKnight is slowly getting international recognition. It is indeed a nice feeling!"