Friday 19 Mar 2021 @ 11:33
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Commission launches European Innovation Council to help turn scientific ideas into breakthrough innovations

The European Commission yesterday launched, at an online event, the European Innovation Council (EIC) with a budget of over €10 billion (in current prices) for 2021-2027 to develop and expand breakthrough innovations. Building on a successful pilot programme under Horizon 2020, the new EIC is not only a novelty of Horizon Europe, but it is also unique in the world: it combines research on emerging technologies with an accelerator programme and a dedicated equity fund, the European Innovation Council Fund, to scale up innovative start-ups and small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs). Around €3 billion of the EIC's budget will go towards the EIC Fund.

Furthermore, the first annual work programme of the EIC is published, opening funding opportunities worth over €1.5 billion in 2021. At the same time, two prizes for Women Innovators and the European Capital of Innovation are opened for applications.

Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President for ‘A Europe Fit for the Digital Age', yesterday said:

“We now have a fund to support small and medium sized companies that do breakthrough innovation, access equity and scale up innovative start-ups. This is a way to convert research results into business and to develop visions for technological and innovation breakthroughs.”

Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, yesterday said:

“The European Innovation Council is Europe's most ambitious initiative to support the breakthroughs Europe needs to recover from the economic crisis and accelerate the transition to a green and digital economy. By investing in visionary research and innovative companies, it will reinforce European technological sovereignty, scale up hundreds of Europe's most promising start-ups, and pave the way for the upcoming European Innovation Area.”

The European Innovation Council capitalises on lessons learnt and achievements from its pilot phase during the period 2018-2021. It supported over 5000 SMEs and start-ups, as well as over 330 research projects with a budget of €3.5 billion.

Click here for the full press release

 

Original article link: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_21_1185

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