On Tuesday 28 June EAIC members elected 2 new women Board members on the occasion of the Annual General Meeting in Brussels:  Alicja Gregorzek Carrascosa from Polite Europe and Magdalena Zawadzka from Crido Business & Innovation Consulting, both companies are headquartered in Poland.
Alicja and Magdalena replace former board members Marie Latour and Virginie Robin. Marie left the board in October 2021 when joining as Secretary General of EAIC, Virginie , CEO of Euronovia has been impulsing strongly the creation of EAIC since its inception in September 2019 while she was also board member of ACI the French Association of Innovation Consultants. Virginie initiated in particular the Professional Project Management WG.
Alicja Gregorjek Carrascosa is a co-Founder of Polite Europe, has been working in the EC funding milieu for fifteen years, focused on Project Management in different programmes (FP5, 6 and 7, Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe) and at different stages. Her motivation is to give more visibility to professional Project Management and the importance of consultants’ contribution to European innovation.
Magdalena Zawadzka is partner at Crido Business & Innovation Consulting, she is specialized in state aid for greenfield investments, R&D and environmental projects. Her priorities are various: tax relief; national R&D grants; state aids; green deal and environmental policy; widening European East countries in Horizon Europe.
The Board is composed of 12 members serving for a duration of two years, the board is composed of the following persons, the full board will be renewed in Spring 2023:
- PRESIDENT: Pekka Koponen - Spinverse
- VICE-PRESIDENT & TREASURER: Luc Ragon - Benkei/ACI
- BOARD MEMBERS:
  - Alex Alvarez, WGs Leader: Next Generation EU; Tax Credit - Fi Group
  - Alicja Grzegorzek Carrascosa, WG Leader: Project Management - Polite Europe
  - Diego Soro, WG Leader: Membership & National Network  - Soros Gabinete
  - Emmanuele Angione WG co-leader: EIC TASK FORCE – Lira
 - Louis Papaemmanuel, WG co-leader: EIC TASK FORCE; EAIC FUNDING - My EU Consulting
  - Macarena Sanz, WG leader COMMUNICATION - ID Consortium
  - Magdalena Zawadzka - Crido Business & Innovation Consulting
  - Xavier Aubry, WG co-leader: EIC TASK FORCE - Zaz Ventures
  - Yiannis Geragotellis, WGs leader: New Initiatives; Project collaboration - KiNNO
  - Yorick Debeus, WGs leader: Innovation Fund; Tax Credit - Leyton

The LIFE programme is the EU financial instrument supporting the EU Green Deal’s objectives through policy driven actions related to environmental, nature conservation and climate projects. Since 1992 LIFE has funded more than five thousand projects supporting Nature Conservation, Circular Economy and Climate Mitigation and Adaptation. 

The 2021-2027 LIFE programme has a budget of €5.4 billion and is divided into the following four subprogrammes:

1. Nature and biodiversity
2. Circular economy and quality of life
3. Climate change mitigation and adaptation
4. Clean energy transition 

The aim of the subprogramme “Nature and biodiversity“ is to protect species and their habitats by expanding, nurturing and preserving nature for a sustainable and balanced future.

The focus of the subprogramme “Circular economy and quality of life” is on waste as a resource that needs proper management to provide for crucial raw materials and a safe environment. Specific topics include air, water, soil, noise, chemicals and the new European Bauhaus.

In subprogramme “Climate change mitigation and adaptation” particular attention is given to ozone-depletion, carbon sinks, nature-based solutions in the management of land, coasts and marine areas by predicting, preventing and mitigating the climate change effects. It also includes adapting cities and regions for extreme weather events. 

The subprogramme “Clean energy transition” is dedicated to energy efficiency and renewables with the aim to ease the transition towards an energy-efficient, renewable energy-based, climate-neutral and resilient economy. A specific goal is to remove the market barriers that can hamper the socio-economic transition to sustainable energy.

The LIFE Calls for proposals were launched this year on 17 May 2022 offering the following types of grants:

• Standard Action Projects (SAP). Projects, other than strategic integrated projects, strategic nature projects or technical assistance projects, that pursue the specific objectives of the LIFE programme. 
• Strategic Nature Projects (SNAP). Projects that support the achievement of the Union's nature and biodiversity objectives by implementing coherent programmes of action in Member States to mainstream those objectives and priorities into other policies and financing instruments.
• Strategic Integrated Projects (SIP). Projects that implement, on a regional, multi-regional, national or transnational scale, environmental or climate strategies or action plans developed by Member States' authorities and required by specific environmental, climate or relevant energy legislation or policy of the Union, while ensuring that stakeholders are involved and mobilization of at least one other Union, national or private funding source is ensured. 
• Technical Assistance Projects (TA). Projects that support the development of capacity for participation in standard action projects, the preparation of strategic nature projects and strategic integrated projects, the preparation for accessing other Union financial instruments or other measures necessary for preparing the upscaling or replication of results from other projects funded by the LIFE programme, its predecessor programmes or other Union programmes, with a view to pursuing the LIFE programme objectives. 
• Other Action Grants (OAG). Actions needed for the purpose of achieving the general objective of the LIFE programme, including coordination and support actions aimed at capacity-building, at dissemination of information and of knowledge, and at awareness-raising to support the transition to renewable energy and increased energy efficiency. 
• Operating Grants (OG). Grants that support the functioning of non-profit making entities which are involved in the development, implementation and enforcement of the EU legislation and policy, and which are primarily active in the area of the environment or climate action, including energy transition, in line with the objectives of the LIFE programme.

The level of EU funding for most subprogrammes is 60% and follows a unique phase, with the exception of the Strategic Integrated Projects (SIPs) and the Strategic Nature Projects (SNAPs), which maintain the usual two-phase procedure.

LIFE Calls for proposals 2022 submission deadlines:

• Standard Action Projects (SAPs) for circular economy and quality of life, nature and biodiversity, climate change mitigation and adaptation subprogrammes: 4 October 2022
• LIFE Action Grants for clean energy transition subprogramme: 16 November 2022
• Strategic Integrated Projects (SIPs) and Strategic Nature Projects (SNAPs):
              Concept notes: 8 September 2022
              Full proposals: 30 March 2023
• Technical Assistance preparation for SIPs and SNAPs: 8 September 2022                    
• Specific Operating Grant Agreements (SGA OG) for non-profit making entities: 21 September 2022


On 21 May 2022 the LIFE programme  turned thirty. The programme was initiated by the European Commission in 1992 to support the piloting and demonstration of green solutions that address European policy priorities in the area of environment and climate mitigation/adaptation.

EAIC LIFE Webinar on 29 June 2022
Interested in the LIFE programme? Register to attend the EAIC webinar on 29 June from 11h30 to 13h00 in Silversquare Bailli, Av. Louise 231, Brussels. This is a hybrid webinar and there will be the possibility to attend on-line. The EAIC will have the honour to welcome Mr. Angelo Salsi, Head of Department at CINEA, the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency in charge of managing the LIFE programme. Mr Salsi will provide an overview of the LIFE programme as well as useful tips for applicants. We will also welcome three LIFE project coordinators who will showcase results and share experience from the implementation of LIFE AGREMSO3IL (IMIDA-Spain), Natural HVACR 4 LIFE (DAIKIN-Belgium), LIFE F3 (TROTEC-Belgium and France). This webinar is an initiative of the EAIC members Konnekto and IDConsortium.

Register here if you are interested to attend!

Article courtesy of EAIC member IDConsortium

This position paper summarises the opinion of the EAIC (European Association of Innovation Consultants). EAIC comprises 50 members present in 26 European Countries, supporting around 40% of all the companies awarded EIC Accelerator funding in 2021.

We acknowledge that the EIC Accelerator is the most impactful and coveted funding instrument that the EC has at its disposal to fund high-risk deep-tech innovation. The funding decisions made by the EIC in the coming years will durably shape the future of European deeptech, with €7bn allocated to the EIC Accelerator, which will fuel the next European champions in strategic domains such as quantum, bioinformatics, high- performance computing, cybersecurity, cleantech, healthcare, etc.

The companies that we support are highly concerned about how equity investments approved under the Horizon 2020 Pilot have been severely delayed, following a drastic change in the EIC Fund investment policy. Delays are moreover increased as the adoption of the work programme 2022 is currently at a standstill, because there has been no agreement on how to manage and implement the equity component of the EIC Accelerator under Horizon Europe. This is severely impacting the credibility of the instrument.

The Work Programme draft goes one step further by placing the equity investment decisions in the hands of various EIC investment partners including the EIC Fund, the European Investment Bank Group and private venture capital funds, while increasing the administrative expenses and fees from 4% to 10% of the equity investment budget, in order to support these new investment partners.

The proposed new approach violates both the spirit and the letter of the EIC legal basis.

The European Commission cannot make the EIC support dependent on the interest of private investors to join, and transform the objective to crowd them in, into a pre-condition.

The EIC programme was meant to be different from similar programmes run at Member States, where initial co-investment is an obligation. This radically new design led the European Council of Spring 2018 - held in Sofia - to request that the EIC Accelerator be already implemented as a Pilot programme, pending the adoption and entry into force of Horizon Europe.

We believe the EIC should go back to this original mission of a European sovereign investment mechanism, as initially foreseen by the European Parliament and European Council. The European Commission should remain the single decision-maker with regards to EIC equity funding. The EIC Fund should only be responsible for the investment implementation modalities and exit strategy, as per the Council Decision.

​ Moreover, we consider that the governance of the current EIC Fund should be opened to stakeholders such as impact investment funds, corporate funds, entrepreneur funds and business angels, in addition to venture capital funds. Finally, the EIC should add considerable resources to actively manage investments and match them with these investors.

Romania and Bulgaria are the only ”modest innovators” in the European Union, based on the 2020 European Innovation Scoreboard. They are followed by a batch of moderate innovators that are also ”led” by Central and Eastern European countries: Croatia, Poland, Latvia, Hungary, Slovakia, Greece and Lithuania. 

Source: European Commission

​If we correlate this data to the participation of these countries in Europe’s main financing instrument for research and innovation – Horizon Program – we will find striking similarities. These countries are also lagging behind in sending in eligible applications to the European Commission (only 1.12% of the total applications were sent in by Romania and only 0,76% of the applications were sent in by Bulgaria, even though they cover 4.32% and 1.55% of EUs population). The net EU contribution to research and innovation projects in the two countries represent only 0.74% of the EU total. 

The top organizations that received Horizon financing differ in the two countries: for Romania the entity which received most money  was a SME, while in Bulgaria Sofia University attracted the biggest amount of grants – the total amounts used by these top organizations are similar in the two countries: 19,79 mil euros for the Romanian SME and 19,42 for the Bulgarian University.   

In a survey conducted by fonduri-structurale.ro in August 2021 in Romania, from 237 respondents (organizations looking for funding opportunities), more than 50% responded that they had little or no information regarding the Horizon program.

What’s next 

A mix between intensifying dissemination activities on funding opportunities and capacity building/support for organizations interested in developing innovative projects is needed. One strategy for less experienced organizations is looking for relevant partners active in strong innovation ecosystems that can bring knowledge in implementing such activities. Usually, Horizon projects are implemented by at least 3 organizations from 3 member states and the European Union encourages partnerships between countries situated on different levels of the innovation scoreboard. 

Another strategy can be looking for consultants that can assess whether the project idea fits the financing requirements of the European Commission or whether other national financing opportunities might be more suitable. In Romania, organizations will have the opportunity to receive vouchers for consultancy services for developing Horizon Europe projects through the newly approved National Recovery and Resilience Plan. 
​
Finally, in the next financial period (2021 - 2027), the European Commission will support ecosystem building and ecosystems cooperation in order to facilitate cohesion in innovation throughout the union, including increasing awareness on EU funding opportunities for innovators.  Additionally, innovators from Eastern Europe can seek support through the Widening Participation and Spreading Excellence actions under Horizon Europe.  The actions will strengthen countries’ potential for successful participation in transnational research and innovation projects, promote networking and access to excellence.

Article courtesy of EAIC member, Fonduri Structurale