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“Industrial clusters are groups of specialized enterprises, often SMEs, and other related supporting actors in a location that cooperate closely. Together, SMEs can be more innovative, create more jobs, and register more international trademarks and patents than alone. The EU cluster portal provides tools and information on European initiatives, actions and events for clusters and their SMEs to create more world-class clusters across the EU.” Industrial Cluster Policy of the European Commission  Since the beginning of the pandemic, European clusters and agents demonstrated their capability to react quickly, better than in China, US and other continents. The role of clusters is crucial in identifying the needs of European industries and where to allocate future investments. For these reasons, clusters will play a key role in how to support the recovery plan for Europe.
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Next Generation EU & Horizon Europe: working hand in hand to facilitate the EU’s fast recovery6/10/2021   To amortise the pandemic aftermath in 2020, the European Union provided a stimulus package worth EUR 2 trillion. The package consists of the EU’s long-term budget for 2021 - 2027 of EUR 1.2 trillion, enhanced by NextGenerationEU at a value of EUR 807 billion. This budget is split into two types of fundings: grants and loans, some EUR 338 billion will be provided in the form of grants, while EUR 386 billion will be used to provide loans from the EU to individual Member States with favourable conditions. NextGenerationEU is a European instrument specifically designed to help repair the immediate economic and social damage caused by the coronavirus. Its long-term goal is to make the EU greener, more digital, more resilient and better prepared for the forthcoming challenges. The cornerstone of Next Generation EU is the Recovery and Resilience Facility – an instrument that provides grants and loans to support necessary reforms and investments within EU Member States. The funds from the instrument will be distributed according to national recovery and resilience plans set up by individual member states, in cooperation with the European Commission and in line with an agreed allocation key. The European Association of Innovation Consultants (EAIC) has released its first collective report “A Guide to Next Generation EU for industry to better understand and seize its opportunities.” The guide currently covers 21 countries, however, EAIC intends to regularly update this guide and incorporate new sections to facilitate the identification of opportunities for industry. The purpose of the guide is to help EU industry, present in multiple EU countries, identify the priorities to facilitate the recovery of each member state. Although national plans are usually available in each local language, the guide summarises the plans in English and allows for more transparency. One of the traditional programmes, funded under the multiannual financial framework for the next 7 years, is Horizon Europe 2021-2027. It is the EU’s key funding programme for research and innovation with a budget of over EUR 95 billion. Its main goal is to tackle climate change and accomplish the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, while boosting the EU’s competitiveness and growth. The main research and innovation missions are Adaptation to climate change mission;, Cancer mission, Climate-neutral and Smart Cities mission, Soil deal for Europe mission and Restore our oceans and waters mission. Horizon Europe views digital transformation and green transition as priority objectives, which can be identified as the most important cross-cutting priority areas, along with NextGenerationEU. While Horizon Europe (2021-2027) is is framed within the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), NextGenerationEU (2021-2023) is a temporary recovery instrument put in place to boost, through investment and reform financing, the recovery of Member States' economies in the wake of the pandemic. NextGenerationEU has a temporary investment role and it covers a wider field of priorities such as the green transition, digital transformation, smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth, social and territorial cohesion, health and economic, social and institutional resilience and policies for the next generation, children and the youth, such as education. Its focus is placed on seven key features: Power up, Renovate, Recharge and Refuel, Connect, Modernise, Scale-up, Reskill and upskill. Furthermore, NextGenerationEU will strengthen several existing EU programmes and policies:
Financing To avoid immediate pressure on member states’ national finances, the EU will borrow from the markets to finance NextGenerationEU, with the repayment period taking place until 2058. Approximately 50% of NextGenerationEU’s budget will be spent on research and innovation via Horizon Europe, the Just Transition Fund, the Digital Europe programme, the Recovery and Resilience Facility, RescEU, and EU4Health. Below, a detailed breakdown of the NextGenerationEU 2021-2023 and the regular Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027 is shown:  Around 30% of the long-term budget and NextGenerationEU will be spent on fighting climate change. These funds are part of a major investment plan that the EU will put in place for a sustainable green economy. It will combine EU and national public funds, but also public and private investments to support the EU on its path to climate neutrality by 2050.
The remaining 20% of the Recovery and Resilience Facility funds will be invested in the digitalisation of the EU. These funds support investments in supercomputing, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, advanced digital skills and the wider use of digital technologies across the socioeconomic spectrum. Horizon Europe (HE) has a budget of EUR 95.5 billion from 2021 to 2027. This amount includes EUR 5.4 billion from the NextGenerationEU instrument. HE’s budget is divided among four pillars and 15 components, creating a programme that will support all the areas of Research and Innovation: excellent science (ERC, MSCA…); global challenges & industrial competitiveness (health, creative, digital, space,…); innovative Europe (EIC, EIT,…) and widening participation & strengthening the European Research Area. In conclusion, the two funding programmes are closely interlinked. First, they have similar objectives and challenges that are urgent in the wake of the SARS-CoV-2 virus situation. Second, they are financially related, since NextGenerationEU’s extraordinary funds will reinforce the regular Horizon Europe funds for the period 2021-2023.  Today, the EAIC, (European Association of Innovation Consultants) is celebrating its two-year anniversary. It was initiated parallel to the first edition of the Research and Innovation days back in September 2019, when the founding group of consultants decided to unite in a Working Group that aimed to represent them towards EU institutions.
Marie Latour has been part of the core team of consultants that have set up and structured EAIC over the past 2 years. She has acquired solid experience in the innovation consulting industry, having led ZABALA Innovation’s Brussels office for the past 7 years. She also has substantial experience with European associations and platform management: for 5 years, she led the European Technology and Innovation Platform Smart Networks for Energy Transition (ETIP SNET); prior to that, she was Head of European Projects at SolarPowerEurope, where she started her career in Brussels in 2002. “My intention is to make the European Innovation Consulting profession recognised for its true value. Innovation consultants are essential players who facilitate the innovation process of the European Industry, informing them and ensuring their active participation in EU-funded projects; it is the EAIC’s role to make this responsibility more visible and recognised,” said Marie, when her nomination was announced publicly. 2021-2027: EU Funding instruments for projects close to market (FTI call no longer available)7/9/2021  In the frame of European funding initiatives for the development of technologies and products close to the market with a high degree of innovation, and given that the H2020 Fast Track to Innovation (FTI) instrument is no longer available, two instruments currently stand out:
EIC Accelerator: The European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator is designed to support ambitious companies with radically new ideas to develop and commercialize innovative products, services and business models that shape new markets and drive economic growth. Ideally, bringing the Innovation to market which can have high societal and/or environmental impact. The EIC Accelerator programme, and its previous version, the SME Instrument, aims to promote those small and medium-sized companies that want to lead in their sector in Europe with an idea with great potential for innovation and growth. This instrument is one of the most successful calls in Europe thanks to its financing conditions: SME Instrument fund the 70% of the project budget of SMEs (up to 2.5 million euros). In addition, this program allows a CAPEX contribution of up to 15 million Euros in Equity format (dilutive funding) after the completion of the development project. This equity phase is designed to support RD & I intensive SMEs in scaling, internationalisation, and access to large markets to guarantee their competitiveness and guarantee a return on investment The EIC Accelerator Pilot is for individual, non-bankable European SMEs with breakthrough innovations. Support from the EIC Accelerator is supposed to bring these innovations to the European (and global) markets, bigger and faster. By doing so, this should help to drive economic growth in Europe and lead to the creation of new R&D jobs. As regards the readiness of the Innovation, the grant component only applies to activities with a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 5/6 to 8. The technology should at least be validated in an industrially relevant environment (TRL 5), and during the project it should demonstrate the technology (TRL 6), improve and optimize the prototype in an operational environment (TRL 7) in order to complete and qualify the system (TRL 8). Activities above TRL 8 can only be funded as equity through blended finance option. This instrument is structured in three phases: 1-Short application: a 5 pages document plus a 10 slides deck and 3 minutes video evaluated remotely. If at least two evaluators positively evaluate all the criteria, the proposal is invited to full application stage. This stage has been implemented in order to select the best applications and avoid oversubscriptions in the full application phase. 2-Full application phase; a 30 pages document plus a pitch deck and financial annex which are remotely evaluated by three evaluators. All criteria from the three evaluators must be positively evaluated by each of them. 3-Pitch. Only the applicants with the highest overall assessments are finally invited to pitch to a panel of jury experts. The panel consists of around 15% business angels, 20% entrepreneurs, 20% venture capitalists, with other experts coming from larger corporates, innovation hubs and accelerators. The pitch consists in a face-to-face or online interview in English and which lasts 30 -minutes. EUREKA EUROSTARS: EUROSTARS is a funding programme to support R&D-intensive SMEs in the development of market-oriented transnational projects. This funding program counts with the participation of up to 34 European countries that are members of the EUREKA network, and since 2016, Canada and South Africa have participated. The EUROSTARS budget for the 2014-2020 period were 1,150 million Euros, of which 25% corresponds to the contribution of the European Commission, and the remaining 75% corresponds to contributions from the EUROSTARS countries through their corresponding funding agencies. Since 2014, more than 1,400 R&D&I projects have been funded for more than 200 million euros, with a success rate of near 28.5%. Regarding the type of participants, up to 72% correspond to R&D&I intensive SMEs, with universities, research centres and large companies being able to participate, with a minimum participation in a consortium of at least two partners from two countries of the EUREKA network. As regards readiness of the Innovation, the grant component only applies to activities with a TRL of 5/6 to 8. The funding rates per country varies from 25 to 60%, depending on the nature of the applicant organization (SME, large industry, RTD) and the corresponding national funding agency. The project preparation process consists of the following steps: 1- Submission of applications, including the technical report segmented into the sections of excellence, implementation and commercialization and market uptake, together with administrative and financial documentation required by the EUREKA secretariat and the national funding agencies. 2- European evaluation phase, including a technical evaluation carried out by an international panel of experts and an evaluation of the financial capacity of the companies. 3- After passing the European evaluation phase, each partner will apply to its corresponding national financial agency, for the financing of its corresponding part in the consortium's budget. Article courtesy of EAIC Member, Euro-funding  If you have already been coordinating or participating in an EU Research or Innovation collaborative project, you are probably aware of the complexity of such a task.
Over the years and throughout the various framework programmes, some elements and processes have been simplified. For instance, from 2021 and with the new Horizon Europe programme but also with other EU programmes, there will be a single method of calculating the cost of personnel, which will simplify the life of many accountants and financial officers within the beneficiaries of funded projects. However, despite some simplifications, the rules remain rules and fulfilling them is extremely important to ensure you properly justify how you are spending European public funds. This is where the professional management of EU-funded projects comes in. Professional management of projects Professionally managing a project requires
Therefore, many beneficiaries of EU funds request the support of EU innovation consultants for their expertise in project management. Thanks to their vast experience and the variety of projects and cases they encounter, they have, through time, set clear procedures to professionally support the partners in the various phases of the project from the negotiation, to the project management until its closure. When a project involves over 20 partners from 10 countries, guidance is essential. Although experienced companies or research centres working with EU projects may have internalised the experienced resources; however, newly established companies that perhaps work with EU projects on a lesser scale, might want to hire professional consultants with the required experience to advise them. EAIC member companies can offer valuable support to EU projects Within the EAIC, a large number of members offer this service of project management support. Today, management of EU projects cannot officially be subcontracted; it must either be subcontracted unofficially through a company’s budget or request these consultants to step on board or joint projects as a partner. This prohibition to subcontract such activities is stipulated in the new Grant Agreement Model in Article 7. It says the following, with regards to the obligations of the coordinators: “The coordinator must (i) monitor that the action is implemented properly (see Article 11) (ii) act as the intermediary for all communications between the consortium and the granting authority, unless the Agreement or granting authority specifies otherwise, and in particular:
The coordinator may not delegate or subcontract the above-mentioned tasks to any other beneficiary or third party (including affiliated entities).” Few exceptions now exist in Horizon Europe: public entities can delegate the role of an intermediary for communications or the distribution of payments to some affiliated entity; sole beneficiaries benefit from more flexibility as well. Hence coordinators are the ones who must take care of the tasks listed above, which often refrains some experienced companies or industries from daring to coordinate as they don’t see themselves in the position to have an in-house expert able to perform or dedicate time to all these tasks in a professional manner. An alternative to ensure that industry is leading EU-funded projects is to obtain assistance from consultancies or other partners to support the management of the project. Our Manifesto to support Professional project management in Horizon Europe has the following objective: it aims to alert the EC about the proper consideration of project management for the Horizon Europe Framework Programme. When we launched our Manifesto in 2019, while Horizon Europe’s rules were being defined, we were seeking for a better recognition of the impact of real expertise in management - whether this expertise be internal or external, public or private: - By allowing the participation of other partners, not just the coordinator, in Project Management activities. - By allowing the subcontracting of management tasks to professional experts with proven track records. Today, with the launch of Horizon Europe and the publication of the Common Model Grant Agreement, we feel our first request was partially heard; however, we continue to insist on the essential role innovation consultants can play, particularly in making EU framework programmes more attractive to EU industry. Today more than 270 people have signed our Manifesto: your signature to show your support to our initiative can help raise our voice. You can read the full manifesto and sign it here: https://www.eaic.eu/manifesto.html. Article courtesy of EAIC member, ZABALA Innovation  We're pleased to welcome two of our newest members:
artica Ingeniería e Innovación (Spain) is a technical consulting and engineering service company with over 25 years of experience, reinforced by a staff of over 45 professionals. artica+i provides continuous engineering solutions for the improvement of different processes, working on specific aspects of industrial companies: process technology and productivity, digitalisation and 4.0, energy efficiency and renewables, to name a few. CRIDO Business & Innovation Consulting (Poland) cooperates with companies from different sectors, such as Life Science, ICT, Automotive & aviation; Chemistry; Manufacturing; Food and Agriculture; Environment; Transport & Logistics. CRIDO offers support services at the stage of project implementation and settlement, linked to innovation or high-risk research and development. View our full list of members here. Today, the European Association of Innovation Consultants is releasing its first collective report “A Guide to Next Generation EU for industry to better understand and seize its opportunities.”
The pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus has led to an unprecedented health and economic crisis in our society. Companies of all sizes and entire sectors have been impacted by the pandemic. To overcome this crisis, strengthen and transform our economy, making it greener, more digital and more resilient, creating new opportunities and more jobs, the Commission has launched a temporary instrument, called “Next Generation EU,” which raises the European Union's budget to €2.018 trillion in current prices, the largest economic stimulus ever funded by the EU.  Women make up about half of the population and voters in the EU, but they are still under-represented in high-level positions, whether in elections, public administration, corporate boards or academia. The European Commission has committed itself to promote gender equality in research and innovation (R&I). Horizon 2020 was the first framework programme to make gender a cross-cutting issue, and one of the key objectives was to integrate the gender dimension into R&I content. With Horizon Europe, the Commission has promised to reaffirm its commitment to gender equality in R&I.
Horizon Europe sets gender equality as a crosscutting principle and aims to eliminate gender inequality and intersecting socio-economic inequalities throughout R&I systems, including by addressing unconscious bias and systemic structural barriers. By considering sex and gender dimension in the whole research & innovation process we can prevent for example gender or racially biased AI products due to a lack of diversity in the AI training data. Anne Pépin, Senior Policy Officer from European Commission presented the key aspects and novelties regarding gender equality in Horizon Europe in a webinar on 21 April 2021. There are three levels with three different aspects that should be taken into account when preparing a proposal for Horizon Europe.
When sex, gender and intersecting factors are all considered in the design and delivery of R&I, it can leads to added value of research in terms of excellence, societal relevance, creativity and business opportunities. It creates in-depth understanding of all people’s needs, behaviours, and attitudes, and with this understanding it is easier to make goods and services that are better suited to the needs of all people. “In business, politics and society as a whole, we can only reach our full potential if we use all of our talent and diversity. Gender equality brings more jobs and higher productivity – a potential which needs to be realised as we embrace the green and digital transitions and face up to our demographic challenges.” – EU Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025 Article courtesy of EAIC member, Spinverse.  Horizon Europe, the long-awaited successor to Horizon 2020, and the world’s largest transnational research and innovation programme, is finally ready to take off! The programme is designed to support European competitiveness by creating new growth and jobs based on scientific knowledge and technological development, all the while tackling societal challenges and helping to sustain European socio-economic models and values. So, how does it work concretely? The programme has been built on three main Pillars, each of them having a different objective:
 Source: EC  Beyond accumulating new knowledge, developing new technologies or increasing European competitiveness, Horizon Europe aims to achieve tangible benefits for European citizens related to the main challenges addressed by the programme (Digital transition, Ecological transition (Green Deal), Health resilience, Economic resilience and recovery). Horizon Europe is evolving into an impact-driven framework programme, based on a new holistic monitoring approach. This new Horizon Europe programme will be monitored as a virtuous circle to design (Intervention logic at the level of clusters, destinations, missions), implement (at the level of strategic Plan, Work Programme Proposal template, Project reporting) and assess the programme’s impacts (through Monitoring Key Impact Pathways, Management & Implementation Data, Interim and ex-post evaluation). For maximising impact at the level of the programme, new features have been introduced, among them, enlarged international cooperation, an in-depth open science policy, missions orientation and citizens’ involvement, to name a few. The Horizon Europe Legislation has defined 3 types of impacts, tracked with key Impact Pathways (KIP). The impact logic of the programme is framed by Key Impact Pathways (KIP) detailed in the figure below and defined by Horizon Europe legislation.  Figure 1: HORIZON EUROPE Legislation defines three types of impact, tracked with Key Impact Pathways, from "Paving the Pathways to Impact," European Commission, DG Research & Innovation (Angelica Marino, DG R&I-G2)  The Research and Innovation days will open tomorrow, marking the long-awaited launch of the first Horizon Europe 2021 calls. Thousands of companies, research centres and SMEs with existing experience in collaborative European Research and Innovation (R&I) projects, as well as other applicants, new to this programme, are in the starting blocks. European Innovation Consultants as well.
This week will see the opening of the first calls under Pillar II of the Horizon Europe Programme. Horizon Europe’s total budget for the next 7 years amounts to the record amount of €95.5 bn, of which half will address global challenges and European industrial competitiveness. Over 700 topics (collaborative projects to be funded by the European Commission) will be published in the next 2 years, funding thousands of projects involving various partners (industrial partners, research centres, SMEs, or non--profit organisations, etc.) for several years. Each project will require excellent coordination and management skills to ensure public funds provided by the Commission are spent efficiently to develop novel solutions. From a maturity point of view, projects will span from basic research to applied innovation, ready to be commercialised when the project is finalised. Ambitious exploitation strategies (i.e. what will happen with the research and innovation beyond the project lifetime) will have to be included in funding applications to convince evaluators. In 2019, Innovation Consultants across Europe decided to strengthen their collaboration through EAIC, the European Association of Innovation Consultants. The purpose of the association is to allow for better recognition of their work and contribution to the support of many actors, such as industry and research organisations, who are willing to be part of EU projects to develop breakthrough innovations but have limited expertise and/or time to access these funding instruments. Consultants advise them on how to develop their innovation process as well as on how to access public funding needed to bring their innovation to market. With the new Horizon Europe collaborative calls now opening, Innovation Consultants are ready to support projects based on their previous experience and track records with the previous framework programme. EAIC now includes more than 40 members across the EU with a vast experience in R&I programmes but also in alternative funding opportunities for the private and public sectors in Europe. Under Horizon 2020, the predecessor of Horizon Europe for (2014-2020), the average success rate of 11% has decreased in the last years of the programme as budgets ran out and consortia competed for the remainder of the funding. Many companies and research centres have used the support of innovation consultants, to increase their chances of success , to drive the proposal writing process under time pressure, to find the right partner and support them in the professional management of projects when approved. The members of EAIC have decided to sign a code of conduct which is a prerequisite to be part of the association, which ensures that they respect deontological principles, such as impartiality, e.g. they cannot write proposals and be part of the evaluation committee at the same time. On 21st June, EAIC elected a new board of members composed of 12 company representatives; you can find the composition of the new board here: https://www.eaic.eu/about-eaic.html Consult the full list of EAIC members here: https://www.eaic.eu/members.html View the Horizon Europe calls that have already been announced through the official Work Programmes of the EC here. About EAIC The European Association of Innovation Consultants (EAIC) gathers active Innovation Consultants in the field of European research and innovation projects. The group aims to facilitate the exchange and promotion of best practices and success stories, as well as to uphold professional skills and expertise in European RDI projects. Today, the group gathers 46 members, active in more than 24 countries around Europe. www.eaic.eu  The Horizon 2020 oversubscription issue and the low overall success rate is having an important impact in terms of costs for the brave players that accept the challenge of preparing a collaborative proposal. Unfortunately, Horizon Europe is not proposing adequate solutions to this issue. The European Association of Innovation Consultants (EAIC) is preparing an assessment about the impact of the low success rates of H2020 for potential beneficiaries. In order to have an estimation of the impact of the oversubscription issue in terms of time - effort, the EAIC invites you to answer the survey in the link below. It will only take a few minutes and your feedback will be very valuable for our study.
The European Union’s (EU) Green Deal is the EU’s main new growth strategy to transition the EU economy toward a sustainable economic model. The proposed financing of the EU Green Deal is set out in the EU Green Deal Investment Plan. Several funding mechanisms were created to facilitate the EU Green Deal, totalling over €1 trillion. Over 50% of the budget, €528 billion, will come directly from the EU budget and the EU Emissions Trading System. The rest will be sourced through the InvestEU programme, which combines €279 billion from public and private sectors to 2030 and €114 billion from national co-financing. It will provide an EU budget guarantee to allow the EIB Group and others to invest in higher-risk projects, enabling private investment.  Source: EC Website  During the Horizon Europe Virtual Summit, 31 May - 4 June, EAIC Members, Louis Papaemmanuel (My EU Consulting), Silver Toomla (Invent Baltics), Nadège Grabowski, Xavier Aubry (Zaz Ventures) and Lucie Guilloteau (Euronovia) shared their expertise through speeches on creating winning EIC Accelerator, Pathfinder and Transition applications, as well as tips and best practices for MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships.
More about the event The Horizon Europe Virtual Summit is an online event featuring world-class experts in European Research & Innovation. The free event aims to increase the success rate of the Horizon Europe proposals and is organised over 5 days, with 30+ Masterclasses, Interviews and Training Sessions from top Horizon Europe experts. Read more about the event here.  We are delighted to announce that the European Association of Innovation Consultants continues to grow, with BOR&BAR (Germany) having joined us this month.
BOR&BAR offers a wide array of consulting services to help clients optimise their strategic engagement with grant funding programmes. We know its expertise will be invaluable in meeting the association's objectives and we're excited about this new chapter. - Welcome to the EAIC! Expand your networks and check out our full list of members here.  We are offering a part-time Secretary General position with a freelance status or equivalent. The mission will last 6 months. We expect to extend the mission beyond this period in case of successful collaboration, and to increase the position to a full-time role in the future. Deadline for applications: 20 June 2021 Please send your application to the following address: jobs@eaic.eu Download the PDF below for the full job description. 
 We are pleased to announce that the European Association of Innovation Consultants (EAIC) is a partner of the SMARTSPEND project’s high-level online conference and matchmaking event on “Access to Risk Finance for Clean Energy Technologies” that will be held on 25-27 May, 2021.
This conference will showcase the EU’s funding and financing offers for clean energy demonstration projects and will allow private financing providers to present their involvement in new energy technologies. It will also provide matchmaking opportunities to clean energy technology developers, investors and funding experts. Who should attend the conference?
The conference’s 4 main sessions include the following topics, amongst others:
For more information and registration, visit this link.  In its 10th edition, the EU Prize for Women Innovators celebrates the women entrepreneurs behind game-changing innovations. In doing so, the EU seeks to raise awareness of the need for more female innovators, and create role models for women and girls everywhere.
The prize is awarded to the most talented women entrepreneurs from across the EU and countries associated to Horizon Europe, who have founded a successful company and brought innovation to the market. The prize is managed by the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency, and the winners are chosen by an independent expert jury.  The European Innovation Council (EIC) is a key novelty of Horizon Europe and is a European innovation initiative with a budget of approximately €10 billion for the period 2021-2027. The EIC is the result of lessons and achievements from its pilot phase during the period 2018-2021. 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. In the infographic below, prepared by EAIC member, Lira, we detail the EIC's funding opportunities (Accelerator, Transition and Pathfinder), taking into account the different deadlines and challenge topics.
 Are you looking to submit a project proposal to the EIC Accelerator? In the infographic below, prepared by EAIC member, Lira, we explain how and when to submit your proposal, detailing the process from A to Z.
Read our Position Paper on the EIC Accelerator, which summarizes the most important changes, their expected impacts and ideas for improving the programme.  Meet our newest member, Accelopment, based in Germany and Switzerland. Accelopment is specialised in proposal writing and project management for Horizon Europe, EIC Pathfinders, MSCA Doctoral Networks, Heath, Energy, Eurostars, as well as other EU and national funding programmes. Among its other activities and services, Accelopment offers grant advice, writing, preparation and finance support, strategic grant planning and the communication, dissemination and exploitation of projects. Its team has over 25 years of experience assisting clients from all over Europe, but also in other parts of the world such as North America and Iceland. Welcome to the European Association of Innovation Consultants! We are pleased to have you join us with your new, innovative ideas, expertise, and professionalism.  This week, we are pleased to welcome Exeq and Lira, our newest members:
Exeq, Poland Exeq assists clients in obtaining public and private funding for research, development and innovation projects and technologies in every stage of development. Its team of consultants has in-depth knowledge of potential sources of funding in Poland and throughout Europe, with a clear focus of expertise: science and technology related funding, as well as the knowledge and competence of domain experts upon which Exeq relies. It has clients active in the areas of ICT, computer science, medicine, biotechnology, energy and environment. Lira, Ireland, England, Croatia, Italy Founded in 2018, Lira is redefining the way high potential start-ups and scaleups raise funding through a combination of grants, equity and debt financing. Lira’s team of experts is specialised in the following sectors: Fintech, Aerospace, Medtech, Greentech, AI, Manufacturing, Biotech and Agritech. We look forward to getting acquainted with them in our monthly meeting today and are glad to have them join us. Great start from the European Commission – it is time for cooperation between Member States to enable Europe-wide industry participation.  The European Association of Innovation Consultants (EAIC) welcomes the recovery and resilience facility which will allow faster recovery from the pandemic and renew Europe for better competitiveness. However, we suggest acting in a more coordinated way between Member States to ensure the funds allocated will be properly and efficiently spent. As experts around Europe on innovation funding, EAIC offers its support in advising how to improve national innovation policies to maximise industrial investments, find best partners and balance competence gaps between Member States and Regions.  We are pleased to announce that the European Association of Innovation Consultants (EAIC) is a partner of the Science|Business public annual conference “R&I in recovery: what can Horizon Europe deliver?” to be held on February 22-23, 2021.
“It is our pleasure to support Science|Business in bringing industry together with policy-makers and the research community," said Pekka Koponen, President of the EAIC, "More innovation is needed for European recovery, and members of the European Association of Innovation Consultants are happy to join to increase industrial innovation, applied research, international co-operation and professional project management.” This virtual conference will address some of the following questions, among many others:
During this event, Margrethe Vestager (Executive Vice President of the EC), Mariya Gabriel (Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Youth, Education and Culture) and Martin Kern (EIT Director) will deliver speeches, along with many other key R&I figures. Other partners of the event include the EIT, Sanofi, the ATTRACT project, the TRESCA project and the EIB. About Science|Business The Science|Business Network is one of universities, companies, and research and policy organisations, and acts as a forum for driving innovation forward. Reaching Europe's most influential innovators and policymakers, Science|Business' expertise and knowledge of European policy making contributes to making a difference. Read more about the conference here. Read more about Science|Business here.  For this third edition of the European Research and Innovation Days, the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation has announced that the event will be held virtually on 23 and 24 June 2021. As seen throughout the past year, cooperation in research and innovation is essential for Europe’s recovery; the annual flagship event, which coincides with Horizon Europe’s launch, will have a special focus on new initiatives to strengthen the European Research Area. With the aim to foster collaboration and encourage the debate among policymakers, researchers, entrepreneurs and the general public, the European R&I Days also intend to pave the way to a greener and more digital future. Last year’s edition gathered over 35 000 registered participants from 188 countries. We expect this year's edition to be instrumental in facing the challenges of tomorrow. Read more here.  |
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