The most relevant European companies in innovation consultancy join efforts to boost the competitiveness in the research and innovation ecosystem.

On Thursday 5 November 2020, the European Association of Innovation Consultants (EAIC) was launched. Created at the initiative of the French Association of Innovation Consultants (ACI) as an informal gathering in a working group back in September 2019, the creation of the EAIC was formalised yesterday by its 42 members active across Europe. A board of 8 members as well as a president was elected.
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The Association is now being established as a formal entity, its objective: to become the voice of European consulting companies specialized in Research, Development & Innovation (RDI) financing and management.

The Association aims in particular to: 

1. Create synergies between members to promote the added value their professional services bring to RDI collaborations in Europe and carry out actions of common interests and benefits for its members. ​
2. Enhance a positive image of European professional innovation consulting companies by ensuring and maintaining high professionalism and ethical values among members.​
3. Represent the EAIC towards European institutions and stakeholders to defend the specific expertise and professionalism of EAIC members and acknowledge the increased project impact they deliver to the European research community
4. Identify common issues and goals of its members and pursue them in a coordinated manner on a national level by contributing to national concertation and enhancing direct dialogues with the different representations of the EU Member States. ​
5. ​Facilitate knowledge sharing on best practices and information between members on the latest evolutions in the European RDI ecosystem. ​
6. Foster the participation of the private sector to European RD&I programmes for stronger impact and exploitation of results. ​

​Since September 2019, when they first decided to work together as an unformal working group, the members of EAIC initiated several actions such as

• The launch of a Manifesto to support Professional project management in Horizon Europe to better recognise the added value of innovation consultants. It has already been signed by over 168 organisations;
• The adoption of a Code of Conduct, signed by all members to promote ethical behaviour in the sector;
• The development of two EIC Accelerator position papers to provide feedback on the planned evolutions of the programme under Horizon Europe

 
The EAIC recently elected 8 board members. Their role is to ensure progress towards the structuration of EAIC’s activities.

The 8 Board members are:

• Luc Ragon – Benkei, France
• Virginie Robin – Euronovia, France
• Alejandro Alvarez Alvarez – FI Group, Spain
• Nilay Yalcinkaya Yoruk – Intract, Turkey
• Diego Soro – Soros Gabinete, Spain
• Pekka Koponen – Spinverse, Finland
• Marie Latour – Zabala Innovation Consulting, Belgium
• Xavier Aubry – Zaz Ventures, Belgium

On the occasion of its first meeting, the Board elected the EAIC’s President, Pekka Koponen.
Welcoming the decision, Pekka said: “Innovation consultants play an important role as the glue and catalyst between European innovators from largest enterprises to growth companies and academic organizations. We transfer the latest information on public funding to our clients, help them build and raise funding for their innovation and manage resulting projects and ecosystems professionally for new business, other impact and finally, competitiveness of European industry that keeps the whole innovation system running.  EAIC also stands to make sure that our members do their work with strictest code of ethics and professionalism, always walking the extra mile needed for success.”
 
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 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 42 members, active in more than 18 countries around Europe.
 
www.eaic.eu
 
Contact
Marie Latour - +32 4 73 89 63 74 – info@eaic.eu
Pekka Koponen - +358 40 545 0008 – pekka.koponen@spinverse.com

Yesterday, the European Commission published the results of a stakeholder consultation in the report “A Robust Innovation Ecosystem for the Future of Europe.”

The report summarises the outcomes of 8 workshops held between October 2019 and February 2020, attended by approximately 350 participants. Resulting in a conference “A Robust Innovation Ecosystem for the Future of Europe” held in Brussels on the 18th of February, 2020, the report was produced by the Directorate General for Research and Innovation, European Innovation Council (EIC) Task Force and the Unit of Innovation Ecosystems. It gathers the insights from various stakeholders, including investors, companies, start-up communities, universities, local, regional and national authorities linked to innovation policy. Recommendations from the report will be considered by policy makers shaping EU innovation ecosystems.
 
In view of enabling the development of Horizon Europe, and in addition to collecting and analysis the feedback from the consultation phase, the report aims to

• identify the challenges faced by specific stakeholder groups,
• encourage exchange on good practices and successful strategies and,
• pinpoint how the EU can achieve the most substantial impact on the innovation ecosystem.

​Online questionnaire results on challenges identified in the innovation ecosystem can be found in the report. These challenges are grouped in 3 major pillars: connectedness of stakeholders, competence and talent, and capital.
 
To provide an overview of the challenges and main action lines for Horizon Europe’s implementation, throughout the report, stakeholders’ feedback is analysed, structured, and summarised into many interesting insights on the European innovation ecosystem.

Read more here.

On September 22-24, the European Commission invites stakeholders to debate and shape the future research and innovation landscape through a virtual event.
 
During this annual flagship event and through interactive sessions, participants will provide input on the EU’s research and innovation policy.
Participants include policymakers, researchers, entrepreneurs, and citizens, who will debate the role of funding and research and innovation policies in the EU’s recovery. As a response to the global pandemic, the EU must now enable a sustainable, inclusive, and resilient transition.
 
This 3-day event will be the occasion to contribute to policy co-designing, thought-provoking panels and participate in matchmaking opportunities.
 
At EWGIC, we expect this event to be instrumental in the coordination of excellent science and beneficial for Europe’s recovery, as we also look forward to Horizon Europe’s launch event.
 
Visit this link for more information and to view the full programme.

The Multi-Annual Financial Framework (MFF) 2021-2027 is undergoing intense negotiations within the European Institutions. Horizon Europe’s budget has been decreased by 5 billion euros, straying away from the European Commission’s initial ambitious plan. The European Council and Parliament (EP) have just a few months left to complete their negotiations.

EWGIC, the European Working Group of Innovation Consultants, welcomes the European Council’s agreement on the MFF and the Next Generation EU budgets, but regrets the treatment of European research and innovation funding especially related to Horizon Europe.

EWGIC supports Parliament’s stance that the Council’s budget deal needs to be transformed to a more future-oriented approach. We are now calling the European Parliament to ensure Horizon Europe will get back at least to the original proposal that the EC made in 2018 of 83.5 B€ (2018 prices). So that R&I can actually contribute to our continent's recovery and allow for the development of added-value products and solutions developed in Europe.

On 22 June 2020, the European Commission released the Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) 2020, which demonstrates Europe’s improving innovation performance.

According to the EIS, on average, the innovation performance of the EU has increased by 8.9% since 2012, with performance having increased the most in Lithuania, Malta, Latvia, Portugal and Greece.

Sweden continues to be the EU Innovation Leader, followed by Finland, Denmark and the Netherlands. This year Luxembourg (previously a Strong Innovator) joins the group of Innovation Leaders, while Portugal (previously a Moderate Innovator) joins the group of Strong Innovators.

At a global level, it is the second year that the EU surpasses the United States. The EU also continues to have a performance lead over China, Brazil, Russia, South Africa, and India. Since 2012, the EU’s performance gap with South Korea, Australia and Japan has increased, while the EU’s performance lead over the United States, China, Brazil, Russia and South Africa has decreased.

Background

The EIS functions as an assessment of the performance of research and innovation in EU countries and identifies “performance leaders” in specific areas of innovation. It covers the EU Member States as well as Iceland, Israel, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.
The EIS contains 4 “performance groups:”

• Innovation Leaders – Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Sweden perform significantly above the EU average;
• Strong Innovators – The innovation performance of Austria, Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, Ireland, and Portugal is above or close to the EU average;
• Moderate Innovators – Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain show an innovation performance below the EU average;
• Modest Innovators – The innovation performance of Bulgaria and Romania is below 50% of the EU average.

The innovation performance is measured based on 27 performance indicators, within 10 innovation dimensions and in 4 main categories.

• Framework conditions capture the main drivers of innovation performance and cover three innovation dimensions: human resources, attractive research systems, and innovation-friendly environment.
• Investments include public and private investment in research and innovation, distinguishing between external finance and support, and own-resource investments.
• Innovation activities capture the innovation efforts at the company level, covering three dimensions: innovators, linkages, and intellectual assets.
• Impacts illustrate how innovation translates into benefits for the economy as a whole: employment impacts and sales effects.

 
Source: ec.europa.eu
 
Click here to view the full Q&A document published by the EC on 23 June 2020.
Visit this page for more information on the EIS.

The European Commission announced yesterday that over 2,000 sustainable innovation companies from 38 different countries have applied for financial support of €7.8bn from the one-off EIC Accelerator Green Deal call. We can expect a 4% success rate for this call, a similar level as for the October 2019 cut-off.

When Commission President Ursula von der Leyen outlined Europe’s “green recovery” plan to the European Parliament last week, it was understood that the Green Deal would be placed at the centre of the EU’s recovery effort.

The Green Deal has the capacity to help the EU economy recover from the COVID-19 crisis, with proposals of this specific call focusing on the following aspects:
- climate mitigation
- the transition to a clean & circular economy
- zero pollution ambitions
- toxic free environments
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Read more here.