From cut-off 2018 the EIC SME Instrument and EIC Fast Track to Innovation (FTI) are a central part of the European Innovation Council (EIC) pilot, targeting radically new, breakthrough products, services, processes or business models that open up new markets.
This transition will bring the EIC SME Instrument to the next level and expand the reach of its benefits to the European innovation ecosystem. There is roughly €1.6 billion available to fund around 4000 small innovative companies.
New features under the EIC SME Instrument
The EIC SME Instrument’s redesign will improve both its accessibility and the excellence of its selection process. Changes include:
– Full bottom-up selection: there are no longer pre-defined topics so entrepreneurs from all sectors of the economy can apply with their market-creating innovations.
– Simpler submission forms: the submission process is now easier with brand new submission forms that have a simplified structure and content and a business-oriented language that is more adapted to the reality of entrepreneurs.
– More investors as expert-evaluators: the number of expert-evaluators with an investor profile has been significantly increased in the pool of experts in order to better review the market and investment related elements of proposals.
– Face-to-face interviews with selected Phase 2 applicants: this additional step after the remote evaluation will give expert-evaluators a better grasp of the proposals and make sure that only the best and most disruptive innovation ideas pass the cut.
Fast Track to Innovation (FTI) also becomes part of the European Innovation Council pilot.
EIC FTI is a fully-bottom-up measure in Horizon 2020 promoting close-to-the-market innovation activities that is open to all types of participants. EIC FTI aims to reduce the time from idea to market and to increase the participation in Horizon 2020 of industry, SMEs and first-time industry applicants.
About the European Innovation Council (EIC) Pilot:
con un budget di circa 2,7 miliardi di euro punterà sui c.d. top class innovator, tra i quali imprenditori, piccole aziende e ricercatori con idee brillanti e l’ambizione di crescere in maniera rapida ed esponenziale su scale europea e globale (scaling up). Il nuovo Work Programme EIC Pilot offrirà opportunità di finanziamento, di coaching e di networking per quei soggetti considerati all’avanguardia dell’innovazione.
The EIC pilot supports top-class innovators, entrepreneurs, small companies and scientists with bright ideas and the ambition to scale up internationally. It brings together the parts of Horizon 2020 that provide funding, advice and networking opportunities for those at cutting edge of innovation. It also includes the following instrument: the Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) Open and the EIC Horizon Prizes.
Links:
https://ec.europa.eu/easme/en/news/eic-sme-instrument-calls-open?pk_campaign=SMEi-NL-Nov17
https://ec.europa.eu/research/eic/index.cfm?pg=home