All EIC supported projects and companies get access to coaching, mentoring, partnering and other EIC Business Acceleration Services

https://eic.ec.europa.eu/eic-funding-opportunities/business-acceleration-services_en

Under Horizon Europe, the EIC support goes far beyond funding and it aims at accelerating EIC innovations and growth of top deep tech companies. Access to a range of tailor-made EIC Business Acceleration Services will be provided to those who requires it.

These services are available through the EIC Community platform, or provided through the EIC Fund or partner organizations.

Once logged in the platform, you will ave free access: as you’ll se, the Community brings together all the people that interact around the EIC. For the moment it’s open for EIC pilot-funded innovators, entrepreneurs, researchers and small companies under Fast Track to Innovation, EIC Pathfinder, EIC Accelerator and investors, and will soon  include EIC Prizes, Coaches, Corporates, Evaluation Jury Members, Key Account Managers and Project Officers.

The EIC are structured around three main pillars:

  • access to coaches, mentors, expertise and training
  • access to global partners (leading corporates, investors, procurers, distributors, clients)
  • access to innovation ecosystem and peers

Access to coaches, mentors, expertise and training

EIC researchers, innovators and entrepreneurs will be able to benefit from tailor-made coaching, mentoring, expertise and training delivered by specialized providers and adapted to their innovation stage.

The EIC business coaching is available for various target groups and will be tailor made to deliver the desired outcome for each of them:

  • For Accelerator applicants (2nd stage) and Seal-of-Excellence teams, the objective is to improve the value proposition, business plan and investor pitch.
  • For Pathfinder researchers the objective is to discover innovation opportunities and to provide insight in the entrepreneurship potential.
  • For Transition teams the objective is to analyze the industry and to create a value proposition.
  • For Accelerator start-ups and scale-ups, the objective is to improve the business plan, the strategy implementation and a faster market entry.
  • In the Women Leadership Program (WLP), we offer additional WLP coaching to help leaders tackle potential glass ceiling issues.

Learn more on the Coaching under the EIC

How to become a coach

As part of the proactive portfolio management by Programme Managers, access to specific expertise, trainings, incubation or acceleration are provided to meet individual needs of the EIC funded projects and companies and their innovations.

Such services provided by professional service providers and ecosystem partners could include:

  • expertise in the area of Intellectual Property protection
  • legal & financial advisory
  • General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
  • certification and standardisation,
  • competition analysis
  • assistance in negotiations

Access will be provided to relevant entrepreneurial and innovation/IP strategy trainings, prototyping workshops, business plan development oriented summer schools, boot camps, incubators and accelerators.

Female members of EIC-funded projects, from researchers to entrepreneurs, wishing to bring their research to market, advance their business skills and/or take over leadership positions in business development, can join the EIC Women Leadership Programme (EIC WPL) to strengthen their entrepreneurial skills and expand their network. Each participant will work with a personal mentor and a business coach, facilitating the reflection on her career path and new business opportunities.

In addition to the coaching & training and access to corporates, investors and procurers, EIC-supported researchers, innovators and/or entrepreneurs can join the the EIC Greenhouse Gas (EIC GHG) programme to help reduce their carbon footprint.

Access to global partners (leading corporates, investors, procurers)

The Business Acceleration Services facilitate cooperation and co-creation with international business partners: leading corporates, investors, procurers, etc.

This includes

  • exploration of commercialisation potential with industry
  • dedicated and impact focused matchmaking events (e.g. Corporate Days, Procurers Days)
  • structured pilot & trials collaborations with corporates and private and public innovation procurers.

EIC supported SMEs will be offered a specific support when expanding to new markets within Europe and abroad in form of participation to global business trade fairs, visiting major European innovation hubs and specific soft-landing programmes.

The EIC Overseas Trade Fairs 2.0 Programme (OTF) supports EIC beneficiaries to promote their commercialisation strategy in foreign markets and leverage business opportunities at the most popular trade fairs, strengthening the EU innovation brand around the world. Selected EIC-funded SMEs, startups and scale-ups from EU Member States and associated countries will have access to the programme.

(Learn more about the 2nd edition of the Overseas Trade Fairs Programme.)

All above services are open to all EIC funded projects and companies and other members of the EIC Community based on an application and, when relevant, selection process for each event or service. The process involves a publication about the service on the EIC Community, an application by an interested EIC company or project and depending on the type of service, a pre-selection by business partners/experts can be applied.

Access to innovation ecosystem and peers

The EIC ambition is to engage partners from across the European innovation ecosystem within the EIC Community, to benefit from cross-fertilisation and diversity inspiring innovation and creativity. It aims to stimulate unprecedented and unforeseeable encounters between peer inventors, researchers, innovators and entrepreneurs as well as other actors from the ecosystem, including corporates, investors, business angels, mentors and coaches, innovation procurers, innovation agencies, business associations, clusters, accelerators, incubators, technology transfer offices and many more.

Calendar

An overview of all past events can be found on the EIC Community.

FAQs (from the website)

What are the benefits? What are the selection criteria?

The business development coaching is available for various EIC target groups and will be tailor made to deliver the desired outcome:

  • For Accelerator applicants (full application stage) and Seal-of-Excellence teams, your objective may be to improve the value proposition and investor pitch.
  • For Pathfinder researchers your objective may be to discover innovation opportunities and to provide insight in your entrepreneurship potential.
  • For Transition teams your objective may be to get to know the industry and to create a value proposition.
  • For Accelerator start-ups and scale-ups, your objective may be to improve your business plan, the strategy implementation and a faster market entry.
  • In the Women Leadership Programme additional WLP Coaching is offered to help you tackle potential glass ceiling issues.

For Accelerator applicants and Seal-of-Excellence teams, three days of coaching are offered. For all further beneficiaries the starting offer of three coaching days may be extended on the recommendation of project officers and programme managers.

You will all receive an invitation to select a coach, as soon as you become eligible for the service.

Business Acceleration Services are tailored as much as possible to the EIC beneficiaries’ needs and aim to guarantee the best match possible with relevant business partners. This is why most offered EIC services will have a certain selection process based on specific criteria relevant to the specific event or service. If this is the case, the criteria and the selection process are announced in the event publication and/or the registration website. If there are no selection criteria, the event may also be based on a ‘first come first serve’ basis or an unlimited attendance approach. Please check out any details in this regard in the event publication (in the EIC Community). Please note as well that even if your grant or EIC funding is contractually finished you are still eligible and invited to apply to the EIC BAS services.

How to enter the EIC Community?

The EIC Community Platform is an exclusive, virtual business platform, where EIC innovators can connect and leverage potential business partnerships. It gathers all innovative companies and innovators funded under the European Innovation Council covering the EIC Accelerator, EIC Transition, EIC Pathfinder and Women TechEU programs, as well as coaches, national contact points, corporates, investors, procurers, staff of the EIC …and many more.

If you are…

  • an EIC beneficiary (Accelerator, Pathfinder, Transition, Women TechEU), access a one-stop-shop to:
  • Register to EIC Business Acceleration Services, such as the EIC Corporate Programme, EIC Investor Programme, EIC Procurers Programme, EIC Community Talks & Trainings;
  • Get access to your event group for photos and videos or background information;
  • Create a personal and company profile;
  • Use the powerful search engine to find like minded companies;
  • Explore business opportunities among EIC peers;
  • Get exclusive access to ScaleUp EU, our matching platform with investors;
  • Expand networks with EIC ecosystem partners;
  • Share your experience and get support from peers via horizontal and thematic groups;
  • Co-create ideas and knowledge;
  • Promote interesting other events to the EIC Community;

To have access to these sections, you will be requested to log in using your EU Login username and password. If you do not have one, you can create your EU Login here.

If you are funded by the European Innovation Council, it may be that your user profile has been already automatically registered. In this case, just log in with EU Login username and password and you are already in!

  • not part of the internal EIC Network yet? Access the public side of the EIC Community Platform and find:
  • The most relevant news, success stories, open calls and events promoted by the Business Acceleration Services are available outside the platform;
  • Sharing options: spread the great news with your network: you can do it directly on your digital page.

The EIC Community Platform is an exclusive, virtual business platform, where EIC innovators can connect and leverage potential business partnerships. It gathers all innovative companies and innovators funded under the European Innovation Council covering the EIC Accelerator, EIC Transition, EIC Pathfinder and Women TechEU programs, as well as coaches, national contact points, corporates, investors, procurers, staff of the EIC …and many more.

If you are…

  • an EIC beneficiary (Accelerator, Pathfinder, Transition, Women TechEU), access a one-stop-shop to:
  • Register to EIC Business Acceleration Services, such as the EIC Corporate Programme, EIC Investor Programme, EIC Procurers Programme, EIC Community Talks & Trainings;
  • Get access to your event group for photos and videos or background information;
  • Create a personal and company profile;
  • Use the powerful search engine to find like minded companies;
  • Explore business opportunities among EIC peers;
  • Get exclusive access to ScaleUp EU, our matching platform with investors;
  • Expand networks with EIC ecosystem partners;
  • Share your experience and get support from peers via horizontal and thematic groups;
  • Co-create ideas and knowledge;
  • Promote interesting other events to the EIC Community;

To have access to these sections, you will be requested to log in using your EU Login username and password. If you do not have one, you can create your EU Login here. If you are funded by the European Innovation Council, it may be that your user profile has been already automatically registered. In this case, just log in with EU Login username and password and you are already in!

  • not part of the internal EIC Network yet? Access the public side of the EIC Community Platform and find:
  • The most relevant news, success stories, open calls and events promoted by the Business Acceleration Services are available outside the platform;
  • Sharing options: spread the great news with your network: you can do it directly on your digital page.

What are the costs?

Business Acceleration Services form an integral part of the EIC programmes and are offered for free (in-kind) to eligible EIC funded projects and companies, Seal of Excellence as well as to innovators and companies coming from other European or national initiatives that have entered into a specific agreement with  the EIC. Nevertheless, if the event or service requires travel or accommodation those are to be taken care of by the attendee. For the EIC funded companies and projects, there are possibilities to claim those costs under your current grant, please contact your project officer in this regard.

  • Andriotto Financial Services team is an official advisors of the European Commission for Horizon Europe
  • AFS has a Centre of Excellence in Switzerland with some of the most skilled EU grant specialists, writing a successful proposal and supporting clients during the different implementation phases
  • AFS evaluate and select the best projects and enterprises around Europe to receive public funding
  • Our client portfolio includes some of the most important public institutions in Italy and in Europe
  • Participating in Horizon Europe is an ambitious challenge; however, we have one of the highest success rates between our European competitors.

Down below, you can learn more about each service:
https://www.andriotto.com/what-we-do/

You can find more info about the AFS team here:
https://www.andriotto.com/team/

HOW TO CONTACT AFS:
https://www.andriotto.com/contact/