The Investment Guidelines have been updated to provide more clarity to applicants and to reflect recent changes in the management of the EIC Fund and will remain in place until the end of 2022.
The general article here:
https://www.andriotto.com/revised-eic-investment-guidelines-available-2022/
PDF available here:
Updated: 1st March 2022
Today,
As reported in the document,
The EIC Accelerator will support different types of innovation, in particular those based on deep-tech or radical thinking, but also social innovation. For the purpose of the present guidelines, “deep-tech” refers to a technology based on cutting-edge scientific advances and discoveries. It is characterized by the need to stay at the technological forefront by constant interaction with new ideas and results from the lab. Deep tech is distinct from ‘high tech,’ which tends to refer only to R&D intensity.
Even though the concept of innovation covers many fields, the EIC Accelerator will use a keener eye on project based on deep-tech. Why? Because through research of disruptive projects there is the actual key to set an important foot into the improvement of the society
The Deep Tech Europe Report: key numbers from the EIC performance.
Thanks to its “smart money”, the EIC is bridging the critical investment gap in early-stage innovation and makes market-creating innovation easier in Europe.
The European Innovation Council (EIC) supports European innovators in transitioning their ideas from the lab to the market. Thanks to its “smart money”, the EIC is bridging the critical investment gap in early-stage innovation and makes market-creating innovation easier in Europe. The Deep Tech Europe Report focuses on the results and impacts of its legacy programmes (SME Instrument and FET) and reveals the ins and outs of the EIC Accelerator and EIC Pathfinder funding schemes. Discover below the key numbers from the EIC portfolio in 2020.
Some of essential characteristics that you must consider when presenting your project to the EIC:
Whilst open to innovation in all areas presenting high technological or market or financial risks, the EIC Accelerator may also focus part of its support, on capital-intensive strategic technologies in policy priority areas, including Health, Green Deal (e.g. clean energy, climate action, future mobility) and Digital Transformation, advanced engineering, life sciences and space.
Example: European Green Deal
Climate change and environmental degradation are an existential threat to Europe and the world. To overcome these challenges, the European Green Deal will transform the EU into a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy, ensuring that no net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050; economic growth decoupled from resource use; no person and no place left behind.
The European Green Deal is also our lifeline out of the COVID-19 pandemic. One third of the 1.8 trillion Euro investments from the NextGenerationEU Recovery Plan, and the EU’s seven-year budget will finance the European Green Deal.
Pre-Seed, Seed and Early-stage SMEs, and small mid-caps
Eligible applicants under EIC Accelerators are for-profit SMEs, including start-ups and early-stage companies, and small mid-caps, from any sector, and typically with a strong intellectual property component. EIC Accelerator support aims to address high-risk projects that are not yet sufficiently attractive for investors, also considering the scale of investment required, with the aim to de-risk such projects and catalyze private investment throughout the lifetime of the EIC investment; thanks to the leverage provided by the EIC blended finance.
Areas of Intervention:
Eligible companies must be established and operating in the EU Member States or Associated countries to Horizon Europe. When negotiating and implementing investments decided by the Commission, the EIC Fund will ensure that supported companies keep most of their value, including their IP, in the EU or in Associated Countries, in order to contribute to their economic growth and job creation. Having regard to its public policy role, the EIC Fund will also take into account the EU initiatives to create a Capital Markets Union, including an attractive landscape for the financing of companies in the European Union that ensures a very high level of protection, effectiveness and easiness of operation, Accordingly, in case of potential investments in companies that have set up or plan to set up financial holding vehicles outside of the territory of the EU Member States or Associated countries to Horizon Europe, the Fund will determine whether such structuring can be accepted in light of the conditions above in previous paragraphs under this section 2.3, with a view to ensure compliance with Article 155 (2) and (3) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046 (Financial Regulation of the EU).
“The European Innovation Council is Europe’s most ambitious initiative to support the breakthroughs Europe needs to recover from the economic crisis and accelerate the transition to a green and digital economy. By investing in visionary research and innovative companies, it will reinforce European technological sovereignty, scale up hundreds of Europe’s most promising start-ups, and pave the way for the upcoming European Innovation Area.”
Mariya Gabriel,
Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth
European’s statement of technological sovereignty
In the context of growing geopolitical rivalries and the pandemic, the concept of technological sovereignty has emerged to become a key political theme. This concept is directly relevant to the European Innovation Council and the EIC pilot Advisory Board.
PDF available here: https://eic.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2021-06/Statement%20on%20technological%20sovereignty.pdf
