On 24 September 2020 six EIC-backed innovators had the chance to show their COVID-19 solutions during a dedicated EIC ePitching session with Investors, taking place during the R&I Days 2020. The session was a follow-up of the first EIC ePitching with Investors on COVID-19, which took place in April this year.

Green roofs and glass, low-carbon materials, buildings that generate more energy than consume... Saint-Gobain wants to build the houses of the future and is looking for new practices that guide every link in the construction chain. This path to a greener tomorrow cannot be done alone: the French corporate is looking for EIC disruptors able to drive innovation and tackle sustainability challenges, and EIC Greenathon provides the best playground for this. Our clock is counting down the days and hours until our event... Keep an eye on the EIC Community to discover, one by one, the business partners joining our initiative.

On 14 September 2020 a dozen EIC-backed innovators were invited to an ‘EIC ePitching to Procurers’-session, together with bpost, Belgium’s national postal provider. The SMEs had the opportunity to pitch their innovative solutions on eMobility and charging infrastructure to bpost’s procurement division and engage in pre-arranged business meetings in the hopes of fostering new connections and partnerships.

OTP Bank is launching its fourth startup partnership program with the aim of conducting business-focused pilots across the entire banking group covering 12 countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Apply by 23 October 2020 & collaborate with leading industry experts!

Imagine bringing together several European business partners, each with their own green challenges, involving many participants to solve them. This will be the EIC Greenathon, the first online hackathon focused on the European Green Deal. The Danish multinational Danfoss joined the initiative and will literally level up the energy of this competition. In the upcoming days, we will highlight the different challenges and introduce you to the business partners involved in the Greenathon with our new weekly series Green O’ Clock. Do you want to know more? It’s time to energize your curiosity.

On 3 and 4 June 2020 the European Innovation Council celebrated the launch of a brand-new initiative specifically focused on the EU Green Deal. The EIC Planet.tech brought together EIC-backed start-ups/scale-ups with four large corporates with the objective to develop a number of impactful Proof of Concepts (PoC). During the past three months, the start-ups and corporates have been working hard, with several very promising results. During the R&I Days 2020, Planet.tech projects will be showcased and presented to the audience. This upcoming week we will highlight several of these projects in the EIC Community, starting with P&G and 4FOLD foldable Containers (from Holland Container Innovations).

The European Innovation Council Business Acceleration Services and Amadeus invite you to pitch your company and discover business opportunities during the EIC Corporate Day with Amadeus on 30 November 2020. Meet with top decision makers and experts from one of the leading technological providers for the travel industry. This engaging online event is an exclusive chance to accelerate your business.

The European start-up scene is teeming with life: many European cities are establishing themselves as some of the most vibrant start-up hubs the world has to offer. In autumn 2020, the EIC will organise three dedicated EIC virtual hub visits to Stockholm, Barcelona and Berlin, starting with the Swedish capital on 13-14 October. A great opportunity to get to know these hubs inside out, meet innovation players and submerge yourself in their business culture. All that from the comfort of your own digital workspace!

The European Innovation Council is aware of the hurdles the EIC-entrepreneurs are facing and created a crisis coaching team to help beneficiaries to adjust their projects and strengthen their companies in future disruptions. Discover in the EIC Community how can you get in touch with us for targeted coaching.

The PLATFORMA project will produce novel high-content phenotypic platforms for screening cosmetics, pollutants and new therapeutics. The project builds on the results of the Pathfinder (FET-Open) project, MESO-BRAIN, which developed functional 3D human-stem-cell-derived neural networks of defined and reproducible architecture, based on that of a brain cortical module that will display in vivo connectivity and activity.

The wait is over – you can now register for the Research & Innovation Days 2020. Open to all and free of charge, the event aims at gathering Europe’s best and brightest researchers, scientists, innovators, policy makers and entrepreneurs and bringing them together with the public to debate and shape the future of Research and Innovation in Europe and beyond. Join the virtual sessions on 22-24 September and be part of the online discussions!

Nanomaterials and nanodevices constitute key technology improving e.g. precision medicine and therapeutic approaches. The BOW project will advance this field by camouflaging them with natural biomembranes from extracellular vesicles.

The European Innovation Council Business Acceleration Services invites EIC Pathfinder beneficiaries (FET-Open & FET-Proactive ) to participate in our second Innovation Training Workshop. You will get the opportunity to learn in depth about eventual/potential commercialisation of your projects outcomes and maximise your value proposition. The two-day workshop will be based on interactive sessions and will offer concrete business tools to you and your research project, which can be immediately implemented. 

In our daily routines, whether we send an email, we post something on Facebook, or we download an episode from a TV show, we generate data that is stored in different data centres. These data centres and cloud providers consume 6% of the global electricity and generate 4% of the global CO2 emissions, posing a serious threat to the environment. The digital industry is trying to minimise its impact on the environment with different attempts, and the Spanish startup Submer is doing its part. The EIC-funded project is changing data centres to make them as sustainable as possible.

Within the EIC Business Acceleration Services, the European Commission launched a new open call for tenders for the EIC GHG Programme. This call shall result in a service contract to support beneficiaries in creating and adapting products and services to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Can you help to build this bridge towards a carbon neutral Europe? Apply here until 21 September 2020!

The pandemic brought global uncertainty, transforming how businesses run and how leaders lead. The silver lining is that uncertainty can create opportunities – especially for companies that survive and innovate from the unexpected. But how can businesses reinvent themselves in times of crisis? During the past five weeks, the European Innovation Council offered an online EIC Summer School focusing on several challenges with dedicated training sessions. In partnership with The DO School, the EIC Community events provided tools and key lessons on leveraging capabilities, moving quickly, and maximising teams through crisis and change. Here’s the wrap-up of this Summer learning experience.

Have you recently received a grant from the EIC Accelerator Programme? Would you like to discover more in-depth the European Innovation Council family and the Business Acceleration Services? On 29-30 September, the EIC Accelerator Unit will organise the second Virtual EIC Coordinators’ Day of the year, meeting the recently awarded projects. It will be an excellent opportunity for EIC beneficiaries that signed a grant in the last two calls to get familiar with the project management procedures, and to network with other European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator-funded SMEs. Don't miss our call and register here!

In 2015, Cellink shook up the industry with its breakthrough universal bio ink, the very first on the market to be commercialised. The Gothenburg-based company offered a 3D printable bio ink, which is used to print organs and tissues. This allows medical tests to be carried out on human tissue instead of animals or humans. Here’s how it all started.

The European Innovation Council is organising a second ePitching to Procurers-session on COVID-19 on 17 November 2020. The goal is to connect public and private procurers from the health sector with EIC-funded companies providing medical supply and innovative technologies (e.g. tele-medicine, remote solutions, artificial intelligence for data analysis and prediction, supply chain management, logistics) as a solution to the COVID-19 pandemic. This specific call is solely for public and private procurers interested in participating.

Let us present you another new EIC Pathfinder project: IM-TWIN. The project wants to develop an innovative, modular, technological system, called IM-TWIN, for the monitoring and treatment of cognitive and emotional skills of typical developed children and children with autism spectrum disorders.

On 3 and 4 June 2020 the European Innovation Council celebrated the launched of a brand-new initiative, specifically focused on the EU Green Deal. The EIC Planet.tech brings together EIC-backed start-ups/scale-ups with four large corporates, namely AB inBev, DEME, Nestle and P&G, with the objective to develop a number of impactful and sustainable Proof of Concepts (PoC).

The European Innovation Council Business Acceleration Services, Thales & Thales Alenia Space invite you to apply for our joint EIC Corporate Day. Thales, a leading global service provider to the aerospace, defence, transportation and security sectors and Thales Alenia Space, its space joint venture with Leonardo, are looking for innovative startups and SMEs in their sectors, especially focusing on space.

After the overwhelming interest for the EIC ePitching with Investors on COVID-19 in April 2020, the EIC is organising another opportunity to pitch your COVID-relation innovation to Europe’s top investors. This second edition will be in collaboration with Wolves Summit and will take place during the annual European Research and Innovations Days. All EIC-backed SMEs that are working on innovative solutions to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic are welcome to apply.

Since March 2019, the Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) programme is part of the enhanced European Innovation Council (EIC) pilot. In view of the next Horizon Europe programme, it is crucial to understand the strengths and shortcomings of FET, and how this programme can evolve when taking inspiration from the US-based Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

The European Commission in collaboration with FETFX organises the second annual Future Tech Week, which will take place entirely online, from 21 to 25 September 2020. The event provides EIC Pathfinder FET projects with a unique opportunity and broad platform upon which to showcase their achievements in fields aligning with the European Commission’s priorities, including Artificial Intelligence and information technology, health and biotech, culture and society, energy and environment, and nanotech and materials. Save the date!

During the past months, organisations had to adapt to the new reality imposed by the COVID-19 outbreak. Small and Medium Enterprises are also facing a learning curve, constantly adapting their businesses to the post-pandemic ways of working. The European Innovation Council is aware of the hurdles the EIC-entrepreneurs are facing and created a crisis coaching team to help beneficiaries to adjust their projects and strengthen their companies in future disruptions.

Every year millions of tons of plastic waste end up on our streets, in our rivers and covering our forests. A large part of this waste comes from packaging. The plastic bags we use, for only a few minutes, can last as long as 15 to 1,000 years in the environment and, according to a recent study, people could be ingesting or inhaling approximately 5 grams of plastic every week. The Finnish start-up Paptic Ltd, founded in 2015, addresses this environmental challenge with a sustainable alternative to plastic films. Paptic material has all the advantages of plastic - it's versatile, reusable, light-weight, soft, but it's made of renewable raw materials and it’s recyclable.

On 29 and 30 June 33 EIC-beneficiaries went on a digital tour of the Netherlands during the EIC Corporate Day with Dutch giants. During the event, the SMEs matched up and explored business opportunities and collaborations with four of the Netherlands’ largest corporates: Eneco, KPN, Rabobank and Unilever.

A crisis often comes unexpected! During the past months, every business had to adapt to the new reality imposed by the COVID-19 outbreak. Companies are from a sudden facing adaptations to new work environments and habits. Teams need to be reskilled and leaders are struggling to ensure business continuity or – even beyond - encounter a drastic business change! This is why we decided to launch a dedicated online EIC Summer School. In partnership with the DO School, we offer you training opportunities to help you to better prepare and lead your company in times of crisis. Topics are manifold:, from improving your social media presence to preparing a roadmap for your personal crisis response.

It’s been three years since the EIC Business Acceleration Services dove into Corporate Days, gathering innovative European SMEs and large corporates to take full advantage of partnering opportunities. Starting off in Sweden, together with ABB, in 2017, the EIC Corporate Days brought SMEs and corporates from across Europe. Read our highlights from Corporate Days to get a grasp of what the programme offers.

Raising capital and attracting investors are some of the key concerns of many of our EIC beneficiaries. On one side, they must consider how to approach investors, and on the other how to be best prepared to meet them. With the EIC Community Talk: Ask me anything about Investors on 26 June 2020, 30 EIC-beneficiaries had the chance to receive insights from peers and have an in-depth discussion regarding investment rounds.

In addition to facilitating Series A funding for selected companies through accelerator events, InvestHorizon offers an individual programme customised to the investment-readiness needs and challenges of each company. The programme aims to support 500 European Deeptech entrepreneurs in raising EUR 500 million over two and a half years. Would you like to increase the investment and valuation amount of your Deeptech solution? Then, this is the right opportunity for you. The next deadline for applications is 30 July.

In 2020, with the COVID-19 pandemic, organisations shifted to remote working arrangements that have made cybersecurity risks a bigger threat. Many start-ups are facing new challenges to ensure social distancing directives while continuing to serve their customers. To help SMEs answer to the evolving cyber problems, the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) is developing a booklet with best practices. Wondering how secure your organisation is? Don’t miss this opportunity and work together with ENISA to respond to your challenges.

The EIC Fund, which will provide equity from €0.5m to €15m to breakthrough innovation companies selected for EIC Accelerator blended finance support (grant and equity), has become an official entity. This is the first time the European Commission will make such direct equity investments in companies, with ownership stakes expected to be in general from 10% to 25% in start-up companies. The European Investment Bank, as advisors of the EIC Fund on behalf of the European Commission, will manage the ownership stakes of the European Commission.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is often praised for its ability to make objective and rational decisions, unlike humans, who deal with reality in a subjective manner. The researchers from the Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) project TIMESTORM trained robots to learn some of these subjective abilities of humans, focusing on time-perception.

Are you eager to learn more on how to attract investors and all investment opportunities the European Innovation Council Business Acceleration Services present you? Is your company almost ready to raise capital through a funding round, but you still think you could better prepare yourself? Then the EIC Business Acceleration Services invite you to apply to this online session on 26 June 2020 at 9h30 CEST, in which former participants of EIC ePitching sessions to Investors, who have secured a funding round, share their experience and answer any question you may have on this process.

The Irish company, developing cutting-edge technology to help cure cancers, has secured a significant new Series C round of approximately €18 million, bringing the total equity funding to around €37 million. The capital was led by existing shareholders, including Seamus Mulligan, an experienced biopharmaceutical executive.

On 9 June 2020 the European Innovation Council hosted an EIC Community Training on HR for start-ups in the process of scaling. In this session 21 EIC-funded SMEs had to chance to learn and interact with Jose Martinez, EIC business coach specialised in leadership and HR, and EIC community member Diana Špakauskaitė, HR-manager at Ruptela.

On 16 June 2020, 1 pm (CET) the European Innovation Council (EIC) will host an ‘ePitching with Investors’ on SaaS and ICT-solutions. Six EIC-funded SMEs are gearing up to pitch their innovations to investors from Amadeus Ventures, BTOV, DN Capital, Experior Venture Fund, IdInvest, Omnes Capital, Kurma Partners and Speedinvest.

Dr. Regina Luttge is an expert in medical and biological microsystems having bio-inspired functionalities. She coordinates CONNECT, a Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) project, which aims at providing better treatment for neurodegenerative disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease.

On 3 and 4 June 2020 the European Innovation Council celebrated the launched of a brand-new initiative specifically focused on the EU Green Deal. The EIC Planet.tech brings together EIC-backed start-ups/scale-ups with four large corporates, namely AB inBev, DEME, Nestle and P&G, with the objective to develop a number of impactful Proof of Concepts (PoC).

NOVIRUSES2BRAIN is an ongoing research project, funded by the Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) program. Its ambition is to develop a unique drug able to eradicate multiple viral species simultaneously.

The EIC is pleased to invite all eligible start-ups to participate in our monthly EIC ePitching with Investors. This edition will focus on Internet of Things (IoT) & Smart Cities and will take place on 2 July 2020, 1 pm CET, mark your calendars! A limited number of EIC-backed up SMEs will have the chance to show their innovative solutions via an online tool to a jury of investors –consisting out of representatives from Breega Capital, Indico Capital Partners, SAP, United Ventures, SET Ventures, Tengelmann Ventures, Primoglio SGR.

The European Innovation Council (EIC), in collaboration with BBVA and Ferrovial, organised an online Corporate Day on 26 and 27 May 2020, bringing together 19 EIC-backed SMEs with over 50 corporates representatives. The online Corporate Day was the second event of its kind to be organised this month and gave SMEs and corporate representatives the opportunity to find synergies and explore business opportunities and further collaborations.

Are you looking to scale up your company in the near future? Do you believe people are your most important asset, but find it difficult to overcome the challenges of a growing team? If you answered yes to these questions, the European Innovation Council (EIC) Business Acceleration Services invite you to apply for this online Community Training, on 9 June 2020 (14h30 CEST), in which participants will receive insights that will help them manage Human Resources (HR) when scaling up.

Greening agriculture is one of the main challenges in the fight against climate change. In line with the European Green Deal, the European Commission adopted a comprehensive new Biodiversity Strategy to bring nature back into our lives and a Farm to Fork Strategy for a healthy and environmentally friendly food system. Many pesticides and antibiotics are being banned to ensure healthier food, boost organic farming and privilege the use of eco-friendly solutions. Founded in 2018, the EIC-funded innovation developed by Agrosustain is a good example working on this domain. The Swiss start-up is trying to reduce food waste and promote sustainable agriculture with natural solutions for pest management.

Which app would make your life easier? Perhaps you’re looking for ways to learn a new language faster or have those guitar lessons that you always wanted to try. Many mobile apps are providing us with disruptive and useful solutions to execute tasks easily with just a touch on the smartphone screen. From health check-up to learning platforms, here are 7 EIC-developed apps that you shouldn’t miss.

The European Innovation Council organised its first online Corporate Day on 12 May 2020 together with Enel, the global energy company. Originally planned as a physical event to be held in March, it was fully digitalised for the convenience of the SMEs and corporate representatives. 33 EIC-backed SMEs had the chance to pitch their innovations in the field of renewable energy, smart cities and grid solutions, among others. Over 40 Enel representatives were present to listen to the pitches and scout interesting projects.

Starting this May, the European Innovation Council will send fresh monthly updates about the latest news, business opportunities, project stories and events relevant to EIC Pathfinder, EIC Accelerator, and EIC Horizon Prizes. Sign up now and don’t miss the opportunity to receive these latest hand-picked articles, news and more directly in your inbox.