€200m to bring technological breakthroughs quickly to the market
Innovation is essential to preserve and improve Europe's competitiveness and its ability to create jobs and to tackle societal challenges. However, five years after the launch of the Innovation Union, a key initiative adopted by the European Commission to foster Europe's capacity to innovate, the EU still lags behind when compared to the United States, Korea and Japan, considered to be the world leaders in innovation. Figures in fact show that Europe is spending 0.8% of GDP less than the US and 1.5% less than Japan every year on research and development.
With its potential as the largest internal market in the world and home to several of the world's leading innovative companies, the situation in the EU should and can be different. To address this lacuna, numerous initiatives have been implemented over recent years with the aim of fostering an innovative friendly environment across the Union. The main funding programme for research and development, Horizon 2020, was launched specifically to assist individuals, private and public entities, to transform innovative ideas into products and services that create growth, jobs and long-term economic growth.
The industry, on its part, is fast responding to the opportunities provided by this funding programme, as confirmed by former European Research, Innovation and Science Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn who stated that over 17,000 proposals were submitted during the first year of Horizon 2020. Fast Track to Innovation Pilot is the most recent Horizon 2020-funded scheme wherein the EU is allocating a budget of approximately €200m over a period of two years to try to nurture trans-disciplinary and cross-sector approaches.
The scheme aims to encourage private enterprises, universities, research and technology organisations and other innovation actors to work together, promote the sharing of knowledge and skills, and incentivise the conversion of ideas into sustainable innovative products, processes and services that both address societal challenges and are highly competitive in global markets. In addition, this funding opportunity aims to stimulate the participation of first-time applicants to EU research funding and to increase private sector investment in research and innovation.
The Fast Track to Innovation Pilot scheme supports projects undertaking innovation from the demonstration stage through to market uptake, including stages such as piloting, test-beds, systems validation in real world and working conditions, validation of business models, pre-normative research and standard-setting. In a nutshell, the scheme works to bring technological breakthroughs and service innovations quickly to the market.
The scheme also addresses the recent Innobarometer (a special issue of the Flash Eurobarometer) survey results that show that the main problem for the commercialisation of innovative goods or services is the lack of financial resources. It does so by making funding available to relatively mature new technologies, concepts, processes and business models that need a last development step to reach the market and achieve wider deployment.
Proposals must include a business plan clearly describing the market potential from both a user perspective as well as from the European and global market perspective, the business opportunities for participants, measures to enhance the probability of eventual commercial take-up and a credible commercialisation strategy.
The scheme will support small consortia each of which should include the participation of a minimum of three up to a maximum of five legal entities established in different member states or associated countries.
The maximum EU contribution per project is €3m and proposals may be submitted at any time. Submissions will subsequently be ranked following three cut-off dates in 2015, namely 29 April, 1 September and 1 December.
Initiatives such as the Fast Track to Innovation Pilot are key contributors to the EU's economic growth. The new European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, Carlos Moeas, stated that this particular scheme has the "potential to fast-track our global competitiveness".
Judging by interest shown so far in Horizon 2020 schemes and initiatives, it could surely help the EU go a long way towards achieving its 2020 research and development targets. This is very important in the current scenario, as evidence shows that much of the recent gains in productivity have resulted from innovation. On average, those countries that invested more in research and innovation before and during the crisis have been the most resilient during the economic downturn. If Europe achieves its target of investing 3% of its GDP in research and development by 2020, it is estimated that more than 3.7 million jobs would be created and there would be an annual increase of €795bn in GDP by 2025.
More information about this call and other funding opportunities may be obtained by contacting Meusac on 2200 3300, email: [email protected].
Mandy Falzon
Head, EU Funding
Meusac