Commission expert group have set out their ambitious vision for the EIC: solving global challenges by supporting deep-tech research and entrepreneurship.
The European Innovation Council (EIC) Advisory Board have presented their vision for the future role of the EIC. The statement seeks to define more clearly the challenges that the programme will address, the specific role it will seek to fill in addressing them, and the means required to fulfil that role. The EIC will be central to helping Europe meet the challenge of the coming global transformations based on sustainability, digitalisation and deep tech.
The board focuses on three features necessary to address these challenges: becoming a “hallmark of excellence for impact-oriented innovation” that is both responsible and inclusive, presiding over a “credible budget” of at least €10 billion that can boost opportunities for breakthrough innovation, and positioning itself as “the investor of choice for those with visionary ideas”. They also place the EIC at the heart of Europe’s answer to the Coronavirus crisis. Indeed, to emerge stronger after the crisis, Europe needs “to direct our investments towards game-changing innovations that create a sustainable and human-centric digital future”. The EIC will do so by encouraging the innovation community to direct resources towards high-impact ideas, ventures and investment, help Europe lead on innovations emerging from deep-tech, and show young innovators that Europe is the best place for them to realise their ambitions.
The EIC will in particular set itself apart by taking a distinctively European approach, embracing European values and ethical standards, and by bringing together a technology research programme and an accelerator programme for start-ups and SMEs with the goal of building a single innovation community. Its equity fund will help fill the huge market gap for high-risk early stage ventures by using its budget of minimum €10 billion to crowd-in outside co-investment from public and private funds of between €30 and €50 billion. Building synergies with other European programmes will also be a strong focus, as will simplifying and speeding up the internal processes, making the EIC more agile and responsive. With these features complemented by expanded business acceleration services, the EIC should become the innovation agency of choice for early-stage, game-changing, technology-intensive entrepreneurs.
The European Commission appointed board comprises leaders from venture capital, large corporates, technology research as well as the start-up ecosystem. This vision is the first public statement from the board, and will be followed by further details on how they would see it implemented. The board will provide input on such aspects as strategy, the identification of targeted areas for intervention, budget allocations, instrument design, and evaluation systems. They will also advise on the design of fast-track access (for applicants from other EU programmes) and plug-in access (for applicants from national schemes) to benefit from synergies and speed up processes, and on overall EIC governance structures. The board’s mandate expires with the end of Horizon 2020, and a new board will then be appointed.