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Europe is strong in many areas
crucial to our ability to succeed in
this emerging future: world class
science, an abundance of talent
and ideas, openness and diversity,
strong industrial capabilities and a
collaborative and multi-disciplinary
approach to research, development
and innovation.
But too few innovative firms in Europe
succeed in scaling up to become
major employers and market leaders.
Many startups don’t make it beyond
the critical first few years, can’t get
the finance to scale up into global
businesses, or they try their luck in a
third country.
Our €77 billion Horizon 2020
programme is making impressive
strides in coupling excellent research
with innovation. But I believe there
is still more we can do to generate
greater impact from taxpayers’
investment. We need to make
reforms so that we support our top
innovators who have the ambition,
resilience and capability to create and
capture new markets. This is where
the European Innovation Council (EIC)
comes in, as a means of streamlining
EU level funding with a clear focus on
supporting breakthrough, market-
creating innovation and boosting
the effectiveness of the innovation
ecosystem.
The €2.7 billion first phase of the EIC
which we have just launched, focuses
on support for innovative firms and
entrepreneurs with the potential to
scale up their businesses rapidly at
the European and global levels. A
main feature is a fully bottom-up SME
instrument allowing applicants freedom
from thematic restrictions, a proposal
evaluation system that introduces for
the first time face to face interviews
with a jury of innovation and finance
experts and enhanced coaching and
mentoring support. Blended finance
(grants combined with loans) will also
be trialled.
I am confident that the EIC will provide
an excellent opportunity for all the
startups that are participating in the
EU Top 50 startups competition and
that it will become a ‘game-changer
for our game-changers’. I’m sure this
year’s European Innovation Summit
will again contribute to the on-going
discussions that shape our European
research and innovation landscape.
Carlos Moedas, European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation