EU NEIGHBOURS. The European Commission launched today, at an online event, the European Innovation Council (EIC) with a budget of over €10 billion (in current prices) for 2021-2027 to develop and expand breakthrough innovations. Building on a successful pilot programme under Horizon 2020, the new EIC is not only a novelty of Horizon Europe, but it is also unique in the world: it combines research on emerging technologies with an accelerator programme and a dedicated equity fund, the European Innovation Council Fund, to scale up innovative start-ups and small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs). Around €3 billion of the EIC’s budget will go towards the EIC Fund.
The European Innovation Council (EIC) has several features that make it unique in its way of supporting pioneering ventures and projects: The EIC Accelerator supports SMEs, in particular start-ups and spinout companies to develop and scale up game-changing innovations; a new EIC Transition funding scheme will help convert research results into innovations; new measures are introduced to support women innovators, which include a female leadership programme.
