BIOVEGEN attends the launch of the European Innovation Council (EIC)

BIOVEGEN attended yesterday the launch event of the European Innovation Council (EIC) which the European Commission held on March 18. The event had a second session, held on the 19th, which was aimed at potential applicants and in which detailed presentations on the main EIC calls were shown.

The EIC is a key new feature of Horizon Europe, and represents the most ambitious innovation initiative that Europe has taken, with a budget of 10 billion euros for the period 2021-2027. Their main objectives are to finance high-risk SMEs, change the investment landscape in «deep tech» and build ecosystems for the transition to a green and digital economy. Thus, through the EIC, the European Union intends invest directly in startups and SMEs, which will attract additional venture capital from the private sector (at least €50 billion is expected). It is expected that in the 2021 calls, more than 1.5 billion euros will be invested to support startups, SMEs, health and digital technologies. Of the total 10,000 million euros, at least 300 will go to ecological agreement technologies of startups and SMEs, and 150 strategic digital technologies. Furthermore, the papplication process will be more agile and shorter, without great demands and providing feedback in a few weeks.