The European Commission is committing €90 million to Open and Disruptive Innovation over the next 12 months. A new tool to help doctors communicate with non-responsive patients; a cloud-based irrigation controller to improve water efficiency on farms by up to 30%; an "electronic nose" to better determine how fresh your food is - these are a few of the 30 tech SMEs and start-ups to receive EU funding. Find out who the tech winners are and what their idea is about.
SMEs from Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Israel, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey and the UK were selected to receive €50 thousand each (€1.5million overall EU funding) over 6 months at most, to render their business idea technically and commercially viable.
European Commission Vice-President Neelie Kroes said: "I always believed SMEs generate the kind of innovative ideas that bring growth and jobs, the ideas Europe needs today. This new instrument was created to precisely unleash this potential, to allow individual SMEs access funding that can allow them make their brilliant idea a reality. I want to congratulate the first set of winners and invite more of Europe's brilliant innovators to come ahead. The future belongs to you!"
Most of the 30 SMEs selected are 2 to 5 years old. Chosen from 886 proposals, they are innovative businesses and new high tech spin-offs from R&D bodies with a strong commercial dimension.
On September 24, on October 9 and on December 17 more winning SMEs will be announced; on these three occasions, funding of up to €43m will be offered to support SMEs from concept creation till commercialisation.
More about Open and Disruptive Innovation (ODI)
ODI is an ICT-dedicated funding scheme under Horizon 2020 that aims to transform disruptive ideas into concrete, innovative solutions (products, services, models) and create new markets with a European and global impact. Find out more on the ODI scheme here.
The SME instrument is a novel approach to supporting SMEs' innovation activities, covering the whole innovation cycle. It is conceived to offer access to EU funds to more SMEs, to provide support to a wider range of innovation activities and to help increase the economic impact of project results by its company-focused and market-driven approach.
Applications to the SMEs instrument are open all year long. These applications are evaluated at regular intervals called "cut-off days". Find upcoming cut-off dates here.
For further information on SME Instrument structure and support offered, pleae visit:
http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/h2020-section/sme-instrument