What you need to know from the first EIC summit

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Paddy Cosgrave from Ireland has been appointed EIC Ambassador to lead the European Innovation Council in its future investments and policies.

The European Innovation Council (EIC), officially launched in March earlier this year, held its first summit on the future of technology, innovation and entrepreneurship in the EU.

The community, which has more than 12,000 members, held a hybrid summit in Brussels on 24 and 25 November. The summit saw innovators and business people honored for their accomplishments, with Ireland performing particularly well.

On 24 November, Dublin ranked second in the iCapital Awards, which honored Europe’s most innovative cities. Sisters Ailbhe and Isabel Keane of Izzy Wheels won the Rising Innovator award on November 25th.

Tech entrepreneur and Web Summit founder Paddy Cosgrave has been named EIC Ambassador in recognition of his work in innovation in Europe. Cosgrave will join 32 others in advising on the future EIC program.

Keynote speakers at the summit include the director of the EIC and the Executive Agency for SMEs (EISMEA) and the chairman of the board of the EIC fund, Jean-David Malo; Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for a Europe fit for the digital age, and the European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Mariya Gabriel.

Roundtables were held on diversity in innovation, investment in European deep tech, technology sovereignty and the rise of corporate venture capital as an investment tool.

Over 1500 attendees on site and online200 speakers40 sessions3 awards ceremonies2 days1 # EICSummit21

Thanks to everyone who made the first #EUeic Summit hybrid a huge success! 🚀🙌 # ICYMI or just want to relive it all, the recordings 📹 will be out soon.

See you next year 🤗 pic.twitter.com/m63iSfL9lj

– European Innovation Council (@EUeic) November 26, 2021

According to its first impact report, published in conjunction with the summit, the EIC has allocated over € 10 billion to invest in forward-looking SMEs, start-ups and research consortia. As part of its efforts to strengthen Europe’s response to societal challenges such as the pandemic, the climate crisis and technological ethics, the EIC provides three separate funding streams to business people. It has supported more than 800 innovations so far, mostly from SMEs.

The EIC Pathfinder funding stream funds advanced, high-risk research on innovative technologies. The EIC Transition Fund helps innovators turn promising research results into innovation opportunities, while the Acceleration Fund supports companies as they develop and expand innovative ideas. The initiative falls under the mandate of the broader Horizon Europe Innovation Fund.

Since its pilot phase in 2014, the EIC fund has supported around 5,500 start-ups and SMEs which in turn have raised € 9.6 billion in follow-up investments. Of the 218 start-ups that received EIC funding in 2020, 72 are developing innovations for Covid-19. Another 64 are Green Deal start-ups working in the area of ​​sustainability, while at least 40 specialize in digital technology.

As of 2020, 90.5 percent of the EIC accelerator company portfolio is developing innovations that address at least one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

On the last day of the summit, Malo and Gabriel revealed that one of the companies supported by the EIC achieved a valuation of € 1 billion, making it the third unicorn of the EIC.

In his keynote address to the crowd of attendees at the summit, Gabriel said he was counting on them for their help in transforming the EIC into a “unicorn factory”. He added that the board’s goal was to create a “pan-European innovation ecosystem” that will be “willing to take risks” for the benefit of future generations.

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