European Research and Innovation Days 2020: Tägliche Kurzberichte "European Innovation Council (Hub 8)"

Hub 8: European Innovation Council

22.9.2020

The Hub on the European Innovation Council (EIC) included several workshops on success stories from past and running projects, as well as two panel discussions:

Building the new European Innovation Council: Putting Europe at the forefront of Deep Tech and Breakthrough Innovation

The Director of the EIC Advisory Board, two female CEOs with successful Pathfinder and Accelerator projects and a Research Group leader took part in the discussion:

• Rationale: The EIC was founded on the evidence that the EU is very good in science and creating new start-ups, but compare to the US, the EU is still weak when it comes to extending it to established companies that could have a real impact on major societal challenges.
• The EIC is based on Crowding-in investments: It will drive a change in the mentality of EU investors towards greater risk appetite. For that, a strong wish for more budget is claimed.
• The goal is that the EIC will be THE PLACE TO GO for investment seekers in five years, i.e. make EIC for investors what ERC is already for research community.
• The EIC strives to be as inclusive as possible: widening countries, female entrepreneurship, people outside the usual circle of innovation and any inclusion of diversity is a key success factor.
• The importance of the bottom-up visionary basic research has been highlighted: It has been nicely said that if the accelerator aims to transform the "fruits" of the research results into commercial products, even more effort must be made to ensure that there are enough "trees" to produce these fruits (Pathfinder).

From world class SCIENCE to world beating COMPANIES (joint with European Research Council)

The panel included the Director of the EIC Advisory Board, a member of the ERC, an expert on technology transfer and two succesful Project leaders who have managed an ERC and then built a business:

• The ERC as the „leading groundbreaking science funding program of Europe“ and the EIC as the “future Unicorn factory“ are the two main programmes to bring groundbreaking innovation to the market. There are lots of complementarities between ERC and EIC.
• Examples show, that the translation of results from science to market provides not only impact on better education, but also triggers new innovative results → necessity to mix scientist from industry and academia to work on common solutions.
• Perhaps the most important step from early stage research to funding a successful company is the financial and operational support during the transition phase between proven academic research results and the establishment of a company capable of selling innovative products. Often a lack of knowledge about the above mentioned processes (company formation, entrepreneurship, business planning) prevents the exploitation of good innovations.

23.9.2020

Towards the EIC FORUM : Optimizing how the EIC, national innovation agencies and partners work together in times of crisis

Jean David Malo led the discussion with the Director of the EIC Advisory Board, the director of the EIT and a VC Fund director on the EIC Forum, that will promote coordination and dialogue on the development of the EU's innovation ecosystem and connect the existing innovation ecosystems with the EIC:

• Rationale: Without the cooperation of national and regional innovation agencies, the EIC will not be able to exploit its full potential, in particular taking into account the "plug-in" mechanism. It enables funding organisations to have prioritised access to the EIC Accelerator. But the important role of large companies, VCs, business angels (the private sector) must also be addressed.
• The EIC Forum could become the perfect platform to bring together all the voices that need to be heard. Its main objectives are to promote the harmonization of the European market in terms of regulation and innovation procurement, which requires a broader DARPA-like approach in Europe. The promotion of gender equality in innovation must also be part of the discussions.
• Conclusion: The EIC Forum should act as a service provider in its best sense, providing best value and unites, enables and empowers the stakeholders of the innovation ecosystems.

EIC supporting women revolutionising Tech 

Rationale: One of the Commission's priorities is to establish gender equality as a critical component of economic growth, as studies show that capital-intensive, female-run companies are more efficient, but at the same time are more likely to invest in companies run by male CEOs.

• There is a critical mass of female founders who are now moving from the funding needs to scale up needs for their companies. It is the right moment for pushing gender balance in management.
• A change in mentality is needed, because for a long time the fact that gender inequality affects the potential for innovation was neglected. As before, male-managed companies are still examined for their potential profit in business, whereas the analysis of female-managed companies focuses more on the potential for loss.
• Full-time committed women in VC funds are still missing, and now, with the EIC, there is a good momentum to redress this imbalance.

24.9.2020

The Hub on the European Innovation Council (EIC) included workshops on the EIC Fund, Risk Capital management and Future Technologies, as well as a panel discussion.

Europe's new "SUPER FUND": the European Innovation Council Fund

EU Commissioner Mariya Gabriel and Jean David Malo, Director EIC led the discussion with EIC Advisory Board Member Hermann Hauser, EIB Director Christoph Kuhn, Kerstin Jorna (EC, EIC Fund Board of Directors) and Kerstin Bock (Member of the EIC Investment Committee) on the EIC Fund, which was set up to fill the funding gap in the start-up phase, when the EU venture capital market is underperforming compared to the global venture capital market. For the first time the European Commission will make direct equity investments in companies.

• The EIC Fund does not aim to compete with the market, but to crowd-in other investors and to stimulate this currently underperforming market.
• Its main purpose is not to maximise the return on investments, but to accompany the companies in their growth as patient investor.
• Investments are made in companies with high risk and with a high European strategic interest, with individual solutions for each case. The EIC Fund acts as a catalyst to crowd in private venture capital from all over the world.
• The EIB plays 3 roles: (1) advise during the due dilligence, (2) providing links to 3rd party funding from VCs and promotional banks an (3) providing risk mitigating measures during the due dilligence process.

Conclusion: Only a comprehensive service (grant & equity) can really help companies to grow quickly, as the venture capital scene is not yet able to do so in some cases.

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