All EIC supported projects and companies get access to coaching, mentoring, partnering and other EIC Business Acceleration Services
Under Horizon Europe, the EIC support goes far beyond funding and it aims at accelerating EIC innovations as well as growth of top deep tech companies. Access to a range of tailor-made EIC Business Acceleration Services will be provided to those who requires it.
These services are available through the EIC Community platform, or accordingly provided through the EIC Fund or partner organizations.
Once logged in the platform, you will ave free access: as you’ll se, the Community brings together all the people that interact around the EIC. For the moment it’s open for EIC pilot-funded innovators, entrepreneurs, researchers and small companies under Fast Track to Innovation, EIC Pathfinder, EIC Accelerator and investors, and will soon include EIC Prizes, Coaches, Corporates, Evaluation Jury Members, Key Account Managers and Project Officers.
The EIC are structured around three main pillars:
Access to coaches, mentors, expertise and training
Access to global partners (leading corporates, investors, procurers, distributors, clients)
Access to innovation ecosystem and peers
Access to coaches, mentors, expertise and training
EIC researchers, innovators and entrepreneurs will be able to benefit from tailor-made coaching, mentoring, expertise as well as training delivered by specialized providers and adapted to their innovation stage.
In short, EIC business coaching is available for various target groups and will be tailor made to deliver the desired outcome for each of them:
For Accelerator applicants (2nd stage) and Seal-of-Excellence teams, the objective is to improve the value proposition, business plan and investor pitch.
For Pathfinder researchers the objective is to discover innovation opportunities and to provide insight in the entrepreneurship potential.
For Transition teams the objective is to analyze the industry and to create a value proposition.
For Accelerator start-ups and scale-ups, the objective is to improve the business plan, the strategy implementation and a faster market entry.
In the Women Leadership Program (WLP), we offer additional WLP coaching to help leaders tackle potential glass ceiling issues.
Learn more on the Coaching under the EIC.
How to become a coach
In short, part of the proactive portfolio management by Programme Managers, access to specific expertise, trainings, incubation or acceleration are provided to meet individual needs of the EIC funded projects and companies and their innovations.
Generally, such services provided by professional service providers and ecosystem partners could include:
Expertise in the area of Intellectual Property protection
Legal & financial advisory
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
Certification and standardisation
Competition analysis
Assistance in negotiations
Access will be provided to relevant entrepreneurial and innovation/IP strategy trainings, prototyping workshops, business plan development oriented summer schools, boot camps, incubators as well as accelerators.
Female members of EIC-funded projects, from researchers to entrepreneurs, wishing to bring their research to market, advance their business skills and/or take over leadership positions in business development, can join the EIC Women Leadership Programme (EIC WPL) to strengthen their entrepreneurial skills as well as expand their network. Furthermore, each participant will work with a personal mentor and a business coach, facilitating the reflection on her career path and new business opportunities.
Additionally, EIC-supported researchers, innovators and/or entrepreneurs can join the the EIC Greenhouse Gas (EIC GHG) programme to help reduce their carbon footprint as well receive the coaching, training and access to corporations.
Access to global partners (leading corporates, investors, procurers)
The Business Acceleration Services facilitate cooperation together with co-creation with international business partners: leading corporates, investors, procurers, etc.
Generally, this includes
Exploration of commercialisation potential with industry
Dedicated and impact focused matchmaking events (e.g. Corporate Days, Procurers Days)
Structured pilot & trials collaborations with corporates and private and public innovation procurers.
EIC supported SMEs will be offered a specific support when expanding to new markets within Europe and abroad in form of participation to global business trade fairs, visiting major European innovation hubs and specific soft-landing programmes.
The EIC Overseas Trade Fairs 2.0 Programme (OTF) supports EIC beneficiaries to promote their commercialisation strategy in foreign markets and leverage business opportunities at the most popular trade fairs, strengthening the EU innovation brand around the world. Selected EIC-funded SMEs, startups and scale-ups from EU Member States and associated countries will have access to the programme.
(In order to learn more about the 2nd edition of the Overseas Trade Fairs Programme.)
All above services are open to all EIC funded projects and companies and other members of the EIC Community based on an application and, when relevant, selection process for each event or service. Additionally, the process involves publishing the service on the EIC Community, interested EIC companies or projects applying, and potentially conducting pre-selection by business partners/experts based on the service type.
Access to innovation ecosystem and peers
The EIC ambition is to engage partners from across the European innovation ecosystem within the EIC Community, to benefit from cross-fertilisation and diversity inspiring innovation as well as creativity. It aims to stimulate unprecedented and unforeseeable encounters between peer inventors, researchers, innovators, and entrepreneurs as well as other actors from the ecosystem, including corporates, investors, business angels, mentors and coaches, innovation procurers, innovation agencies, business associations, clusters, accelerators, incubators, technology transfer offices and many more.
Calendar
EIC GHG webinar: Digital solutions, 09 February 2022, online
EIC Innovation Training Workshop, 14-15 February 2022, online
EIC ePitching with Investors: Cybersecurity, 17 February 2022, online
EIC GHG webinar: Biogas, 23 February 2022, online
EIC Innovation Training Workshop, 07-08 March 2022, online
EIC Investor Day on EU Green Deal, 16-17 March 2022, online
EIC ePitching with Procurers: Sustainability, 22 March 2022, online
EIC GHG: Co-creation with Electrolux, 23-24 March 2022, online
EIC GHG: Co-creation with Trelleborg, 23-24 March 2022, online
EIC ePitching to Procurers with NO-FEAR: Health, 29 March 2022, online
EIC Corporate Day with Siemens Energy, 07 April 2022, online
EIC Enhanced Cooperation with Cefic, 25-29 April 2022, online
EIC Corporate Day with Siemens Energy, April 2022, online
EIC ePitching with Procurers: Digitalisation, 04 May 2022, online
EIC Innovation Training Workshop, 11-12 May 2022, online
EIC x Caixabank Innovation Procurement pilot Agrotech, Q2 2022, tbd
An overview of all past events can be found on the EIC Community.
FAQs (from the website)
What are the benefits? What are the selection criteria?
The business development coaching is available for various EIC target groups and will be tailor made to deliver the desired outcome:
For Accelerator applicants (full application stage) and Seal-of-Excellence teams, your objective may be to improve the value proposition and investor pitch.
For Pathfinder researchers your objective may be to discover innovation opportunities and to provide insight in your entrepreneurship potential.
For Transition teams your objective may be to get to know the industry and to create a value proposition.
For Accelerator start-ups and scale-ups, your objective may be to improve your business plan, the strategy implementation as well as faster market entry.
In the Women Leadership Programme additional WLP Coaching is offered to help you tackle potential glass ceiling issues.
Furthermore, Accelerator applicants and Seal-of-Excellence teams receive three days of coaching. Project officers together with program managers may recommend extending the starting offer for all other beneficiaries.
You will all receive an invitation to select a coach, as soon as you become eligible for the service.
Business Acceleration Services match EIC beneficiaries with partners based on tailored needs together with criteria defined in event publications. In fact, some use ‘first come first serve’ or unlimited attendance. Please check out any details in this regard in the event publication (in the EIC Community). Please note as well that even if your grant or EIC funding is contractually finished you are still eligible and invited to apply to the EIC BAS services.
How to enter the EIC Community?
The EIC Community Platform is an exclusive, virtual business platform, where EIC innovators can connect and leverage potential business partnerships. It gathers all innovative companies and innovators funded under the European Innovation Council covering the EIC Accelerator, EIC Transition, EIC Pathfinder and Women TechEU programs, as well as coaches, national contact points, corporates, investors, procurers, staff of the EIC …and many more.
If you are…
An EIC beneficiary (Accelerator, Pathfinder, Transition, Women TechEU), access a one-stop-shop to:
Register to EIC Business Acceleration Services, such as the EIC Corporate Programme, EIC Investor Programme, EIC Procurers Programme, EIC Community Talks & Trainings;
Get access to your event group for photos and videos or background information;
Create a personal and company profile;
Use the powerful search engine to find like minded companies;
Explore business opportunities among EIC peers;
Get exclusive access to ScaleUp EU, our matching platform with investors;
Expand networks with EIC ecosystem partners;
Share your experience and get support from peers via horizontal and thematic groups;
Co-create ideas and knowledge;
Promote interesting other events to the EIC Community;
To have access to these sections, you will be requested to log in using your EU Login username and password. However, if you do not have one, you can create your EU Login here.
If you are funded by the European Innovation Council, it may be that your user profile has been already automatically registered. In this case, just log in with EU Login username and password and you are already in!
Not part of the internal EIC Network yet? Access the public side of the EIC Community Platform and find:
Relevant news, success stories, open calls and events promoted by the Business Acceleration Services are available outside the platform;
Sharing options: spread the great news with your network: you can do it directly on your digital page.
In short, the EIC Community Platform is an exclusive, virtual business platform. EIC innovators can presently connect and leverage potential business partnerships. Overall, it brings together innovative companies, innovators, and various stakeholders from European Innovation Council programs, including EIC Accelerator and Women TechEU.
If you are…
An EIC beneficiary (Accelerator, Pathfinder, Transition, Women TechEU), access a one-stop-shop to:
Register to EIC Business Acceleration Services, such as the EIC Corporate Programme, EIC Investor Programme, EIC Procurers Programme, EIC Community Talks & Trainings;
Get access to your event group for photos and videos or background information;
Create a personal and company profile;
Use the powerful search engine to find like minded companies;
Explore business opportunities among EIC peers;
Get exclusive access to ScaleUp EU, our matching platform with investors;
Expand networks with EIC ecosystem partners;
Share your experience and get support from peers via horizontal and thematic groups;
Co-create ideas and knowledge;
Promote interesting other events to the EIC Community;
In order to have access to these sections, you will be requested to log in using your EU Login username and password. However, if you do not have one, you can create your EU Login here. If you are funded by the European Innovation Council, it may be that your user profile has been already automatically registered in the meanwhile. In this case, just log in with EU Login username and password and you are already in!
Not part of the internal EIC Network yet? Access the public side of the EIC Community Platform and find:
The most relevant news, success stories, open calls as well as events promoted by the Business Acceleration Services are available outside the platform;
Sharing options: spread the great news with your network: you can do it directly on your digital page.
What are the costs?
Overall, the business Acceleration Services are an integral part of the EIC programs, offering them for free (in-kind) to eligible EIC funded projects, Seal of Excellence awardees, innovators, and companies with specific agreements. Nevertheless, if the event or service requires travel or accommodation those are to be taken care of by the attendee. For the EIC funded companies and projects, there are possibilities to claim those costs under your current grant, please contact your project officer in this regard.
At EuGrantMe, we are passionate about fostering innovation and empowering ambitious minds to flourish. Our mission revolves around providing top-notch grant writing services for the EIC Accelerator and Horizon grants in Europe, enabling our customers to unlock the full potential of their groundbreaking ideas.
Do you have a project to turn into reality?