Coronavirus: additional €150 million for the European Innovation Council to fund breakthrough ideas

Today, the Commission announced that an additional €150 million will be made available through the European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator Pilot to support start-ups and small and medium-sized businesses in developing and deploying innovative solutions for the coronavirus crisis. The additional budget, set out in the revised EIC pilot work programme, is dedicated to companies with coronavirus relevant innovations and comes on top of the €164 million already offered under the latest EIC Accelerator call. As a result the total budget of this call is almost doubled to allow significant funding towards the fight against the coronavirus outbreak, at the same time as supporting a wide range of other breakthrough innovations. Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, said: “With the EIC, we aim to be flexible, adaptable and fast, just like the entrepreneurs we serve and support. This response to increase EIC Accelerator funding for coronavirus innovations in just a few weeks shows how fast we can act during times of urgency. It demonstrates our strong support for the top entrepreneurs and companies in their indispensable work in providing solutions against the coronavirus“. Companies selected for EIC support will be announced in late May. The Commission will also award special Seals of Excellence to high-quality coronavirus relevant applications that cannot be funded with the extra €150 million, in order to support their financing from other sources. Further details can be found here. This support to start-ups and SMEs is part of the Commission’s coordinated coronavirus response. The Commission is committing hundreds of millions of Euros in research and innovation actions to develop vaccines, new treatments, diagnostic tests and medical systems to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. More information is available here.