Interconnected Innovation Ecosystems (2027.1)

Today’s challenges are inherently complex and systemic and cannot be solved by individual actors or territories in isolation. Enhancing the innovation ecosystems across the European Union (EU) requires a holistic approach that is nuanced, collaborative and inclusive, connecting diverse actors along the research and innovation cycle.

Interconnectedness is particularly crucial to boost Europe’s competitiveness. Despite the competitive advantages of the European innovation ecosystems, much of the knowledge produced in Europe remains unexploited. As has been highlighted by the Draghi report^[1], a key reason behind this failure is the fact that researchers in Europe are less well integrated into networks of universities, startups, large companies and venture capitalists, which account for a large share of successful commercialisations in high-tech sectors. This indicates that strengthening the links between resources, organisations and investors is a crucial step to putting research and innovation at the heart of our economy.

Such effectively connected ecosystems can provide innovative companies with the necessary support and conditions to thrive through access to capabilities, data, customers, knowledge, and talent. Network connectivity within and between innovation ecosystems greatly contributes to sustainable business growth with high societal value. In line with the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy, this destination improves the framework conditions for startups and scaleups, enabling them to capitalise on new geopolitical opportunities and reducing the reasons to relocate outside the EU.

Therefore, the actions of this destination aim to shift the European economy towards a more entrepreneurial, innovative and inclusive model by strengthening and expanding cooperation between innovation players. They aim to create a dynamic ecosystem to better support the next generation of innovative companies whose solutions will lead the shift towards a more competitive EU and a more sustainable, inclusive, and resilient world.

In addition to stronger innovation performance, increased competitiveness and faster transitions to a green and digital society, ecosystem integration can provide innovation actors and companies with access to new resources, markets, customers, and contribute to disruptive and innovative solutions. By being actively engaged in their local, regional, national, and European networks, companies can increase their overall growth potential.

Accordingly, this destination offers a holistic package of actions that:

• Increase the capacity to convert research results generated in Europe into innovative products and services, leading to a higher rate of successful commercialization of these solutions by companies based in the Member States and Associated Countries;
• Reinforce EU strategic autonomy and increase resilience in the supply chains by opening up opportunities for innovative companies to access the public procurement market and scale up their business;
• Establish robust, pan-European alliances of top-tier deep tech startup and scaleup hubs embedded in research and higher education ecosystems;
• Facilitate market expansion for deep tech startups across regions and sectors, thus enhancing cohesion and competitiveness across the EU;
• Strengthen less-connected innovation ecosystems by integrating them into a Europe-wide collaborative network;
• Increase the level of public and private investments in innovative companies, particularly startups and scaleups, through strengthened links with investors, including foundations;
• Establish stronger links between regions and countries with different innovation performances across the EU and Associated Countries;
• Promote a better alignment of the innovation policies of the Member States and Associated Countries, in line with the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy, through the EIC Forum;
• As a result of the above, achieve an increased level of retention of promising startups and scaleups in Europe, particularly in the deep tech sector and strategic sectors like life sciences, artificial intelligence, clean tech, biotech, security, defence (including dual use technologies), robotics, advanced and raw materials, quantum technologies, cybersecurity, and many others.

Where appropriate, the applicants should consider and actively seek synergies with possibilities for further funding from other relevant EU, national and/or regional innovation programmes, including Cohesion Policy funds, the Recovery and Resilience Fund and other public and private funds or financial instruments.

Expected impact

Proposals for topics under this destination should set out a credible pathway to strengthening robust interconnected innovation ecosystems and creating a favourable environment to promote the scalability of businesses, including in the deep tech sector, and more specifically covering one or several of the following impacts:

• More competitive and more efficient European innovation ecosystems which provide favourable framework conditions for the development and market uptake of innovative solutions, drawing on the existing strengths of national, regional, and local ecosystems;
• Enhanced cross-border network connectivity and inter-regional collaboration to untap Europe’s potential for successful commercialization of innovative products and services, notably through reinforced links between resources, organizations, investors and policymakers;
• Improved access to funding by European startups and scaleups, notably in the deep-tech and strategic sectors, through diverse sources, including innovation procurement and philanthropy;
• Enhanced knowledge and technology transfer and capacity building within the European innovation ecosystems, providing innovative companies with the necessary conditions to thrive;
• Increased participation of less represented R&I stakeholders and less advanced innovation territories in the R&I cycle, capitalising on the experience and vision of an increasingly diverse range of people, companies and territories while promoting social cohesion, inclusion, accessibility and gender balance;
• Improved systemic conditions to tackle key EU strategic priorities, including the green and digital transitions, through building innovative capacities;
• Increased coordination of innovation policy and networking activities by the Member States and Associated Countries through the EIC Forum.

[1] The future of European competitiveness – A competitiveness strategy for Europe

Expected Outcome:

Project results are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:

• Increase the collaboration of philanthropic organisations with higher education institutions, TTOs, innovative companies and Venture Capital (VCs) in supporting innovative projects and companies to develop and grow;
• Support the transition of academic research and innovations from higher education institutions to market-ready solutions.

Scope:

There are currently more than 33000 philanthropic organisations in Europe with EUR 50 billion of annual philanthropic expenditure and EUR 567 billion pool of philanthropic assets^[1]. Philanthropic organisations and higher education institutions have been working together for many years in supporting the development of breakthrough research and technologies. At the same time, the EU still faces challenges in bringing technologies to the market. Therefore, this action aims at building on these established models of cooperation to support the transfer of developed technologies to the market by supporting facilities (like living labs and test beds) and/or engaging relevant stakeholders to further commercialize technologies with concrete common objective.

The purpose of this topic is to incentivise philanthropic organisations support to projects with high-potential, not only through financial resources, but also by providing access to expertise and networks of like-minded stakeholders and investors, as well as by being themselves first users of new technologies, allowing for their testing.

Higher education institutions are expected to propose a plan outlining how they intend to advance and commercialize the research and technologies they have developed. This plan should detail how they will engage with philanthropic organizations and/or venture capital investors to support early-stage companies, as well as with businesses that could adopt university-developed technologies. It should also include strategies for involving other relevant stakeholders who can help bringing these innovations to market. The cooperation could take place at the regional, national or European level with the participation of at least one higher education institution or network of such organisations, RTO and one philanthropic organisation or network of philanthropic organisations. Consortia could also include accelerator or investors networks and government organisations and/or other relevant innovation stakeholders.

The role of the philanthropic organisation in the consortia could include, but is not limited to:

• Providing access to other investors and networks of like-minded stakeholders;
• Increase the awareness of the project among relevant stakeholders;
• Accelerate the implementation and adoption of developed technologies by other stakeholders;
• Being first users of new developed technologies, allowing for their testing.

The collaboration of beneficiaries should lead to concrete results, where the activities could include, but are not limited to one or more of the following:

• Bringing together diverse research and innovation actors to collaboratively develop a technology or combination of technologies. By the end of the project, the consortium should demonstrate the application—or confirmed interest in application—of the developed technology or technologies in the creation of new, or the improvement of existing, products and/or services by at least one startup, scaleup, or corporate entity;
• Supporting the creation of experimentation spaces and testing environments like living labs, testing beds, incubators or accelerators;
• In collaboration with Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs), supporting the launch of multiple spin-offs that successfully secure venture funding. The funding should come from at least one of the following investor types: angel investors, accelerators, venture capital firms, corporate investors, philanthropic organizations, or National Promotional Banks. As a result, a number of signed deals are expected;
• Building one or several accelerators with the aim to attract a number of startups to venture funding.

The duration of the project depends on the proposed project but in order to have quality results, it is foreseen to be between one to three years.

For the purposes of this call, eligible philanthropic organization should meet the criteria set by Philea for “public-benefit foundation”. Specifically, five criteria had been collectively defined to consider an organisation as a public-benefit foundation:

1. They are independent, separately constituted non-profit bodies.
2. They have no members or shareholders.
3. They have their own established and reliable source of income, usually but not exclusively from an endowment.
4. They have their own governing board.
5. They distribute their financial resources for educational, cultural, religious, social or other public-benefit purposes, either by
   1. Supporting associations, charities, and educational institutions or individuals; or,
   2. Operating their own programmes.

Participants are also encouraged to leverage relevant complementary programmes such as the EIT Higher Education Initiative^[2].

To support the work of higher education institutions in identifying relevant philanthropic organisations to collaborate with, the Commission will also launch a study to map and profile the relevant philanthropic organisations working in the area of research and innovation in Europe.

[1] McKinsey and Philea. In this topic, philanthropy refers to foundations, corporate funders and individuals using their own financial and non-financial resources for the public good.

[2] EIT Higher Education Initiative