The European Commission (EC) has launched a €200m ($226.6m) innovation fund to help companies, including university firms, close to market cross the valley of death.
Dubbed Fast Track to Innovation Pilot (FTI), the scheme will see €100m made available in 2015 and a matching sum in 2016 to small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) close to market. While the funding will span multiple sectors, prospective companies must be able to commercialise within three years and must be collaborative with a mix of industry and research partners from at least three EU countries.
FTI is aiming to make grants of between €1m to €2m, with bandwidth to stretch to €3m if a project shows particular merit. There will be three opportunities per year for companies to apply for funding through FTI.
FTI is part of the Horizon 2020, the EU’s largest ever research and innovation programme, which is to set to invest nearly €80bn in research between 2014 and 2020 in a bid to increase Europe’s global competitiveness in technology sector.
