On January 29, the European Innovation Council (EIC) organized an Information Day in Sofia focused on financing high-tech scientific research and innovations. Our Executive Director and Board Member, Pavel Lisev, took part in the panel discussion "EIC as a Preferred Investor for European Innovators with Visionary Ideas and the Moderator Fund's Role".
"Our main priority is to provide access to funding for companies in the early and growth stages, as well as to enhance the knowledge-based competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises. The fund is a multi-product platform, and our equity investment tools in the previous period supported over 360 beneficiaries, directing 108 million euros of public resources and additional 43 million euros of attracted private resources towards them. In the next multiannual framework, we will focus primarily on areas related to innovation, digitization, circular economy, and technology transfer. We have allocated 320 million euros for equity instruments," stated Pavel Lisev in the discussion.
The panel also included Martin Gikov, Deputy Minister of Innovations and Growth, Evgeni Angelov, Chairman of BVCA, and experts from EIC and the European Innovation Council Fund. The information day was initiated by Minister of Innovations and Growth Milena Stoycheva and involved the participation of European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education, and Youth Iliana Ivanova. EIC experts presented various directions of the "Horizon Europe" program and opportunities to support deep tech innovators. Practical information on how companies can prepare their applications was provided.
You can view the presentations from the information day here.
The European Innovation Council is the largest initiative of the European Commission to support innovations throughout their life cycle, from early-stage scientific research to proving concepts, technology transfer, financing, and the growth of startups and small and medium-sized enterprises. Through its three instruments - Pathfinder, Transition, and Accelerator - the Council provides funding to research organizations, startups, and SMEs in the form of grants and equity participation/investments, reaching up to 17.5 million euros for startup beneficiaries. The organization will manage a budget of 10.1 billion euros for the 2021-2027 programming period.
