On 20 November, the independent High-Level Group of Innovators published their recommendations on the European Innovation Council (EIC), indicating it should support breakthrough innovation for the benefit of all, meeting the needs of high potential innovators from across the EU from start-up to scale-up.
The Group (including successful innovators, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists from across the EU) further recommends in their first set of recommendations, bringing all relevant EU funding schemes into a single, fit-for-purpose 'one-stop-shop' for innovation financing, with major reforms to introduce excellence, flexibility and agility (for example to combine grant financing with venture capital investments).
Background
The High-Level Group of Innovators (entrepreneurs, CEOs, investors and ecosystem builders), which was launched in January 2017, provides guidance to the European Commission on the design of a future European Innovation Council. The Group issued an initial statement of intent in July and are preparing a full set of recommendations for their next meeting in January.
The creation of a European Innovation Council forms part of the Commission's Start-up and Scale-up strategy, and was a key recommendation in the "Lab, Fab, App" report chaired by Pascal Lamy.
The Commission launched a pilot phase for the European Innovation Council, worth €2.7 billion for 2018-20, within the current EU research and innovation programme (Horizon 2020). The recommendations from the Group will feed into the preparation of the Commission's proposals for the next EU research and innovation programme, to be presented by mid-2018.
