Novel additions to EIC funding for 2022

The European Innovation Council (EIC) was launched as part of Horizon Europe in March 2021 in order to identify and support novel technologies and innovations. In February 2022 the European Commission (EC) adopted the EIC's 2022 work programme, which provides funding opportunities and boasts new features compared to last year's programme. These new opportunities include increased funding for breakthrough innovators with a focus on creating new markets, a scale up initiative for deep tech companies and extra emphasis on support for women innovators. Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, said: 'The work programme for this year is backed by the biggest ever annual funding for visionary entrepreneurs and researchers, as well as new measures to support female innovators and scale-ups.' Indeed the funding available for 2022 for start-ups and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is €1.16 billion, and more than €480 million is available for transnational research collaborations. This funding is organised into three categories: categories: the EIC Pathfinder, the EIC Transition and the EIC Accelerator. The EIC Pathfinder supports visionary thinking around innovative new technologies while the EIC Transition supports innovations in and beyond the lab and the EIC Accelerator supports SMEs, with a focus on startups. In addition to financial support, the businesses receive expertise and assistance with scaling up their innovations. New to the 2022 work programme is an expansion of the definition of women-led companies. Another component of the extra support to female innovators is the development of an innovation gender and diversity index to identify gaps and stimulate diversity within companies.