Insights

Eurostars is a public funding instrument dedicated to innovative, research-driven small and mid-sized enterprises who want to join forces with other like-minded companies. Successful applicants are in for grants worth an average of 1-2 M€ each to boost their civilian projects aimed at developing new products, processes or services. The funding instrument stimulates international collaborative research and innovation projects that will be rapidly commercialised.   

The extensive funding expertise of Spinverse came to good use when Technology Industries of Finland, Chemical Industry Federation of Finland and Finnish Energy requested Spinverse to help them create an easy-to-read website about EU funding. Aptly named as EU Funding Playbook, the approachable and visual website aims to help companies get a good overview and practical tips to the exciting and somewhat complex world of public funding.

Spinverse founder and Chairman of the board Pekka Koponen and Managing Director Laura Koponen share their thoughts about the year 2021, when two major EU funding programs will be launched.  The first funding program is the seven-year Horizon Europe of more than 95 B€ and the second is the European Recovery Package, which will release 750 B€ within just a few years. There are also opportunities for Finnish companies, although the competition will be fierce. Should your company join? Read here Pekka's and Laura's expert advice to companies and their executives.

The FuturoLEAF research project was kicked off in autumn 2020 after receiving funding from the Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) EU call. The aim of the FuturoLEAF project is to design a solid-state cell factory (SSCF) that efficiently captures CO₂ and light by using photosynthetic microbial cells and nanocellulosic building blocks, thus enabling more efficient and sustainable chemical production. Spinverse supported the project consortium in the project proposal phase, securing a winning proposal in this competitive call.

Horizon Europe is the next framework program to fund state-of-the art innovative projects. The  EIC Accelerator is the flagship funding instrument under Horizon Europe for start-ups and SMEs with radically new ideas for rolling out marketable innovation solutions and breakthrough projects. Winning companies with ambitions to grow and scale up may get an opportunity to receive up to 15 M€ in equity investments and 2.5 M€ in grants. 

Spinverse is one of the nine partners in the STARDUST project, launched in 2017, to create a miniaturised neurosurgical implant leading to a proof-of-concept for a new treatment approach for Parkinson’s disease. The four-year project has now progressed to its final year, coming a few steps closer to introduce novel ways to treat a wide variety of diseases.

Society will be fossil free. Establishing the technology and value chain that are needed to capture carbon dioxide requires serious investments, but who dares and can invest in projects associated with risk? The European Investment Fund (EIF) does! During the summer, they went out with a call for projects that could demonstrate innovative technologies in this area.

What does it mean for me that the European Union budget decisions are finally taking a remarkable step forward? The EU budget negotiators are discussing the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2021-2027, which also includes a big share of the innovation funding of EU. Now that we almost have a financial framework, we can start making decisions about the parts in it, including, for example, the Horizon Europe programme. As another positive result, the EP budget negotiators secured an additional 16 B€ to reinforce the flagship programmes.

In the innovation project, In2Track3, within the  Shift2Rail programme, the Swedish Transport Administration entrusted IMCG for the project development and the proposal for EU funding. The project proposal was approved and In2Track3 was granted EU support of 11 M€.   

In 2017, the European Commission officially launched the European Defence Fund to boost Europe’s defence capabilities. From 2021 onwards, the new European Defence Fund (EDF), worth 13 B€, will foster an innovative and competitive defence industrial base and contribute to the EU's strategic autonomy. Two pilot programmes, the European defence industrial development programme (EDIDP) and the Preparatory Action on Defence Research (PADR) precede the EDF. EDIDP is an industrial programme of the EU aiming to support the competitiveness and innovation capacity of the union’s defence industry, whereas PADR funds research projects.