Insights

Phenolic resins are one of the most versatile polymers yet invented. Spinverse recently supported the VIOBOND consortium to secure funding of 16 M€ from the Bio-based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI JU) grant. VIOBOND project with a total budget of 35 M€ is led by Latvijas Finieris, and it aims to help build a sustainable and safe flagship plant for large-scale production of lignin phenol-formaldehyde (LPF). In this project, lignin will be used to partially substitute hazardous chemicals of fossil origin.

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.   

This information has been updated based on the EIC Fund Investment Guidelines v. 3.0 published 22.04.2021. A copy of the document can be browsed here under for more information.

The revamped European Innovation Council (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 can receive up to 15 M€ in equity investments and 2.5 M€ in grants. Here are our tips to get ready for your application process in the application portal!

When funding calls open and the consortium gears kick into action, there is a lot of excitement mixed with uncertainty and risk. Consortiums do not come fully formed, and risk is not just isolated to new technologies or organisational challenges. It is a combination of both and also includes other factors, such as regulation, ability of organisations to collaborate, global phenomenon, ships getting stuck in major trade arteries and so on.  Spinverse's Patrick Halford, VP, Digital Industries discusses on how to manage consortium risk and how Spinverse can help. 

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. 

The European Commission recently funded AICCELERATE, a multiparty project aiming to develop AI solutions to improve patient care and hospital processes. The goal of the “AI ACCELERATOR – a Smart Hospital Care Pathway Engine” project is to demonstrate the scalability of the AI solutions for different types of healthcare use cases. The project consortium led by Helsinki University Hospital (HUS) consists of 16 partners from eight European countries.

The European Parliament and the Council finally reached an agreement on the forthcoming EU’s R&I programme Horizon Europe. To finalize the deal, it needs to be approved formally by  the European Parliament and the Member States. Moreover, Member States’ leaders reached a budget deal on EU’s recovery package and multiannual financial framework which brings the beginning of EU’s new budget period even closer.  

We are all waiting for more news on the progress of Horizon Europe, the next big European framework programme for research and innovation for the years 2021-2027. Here are some updates to the current situation regarding decisions and timeline of Horizon Europe and some other European funding instruments for you to be able to start the preparations for your project proposal.

The Finnish economic success has been based on high-quality education and research. However, Finnish companies are currently investing significantly less in research and development than ten years ago. In 2010, the Finnish government began to decrease its annual support for cooperation between universities and companies by 250 M€. Read here our summary of an article by Swedish Yle where, among other experts, our managing director Laura Koponen was interviewed.