
Boosting the Financing of Large-Scale Research, Development and Innovation Initiatives across Europe
To get involved and stay informed visit EU-GREAT! at http://eu-great.com and register your interest.
Today, Europe faces the challenge of translating lab-scale research outcomes into useful and commercialised products and services in order to boost industrial competitiveness, economic growth and job creation. This in turn demands a boost in finance, strategically targeted at Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) initiatives that successfully bridge the "valley of death" that separates basic concepts (science) from commercial products (market).
Stakeholders of large-scale RDI initiatives often face the challenges of applying for and combining funding from different public and private sources including European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF), Horizon 2020 and national, regional and private investment programmes in order to build and manage a portfolio of synergetic projects. Such initiatives often need to utilise or result in the creation of new open access research facilities, innovation value chains and shared knowledge.
The EU-GREAT! will focus on investigating the best approaches adopted and the barriers encountered by stakeholders when combining funds from different public and private sources, specifically to translate successful fundamental research results and lab-scale prototypes into industrial demonstrators, production pilot-lines, first market replications and commercialised products and services.
Industrial stakeholders of such initiatives face the task and challenge of raising investment and administrating multiple projects that have different financial rules, audit requirements, legal frameworks and state-aid implications along with the risks and uncertainties that come with commercialising any new and disruptive technology. Governmental stakeholders, at the same time, deal with the demanding tasks of stimulating innovation, often at a regional level, providing co-finance, monitoring initiatives, running audit checks and the need to demonstrate impact to citizens in terms of economic growth, environmental sustainability, improved public services and job creation.
The EU-GREAT! consortium comprises of TECNALIA R&I, CEA, TNO, VTT, High-Value Manufacturing Catapult, INESC TEC, Plastiques, NANOfutures, ArcelorMittal, CDTI and Wrocław University of Technology. Through interaction and dialogue with industry, researchers, investors and governmental stakeholders the consortium will identify, analyse and validate the best practices adopted by consortia when forming and managing large-scale RDI initiatives. The EU-GREAT! consortium will also make recommendations to policy-makers for improving the administrative and policy framework of public-private funding instruments for combining funding, in order to stimulate greater investment and creation of more large-scale RDI initiatives in Europe.
About EU-GREAT!
EU-GREAT! is a project funded by the European Commission (Contract # 646107) through the Horizon 2020 programme, Topic NMP-37-2014 - "Practical experience and facilitating combined funding for large-scale RDI initiatives". The project started on the 1st January 2015 and run for a period of two years. Led by of TECNALIA R&I the consortium also includes: CEA, TNO, VTT, High-Value Manufacturing Catapult, INESC TEC, Plastiques, NANOfutures, ArcelorMittal, CDTI and Wrocław University of Technology. The project is co-ordinated by Begoña Sanchez from TECNALIA R&I. For more details visit: http://eu-great.com or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to contact the Project Dissemination and Exploitation Manager, Shak Gohir from the High-Value Manufacturing Catapult.