Four Irish SMEs are among 79 SMEs across Europe that are to receive EU funding to help get their projects to market faster. Three of the SMEs will receive funding under the SME Instrument (Phase 2) and one under the Fast Track to Innovation Scheme.
The three to receive support under the European Commission’s SME Instrument are Metabolomic Diagnostics Ltd of Cork, ATXA Therapeutics Ltd, a UCD spin-out company, and AuriGen Medical Ltd of Galway. These SMEs will each receive up to €2.5 million to finance innovation activities like demonstration, testing, piloting and scaling up. The companies will also benefit from twelve days of free business coaching and acceleration services.
Deciphex Ltd of Dublin, on the other hand, will get support to access the market faster under the European Commission’s Fast Track to Innovation scheme, a scheme for relatively mature technologies, concepts and business models that are close to market.
The SME Instrument and the Fast Track to Innovation are now a central part of the European Innovation Council (EIC) pilot, targeting radically new, breakthrough products, services, processes or business models that open up new markets. Between 2018 and 2020, the EIC pilot will provide €2.7 billion to breakthrough, market-creating innovations under Horizon 2020. The next cut-off date for funding applications for the Fast Track to Innovation and the SME Instrument Phase 2 are on 31 May 2018 and 10 October 2018 respectively.
Commenting on EU funding, Carlos Moedas, EU Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, said: “Supporting innovation as a source of growth and job creation is at the core of the European Innovation Council. We support close-to-market projects, giving them a head start in the race to the market with a fast access to funding and business innovation support.”
Pictured above: Berlaymont building, Brussels, which houses the headquarters of the European Commission
