European Innovation Ecosystems work programme: upcoming calls worth €29.5 million

The European Commission has adopted the amended European Innovation Ecosystems (EIE) 2021-2022 Work Programme under Horizon Europe. It provides new funding opportunities for deep-tech start-ups led by women and the EU angel investment industry on top of existing actions that aim to create more connected and efficient innovation ecosystems. 

Following the very encouraging response to last year’s pilot, the Commission will renew the Women TechEU programme in 2022. The budget will increase to €10 million, which will fund roughly 130 companies (up from 50 last year). The call for proposals will open on 21 June. 

A new  tender worth €2 million will aim to strengthen and increase women's representation in innovation and investment ecosystems, notably  by supporting  angel  investors  and  their  syndicates  in  countries  where  these activities  remain  weak. This action will encourage cross-border collaboration with countries with more developed angel investor communities. 

These calls will complement the support already offered to women innovators through the European Innovation Council with the EU Prize for Women Innovators and other measures. 

The amended work programme clarifies the COFUND rate in the context of the forthcoming EIE calls due to open for submission on 14 June: 

• HORIZON-EIE-2022-CONNECT-02-01: Implementing co-funded action plans for interconnection of innovation ecosystems (budget: €8 million) 

• HORIZON-EIE-2022-CONNECT-02-02: Stimulating innovation procurement (budget: €4.5 million) 

Standard changes to the HORIZON-EIE-2022-SCALEUP-02-01 Expanding Investments Ecosystems call conditions for lump sum topics were applied. The call has a total budget of €5 million and will open for submission on 21 June. 

Moreover, independent experts will now monitor the EIE actions, and the action HORIZON-EIE-2022-JRC-01 was withdrawn.  

The work programme document is available here.

Background 

As part of Horizon Europe, the EU aims to create more connected, efficient and fairer innovation ecosystems to support the scaling of companies, encourage innovation and stimulate cooperation among national, regional and local innovation actors. 

Innovation ecosystems bring together people or organisations who innovate, linking resources (such as funds, equipment, and facilities), organisations (such as higher education institutions, research and technology organisations, companies, venture capitalists and financial intermediaries), investors and policymakers. 

The actions supported by the first-ever European Innovation Ecosystems Work Programme complement the actions carried out by the European Innovation Council (EIC) and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), activities across Horizon Europe, initiatives at national, regional and local levels as well as private and third sector initiatives. 

Resources

Commission boosts Horizon Europe budget (press release)

Apply for the European Innovation Ecosystems calls 

A robust innovation ecosystem for the future of Europe 

Previous EIE calls: article 1, article 2