Ministry of Science and the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation organise European Innovation Council (EIC) Roadshow

The Ministry of Science and the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation organised the European Innovation Council (EIC) Roadshow in Montenegro today, with more than 100 representatives of the business, academic and public sectors attending.

During the event, a presentation was held of the new developments in support to innovation through the EU Horizon 2020 Programme, as part of the activities of the European Innovation Council, a programme offering financial support and services to start-up companies, SMEs, innovators, entrepreneurs and researchers, for development and commercialisation of new products, services and business models that would contribute to economic growth and the creation of new and improvement of existing markets in Europe.

   

The event participants were welcomed by Radosav Babić, Director-General at the Ministry of Economy and Velibor Bošković, Acting Director of the Science and Technology Park Podgorica, who spoke about the existing innovation opportunities in Montenegro, as well as about the increasing efforts and room for improvement of Montenegrin innovation environment. 

   

High-level representative of the European Commission, Signe Ratso, Deputy Director-General at the EC’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD), addressed the event participants by presenting the main course of action of the European Commission in the field of innovation. European Innovation Council was presented as part of Horizon Europe – the next research and innovation framework programme, which is open to national actors with innovative ideas within the effort to introduce them into the market.

In addition, as part of the presentation held by Ellas Papadopoulou and Agnieszka Stasiakowska, the event participants were familiarised with new funding opportunities available within the European Innovation Council, as well as with practical implementation and funding elements.
In the context of new funding opportunities for 2019 and 2020, the following schemes were particularly addressed:

• EIC Pathfinder – an instrument focused on the early-stage science and technology research and innovation of new ideas that can lead to radically new future technologies, as well as on the development of new research communities through promotion of collaborative, interdisciplinary research on radically new future technologies.
• EIC Accelerator – an instrument designed for small and medium-sized enterprises and start-ups with radically innovative ideas for development and commercialisation of new products, services and business models with a view to accelerate the growth of these businesses in global markets.

The European Union has also established a new implementing body for high-risk innovation funding, the EIC Accelerator Fund, as a scheme for innovative companies’ equity financing. Thus, certain highly promising innovations that could shape new markets or disrupt existing ones will have the potential to bring their creators access to funding of up to EUR 17.5 million per company. Of this, the grants available will be between EUR 0.5 and 2.5 million and equity investment can amount up to EUR 15 million.

Finally, Acting Director in the Directorate for Innovation and Technological Development of the Ministry of Science presented the national instruments for stimulating the development of innovation activities in Montenegro, as well as some of the success stories that are increasingly contributing to the improvement of the overall innovation environment in the country, which is in fact one of the national strategic commitments envisaged by the Smart Specialisation Strategy. On this path, the EIC instruments available to Montenegrin researchers and innovators are of particular importance given that Montenegro, as a country associated to Horizon 2020, has full access to all the funding sources under the same conditions as the EU Member States.

All presentations from the event will be available on this webpage as of 20 September 2019.

EIC_Montenegro_S.Ratso.pdf