Call for the Accelerator project of the European Innovation Council: France, the spearhead of Europe

With 12 French laureates out of 65 companies selected for this first call for the Accelerator project of the European Innovation Council (EIC), France took the lead of innovation!

French innovators are the first benefactors of this contest, and particularly five start-ups from the labs of the CNRS and its partners. These companies will now benefit from funding ranging from 2 to 10 million Euros dedicated to their development.

The European Innovation Council was solicited again in 2021 to support the “marketing of high risk/high impact technologies” in the European Union, as part of the Horizon Europe plan. The objective of the plan is to help researchers, start-ups and SMEs to better market their innovations by providing funding, marketing opportunities, dissemination opportunities, partnership opportunities, and acceleration services.

France, champion of innovation in Europe

The concrete objective of this call for project is thus to financially support start-ups and small companies to develop their innovations in cutting-edge industries. After the contest, the EIC issued funding to 65 companies from 16 different countries, including 12 French companies.

Indeed, more than 800 projects were filed in June this year. And 132 were auditioned before a jury, and 65 projects were selected. For the 65 laureates, the funding recommended by the selection jury reaches 363 M€, including more than 60% in direct investment in companies.

France is first in terms of number of laureates with 12 projects selected, including 18% of the total, before Germany (11 projects selected), the Netherlands (8) and Denmark (5). For the French projects, the jury recommended funding of about 70 M€, including 43 M€ under the form of direct investment in companies. According to the French ministry in charge of research and innovation commenting results, “these results match the great momentum started in Horizon 2020, and show the excellence of innovative French companies”.

Five laureates from the CNRS labs and its partners 

The French Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) works in all fields in science, and is the biggest French public research entity. In addition to the research activities deployed in its labs, the CNRS develops an “active policy of identification and support of deeptech projects”. And it’s precisely in this activity that five of its start-ups from partner labs and French universities were selected. Health, information technologies and communication, energy and space are the most represented and awarded industries. Laureates include the following companies:

- Alice & Bob, a start-up which ambitions are to design in five years “an operational universal quantum computer thanks to an innovative quantum bit able to auto-correct its mistakes”;

- EVerZom develops an “innovative process of exosomes bio-production for therapeutic applications in regenerative medicine”;

- Qubit Pharmaceuticals offers “the fastest and most precise software suite in the world to improve the discovery of medical drugs”;

- Lactips, develops “a polymer with all the qualities of a green material” made of products of natural origin without a footprint in the environment;

- Aenitis produces and markets “high added value medical equipment and devices for the treatment of blood projects and for challenges in relation with tissue engineering and stem cells extraction.

To know more: 

- Horizon Europe French website

- Laureates of the CNRS and its partners

Photo credit: ©MESRI