Towards FP10: EU-LIFE’s vision for the European Innovation Council (EIC)

Creative solutions for the challenges of today and tomorrow require ground-breaking ideas and scientific results that are seamlessly integrated into the innovation process.The creation of Pillar III in Horizon Europe programme as a flagship for innovation, and in particular the establishment of the European Innovation Council (EIC), addressed this need for efficient collaboration between excellent research and innovation in Europe. In FP10, the next Research & Innovation programme, this vital bridging role of the EIC must be strengthened and maintained, by investing in strategies with long term impact.

"The European Innovation Council is a catalyst for groundbreaking research and technological advancements, fostering a culture of innovation across Europe. Supporting the EIC not only propels Europe to the forefront of global innovation but also empowers visionary projects, nurtures talent, and drives economic growth," said Marta Agostinho, EU-LIFE Executive Director.

We hereby outline EU-LIFE’s views for the EIC in FP10 to secure high impact innovation, from an overall vision to its implementation:

• Promote a solid EIC model, rebalancing public and private funding;
• Commit to support long-term, high impact innovation, by allocating more resources to the EIC;
• Promote synergies across pillars to support the transition from knowledge and technology to implementation;
• Rethink the EIC Challenges schemes to achieve the most impact;
• Leverage the potential of the EIC for capacity building in the research community;
• Facilitate the development of skills needed for researchers to become innovators;
• Pave the way for a smoother and more realistic project implementation, which should be achieved at project level and also during the application and evaluation process.

This is part of EU-LIFE’s contribution to the policy debate on the next Framework Programme and follows the position paper EU-LIFE’s 10 Guiding Principles for FP10 and the EU-LIFE’s vision for MSCA Actions launched earlier this year.

Read the full statement here.