Success factors in an EIC Application

In Athens we had a board meeting of the European Innovation Council on 7th of November preceded by an Infoday, and as usual a dinner with actors in the Greek ecosystem. A will focus on the infoday, while taking into account the results of the last round of awarding of the EIC Accelerator. In doing that I shall also try to get to a funnel, using the deeptechfinder (launched in my presence in Munich on October 16th).

An Infoday is a format in which a National Action Point, with support of the EIC, informs possible applicants about the opportunities (and difficulties) in applying for European funding. The value of Info days in the face to face contact and in the regularity. If you miss one, you have a second chance six months later. The EIC Infoday in Greece was the first one. If you wish to hold an Infoday with EC support, please ask us by letter. We request some critical mass, so at least a member state or a region of more than 10 mln people. And please request well in advance as we have a full program for 2024. It requires some preparation, hence it is substantially larger than a field visit (with a Q&A session) as I have done to Ireland in May, to Portugal in July or Poland in August.

A good infoday has the following ingredients: a good explanation of the why of the instruments, a rigorous explanation of the conditions of eligibility, a good overview of the procedures for applying and evaluation and a Q&A session on do’s and don’ts. An infoday has a double objective: to encourage promising applicants and to protect least promising actors to spend time and money on a possible hard mission.

Let us start with what is promising. Promising is at least an eligible candidate (homework: check that on the website).? But the practice demonstrate that a successful applicant has a deep-tech ambition: that is a technology that demands development over several years, that is underpinned by a patent (or unique knowledge), supported by a team that accepts outside investors, and that addresses a fundamental societal challenge. In this sentence each word counts. The following words are supportive. It helps to be part of an innovative ecosystem (a campus), to be integrated in relevant value-chain, to work with essential suppliers, to know your (potential) customer’s expectations, to have raised some seed capital and know where to find follow-up investors and to underpin all this with letters of intent. All these elements needs to be internally consistent and altogether coherent. To sum, the combination of this all needs to genuine and thus convincing. In a full application you really have to think out your entrepreneurial project. On the one hand you need the money to carry it out. On the other hand you should write out what you are compelled to do anyway to attain your objectives.

It is an exercise in seduction, conviction and trust. In that order, but in a coherent way. The first step proposal is essentially an exercise of seduction. The pitch, the video and the slide deck are there to seduce the evaluators that you have a brilliant solution for a compelling issue and with an attractive approach underpinned by intellectual property and an excellent team. The full proposal must be well worked out with through a well described state of the art and how you go beyond it, clear objectives with milestones with thorough work plans and a realistic analysis of risks and sober but solid contingency plans. The business plan should at the level of the challenge ahead, but also justifying the grant and equity requested. Do not be too modest: unrealistic requests (too little funding requested for too ambitious business plans will likely be defeated in the evaluation, or in reality. So be genuine and rigorous. The authenticity, the rigor and coherence and thorough assimilation of your business plan by the team is the key element of the interview.

The process of application is a mirror of the life of the project. If you are not funded, you have your freedom to do what ever you want. If you are selected and funded you have to deliver and to fight like hell to attain a viable business at a high level of ambition. Gone is the freedom: you have received a life mission. And you will not walk along. Becoming an EIC Beneficiary brings you not only funding at a significant level, it brings along the biggest multilateral organization in the world/ You become part of a community of innovators and into a European Community, that comes along with public exposure, scrutiny and accountability but also co-investors and partners who trust you as a client or depend on you as a supplier. You will get connected to corporate firms and to possible investors for a next round. So you better start mirroring with others already during the application process. Let your ideas validate by others, let your plans be scrutinized, rehearse and rehash your pitch and train for interviews. You could do that with a consultant, with former colleagues, with a regional development bank, an investor or a good friend, and preferably several of the above. Choose those with a honest if tough assessment and preferably sufficient people that stay with you whatever happens next. Do not forget that quality has value, but that love is as important as a financial service. If you are in for self-gratification or solitary wealth please trump the EIC.

This is the micro-perspective, I am also looking at the meso (regions) and macro (country) perspective. If successful applicants are based on deep knowledge and deep tech, too basic conditions seem compelling: an applicant is rooted in a world class research ecosystem. That does not necessarily mean to live in a university city, or to work at a world class university, but it requires access to and exposure to excellence. But while generalizing: most successful applicants come from very developed world-class research ecosystems. A successful application is rooted in a license to operate, generally that is considered to be a patent (application), and a strategy to follow patents. Therefore I consider EPOs deep tech finder as a relatively strong predictor of future beneficiaries. In the Pathfinder and Transition application this should not yet be embedded in a private company. For the accelerator the majority of successful applicants have a company older than 5 years and have already raised seed funding or smaller grants (that is also a good predictor).???

Having fulfilled these conditions that enables to see a pool of possibly successful applicants. But that is a necessary and not a sufficient condition. The application process also requires an adequate ecosystem. That consists first of key early investors. It greatly helps if a national or regional development bank/agency is assisting in the process, especially if the consolidate the experience of other players in the ecosystem. It helps to connect with suppliers and customers, especially if they are themselves EIC beneficiaries. It also helps to have coaches in any shape or form. All of these resources need not to be in the region itself. In smaller regions, one shall have to hop borders to connect to other ecosystems. That might sound unfair, but to deploy you shall anyway have to connect to a European market of suppliers and clients and if needed attract talent across Europe. So an alternative to a region is European value chain or community as organised in technology platforms or EIT knowledge and innovation communities.? ???????

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