The EU is about more than funding
Innovation Norway is, together with the Research Council of Norway, one of the main stakeholders in the national follow-up of Horizon Europe, the world’s largest research and innovation programme. Our efforts should primarily contribute to strengthen industry and commerce’s participation in the programme and are primarily aimed at SMEs and clusters, as well as public stakeholders.
The first results from the programme that stretches from 2021 to 2027 came in 2022. The figures showed that Norwegian industry and commerce has won NOK 1.2 billion through tenders. Five Norwegian companies won NOK 350 million in grants and equity in 2022 from just one instrument, the EIC Accelerator in the programme’s Pillar III.
Regional EU advisers
Tim Genge works at Innovation Norway’s Bergen office and is part of the Innovation Norway’s EU support system, which consists of 11 regional EU advisers.
In addition to providing advice on EIC instruments, Innovation Norway has dedicated advisers who work with mobilising for collaborative projects on the various topics areas of Digital, Industry and Space - Research and innovation (cluster 4), Climate, Energy and Mobility (cluster 5) and Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment (cluster 6) in Horizon Europe’s Pillar II.
Genge has special responsibility for assisting industry and commerce looking for calls for proposals within the topic Climate, Energy and Mobility.
“EU calls for proposals are well suited to the challenges facing both Norway and Europe. Climate change and the associated activities around Europe’s Green Deal, for example transforming our energy sources, should be reason enough to adapt quickly. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine also substantially increased the need for energy security and demand for renewable solutions on the continent. Norwegian industry and commerce can deliver here, and my role is to help customers from across the country deliver solutions to market quickly.”
Genge works closely with the Research Council of Norway, although his work particularly focuses on innovation projects (Innovation Actions) where solutions can be industrialised, commercialised, and scaled at pace. While funding such projects is important for companies, access to completely new expertise, finding new networks, and access to enormous markets in Europe are just as important.
“Before I started giving EU advice, my job was to provide advice on exports at Innovation Norway’s Hamburg office. This experience has a lot of transfer value in relation to the EU work; the customers want help to enter a new market quickly and they need to know what the market looks like and what it takes to succeed.”
Taking Norwegian health technology to market
In 2022, Norwegian health technology companies were the most prominent among the majority of companies that received funding from the European Innovation Council’s EIC Accelerator.
Hemispherian, Glucoset, and Oivivar are among the five companies that were successful. They deliver solutions within cancer medicines, measuring blood sugar, and screening for eye diseases.
Maria Erdal Askim is an EU adviser at Innovation Norway’s Oslo Viken office. She underscores the importance of getting in touch with Innovation Norway when a company is considering applying for EU funding.
“The company must deliver what the European Innovation Council (EIC) is looking for. The solution should preferably be ‘deeptech’, it must have great scaling potential, and the company must have a good business model and strategy for how it will bring an innovation to market. The solution must, not least, fit in: what major challenge is your company responding to?” asks Askim.
SMEs can apply to EIC Accelerator for grants of up to EUR 2.5 million, as well as equity of up to NOK 15 million. The accelerator is for companies that want to bring their products to market faster, in just a couple of years. This is a major contrast to the five to ten years it normally takes to bring a good solution to market.
Hard work out for Norwegian companies
In 2022, well over 300 companies received advice from Innovation Norway’s regional EU advisers throughout their application process. In addition to this, 27 companies received thorough follow-up and in-depth advice from EU advisers in connection with an EIC Accelerator interview.
Preparations for the interview also include training on making pitches and a dress rehearsal with a panel of experts from Innovation Norway and Investinor. This is a warm-up prior to the companies facing the fire of a real EIC jury in Brussels.
The intention of the dress rehearsals is to simulate as real an interview situation as possible and for the team behind the company to undergo a real ‘grilling’. The goal of the advice and dress rehearsal is to prepare the company well for what it will meet in the final interview with the EIC jury. The feedback from participants is good.
“In the previous round we received feedback that our dress rehearsals were tougher than the actual interviews. But this is better than the other way around – after all, we want our customers to win this competition. Information about the interview processes and criteria for those applying to EIC Accelerator is a perishable commodity to which we EU advisers have access through our status as an EU adviser,” says Askim.
Following the interview with the EIC jury, the company will receive a final response about whether they have passed through the eye of the needle and received funding. Even after a company has made it through the eye of the needle, Innovation Norway’s EU support system continues to monitor the companies during execution of the projects.
The process is also useful for companies that do not receive funding. Submitting an application to EIC Accelerator forces a company to thoroughly review its business plan and refine its commercialisation and scaling strategies. More companies can subsequently learn from this. Applying for EU funding forces companies to look outwards: they acquire good knowledge about the markets they want to enter, make valuable contacts beyond Norway’s borders, and have the chance to showcase themselves internationally.