The European Commission will invest a total of €90 million coming from new Horizon 2020 grants in 65 innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from 18 countries. Each project, 56 in total, will receive up to €2.5 million (€5 million for health projects) to finance innovation activities in this latest round of Horizon2020 SME Instrument Phase 2.
SMEs funded by Country
Spanish SMEs were the most successful with 19 companies who will receive €20.6 million in total. They are followed by 7 Italian SMEs who will share €8.6 million and 6 German SMEs that will get €7.7 million to share. Most projects are in the field of ICT with 12 proposals funded, followed by 9 in the field of transport and 7 in low carbon energy efficient systems.
The European Commission received 1,167 project proposals by 15 June 2016, the third cut-off date for Phase 2 in 2016. So far, 529 SMEs have received funding under Phase 2 of the SME Instrument.
Thanks to the funding, the selected SMEs can finance innovation activities like demonstration, testing, piloting, scaling up, and miniaturisation, in addition to developing a mature business plan for their product. The companies involved in the projects will also benefit from 12 days of business coaching.
The next cut-off for SME Instrument Phase 2 is 13 October 2016.
Since its launch in 2014, the Horizon 2020 SME Instrument scheme has continuously grown to attract an ever-increasing number of highly innovative companies. In two years, 19,320 proposals have been received, and 1,443 projects have been funded for a total amount of €527 million.
More information
Press contact
EC Spokesperson for Research, Science, and Innovation
Source: EC website
