EIC Accelerator Pilot \ SME INSTRUMENT

in Horizon2020

Israel Innovation Authority

The country’s public entity which supports and funds local innovation, industrial research & development. (former name: “Office of the Chief Scientist”)

ISERD – Israel-Europe R&D Directorate:

“Your Israeli gateway to cooperation in research and innovation with Europe”

ISERD is the NCP for H2020 in Israel, and aims at maximizing the Israeli participation in the FPs

EIC Accelerator Pilot

* INSTRUMENTSME (In Horizon 2020)

*SME = Small to Medium Size Enterprise:

1. less than 250 employees,

2. less than 50 million Euros in annual turnover or less than 43 million Euros of balance sheet

(Established in the EU or in an Associated Country)

Overview

1 • What is the EIC Accelerator\SME Instrument?

2 • Statistics – general

3 • Statistics – Israel

4 • How can ISERD assist?

5 • Where to find additional info and whom to ask?

What is the SME Instrument?

‘Smart money’, soft blending tool

Accelerator

De-risking

Building on the existing mechanism:

Towards the next ‘HorizonEurope’:

EIC Accelerator Pilot

Taken from EC site: https://ec.europa.eu/research/eic/pdf/ec_eic_factsheet_032019.pdf

Based on SME Instrument Phase-2:

Will be operational from the last cut-off of this year (October 2019)

Read more...

Examples for Business Acceleration Services:

‘Corporate Days’

‘Trade Fairs’

Read more...

‘Overseas Trade Fairs’

Examples for Business Acceleration Services:

Phase 1: what is the money for?

How much? 50,000 €

How long? ~ 6 months project

What for? Scientific or technical feasibility; exploring the commercial potential of a ground-breaking innovative idea, developing it into a credible business plan for scaling it up.

Business idea conception and planning.

Advisable: mention status of development

Eligible activities: risk assessment, market research, user involvement, analysis of regulatory constraints or standards regimes, IPR management, partner search, any design or market studies, innovation strategy development, feasibility of concept, etc.

(All topics that are necessary to asses quality and potential of the innovation idea)

Goal: formulate a solid high-potential innovation project (with a European\global growth strategy); the proposal must be based on an initial business plan and outline the specifications of a more elaborate one, which will be the outcome of the project

Phase 1: what is the money for? Continued

Taken from the PP Online Manual

Phase 2: what is the money for?

How much? 0.5-2.5 M €

How long? ~2 years project (70% funding rate)

What for? Developing a business concept into a market-ready product, service or process, aligned with the company’s growth strategy.

Business plan execution, demonstration, commercialization.

(grant component only till June 2019):

Phase 2: what is the money for? Continued

Eligible activities: trials, prototyping, validation, large-scale product validation, demonstration, testing in real-world conditions, market replication, miniaturization, scaling-up, performance verification, developing pilot lines, development, different R&D activities, clinical trials, piloting, testing, design etc.

(Focusing on innovation activities, the implementation of an innovation idea)

Goal: To find the next UNICORN; commercialization; maturity for market take up

Who should apply?

Main aim: foster innovative SMEs’ growth

Cross the demonstration-phase “valley of death”;

Close the gap between seed and early-VC-funding

Taken from a presentation of the EC, about the EIC pilot, Access4SMEs EIC workshop Feb. 2018

Explain market-creation in innovative usage!

Usually fits deep tech

Taken from “EIC” presentation of Startup Europe, 2017

A breakthrough innovation leads to entirely new products, services or processes or to substantial improvements in the quality of existing ones. An example would be doubling the energy density in a battery for an electric car. This opens up whole new business models and market opportunities. Compared to incremental innovation, breakthrough innovations tend to come from new entrants, often start-ups without existing assets or cash flows. They tend to entail higher risks, in terms of technology, market and regulation. A disruptive innovation is one that threatens to make an existing solution or industry obsolete. Classic examples include the smart phone and on-line music and video streaming services. Disruptive innovations create … in some cases even new markets.

What are disruptive and breakthrough innovations?

Taken from EU’s communication “A renewed European Agenda for Research and Innovation - Europe's chance to shape its future”, May 2018

Taken from a presentation of the EC, about the EIC pilot, Access4SMEs EIC workshop Feb. 2018

Taken from EC site: https://ec.europa.eu/research/eic/pdf/ec_eic_factsheet_032019.pdf

How are the winners chosen?

IMPACT is the most significant part in the evaluation (50% of the final grade, while the two other criteria are 25% each)

Innovation (and technology) Business, benefits Execution

The grade for each criterion is from 0 to 5

Building on the existing mechanism; for grant-component-only till June 2019:

And then… interview in Brussels!

Towards the next ‘HorizonEurope’:

EIC Accelerator Pilot evaluation

Taken from EC site: https://ec.europa.eu/research/eic/pdf/ec_eic_factsheet_032019.pdf

Will be operational for the last cut-off of this year (October 2019)

Technology Readiness Level

TRL9: Actual system proven in operational environment (competitive manufacturing in the case of key enabling technologies, or in space)

TRL8: System complete and qualified

TRL7: System prototype demonstration in operational environment

TRL6: Technology demonstrated in relevant environment (industrially relevant environment in the case of key enabling technologies)

TRL5: Technology validated in relevant environment (industrially relevant environment in the case of key enabling technologies)

TRL4: Technology validated in lab

TRL3: Experimental proof of concept

TRL2: Technology concept formulated

TRL1: Basic principles observed

2018-10-17_EU_IPR_Helpdesk_IP in EU-funded projects MD

SME definition – it is not that obvious!

More info:

Link to the SME definition, self-assessment and guide

GROW-SME-DEFINITION@ec.europa.eu

Staff headcount Either turnover or balance sheet total

Is the enterprise autonomous, partner or linked?

Shareholders can be foreign but economic activity should be in Israel (and Europe)!

Winners’ checklist:

Read more...

Usually only one participant (not a consortium)

Fully bottom-up; classification by keywords

“Phases” are not interdependent but different tracks

Europe is looking for Unicorns

Evaluation process done “through an investor’s eyes”

No dilution; 70% funding + 25% overhead

Highlights

How is the funding of the project calculated?

70% funding of the project 25% overhead (=indirect costs) calculated

automatically from direct costs and other direct costs

Example: Direct costs (personnel, travel, equipment) = 100 Euros Subcontracting = 50 Euros Overhead (=Indirect costs) calculated from the

direct costs of 100 Euros: 25 Euros Overall budget of the project: 175 Euros EU contribution of 70%: 122.5 Euros (70% of 175)

A few more highlights

Application size is 10 pages for Phase1 and 30 for Phase2

Phase2 includes a face-to-face interview

Coaching for free (Ph1: 3 days, Ph2: 12 days)

Threshold to be considered for funding is 13 – “Seal of Excellence” (but actual funding requires a much higher grade)

Deadlines

Phase 1

•08 February 2018

•03 May 2018

•05 September 2018

•07 November 2018-------------------------

•13 February 2019

•07 May 2019

•05 September 2019 -----------------------

Phase 2

•10 January 2018

•14 March 2018

•23 May 2018

•10 October 2018 -------------------------

•09 January 2019

•03 April 2019

•05 June 2019

•09 October 2019 (Blended Finance!) -------------------------

•08 January 2020

•18 March 2020

•19 May 2020

•07 October 2020

Interviews 2019

• Interview week for 1st cut-off: February 11-15

• Interview week for 2nd cut-off: May 13-17

• Interview week for 3rd cut-off: July 8-12

• Interview week for 4th cut-off: November 11-15

Budget of the program

Budget of the SME Instrument € millions

2018 2019 2020

Overall indicative budget 479.74 552.26 600.99

Phase 1

divided equally between cut-offs in each year 10% 10% 10%

Phase 2

divided equally between cut-offs in each year 87% 87% 87%

Per cut-off: ~ 250 Phase1 winners ~ 50–70 Phase2 winners

General statistics

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General statistics

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57% are micro companies with less than 10 employees 20% of funded companies are pre-revenue Majority of winners (33%) are in project-to-project phase

Israel statistics

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Israel statistics 2014-2018

Phase 2 Israeli winning companies (46)

Number of Israeli winners Year

5 2014

6 2015

5 2016

13 2017

17 2018

Number of Israeli winners Year

11 2014

20 2015

24 2016

40 2017

75 2018

Phase 1 Israeli winning companies (171)

Israel statistics: 2018 Continued

Phase 1 (~2200 submissions per cut-off, ~200 funded projects per cut-off)

European success rate (funded projects out of submissions)

Cut-off

12.6% 1

11% 2

11.4% 3

9% 4

Phase 2 (~1600 per cut-off, ~55 funded projects per cut-off)

European success rate (funded projects out of submissions)

Cut-off

4.9% 1

5% 2

3.7% 3

3.6% 4

Israeli winners out of Israeli participants

27.3%

18%

15.9%

18.75%

Israeli winners out of Israeli participants

5.3%

4.1%

1%

7.7%

Taken from a presentation of the EC, about the EIC pilot, Access4SMEs EIC Webinar Dec. 2018

Taken from a presentation of the EC, about the EIC pilot, Access4SMEs EIC Webinar Dec. 2018

How to improve the Israeli success rate ?

Increase the exposure of the program

Increase the number of applications

Increase the quality of the applications

How can ISERD assist?

Ongoing guidance and support in submission: orientation

presentations of Horizon2020 and of the SME Instrument

Red Team for Phase-2 (It is free…!)

Preliminary review of Israeli proposals before the submission, by

expert evaluators from the IIA

The draft proposal must be final and sent to ISERD at least one

month before the deadline!

“Track 37”

ISERD website- SME Department (webinars, guides, links and more)

Sources for more information:

In the Funding and Tender Portal: Funding and Tender portal SME-EIC call

Horizon 2020 online Manual

Funding and Tender portal IT Manual

SEDIA IT Helpdesk contact form, Phone: +32229 92222 Email: ec-sedia-support@ec.europa.eu

Other sites:

Guide for SME-I applicants

Annotated Grant Agreement (GA) for SME-I (p. 583 onwards) and Model GA for phase 2

EASME’s website on SME-I

EIC Work Program 2018-2020

You can address general questions to: Research Enquiry Service

Other kinds of funding? or other EIC Look under

…calls2020 Horizon

Follow SME on twitter, linkedin, EIC websites, etc

SME Instrument Data hub

CORDIS

Context:

Taken from a presentation of the EC, about the EIC pilot, Access4SMEs EIC Webinar Dec. 2018

www.iserd.org.il

SME_FTI@iserd.org.il