Appointment of Prof Mark Ferguson to the post of Chair of the EIC Advisory Board
27 June 2019 The appointment of Professor Mark Ferguson, Director General of Science Foundation Ireland, to the post of Chair of the new European Innovation Council Advisory Board, was announced today.
Other Irish appointments to the board include:
- Dermot Diamond, Principal Investigator at INSIGHT SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics, Dublin City University.
- Valeria Nicolosi, Chair of Nanomaterials and Advanced Microscopy at Trinity College Dublin and researcher at AMBER SFI Research Centre for Advanced Materials and BioEngineering.
“I am pleased to have been appointed as Chair of the European Innovation Council (EIC) Advisory Board, which will provide strategic leadership to the EIC. I look forward to working with my fellow Advisory Board members and with the EIC.”
Eight innovative Irish SMEs to receive European Innovation Council funding
Eight innovative Irish SMEs (from Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick) are to receive European Innovation Council funding. The announcement was also made today by the European Commissioner for Research and Innovation.
The European Innovation Council (EIC) was set up by the European Commission to turn science into new business and accelerate the scale-up of innovative companies. Currently in its pilot phase, the European Innovation Council will become a full-fledged reality from 2021 under the next EU research and innovation programme Horizon Europe with a proposed € 10 billion budget.
Seven of the Irish SMEs will receive EIC Accelerator funding (€1.5 to €2.5 million) while one will receive EIC Pathfinder Pilot funding.
EIC Accelerator funding
The seven Irish SMEs who are to receive EIC (European Innovation Council) Accelerator pilot grants (previously known as the SME Instrument Phase 2) are:
- Coroflo Limited (Dublin) which is developing a revolutionary product to support breastfeeding with 21st century technology;
- CroiValve (Dublin) which is developing a non-surgical treatment to restore heart valve function
- Bluedrop Medical (Galway) for its project to use AI (Artificial Intelligence) to manage patients at risk of diabetic foot ulcer - a remote monitoring system that uses computer vision and machine learning to predict and prevent diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs).
- Perfuze Limited (Galway) which is developing a simple, repeatable way to completely remove a clot from the brain in one pass
- Vetex Medical (Galway) for an early stage medical device that will enable the drug-free removal of clots
- Votechnik (Limerick) which is developing a fully automated LCD recycling technology for the global market.
- Beats Medical or Beats Therapeutics (Sandyford) which is developing tailored digital therapeutics for neurological and brain disorders
EIC Accelerator funding is awarded to SMEs and startups that are developing potentially game changing innovations, such as: next generation of safe and environmentally-friendly light aircrafts; anti-bacterial textile for hospitals; 3D audio software; motion planning technology for autonomous driving; and a superbot for audio calls. Full list
In total, the Commission today announced €149 million funding in EIC Accelerator Pilot grants (previously known as the SME Instrument Phase 2) for 83 SMEs and startups around Europe. The full list of the companies from 17 countries across the EU and from countries associated to Horizon 2020 is available here.
EIC Pathfinder Pilot
One Irish SME is to receive funding under the EIC Pathfinder Pilot (previously Fet OPEN): Helixworks Technologies (Cork), which is a partner in the OLIGOARCHIVE project.
The EIC Pathfinder Pilot offers grants of up to €4 million for bottom-up high-risk, high-impact research ideas (previously known as FET Open). Projects include; metal-free MRI contrast agents; treatment to replace antibiotics in lung infection diseases; custom-crafted graphene nanostructures; precise measuring and monitoring of highly penetrating particles in deep space; artificial proteins for biological light-emitting diodes; and many other ideas. In total, the Commission today announced €164m to 53 new EIC Pathfinder pilot grants around Europe. The full list can be found here.