EIB presents figures on research and innovation loans
The European Investment Bank (EIB) has given details of its lending activities during 2005, which included 10.7 billion euro for innovation and research. In 2005, the EIB lent a total of 47.4 billion euro, compared to 43.2 billion in 2004. All loans went to projects furthering the EU's political objectives, namely: economic and social cohesion in the enlarged EU; an innovative and knowledge-based European economy; trans-European networks; environmental protection; and support for EU development and cooperation polices. Meanwhile the European Investment Fund (EIF), the EIB Group's venture capital arm and guarantee provider, invested 368 million euro in venture capital funds in 2005. The EIB supports the Lisbon goal of creating an information and knowledge-based economy with its 'Innovation 2010 Initiative' (i2i). The target is to mobilise 50 billion euro by the end of the decade in order to boost the EU's innovative capacity and thus increase its long term competitiveness. While 10.7 billion euro was channelled into i2i in 2005, the total invested in the initiative since 2000 is 34.8 billion euro. The EIB believes that it is therefore well on track to mobilising 50 billion euro in support of the Lisbon Strategy by 2010. The loans go towards three principal objectives: research, development and innovation undertaken by both universities and businesses; education and training; and the development of information and communication technologies (ICT) and networks, such as broadband. As financing research and development (R&D) and innovation involves different risks to those encountered in investing in physical assets, the EIB has expanded its capacity to grant loans that entail a higher lending risk. It has done this by increasing the provisioning reserve of its Structured Finance Facility. Plans are also underway to enable the EIB to assist with the financing of some projects under the EU's research framework programmes. In this context, a risk-sharing finance facility will begin operating in 2007, in time for the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7).