Periodic Reporting for period 1 - RACE (RAPID ACCELERATION OF CLIMATE ENTREPRENEURS)
Reporting period: 2021-07-01 to 2023-02-28
The report "Europe is back: Accelerating Breakthrough Innovation" states that very few global players have emerged from Europe in the past few decades. Start-ups relocate to the USA, where the access to venture capital is five times greater. The report highlights key recommendations for improving Europe’s competitivity in the start-up market. To respond to the need for a greater synergy between European organizations to support the European innovation ecosystem in a more efficient way, EIT Climate-KIC implemented the project Rapid Acceleration of Climate Entrepreneurs (RACE) funded by the European Innovation Council (EIC) under the Horizon Europe programme:
• The simplified access to funding and the development of blended funding mechanisms The simplification of processes was tested in our Fast Track implementation to facilitate the access of EIT Climate-KIC entrepreneurs to the EIC Fund.
• Improve the awareness, by setting up monitoring and information systems, create intelligence and communicate success stories We applied our Climate Impact Framework to a selected portfolio of EIC Accelerator startups and provided insights into the avoided emissions potential in connection to the European Green Deal objectives. We also supported early-stage innovations to promote the market uptake of innovations stemming from EU-supported research projects.
• Scale: build the camp, and leverage European ecosystems, by providing access to high quality partnerships and networks, access to risk finance, share practice with other innovation agencies and overcome regulatory barriers The overall proposal’s goal was the first step towards leveraging the ecosystems and assets of EIC and EIT Climate-KIC. This pilot developed and tested coordination mechanisms between both organisations and their innovation communities, looking specifically at synergies and complementarity towards the European Green Deal goals.
Why is it important for society?
Europe set an exciting ambition to be the world’s first climate-neutral continent and pledged EU members to cut emissions by 55% by 2030. The European Green Deal (EGD) was developed to create new opportunities for innovation and investment, reduce emissions, create jobs and growth, address energy poverty, reduce external energy dependency and improve health and wellbeing.
Forecasting climate mitigation potential is an important ability in this context. We need a reliable measure of the climate impact potential of start-ups to help direct EU funding.
Through the efforts in the Market uptake of research innovation projects and Fast Track of EIT Climate-KIC start-ups to EIC Accelerator fund, we also supported the European innovation ecosystem to get closer to its ambitious goals. Synergies between European organizations create more efficient mechanisms and better use of resources to achieve a thriving, climate-positive innovation ecosystem.
What are the overall objectives?
The overall objective of this project was to develop and test coordination mechanisms between the EIC and EIT Climate-KIC and their innovation communities, looking specifically at synergies between the two to be further deployed under Horizon Europe.
Specific objectives:
- SO1: Support EIC to align its portfolio of innovations with the EDG by implementing the climate impact methodology of EIT Climate-KIC.
- SO2: Support an initial cohort of early-stage climate innovators funded by EIC and test how different programmes and networks developed by EIT Climate-KIC can be used to accelerate market uptake of the innovations.
- SO3: Support an initial cohort of start-ups funded by EIT Climate-KIC to connect to the EIC Accelerator Fund to scale their solutions.
• The simplified access to funding and the development of blended funding mechanisms The simplification of processes was tested in our Fast Track implementation to facilitate the access of EIT Climate-KIC entrepreneurs to the EIC Fund.
• Improve the awareness, by setting up monitoring and information systems, create intelligence and communicate success stories We applied our Climate Impact Framework to a selected portfolio of EIC Accelerator startups and provided insights into the avoided emissions potential in connection to the European Green Deal objectives. We also supported early-stage innovations to promote the market uptake of innovations stemming from EU-supported research projects.
• Scale: build the camp, and leverage European ecosystems, by providing access to high quality partnerships and networks, access to risk finance, share practice with other innovation agencies and overcome regulatory barriers The overall proposal’s goal was the first step towards leveraging the ecosystems and assets of EIC and EIT Climate-KIC. This pilot developed and tested coordination mechanisms between both organisations and their innovation communities, looking specifically at synergies and complementarity towards the European Green Deal goals.
Why is it important for society?
Europe set an exciting ambition to be the world’s first climate-neutral continent and pledged EU members to cut emissions by 55% by 2030. The European Green Deal (EGD) was developed to create new opportunities for innovation and investment, reduce emissions, create jobs and growth, address energy poverty, reduce external energy dependency and improve health and wellbeing.
Forecasting climate mitigation potential is an important ability in this context. We need a reliable measure of the climate impact potential of start-ups to help direct EU funding.
Through the efforts in the Market uptake of research innovation projects and Fast Track of EIT Climate-KIC start-ups to EIC Accelerator fund, we also supported the European innovation ecosystem to get closer to its ambitious goals. Synergies between European organizations create more efficient mechanisms and better use of resources to achieve a thriving, climate-positive innovation ecosystem.
What are the overall objectives?
The overall objective of this project was to develop and test coordination mechanisms between the EIC and EIT Climate-KIC and their innovation communities, looking specifically at synergies between the two to be further deployed under Horizon Europe.
Specific objectives:
- SO1: Support EIC to align its portfolio of innovations with the EDG by implementing the climate impact methodology of EIT Climate-KIC.
- SO2: Support an initial cohort of early-stage climate innovators funded by EIC and test how different programmes and networks developed by EIT Climate-KIC can be used to accelerate market uptake of the innovations.
- SO3: Support an initial cohort of start-ups funded by EIT Climate-KIC to connect to the EIC Accelerator Fund to scale their solutions.
Climate Impact Framework: 61 EIC Accelerator beneficiaries were supported to measure and forecast the climate impact. 46 submitted calculations for external validation:
Preliminary estimations indicated a an avoided emissions potential of 6702 kt CO2eq per year across the portfolio of these 46 companies. An equivalent measure of carbon avoidance would roughly be 1860 wind turbines (of 1,82 MW capacity) running for a year.
Accelerate market uptake of ground-breaking climate innovations: 10 projects (23 participants) from the EIC Pathfinder and Transition programmes (including FET H2020 projects and one EIC Accelerator project) with early-stage innovations were supported to bring new products and/or businesses closer to the market.
EIT Climate-KIC provided tailored 1:1 coaching on business plan development, entrepreneurial training, workshops on Climate Impact Measurement and EU Taxonomy, Peer-to-peer sessions, access to our Climate-HIVE Community Platform, and “Spotlight Events” hosted together with EIC and potential investors.
As a result, six out of the nine projects that finalized the programme, reported an increase in their Business Readiness Level and networks.
Fast Track of EIT Climate-KIC supported start-ups to EIC Accelerator: Later stage start-ups stemmed from EIT Climate-KIC’s ClimAccelerator programmes were supported to apply for EIC Accelerator grants via a “Fast Track” route.
19 start-ups were supported, of which 11 submitted their application to EIC Accelerator in 2022. An end-of-programme survey indicated that the majority of supported startups (response rate 84%) found EIT Climate-KIC services helpful (7.8 scoring out of 10) and they will recommend joining the Fast Track scheme to other start-ups (8.4 out of 10).
At the time of writing none of them had been accepted into the EIC Accelerator. According to our current knowledge, several of these well-prepared start-ups may resubmit their applications in 2023.
The ultimate goal of this work was to test an effective process to channel and fast-track EIT Climate-KIC supported start-ups to EIC’s Accelerator instruments. Our recommendations include proposed changes to application process, as well as suggestions to increase the value proposition of this scheme.
Preliminary estimations indicated a an avoided emissions potential of 6702 kt CO2eq per year across the portfolio of these 46 companies. An equivalent measure of carbon avoidance would roughly be 1860 wind turbines (of 1,82 MW capacity) running for a year.
Accelerate market uptake of ground-breaking climate innovations: 10 projects (23 participants) from the EIC Pathfinder and Transition programmes (including FET H2020 projects and one EIC Accelerator project) with early-stage innovations were supported to bring new products and/or businesses closer to the market.
EIT Climate-KIC provided tailored 1:1 coaching on business plan development, entrepreneurial training, workshops on Climate Impact Measurement and EU Taxonomy, Peer-to-peer sessions, access to our Climate-HIVE Community Platform, and “Spotlight Events” hosted together with EIC and potential investors.
As a result, six out of the nine projects that finalized the programme, reported an increase in their Business Readiness Level and networks.
Fast Track of EIT Climate-KIC supported start-ups to EIC Accelerator: Later stage start-ups stemmed from EIT Climate-KIC’s ClimAccelerator programmes were supported to apply for EIC Accelerator grants via a “Fast Track” route.
19 start-ups were supported, of which 11 submitted their application to EIC Accelerator in 2022. An end-of-programme survey indicated that the majority of supported startups (response rate 84%) found EIT Climate-KIC services helpful (7.8 scoring out of 10) and they will recommend joining the Fast Track scheme to other start-ups (8.4 out of 10).
At the time of writing none of them had been accepted into the EIC Accelerator. According to our current knowledge, several of these well-prepared start-ups may resubmit their applications in 2023.
The ultimate goal of this work was to test an effective process to channel and fast-track EIT Climate-KIC supported start-ups to EIC’s Accelerator instruments. Our recommendations include proposed changes to application process, as well as suggestions to increase the value proposition of this scheme.
The RACE project offered EIC Accelerator start-ups a tool to measure and validate their climate impact and quantify a forecast of their avoided emission. Early insights into the avoided emissions of a portfolio of start-ups are very valuable for optimising its climate impact.
The EGD was designed to drive sustainability impacts well beyond emission reduction. It also considers: climate change adaptation; the protection of water and marine resources; transition to a circular economy; pollution prevention and control; and the protection and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems. Many of the start-ups supported by the RACE project have the potential to offer significant positive impacts in these other dimensions of sustainability.
The innovations in the Market Uptake acceleration programme were also aligned with EGD priorities. Contributing to their progress in their business readiness level, means that crucial innovations, like “Power-to-Heat-to-Power energy storage technology to decarbonize both heating and electricity sectors”, “Energy savings related to cooling in buildings through solar cell technologies” or “Fuel cell technology, which produces electricity from organic waste” have a higher probability to succeed in the market and positively impact the race to net zero.
The EGD was designed to drive sustainability impacts well beyond emission reduction. It also considers: climate change adaptation; the protection of water and marine resources; transition to a circular economy; pollution prevention and control; and the protection and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems. Many of the start-ups supported by the RACE project have the potential to offer significant positive impacts in these other dimensions of sustainability.
The innovations in the Market Uptake acceleration programme were also aligned with EGD priorities. Contributing to their progress in their business readiness level, means that crucial innovations, like “Power-to-Heat-to-Power energy storage technology to decarbonize both heating and electricity sectors”, “Energy savings related to cooling in buildings through solar cell technologies” or “Fuel cell technology, which produces electricity from organic waste” have a higher probability to succeed in the market and positively impact the race to net zero.