Conference on the European Innovation Agenda

Project Information

NEXEIA

Grant agreement ID: 101145893

DOI

10.3030/101145893

Project closed

EC signature date 12 September 2023

Start date 11 July 2023

End date 10 April 2024

Funded under

• The European Innovation Council (EIC)

Total cost

€ 328 460,00

EU contribution

€ 300 000,00

Coordinated by

FUNDACION ESPANOLA PARA LA CIENCIAY LA TECNOLOGIA, F.S.P., FECYT
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - NEXEIA (Conference on the European Innovation Agenda)

Reporting period: 2023-07-11 to 2024-04-10

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The Next Generation Innovators Summit will be organised under the Spanish Presidency of the European Union, held in the second semester of 2023. This conference will be the perfect forum to review and discuss the progress and achievements made by the New European Innovation Agenda to date.
Policymaking efforts to push the NEIA cannot be achieved by authorities at European level. Public authorities (national, regional, and local), including funding agencies will play a key role in making Europe more competitive globally and are crucial to close the innovation gap between the different regions in the EU. Public authorities can learn from each other by increasing knowledge transfers and setting up partnerships in order to find synergies. Initiatives such as the Regional Innovation Valleys (listed as one of the actions points in the NEIA) or the regulatory sandboxes work on this direction. That´s why national and regional authorities and innovation agencies will play a key role in the conference, presenting and sharing their experience on different issues (Seal of Excellence, use of ERDF etc.) Finally, innovators themselves must also have a say on the NEIA since innovative start-ups and SMEs are the ultimate target group of innovation policies in Europe.
Within this context, the conference will take the form of a high-level institutional event that will gather public and private representatives in the national, European, and international innovation landscape.
The main objectives of the conference will be:
• To gather the main European and international actors in the field of deep-tech innovation, such as relevant public authorities, private investors, and innovators.
• To present, discuss and review the achievements made by the European Innovation Agenda in the last 18 months in the field of Improving policymaking tools.
• To discuss the next steps and future developments of the 5th flagship of European Innovation Agenda and its objectives.
• To discuss the role that the EIC, EIT and the EIE can play in the achievement of the NEIA.
• To provide a platform for informal discussion and networking between Stakeholders of deep-tech innovation ecosystems.
• To bring together public authorities from different European regions to explore ways to close the innovation divide.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The work done to organise and implement the conference gave as results an event with more than 300 people registered from most of the EU countries. The conference consisted of a series of roundtables where speakers from different backgrounds discussed about the outstanding topics on the EU innnovation landscape and the main initiatives under the NEIA.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The main impact of this conference is strenghtening the connection between public authorities at European, national and regional level, and raising the awareness among private actors about the opportunities offered by the actions implemented under the NEIA.

Main image of the event.