INNOVATIVE ENTERPRISE WEEK BUCHAREST 2019

Project Information

IEW Bucharest 2019

Grant agreement ID: 874796

DOI

10.3030/874796

Project closed

EC signature date 6 August 2019

Start date 16 April 2019

End date 15 October 2019

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Access to risk finance

Total cost

€ 450 000,00

EU contribution

€ 450 000,00

Coordinated by

UNITATEA EXECUTIVA PENTRU FINANTAREA INVATAMANTULUI SUPERIOR A CERCETARII DEZVOLTARII SI INOVARII
Romania

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - IEW Bucharest 2019 (INNOVATIVE ENTERPRISE WEEK BUCHAREST 2019)

Reporting period: 2019-04-16 to 2019-10-15

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Under the aegis of the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the Ministry of Research and Innovation (MCI) and the Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding (UEFISCDI), together with the European Commission’s DG CNECT (Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology) and DG RTD (Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, organized the Innovative Enterprise Week 2019 conference.
The conference took place between 19 and 21 of June, 2019, in the New Aula of the Politehnica University in Bucharest. It brought together representatives of the European institutions, national decision-makers, researchers, entrepreneurs and investors to discuss the opportunities and challenges of the future framework program for research and innovation in the European Union.
For three days, Innovative Enterprise Week 2019 offered the unique opportunity to interact with experts who have defined and continue to contribute to the dynamics of the global innovation ecosystem.
The first day, 19 June, was focused on the transition from an idea to an investable project and on the opportunities offered by the European Innovation Council through Pathfinder pilot calls. At the same time, representatives of organizations that fund innovation in Europe were also on the scene, creating a unique dialogue space.
The launch of the enhanced European Innovation Council (EIC) pilot in 2019 will have Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) as an integral part and it will pave the way for the science-technology-innovation triple helix in the new European research and innovation programme, Horizon Europe. The event offered a timely opportunity to debate at a high level how the EIC can meet the challenge of bridging science, technology and innovation.
Such an event promoted the EIC Pathfinder initiative, while building on the legacy and success of the FET programme and presenting the future challenges
This event was designed to:
● Build momentum for the launch of the EIC Pathfinder
● Raise the visibility of advanced multidisciplinary research under EIC programmes.
The second day – 20th of June - continued with the Accelerator, another instrument of the European Innovation Council, focusing on the benefits of blended public-private financing.
One of the two instruments of the EIC along with the Pathfinder, the Accelerator is a blended finance model which builds on the SME Instrument Phase II, enhanced and focused on initiatives with a clear EU added-value. Support will be awarded to clear potential market-creating innovation and scale-up of companies confronted with a finance gap due to their high-risk nature. Support for assessing business opportunities and developing business plans may be granted in the context of Pathfinder transition activities within portfolio of project, or as part of an Accelerator project.
In the second part of June 20, starting at 14:00, a pitching session took place in parallel: "EuroQuity pitching, powered by Access4SMEs".
The debates ended with a focus on the priority themes of the European Commission on the responsible and social dimension of the impact of investments, bringing together innovators from the national and European ecosystem, who will share the secrets that motivate them in this direction.
The third day of Innovative Enterprise Week 2019, 21st of June, under the concept “Financial Instruments: the mainstream of European funding of innovation” the scene was taken over by experts in creating financial instruments at European level, including representatives from the European Commission, the European Investment Bank, national and international investment funds, as well as by innovators who have accessed various funding schemes, that will share their experiences, expectations and barriers encountered in creating and implementing an investment plan. At the same time, debates will once again reach to the impact significance when deciding on an investment.
The full agenda for the third day of the conference can be accessed on the official website, here: https://innoenterprisebucharest2019.eu/programme-21st-june.html.
The short wrap-up movies for the three days can also be accessed on the official website, here: https://innoenterprisebucharest2019.eu/gallery.html.
The live recordings of each day, can be accessed on IEW 2019 Facebook page, here: https://www.facebook.com/iew2019/videos/.

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 format of the conference was agreed and set-up for three days and a snapshot can be accessed on the official website, here: https://innoenterprisebucharest2019.eu/gallery.html.
During the three conference days an exhibition and networking area was foreseen where innovators were challenged to test the latest innovations and visions, in the vicinity of the networking spaces. The exhibition area provided participants and exhibitors with an informal space to talk innovation with successful startups across Europe, share ideas and gain more business connections. This experience was based on new ways of networking in leisure corners aimed to boost the participants’ imagination and inspire their future business decisions and opportunities.
More than 20 teams of innovators from Romania and Europe were exhibited and had the chance to interact with more than 900 attendees across the three days.
More information about the exhibitors can be accessed on the official website, here: https://innoenterprisebucharest2019.eu/exhibit-area.html.

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 takeout points of the three days of the conference were:
Innovation needs tailored custom approaches for each individual project thus provide the right support is a must, as well as learning from failure to harness success.
A better future has a vision stage but the most important part is how you build it.
Continuously build a long term visionary research, the same time get into concrete business opportunities.
We cannot afford to be left behind the emerging deep tech mega-trends. We need to connect people, the right people prepared for innovation.
Europe should develop and finance thematic platforms to foster deep and disruptive technologies.
Blended financing is a way for the companies and talents to build sustainable and disruptive innovation.
Speed is an important factor to disruptive innovation.
Europeans are agile at creating startups, but falling behind at scaling up part.
There is a need for a lean governance in place, in order to better improve our support and a bundle of common policies for innovation ecosystems across the European Union.
It is about the way we put together experience and share technology, in order to have informed decisions and build sustainable projects.
Europe has a strong academic base, amazing talents and entrepreneurs, supporting companies, a strong industrial base finance, talent in robotics and other under development tech like robotics, and also we are one of the most inclusive regions of the world.
The universities, academia must be at the core of innovation ecosystems.
The feedback received from the participants was very good and it referred at the same time at their interest in future editions of the Innovative Enterprise Week.