Businesses gain access to Fast Track Innovation funding

A new €100m tool aimed at speeding up innovation and bringing more new products and services to market has opened.

The Horizon 2020 ‘Fast Track to Innovation Pilot’ call will support new, innovative projects from the current demonstration to market uptake. Proposals must have a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 6 and interdisciplinary projects are encouraged to apply. All applications must also relate to any field under the ‘Leadership in Enabling and Industrial Technologies’ and/or one of the seven Societal Challenges.

The ‘Fast Track to Innovation’ (FTI) scheme is one of the new features of Horizon 2020. According to the Commission, it is the only “fully bottom-up measure” in the research and innovation framework programme and it is hoped the scheme will encourage greater participation from industry, including SMEs, as well as stimulate private sector investment. Furthermore, FTI projects must be “business-driven and clearly demonstrate a realistic potential for quick deployment and market take-up of innovations” according to the Commission.

There are two cut-off dates for the pilot call in order to assist with the evaluative process. The cut-off dates are 29 April and 1 September, followed by a final deadline for proposals of 1 December. The Commission envisages that it will fund up to 100 proposals under the pilot action and more information can be found here.