Brussels, 22/07/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 22 July, the European Commission presented details for the “Fast Track to Innovation” (FTI) pilot action under Horizon 2020. The FTI aims to give a final push to get great ideas to market
This initiative appeared when the European Parliament, Council of the EU and the European Commission negotiated the details of the Horizon 2020 programme in 2013. The EP that brought it forward and introduced it as part of the framework programme. This was a difficult task because the EP had to convince the Council of the usefulness of such an initiative. Although it was finally incorporated into Horizon 2020, the FTI was not really launched until January 2015, with the first call for proposals.
The Commission announced that the launch would take the form of a pilot project. In 2016, a second pilot project will take place. €100 million is planned for each. Two criteria have been set out by the Commission: the proposal must come from small consortia of three to five organisations with strong participation of businesses and these must ensure that EU funding will be used to put products on the market (this means that products must be at a prototype stage). What sort of products will be involved? According to a Commission official we do not yet know, hence the decision to have pilot projects.
Five prizes for innovation. The Commission announced five innovation prizes that will start in late 2014 and early 2015. The prizes, worth a total of €6 million, cover three different thematic research areas: health (Reduction of the Use of Antibiotics Prize, Food-Scanner Prize), the environment (Reduction of Air Pollution Prize) and ICT (Collaborative Sharing of Spectrum, Optical Transmission Prize). (JK)