On Friday 13 March, the European Commission opened a call for projects for start-ups and SMEs with technologies that could contribute to the monitoring or treatment of the COVID-19 outbreak.
It invites them to apply for the next European Innovation Council (EIC) funding round, specifying that this call has a budget of EUR 164 million.
Applications should be sent to the Accelerator, one of the two main funding instruments of the EIC, before Wednesday 18 March at 5 p.m.
“The European Commission will seek to accelerate the provision of EIC grants and mixed funding for Coronavirus innovations, as well as facilitating access to other sources of funding and investment”, a statement said.
Several start-ups and SMEs working on COVID-19-related innovations have already benefited from EIC funding, the Commission noted. These include the EpiShuttle project, which has developed reusable, single-person specialised isolation units (SIUs), the m-TAP project, which is developing air filtration technology, and MBENT, which tracks human mobility during epidemics. (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)