Project summary
In its assembly of March 2000, the European Council acknowledged the need of increasing the expenditure in innovation by implementing better policies and making a better use of public funds. To achieve this, the EC has put great emphasis on increasing the use of financial instruments (FIs) as a delivery tool for the Cohesion Policy.
Besides the obvious advantages of recycling funds over the long term, financial instruments help to mobilise additional public or private co-investments to address market failures. Moreover, FIs (Guarantees, Business Angels, Venture Capital, Crowdfunding, Crowdlending) have also proved to be a useful tool in helping innovative SMEs overcome the ‘valleys of death’ and reach a sustainable growth phase to become ‘stock exchange listed’ companies.
Financial Instruments for Innovation - Innova-FI partners are seeking to improve the design and implementation of Financial Instruments as a delivery mode of Structural Funds, so that they best meet and serve the financing needs of innovative and RTDI-driven businesses in all the stages of their start-up and growth. Innova-FI partners will do this by learning about the innovation landscape, and how it is being publicly financed, in partner regions.
The consortium will examine together identified challenges, such as:
- Designing FIs that are well adapted to the different phases of the business;
- Moving away from a grants culture, very much established in the RTDI and innovation field;
- Achieving a better alignment of FIs with other support measures; and/or
- Creating cross-border instruments.
What did this project achieve?
Innova-FI main outputs will be:
- 7 thematic workshops and 7 study visits
- 1 Joint Peer Learning
- 3 policy booklets for governments, compiling case studies and recommendations
- 7 Action Plans
- 2 dissemination events in Brussels to engage with regions outside the consortium
- 1 high-level conference in collaboration with SERN (Start-Up Europe Regions Network)
- Participation of Innova-FI partners at 12 external events
A few numbers
1,620,025 €
01 Jun 2018-31 May 2023
8 partners