Fast Track to Innovation: Wide Pilot is looking for European Partners

Wide Pilot intends to submit a proposal for funding in connection with the "Fast Track to Innovation" pilot established under Horizon 2020 for consortia. In the past few weeks the company contacted and held meetings to set up a consortium, which should consist of three to five legal entities – whether private companies or NGOs – coming from at least three different member States or countries associated to Horizon 2020. The call for proposals is designed to attract bottom-up proposals in relation to the “Societal Challenges” priority and the specific objective LEIT (Leadership in Enabling and Industrial Technologies) under the Horizon 2020 programme, without further topical restrictions.
This pilot is intended also to promote close-to-the-market innovation activities (starting from TRL 6), with the objective to bring promising innovation ideas to market within three years. Accordingly, Wide Pilot is looking for 2 partners coming from the industrial sector or actors that might play a key role in the marketing process (e.g. industrial associations, incubators, etc.). EU funding, as with all Innovation Actions under H2020, is set at 70% of the eligible costs (100% for non-profit organizations). The total budget for the initiative is €200 million in two years (2015 and 2016) and the EU contribution per project will be of up to €3 million.
Wide Pilot wishes to expedite the application process, which can take place at any time, while the evaluation of the project will start on 1 December 2015, the last of three evaluation steps scheduled for 2015 (with the other two occurring on 1 April and 1 September 2015) by the European Commission, or on other dates to be determined shortly for 2016.
This is quite a challenge, as the mission of the call is to reduce the time to market of the technologies developed by R&D and to increase R&D investments in the private sector. For additional information on Wide Pilot’s consortium, please write to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Source: The EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation