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EU Invests €1.4 Billion in Deep Tech to Bolster Competitiveness in AI and Innovation

By  |  October 29, 2024

The European Union announced plans to invest €1.4 billion ($1.5 billion) in the deep tech sector in 2025. The substantial investment, provided through the European Innovation Council (EIC), underscores Europe’s drive to boost innovation in fields like artificial intelligence and strategic technologies, areas currently dominated by global tech leaders such as the United States and China, according to Reuters.

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    The EIC, part of the EU’s Horizon Europe research and innovation initiative, will spearhead this increased funding, representing an expansion of €200 million from its 2024 budget. EU leaders have prioritized tech and AI as critical areas for economic growth and global competitiveness, especially amid Europe’s struggle to invigorate its economy, as noted by Reuters. Commissioner Iliana Ivanova emphasized the EIC’s evolving role, calling it “a gamechanger” in enabling breakthrough innovations within Europe.

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    One of the key developments within the EIC’s 2025 agenda is the launch of the EIC Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP) Scale-up scheme, a program specifically designed to enhance Europe’s deep tech capabilities by providing larger-scale investments. With a budget of €300 million for 2025, the STEP Scale-up scheme is set to grow to €900 million by 2027, according to Reuters. The initiative will support critical technological advancements within the EU and aims to reduce dependency on non-EU technologies, offering between €10 million and €30 million per company in equity funding to facilitate co-investments from private sources. These investments, per Reuters, are expected to attract total funding of €50 million to €150 million per project.

    Read more: EU’s Future Tech Chief Eyes AI Boost to Counter Global Rivals

    Additionally, the 2025 EIC program will introduce updates to existing support measures, such as the EIC Challenges program, which will allocate €120 million to foster emerging technologies like autonomous robotics, sustainable agriculture, waste conversion, and advanced medical diagnostics. An additional €250 million is earmarked for early-stage companies working on high-potential projects in generative AI, agri-tech, and new mobility solutions.

    In a strategic move, the EIC will also expand its Business Acceleration Services, which aim to help emerging companies in countries with lower levels of research and innovation capacity. Access to these services, along with several new “Seals of Excellence” in different categories, will support a wider range of start-ups and scale-ups, allowing them to tap into complementary and alternative funding streams, including EU Cohesion Funds.

    Since its inception in March 2021, the European Innovation Council has become a key player in fostering Europe’s tech ecosystem. Under the Horizon Europe initiative, the EIC has backed over 630 companies and 450 research projects, aiming to support deep tech advances through a budget exceeding €10 billion for 2021-2027. The EIC Fund, the EIC’s investment arm, has already deployed €1 billion in direct investments in deep tech start-ups, catalyzing more than four times this amount in co-investments from private partners. This makes the EIC Fund the largest deep tech co-investment initiative in Europe, per Reuters.

    Source: Reuters