InnoMatch project kick-off meeting
On the 4th and 5th of September, the InnoMatch consortium gathered in Oporto, Portugal, for the project’s kick-off meeting. Alongside the project team, the project officer from the European Commission, the coordinator of the European Innovation Council – Business Acceleration Services (EIC – BAS) and the representatives of the Spin4EIC programme, joined the partners for the presentation and overview of the project.
About InnoMatch
InnoMatch is a Coordination and Support Action (CSA) funded under the Horizon Europe Programme that integrates the new EIC BAS Innovation Procurement Programme.
Aiming to help boost innovation procurement in Europe, the project supports the proof-of-concept demonstration or pilot testing of EIC innovations for solving unmet needs of selected public and private procurement customers. To help both parties find the right synergies, the project will launch a total of 3 types of open calls to recruit both Buyers (public and private customers of innovative solutions) and EICs (innovative startups that are EIC beneficiaries):
- One for EICs and Buyers, where both can apply together having already established a solution for the buyers’ unmet need. This type of call will have 2 waves of applications.
- Other only for Buyers, where they apply with their unmet needs and InnoMatch helps them to polish their idea and group the needs into challenges.
- And other only for EICS, where they can apply with their solution to the previous identified needs from the buyers open call.
This first gathering marked the official start of the project, that will be running for three years by the hands of a multiskilled team of 4 partners: F6S Innovation, that will coordinate the initiative, CIVITTA, TicBiomed and ICLEI.
It was the key moment for all the parties to formally introduce themselves and overview all the projects’ tasks and define the first steps needed to ensure all the milestones and goals will be reached for the upcoming months of the project.
InnoMatch is a key asset of the new EIC Innovation Procurement Programme. By the end of the project 38 successful pilots are expected, where each pilot’s EIC Innovator will be awarded 60K€ to help in the implementation of their solution, performing a total of 2.28M€ offered to support the pilots.
