EU support to innovators during the pandemic by the European Innovation Council and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology.
Date: 2021-03-09
Institutions: Directorate-General for Research and Innovation
Subjects: EU research policy, European Council, European Institute of Innovation and Technology, coronavirus disease, economic support, innovation, investment, risk management, start-up

EU support to innovators  
during the pandemic 
by the European Innovation Council and the European 
Institute of Innovation and Technology

M A R C H   2 0 2 1

The COVID-19 pandemic has created 
unprecedented challenges that require 
innovative ideas. The rapid investments 
to innovative startups and projects 
through the European Innovation Council 
and the European Institute of Innovation 
and Technology have unlocked a range of 
breakthrough ideas to tackle the coronavirus 
crisis and to speed up European and global recovery.

Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, 
Education and Youth

Globally, as of 1 March 2021, there have been 113,695,296 confirmed 
cases  of  COVID-19,  including  2,526,007  deaths,  reported  to  WHO. 
Since  the  start,  the  European  Union  has  been  at  the  forefront  of 
providing  research  and  innovation  support  (R&I),  mobilising  its 
different programmes and spurring innovation to tackle the pandemic 
and its impact. 

MOBILISATION OF FUNDS FOR INNOVATION

In total, more than €1 billion has been pledged by the European Union to support 
R&I projects to tackle many aspects of the pandemic, and more than €400 million 
pledged through financial instruments. To date, €819 million has been awarded to 
support R&I projects. 

The European Innovation Council (EIC) and The European Institute for 
Innovation and Technology (EIT) supported innovators and entrepreneurs 
throughout the pandemic and one year on we now take stock of their impact.

Research and Innovation FAST TRACK CALLS AND INNOVATIVE WAYS  
OF FUNDING

The EIC invested €166 million within three months to 36 start-ups and SMEs with innovative 
solutions to tackle the coronavirus. They also coordinated the #EUvsVirus Hackathon in 
spring 2020. This resulted in 120 new innovative solutions to develop for coronavirus-related 
challenges. Solutions were invited to the ‘Matchathon’ in May 2020. As follow-up the  
EIC COVID19 challenge Platform was created where innovators, companies, researchers  
can forward their solutions and sponsors have the possibility to pledge their support.

The EIC in cooperation with the European Investment Bank (EIB) pledged additional financing 
to COVID19 actions under the InnovFin financial instruments of around €400 million, of which 
nearly 200 million mobilised.

As Europe’s largest innovation network, the EIT mobilised its multi-disciplinary innovation 
community and launched the ‘EIT Crisis Response Initiative’ to support innovators 
powering high-impact solutions in an array of sectors to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic and 
its multifaceted challenges. €60 million of additional funding was mobilised for the ‘EIT 
Crisis Response Initiative’, leveraging further funding from EIT Community-partners. This 
investment has helped tackle the unprecedented social and economic challenge in the field 
of health, climate change, digitisation, food, energy, urban mobility, manufacturing and raw 
materials. 

Bringing together 212 partners from 25 countries, the EIT investment supported 62 
new innovation projects that are developing solutions directly tackling COVID-19 related 
challenges as ‘Pandemic Response Projects’. The EIT’s ‘Venture Support Instrument’ provided 
support to 145 highly innovative start-ups, scale-ups and SMEs from 23 countries that are 
crucial to the European’s economy’s fast recovery.  

Prevention and response

  Entremo (HUNGARY) – Project Discover –  
€0.5 million

Entremo is led by the team who won the #EUvsVirus 
hackathon healthcare category with their smart 
monitoring device. The smart wristband, currently 
deployed to hospitals and nursing homes, allows care 
givers to remotely monitor the vital signs of patients in 
non-intensive units. Entremo is supported by EIT Digital.

  Digital Control Centre for COVID-19  
(SPAIN, NETHERLANDS AND BELGIUM) – €0.55 million

This joint project saw the creation of a virtual management 
centre for hospitalised COVID-19 patients. Through the AI 
tool, medical experts can assess and personalise the patient 
treatment plan to support optimal outcomes and target most 
seriously ill patients to be prioritised for specialist supervision. 
The project has demonstrated a 50% reduction in mortality 
rate as published in Clinical Infectious Diseases Journal.  
The project is supported by EIT Health.

 ViruShield (GERMANY) – €0.31 million 

Project ViruShield has developed an alternative high-
performance personal protective equipment (PPE) 
fabric. The project start-up, Impact Products launched 
the Upper Hand Mask, a reusable, self- disinfecting 
PPE that removes 95% of particles and droplets. This 
project is supported by EIT Health. 

  Remedy Biologics Limited (IRELAND) –  
Project RapCo-19 – €2.5 million 

The company develops a long term pandemic response 
platform to protect Europe from future pandemics, as well 
as enabling development of our advanced passive therapy 
for COVID-19. Research focuses on the identification of 
the optimal antibodies of COVID-19-infected patients for 
which to create therapeutic vaccines. 

  project funded by EIC       project funded by EIT    

  project funded by both

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 Affix Labs (FINLAND) – €0.2 million

Si-Quat is an anti-viral clear coat developed by Affix 
Labs to kill viruses including the pathogen of COVID-19. 
The coating is able to resist thousands of touches and 
creates an active layer that is self-sanitizing within 
minutes. Si-Quat is supported by EIT Raw Materials.

  CleanAIR (GERMANY & AUSTRIA) – €0.34 million

CleanAIR upgrades the functionality of older air condition 
systems to clean the air and sanitise surfaces during off-
hours to prevent the spread of infectious diseases such as 
COVID-19. This project is supported by EIT Manufacturing. 

Treatments

 Xenothera (FRANCE) – Project BRIGHT – €2.1 million 

Through this project, the company has developed XAV-19 -  
a treatment for patients with moderate COVID-19.  
It is currently in a clinical trial in France. Preliminary results 
confirmed the anti-viral efficacy in COVID19 treatments, 
including the new different variants. The product will be  
ready this summer.

 Advitos (GERMANY) – Project ADVOS COVID 19 – €0.95 million

With its blood purification therapy, the company works to increasing 
the survival of patients with severe COVID-19 infection by up to 30% 
through the removal of carbon dioxide, which reduces the need for 
ventilator support.

  AW Technologies (DENMARK) –  
Project COVID ICU-CARE – €1.2 million

The young entrepreneurs (early twenties) 
have developed a ground-breaking respiratory 
suctioning system that can cut healthcare costs 
and reduce COVID-19 spread between intensive 
care units (ICU) patients and staff. 

Vaccines

BioNTech (GERMANY) – €100 million

BioNTech signed with the European Investment Bank a €100 debt 
financing agreement to support the company’s global development 
of COVID-19 vaccine programme, which was the first to receive 
marketing authorisation in the EU as part of the Pfizer-BioNTech 
vaccine, as well as scale-up of manufacturing capacity in Europe.

Curevac (GERMANY) – €75 million

CureVac signed with the European Investment Bank a €75 million 
loan agreement for the development and large-scale production of 
vaccines, including CureVac’s mRNA vaccine candidate against SARS-
CoV-2. 

  project funded by EIC       project funded by EIT    

  project funded by both

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Equipment and manufacturing

  BlueSense Diagnostics (DENMARK) – €0.5 million

BluSense Diagnostics developed an innovative nanotechnology-based point-of-care 
blood testing platform for the diagnosis of infectious diseases from a single drop of 
blood within a matter of minutes. This project received support by EIT Manufacturing. 

  MeMed Diagnostics (ISRAEL) – TESTING – through the support of the EIC project 
DECODE – €2.5 million 

The company is working with hospitals to determine how its 15-minute protein 
measurement test may enhance COVID-19 care. Using a blood sample, the test 
takes a “snapshot” of the patient’s immune system. Algorithms and sensors monitor 
the molecules to determine whether they are fighting bacteria or a virus, anywhere 
in the body. An extension of the technology is to move beyond diagnosis of a viral or 
bacterial infection to looking at potential severity of the infection – which individuals 
are going to suffer from a mild infection, and which may go on to require a stay in 
hospital. 

  PASS (ITALY & SWEDEN) – €0.67 million

PASS combats the spread of viruses and bacteria in food products and processing. 
Their designed plasma-assisted sanitation system offers a more environmentally 
friendly alternative to the long-existing use of sanitizing chemical solutions. This 
project is supported by EIT Food.

  project funded by EIC       project funded by EIT    

  project funded by both

Coronavirus research and innovation

European Commission’s Coronavirus response

#UnitedAgainstCoronavirus  
#ResearchImpactEU 
#HealthUnion

ISBN:978-92-76-31367-0
DOI:10.2777/164473
KI-09-21-036-EN-N

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