Topic Description

FET projects often generate new and sometimes unexpected opportunities for commercial or societal application. This topic aims at funding further innovation related work (i.e. activities which were not scheduled to be funded by the original project) to verify and substantiate the innovation potential of ideas arising from FET funded projects and to support the next steps in turning them into a genuine social or economic innovation.

Short and focused individual or collaborative actions to take out of the lab a promising result or proof-of-concept that originated from a FET-funded project and to get it on the way to social or economic innovation through new entrepreneurship or otherwise. The action will support the transformation of that specific research result into a credible offering for economic or social impact, by exploring the feasibility of an exploitation path and by coordinating and supporting the assembling of the right knowledge, skills and resources and thus serves as a launch pad for exploitation.

This call topic is focused on the early innovation stages from results of an ongoing or recently finished project^[1] funded through FET under FP7 or H2020. The complementarity and precise link with the relevant FET project is to be explicitly addressed in the proposal by clearly stating the nature and origin of the results to be taken up, and by adding a confirmation of any necessary agreements with owners or right holders of those results to move towards their exploitation. This call topic does not fund additional research, nor does it fund activities that are/were already foreseen in the relevant FET project. Activities to be funded should be fit-for-purpose (e.g., tailored to the level of maturity of the result to be taken up) and can include, among others, the definition of a commercialisation process to be followed, market and competitiveness analysis, technology assessment, consolidation of intellectual property rights and strategy, scenario and business case development, developing contacts and support relevant activities with for instance, industrial transfer partners, potential licence-takers, investors, societal organisations or potential end users.

By focusing on the very early stage of the innovation path, the scope of this call includes situations where an SME or other suitable entrepreneurial context may not yet exist.

The Commission considers that proposals for actions no longer than 18 months and requesting a contribution from the EU of up to EUR 0.1 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals of different duration.

• Increased innovation potential from FET projects by picking up expected as well as non-anticipated innovation opportunities.
• Creation of concrete and closer-to-market high-potential innovations from FET projects.
• Stimulating, supporting and rewarding an open and proactive mind-set towards exploitation beyond the European research world.
• Seeding future growth and the creation of jobs from FET research.

[1]For a project to be considered 'ongoing or recently finished' in the context of this call topic its end date must be at most one year before the deadline for proposal submission to this topic.