As part of the EU’s efforts to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology is proud to announce the EIT Crisis Response Initiative results: €60 million awarded to 207 innovation projects and ventures from 32 countries. As part of the ‘Pandemic Response Projects’, 62 new innovation projects bringing together 212 partners from 25 countries are developing solutions directly tackling COVID-19 related challenges. The ‘Venture Support Instrument’ is supporting 145 start-ups, scale-ups and SMEs from 23 countries that have been enormously impacted by the COVID-19 crisis.
The selected innovations provide immediate solutions within the EIT’s key focus areas, from health and digitisation to food and urban mobility, to meet the wide array of challenges posed by the crisis. The 207 projects and ventures supported include effective solutions such as biotechnology and diagnostics, using 3D prototypes to re-configure congested parts of the city and co-working areas, supporting food supply chain disruptions, and solutions to reduce airborne contaminants.
Gioia Ghezzi, Chair of the EIT Governing Board, said: ‘I am thrilled with the response to the EIT’s call to action: innovation will play a key role in Europe’s road to recovery and our innovators are united in their vision of a stronger, sustainable Europe. I am proud to see results from the EIT Crisis Response Initiative already emerging: for example, EIT Health’s ‘Digital Control Centre’ in Spain has documented a fifty per cent reduction in mortality rate among COVID-19 patients thanks to the use of their developed AI tool. We must continue to innovate, ensuring that this leads Europe on its path to a more resilient society.’
Through the rapid mobilisation of the EIT Community, the EIT is delivering short-term innovation projects while powering long term investments into Europe’s recovery by helping to secure critical funding for startups, scale-ups, and SMEs that are experiencing significant difficulties, including loss of capital and customers.
By deploying a rapid response mechanism, all EIT Crisis Response activities will be completed by the end of 2020 to help Europe recover.
Source: EIT
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