The European Commission has launched Fast Track to Innovation (FTI), a €200 million pilot initiative promoting innovation by reducing the time it takes to bring ideas to market.
Over the next two years, the pilot will open to all types of participants, particularly from industry, while stimulating first-time applications from industry and SMEs to Horizon 2020, the EU’s research and innovation funding programme. Projects funded under the pilot are to be ‘business-driven’ to ensure promising innovative ideas are exploited faster.
The Pilot will be implemented in 2015-2016 as a new initiative under Horizon 2020 working to the theme of ‘leadership in enabling and industrial technologies’ (LEITs).
European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation Carlos Moedas explained: “In the sprint to launch innovative ideas, the winners are those who seize market opportunities first. The new Fast Track to Innovation pilot will help highly innovative businesses in Europe reach the finish line faster, attracting more private investors to European research and innovation and fast-tracking our global competitiveness.”
The pilot will be implemented through one common and continuously open call. Proposals can be submitted at any time with three cut-off dates in 2015: 29 April, 1 September and 1 December.
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