EIC grants to drive Swiss innovation projects forward

The Enhanced European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator (previously known as SME Instrument) supports top-class innovators, entrepreneurs, small companies and scientists with bright ideas and the ambition to scale up internationally. The programme focuses on market-creating innovations that shape new markets and generate jobs, growth and higher standards of living. From 5 June 2019, the EIC Accelerator offers blended finance in the form of an optional investment in equity in addition to the grant. Successful companies have also access to a range of business coaching and acceleration services.

For the March 2020 cut-off, the European Commission received approximately 4,000 applications for EIC Accelerator Pilot programme out of which 70 were selected for funding. The following Swiss startups have already concluded the contract.

Resistell AG – received a €2.5M grant to advance the development of its world’s fastest phenotypic antibiotic susceptibility test (AST) which is based on measurement of vibrations of living bacteria using nanomechanical sensors. The cutting-edge technology reduces the AST time-to-result from several hours or days to less than two hours, and patients can be treated with the optimal dosage from day one.

EH Group Engineering – obtained €1.48m to boost the development of its innovative fuel cell technology and bring it to mass commercialisation. Addressing the cost factor associated with commercialising fuel cell technology, EH Group aims to influence the market by achieving significant cost reductions and hence more rapid industrialisation of hydrogen-based technology. The product is applicable in commercial buildings, data centres among others.

LIGENTEC – has developed a unique thick Silicon Nitride (SiN) technology which enables the manufacturing of Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) at better performance and lower cost than common approaches. Photonics applications are predicted to increase tremendously over the next years, especially pushed from medical instrumentation & diagnostics, autonomous driving, quantum computing and communication. Photonic Integration, the ability to shrink complex optical systems on a small chip (PIC), is a key technology with an enabling and highly disruptive potential in those verticals, similar to what the electronic ICs did in the past. This EIC funding of 3.6 million Euro in total is awarded to support bootstrapped LIGENTEC in the industrialization and scale-up of it’s proprietary, low loss, thick SiN technology.

Swissdecode – was awarded 2.5 million Euro grant for the development of an automated, on-site food testing device that will allow food companies to quickly detect and react faster to irregularities such as food adulteration or contamination.

Postrigo – is developing ultra-compact Positron Emission Tomography (PET) systems for the brain for early detection of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's. The system will be accessible to a broad population. The company received a grant of EUR 2.2 million.

From the past cut-off in 2019, two more startups have also confirmed the receipt of EU Horizon2020 funds.

CREAL3D – is developing a patented light-field technology that generates truly 3D hologram-like images, thereby solving the eyestrain and pain problems of current headsets. Likewise, technology increases the immersion of users and allowing conflictless mixing of virtual and real worlds. The startup obtained €2.3 for the project.

MINESPIDER GMBH – Founded in 2018, Minespider is an open blockchain protocol and DApp for creating digital certificates to track minerals along global supply chains. The company received €2.3 million from the program.

(RAN)