European Commission Funding Programme (FP7) is the main funding programme for Innovation in Europe. The programme is designed to to respond to Europe’s needs in terms of jobs and competitiveness, and to maintain leadership in the global knowledge economy.
The funding programme comes in many different flavours but the main aim of the programme is to help small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) and Large Enterprises (LEs) with innovative ideas to receive grants and use these grants to generate next generation products and solutions.
Top 10 reasons to consider European Commission FP7 Funding is:
1. There is over €53.6Bn available from the EU to be distributed to European companies during the FP7 Programme.
2. The funding ranges between €1M – €4M for non-thematic projects and €3M -
€10M for thematic projects.
3. The project funds are ring-fenced so that the funds can be only used
for the concept defined on the project proposal.
4. You can expand your business in Europe with European partners & build
international partnerships.
5. At the end of the project you will have a fully functioning product/service prototype that is ready to be commercialised
6. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) can be designed, controlled and defined by the Consortium Agreement (CA).
7. You are receiving a grant not a loan. This means that you do not have to pay back anything after the project completion.
8. EU provides upfront payment to partners which means that you will be always cash positive during the project.
9. This is a tested and tried scheme running since 1980s (with much higher budgets today!)
10. Once you have completed your R&D project, there are other specific funding schemes to take your product/service to the market.
If you are interested in funding and to find out more, please do not hesitate to contact me directly at funding@cagriyilmaz.com. I personally reply back to all emails and questions.
