Month: December 2016

EUROPEAN COMMISSION HELPS BOOSTING START-UPS IN EUROPE

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The European Commission’s  Start-Up and Scale-up Initiative aims to give Europe’s many innovative entrepreneurs every opportunity to become world leading companies. It pulls together all the possibilities that the EU already offers and adds a new focus on venture capital investment, insolvency law and taxation.

There is no lack of innovative ideas and entrepreneurial spirit in Europe. But many new firms do not make it beyond the critical first few years, or they try their luck in a third country instead of tapping into the potential of the EU’s 500 million customer base. The European Commission is determined to change that and help start-ups deliver their full innovation and job creation potential.

European Commission’s Vice-President Jyrki Katainen , responsible for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness, said: “Today’s local start-ups could become tomorrow’s global success stories. We want to help start-ups stay and grow in Europe. By helping them navigate the – often perceived – regulatory barriers to fully benefiting from the Single Market. by making it easier for them to have a second chance, without being stigmatized if their idea does not succeed the first time around. and by improving access to funding by boosting private venture capital investment. “

EU Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska, responsible for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, said: ” Today start-ups do not fully take advantage of the opportunities of the Single Market. Starting and scaling up the company across Europe has to become simpler. Europe needs to become the first choice place for great business ideas to grow into successful companies. this is about new jobs, innovation and competitiveness for Europe. ”

The Initiative brings together a range of existing and new actions to create a more coherent framework to allow start-ups to grow and do business across Europe, in particular:

  • Improved access to finance: The Commission and the European Investment Bank Group are launching a Pan-European Venture Capital Fund of Funds. The EU will provide cornerstone investments of up to a maximum budget of € 400 million and the fund manager (s) must raise at least three times as much from private sources, triggering a minimum of € 1.6bn and venture capital funding. It will be managed by one or more professional and experienced fund managers Ensuring a real market approach. This complements existing EU funding instruments such as the European Fund for Strategic Investments ( EFSA ), Europe’s program for small and medium-sized enterprises COSME and the EU’s research and innovation funding program Horizon 2020 .
  • Second chance for entrepreneurs: The Commission has tabled a legislative proposal on insolvency law . It will allow companies in financial difficulties to restructure early on so as to prevent bankruptcy and avoid laying off staff. It will also make it easier for honest entrepreneurs to benefit from a second chance without being penalized for not succeeding in previous business ventures, as they will be fully discharged of their debt after a maximum period of 3 years.
  • Simpler tax filings: The Commission is also working on a range of taxation simplifications including the recent proposal for a Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB), which proposes to support small and innovative companies that want to expand their business across borders. Other initiatives include plans for a simplification of the EU VAT system and broadening the forthcoming guidance on best practice in Member States tax regimes for venture capital.

The Initiative also puts emphasis on helping navigate regulatory requirements, improving innovation support through reforms to the Horizon 2020 , and fostering ecosystems where start-ups can connect with potential partners such as investors, business partners, universities and research centers. Changes to the Horizon 2020 will pave the way towards a European Innovation Council and include using € 1.6bn over 2018-2020 to provide bottom-up support for breakthrough innovation projects by start-ups with potential to grow. The Startup European network will be reinforced to connect clusters and ecosystems across Europe. In 2017, the Commission will put forward proposals for a Single Digital Gateway that provides easy online access to Single Market information, procedures, assistance and advice for citizens and businesses. The Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) provide specific advisory services – through scale-up advisors – for startups including on funding opportunities, partnering and how to access cross-border public procurement. The Commission will adopt a set of measures to support the use of Intellectual Property Rights by SMEs and take action to support access by start-ups to the € 2 trillion European public procurement market.

Background:

Over recent years, the Commission has proposed a number of policies, such as the Capital Markets Union , the Single Market Strategy , and the Digital Single Market to benefit start-ups in Europe. Together with Member States’ actions, this has led to the creation of a number of market leaders, such as Spotify, Klarna, card payment, Blockchain, Jobandtalent, N26, Algolia, Intercom, Cabify or Deliveroo.

The Initiative addresses three main obstacles to starting up and scaling up in Europe identified in a recent public consultation :

  • Access to finance is the biggest problem for entrepreneurs whether starting up or scaling up;
  • Complying with regulatory and administrative requirements diverts too much energy from growing the business – particularly cross-border;
  • Connecting to right business partners, markets and skilled workers, despite the availability of 500 million people European Single Market is still too difficult.

More information:

Source: EC Press Release IP / 16/3882

Horizon 2020

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“Three years after its launch, the EU’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme will continue to be an open interrogation: although most applicants do not master the program, thousands of project proposals are still submitted every trimester (if not every month). Horizon 2020 has thus emerged as an ultra-popular hunting ground for financing, being labeled as one of the most successful support schemes for resea MARS rch and innovators in Europe … and worldwide, “says Daniel Gomes, CEO at Octopux Consulting.

“However, more than 80% of researchers and innovators are new to the EU public financing and are largely misinformed about its real complexity. Many first-time applicants (accounting to more than 50%) are still convinced of the incredible easiness of receiving the Horizon 2020 funding, while, on the other hand, several multiple-time non-funded applicants claim that the Horizon 2020 is a lottery that only finances researchers and innovators who lobby top…

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Horizon 2020

Posted on by nameless

boris1blogpropastinteingecije.wordpress.com/…/mars-4

“Three years after its launch, the EU’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme will continue to be an open interrogation: although most applicants do not master the program, thousands of project proposals are still submitted every trimester (if not every month). Horizon 2020 has thus emerged as an ultra-popular hunting ground for financing, being labeled as one of the most successful support schemes for resea MARS rch and innovators in Europe … and worldwide, “says Daniel Gomes, CEO at Octopux Consulting.

“However, more than 80% of researchers and innovators are new to the EU public financing and are largely misinformed about its real complexity. Many first-time applicants (accounting to more than 50%) are still convinced of the incredible easiness of receiving the Horizon 2020 funding, while, on the other hand, several multiple-time non-funded applicants claim that the Horizon 2020 is a lottery that only finances researchers and innovators who lobby top EU officials with success ” , concludes.

This is the reason why our mission during the first 2017’s Horizon 2020 Proposal Writing course  (16-17 February 2017, Brussels) consists in demonstrating to all participants that, despite the fierce competition in the Horizon 2020, winning the Horizon 2020 proposal is possible through … persistence, even for first-time applicants! 

Many first-time applicants complain that it is impossible to find on the internet examples of real-life successful proposals (from page 1 to 30 … 50 … 70 …) selected for funding by the European Commission. On  16-17 February 2017 , you will have a fantastic opportunity to learn from at least two real-life Horizon 2020 projects and see their full proposals right in front of you during the workshop.

We are proudly giving yourself a chance to become a better writer proposal on EU Funding, right after more than 1,000 professionals have benefited from it since 2013.

To register and find further information about the course by clicking HERE . 

For further inquiries, feel always free to contact us .