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Story 16 March 2022
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EIC BAS Wrap-ups Corporate Partnership Programme: Highlighting 2021’s successes

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Oriana Baptista

As we look back at the EIC’s Corporate Partnership Programme during 2021, we intend to highlight its valuable initiatives and results. All to further prove that bridging the gap between innovative SMEs and large companies is worth it, as showcased by EIC’s Corporate Days Programme that was consolidated in 2021 as the most popular EIC Acceleration Service in its number of participants, business impact, and satisfaction. 

 

The past year was filled with challenges and successes for the EIC Business Acceleration Services Corporates Partnership Programme. With it, 2021 saw 12 corporate matchmaking events taking place with the presence of more than 250 EIC beneficiaries and an overall satisfaction rate of 92%. In this light, as a new year unfolds, here’s our rundown of the highlights that made 2021 a corporate success. 

 

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Well-thought-out moves to promote growth 

 

Plunging headlong into organising initiatives that help EIC-funded companies to boost their network and meet relevant business decision-makers from the biggest companies in Europe is part of the EIC’s motto. 

 

To see this through, dedicated matchmaking events like Corporate Days – with several key companies – or Enhanced Cooperation initiatives such as Energy4Planet with 25 corporate partners involved, were conducted to provide EIC-beneficiaries with the opportunity to develop their business models and facilitate business collaborations. 

 

Other relevant factors that reinforce the importance of the EIC Corporates Partnership Programme involved having 600 business partners and reaching 400 one-to-one meetings between EIC beneficiaries and corporates – which underlines the significance of the programme. 

 

EIC is the key to innovative success 

 

To the EIC, organising these types of initiatives means supporting companies and promoting sustainable innovation and growth across all EIC beneficiaries. 

 

A clear example of that occurred during the 1st EIC Corporate Day with Holcim in January 2021, where a highly innovative small company called Nanolike caught the attention of the corporate. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Toulouse (France), Nanolike specialises in measurement technologies. As a spin-off of the Laboratory of Physics and Chemistry of Nano-objects (CNRS/INSA/the University of Toulouse), its success illustrates the potential of European nanotechnology to bridge the gap from lab to market, grow and create highly skilled jobs in Europe. 

 

Nanolike has had a successful relationship with the EIC. The company received its first support from the European Innovation Council – SME Instrument in 2016 and received a €50.000 grant to further develop its business plan. In addition, Nanolike got a 1,77M EUR grant to extend its action plan and reach the market through its TankSensor project, developing an Internet of things nanosensor and software solution for fill-level monitoring of industrial tanks. 

 

Ever since the EIC Corporate Day, Holcim’s logistic department, its venture platform Holcim MAQER, and Nanolike joined forces and followed together with the best-practice path of a Corporate-Start-up's collaboration to the letter: a first exchange of ideas in the right environment during the Corporate Day in January 2021, an NDA signature, the development of a Proof of Concept (PoC) in Greece and first key performance indicators (KPIs) successfully evaluated in October 2021. 

 

With the currently established collaboration, Nanolike digitises the silos of ready-mixed concrete mixing plants at Holcim to monitor their fill levels in real-time. Something that is pointed out and explained by Stefan Huber (Director Sales Germany at Nanolike): "By using the Nanolike fill level detection and monitoring system, we were able to expand the existing system with manual inventory management with digital measuring points within a few days. In the next step, all upstream and downstream processes will access real-time data and thus be coordinated much more precisely. For us, this is an important milestone: It points the way for the entire construction industry”. 

 

This fits Holcim’s wishes perfectly because of the immense potential in automating processes by using real-time data collected via IoT-connected Nanolike sensors. As Alex Scheld (Global Head of Logistics at the corporate) explains: “The innovative technology of Nanolike allows us to automate our silo replenishment in real-time and enable a vendor managed inventory process. Nanolike is easy to install, and it integrates into already existing order systems”. 

 

For more on Nanolike’s success, please visit the EIC website

 

What to expect for 2022? 

 

If you’re looking for new opportunities to help you achieve excellence and sustainable growth, upcoming events like the EIC Corporate Day with Cefic or with IKEA of Sweden have applications now open – with more initiatives to be confirmed soon. So, make sure to check our events calendar regularly.

DISCLAIMER: This information is provided in the interest of knowledge sharing and should not be interpreted as the official view of the European Commission, or any other organisation.

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