Communication toolkit

This toolkit aims to help EIC Beneficiary companies to prepare their communication activities, events and media relations, while displaying that you have received funding support from the EIC.

Make your work visible

Yes, communication plays an important role in making sure your project has a lasting impact! That's why communicating your project results is a requirement under virtually all EU programmes. 

With the right strategic communication you will attract the interest of those who could benefit from your work – be it local or regional authorities, national governments, potential business partners or the research community. 

This toolkit is for projects funded through the European Innovation Councill and we want to help you make the most of your communication efforts. Here are four simple steps to follow:

1. Mention the European Innovation Council 

When you speak to the press, to investors, clients, or potential business partners, we would be grateful if you could mention that you have received funding from the EIC programme.

Three simple messages to convey:

• The European Innovation Council is Europe’s flagship innovation programme to identify, develop and scale up breakthrough technologies and game changing innovations The EIC has been established under the EU Horizon Europe programme. It has a budget of €10.1 billion to support game changing innovations throughout the lifecycle from early stage research, to proof of concept, technology transfer, and the financing and scale up of start-ups and SMEs.
• Only the most innovative companies get selected. In the first year of the EIC Accelerator programme, out of more then 4000 applicants, 164 projects have been selected for funding. This shows how intense the competition is under the programme and demonstrates the high quality of the proposals funded. 
• A unique feature of the EIC is that it provides funding for individual companies (mainly start-ups and SMEs) through both grants and investments. The investments currently take the form of direct equity or quasi-equity investments and are managed by the EIC Fund. The companies also receive tailor-made coaching and support in commercialisation – like facilitated access to overseas trade fairs.

For written announcements, you can use this short "EIC in a nutshell" text. 

2. Show the EU emblem and the EIC logo

An image is worth a thousand words – this is why we kindly ask you to display the EU emblem clearly on your website and communication material (prototypes, leaflets, posters etc.). The emblem should be accompanied by a funding statement (translated into local languages, if needed). 

This is what it should look like:

Do not replace the EU emblem with the European Commission's logo.

Resources

• The ready-to-use EU emblem including the funding statement in all EU languages
• Graphics guide to the European flag (emblem).
• Operational guidelines for recipients of EU funding (PDF)
• EIC logo

3. Convey your message

You've arrived this far so we have no doubt you are able to sell your idea! However, here are a few tips to make the perfect pitch, be it to an investor, the press, new clients or potential business partner

1. Engage with the audience as individuals: present yourself, use storytelling to help them link your project to reality; get their attention (what's the problem, how big is it, how can it be solved?)
2. Be credible, use evidence: How can you solve the problem? What's your plan to do it? Will your project make money and how much? Who's your competition? Why does your team have the right know-how to solve the problem? Show that you know your business, your market, your technology, your competition and you have already thought about what could go wrong and how to avoid or solve it. Prove that you will be the right team to bring this idea to the market and make money out of it.
3. Keep it short and simple, rehearse and prepare for Q&A: Keep your audience engaged with the audience as individuals: stop, ask questions, keep eye contact, note who's nodding who's resisting, be positive, clear and credible. Prepare for Q&A think of tricky questions and your answers in advance.
4. Call to action: specify what do you want from them?

At the end of the pitch the audience needs to feel you've reached out to them: Ok I understand what you do, this looks interesting and professional, the team looks credible, I'm prepared to find out more and talk to them again if they call me, I might recommend them/write about them/invest in this idea.

4. Check out our Communication webinar

The objective of this 60-minute communication webinar is to give guidance on effective exploitation, dissemination and communication. It also replies the main communication questions such as:

• Why to communicate
• What are multipliers
• How to estimate the actual influence of project communication?

The #CommsWorkout webinar brings few tips on how to increase your outreach and learn from successful EU-funded projects.

Share your success

We are eager to showcase your successes, during your mission and after. Your new website goes online? You are organising a big conference? You are publishing a ground-breaking study or launching an innovative product? You are hiring 10 new engineers? We would love to hear from you whenever your project reaches a newsworthy milestone.

We can help amplify your messages through our communication channels.

Just send us an email to inform us about your news or with any material you may have (press releases, photos, videos, graphics etc.). And of course, you can always connect with us on social media: follow us on twitter @EUeic. When you tweet about the event don't forget to tag us @EUeic and use the hashtags #EUeic, #eicAccelerator, #eicPathfinder or #EICTransition.

We also have a company page  on LinkedIn. In addition we invite you to join us  in the EIC Community Platform.

And last but not least, come to our events.