€100M for small company R&D

Science and Research Commissioner Janez Potočnik: SMEs are entrepreneurial stars.

The €100 million is expected to pull in a further €300 million in public funding from the participating countries, for financing transnational research partnerships between SMEs.

EU Commissioner for Science and Research, Janez Potočnik said, “Research-performing SMEs are the entrepreneurial stars of Europe. The Eurostars programme is an excellent example of how member states and the Commission can contribute to economic growth by reinforcing cooperation between their respective research programmes, making it possible for SMEs to collaborate with the best European research teams.”

Eurostars aims to provide a flexible and efficient tool specifically tailored to the needs of R&D- intensive SMEs, while the integration of the national research and development programmes of the participating countries into a joint programme for research-performing SMEs further contributes to the realisation of the European Research Area (ERA). This initiative also reinforces the cooperation between Eureka, which will be managing the Eurostars programme, and FP7.

The Eureka Secretariat will issue calls, receive project proposals and organise evaluation by independent experts.