JURY OF 87 INNOVATION AND INVESTMENT EXPERTS SELECTED FOR SMEI PHASE 2 EVALUATIONS

The European Commission has published a list of 85 innovation and investment experts from 26 countries who will be involved in the future evaluation of SME Instrument Phase 2 project applications.

The European Commission has published a list of 85 innovation and investment experts from 26 countries who will be involved in the future evaluation of SME Instrument Phase 2 project applications.

The new jury of experts will start working from the next SME Instrument Phase 2 cut-off date on 10 January 2018. The jury has been set up as part of a revamped assessment process introduced under the European Innovation Council (EIC) pilot to better identify radical, market-creating innovations by taking full account of the personal qualities and motivations of the applicants. Under the new system, therefore, companies that pass the initial selection stage for up to €2.5 million of SME Instrument Phase 2 funding, will have to pitch their innovation projects in front of a jury of experts. This will complement the existing paper-based assessment.

The jury members have been selected in an open and transparent way following a call for expressions of interest. The jury consists of around 15% business angels, 20% entrepreneurs, 20% venture capitalists, with other experts coming from larger corporates, innovation hubs and accelerators. The majority of the experts are women.

The list of experts and their affiliation can be found at https://ec.europa.eu/easme/en/evaluations-eic-pilot