KIC InnoEnergy supports research institutions, companies and universities with the last stage of the go-to-market process for innovative sustainable energy products and services, helping them to create public-private consortia that have the ability to take high-potential ideas to the market faster and more effectively.
“Right now in Europe there is a significant gap between research and innovation on one side, and the market on the other side," Diego Pavia, KIC InnoEnergy’s CEO, explained. "Europeans take 18 months to take a product from research to the market; Americans do that in just three months. That’s how we lose our competitiveness. KIC InnoEnergy’s mission is to fill that research to market gap to boost sustainable energy innovation in Europe."
KIC InnoEnergy was created in 2010 by 27 shareholders from 8 EU countries, all of them key players in the energy field coming from top rank industries, research institutions and universities. Their public-private support programme, which holds a huge investment portfolio of 400 million Euro per year, will assist organisations with high-potential projects to establish a development and commercialisation consortium, and provide successful applicants with significant financing and business development support.
To that end, KIC InnoEnergy has put together a framework which provides protection against the usual barriers to cooperation such as IP protection, relevant expertise from the partners, talent poaching or lack of test processes. To be eligible, consortiums must fulfil a number of conditions. Besides having successfully achieved the proof of concept, they must gather at least three European partners from the research and/or industry sectors.