Image: Dennis Wong [CC BY 2.0], via Flickr
Mark of quality given to 82 proposals the EU could not fund
The European Commission has awarded the first Seals of Excellence to innovative proposals for combating Covid-19. The proposals were submitted to the EU’s European Innovation Council funder and were highly evaluated but fell just short of securing funding due to the available budget.
The seal certificates are intended to signal to member states that it might be a good idea to support the projects through other funding streams, such as EU regional cohesion funds. In the first round of awards, for submissions to a March call of the EIC Accelerator funding instrument, 82 proposals were awarded the seal, the Commission announced on 8 May.
A second batch of seals is expected to be awarded at the end of May, when the projects that won EIC funding will also be announced. The Commission has said that almost 4,000 companies applied to the call, and that more than 1,000 of their proposals related to the Covid-19 pandemic. Interviews with highly ranked applicants are taking place from 11 to 20 May.