European Patent Office supports evaluation of EIC proposals

Pilot collaboration aims to ensure key technologies for EU competitiveness get support

Experts from the European Patent Office have been helping to assess funding applications submitted to the EU’s European Innovation Council, with the aim of supporting technologies that are strategically important to the bloc.

The pilot collaboration between the two bodies, which was made official in late December 2022, involved EPO experts expressing a view on “the technological novelty, the inventive merit and the proposed future intellectual property strategy” of applications to the EIC’s Transition programme, which funds innovation activities that go beyond proof of principle.