Workshop 4: Made in Europe - Scaling mission-driven innovation

Being international is not an option anymore. Internationalisation is a priority for most European startups, and more than three-quarters of them plan to expand beyond the border of their countries within the next 12 months. However, when trying to access new markets, startups declare that they face numerous obstacles, the most important of which are related to difficulties in finding the right partners, the lack of financial support, or the legislative and regulatory barriers.

Innovation and Internationalisation are increasingly interlinked. Internationalisation is, in fact, an innovation in itself, as it implies for the companies the access to and operation in completely new environments. On the other hand, many companies access international markets through the advantage provided by their innovative products or services, via innovation projects in collaboration with foreign partners, or through the licensing of technologies to parties in third markets.

Taking this relationship into account, the EU has a long history of promoting research, development and innovation cooperation across borders to accelerate these processes, and nowadays, several cross-border initiatives to scale the European innovation landscape and its entrepreneurial innovators are in place.

EBN is a European community of organisations engaged in innovation and economic development, working in different initiatives to remove the barriers to innovation and fostering the international scaleup of startups through technology and innovation. The pan-European nature of the network is one of the greatest assets to bolster the expansion potential of European startups, scaleups and innovative SMEs, to support those who already operate on an international scale and to reinforce Europe as a global leader in entrepreneurial research and innovation. The EU|BIC community is open to all its members’ companies and provides them with access to markets, networking, strategic partnering, and investment attraction by creating dedicated international soft-landing zones.

During this session, we will reflect on the initiatives that the European Commission will implement in the coming years to foster international cooperation in research and innovation. We will discuss the support provided to startups and innovative SMEs of the EU|BIC community by the Africa-EU Digital Innovation Bridge (AEDIB); the new Research and Innovation Centre and Hub funded by the European Commission in Africa and managed by EBN; as well as the initiatives to link incubators and entrepreneurs in Europe and Latin America through the EBN Technical Assistance project in Costa Rica.

• What are the forthcoming priorities of the European Union in the field of international cooperation in research and innovation?
• What are the opportunities that the Africa-EU Digital Innovation Bridge provides for European startups?
• How can we use the ENRICH in Africa centre to help our startups access the market of this continent?
• How is EBN providing support to incubators and entrepreneurs from Costa Rica, and how can we benefit from this collaboration?

This session is brought to you by ENRICH in Brazil

ENRICH is an initiative of the European Union, executed in Brazil by the CEBRABIC project, that has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 733531. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this publication lies entirely with the authors.