The EIT Manufacturing’s EVO-R is a competition to support small teams or other entities from EIT RIS (Regional Innovation Scheme) eligible countries, in order to bring to the European and world market small scale manufacturing related solutions that have been already developed with the help of regional/national programmes. The activity will provide financial support to the selected entities, as well as in-kind support. It usually brings innovative small-scale manufacturing solutions from the demonstration stage (TRL 7) through to market uptake (TRL 8-9).
Description
Evolution of RIS Innovations (EVO-R) is a programme designed to support small teams or other entities from EIT RIS eligible countries, in order to bring to the European and world market small scale manufacturing related solutions that have been already developed with the help of regional/national programmes. The activities usually bring innovative small-scale manufacturing solutions from the demonstration stage (TRL 7) through to market uptake (TRL 8-9). Ideally, the applicant has already developed a prototype and, by the end of the programme, will scale-up or launch the product or service on the market.
EVO-R provides both financial support and in-kind support to an average of twenty-five beneficiaries per edition. Financial support in the form of a grant up to 30K€ and in-kind support consisting of tailor-made support services, such as guidance to bring the proposed innovative solution to the market, networking opportunities with potential partners and customers, and support in expanding into the target markets.
Applicants should present how they will further develop research results into commercially available small-scale products or services as well as incorporate a business plan clearly describing the market potential, business opportunities, measures to enhance the probability of eventual commercial take-up, and a credible commercialisation strategy that identifies next steps and specifies other actors to be involved.
Applicants who are individuals should launch a start-up/ SME in order to commercialise services or products by the end of the EVO-R programme. With regard to legal entities, any type of legal entity is eligible to apply. The legal entities should be able to commercialize services and products. Hence, only those entities, for example, universities, research and technology organizations (RTO), and university-owned foundations, that can generate revenue from the commercialisation of products and services, are eligible.
With such features, the EVO-R programme contributes to accelerating the market uptake of innovations by providing funding that nurtures ideas from the Regional Innovation Scheme (RIS) countries. The EIT Regional Innovation Scheme constitutes an integral part of EIT Manufacturing’s strategy and is designed as a long-term initiative to strengthen the national and regional innovation ecosystems of countries that are moderate and modest innovators by transferring good practices and know-how to boost innovation.In addition, EVO-R contributes to the knowledge triangle integration by combining business creation aspects, with the start-ups support and creation, with innovation ones, thanks to the development of services and products.
EVO-R will also contribute:
- To accelerate the market uptake of innovations by providing funding that nurtures ideas from the RIS countries.
- To the emergence of new ideas that can be easily translated into socio-economic value, shaping new markets and laying the foundations of a stronger manufacturing base for Europe.
- To the development of the EIT Manufacturing networks. Successful participants in the programme will be kept informed about other activities of EIT Manufacturing and events.
Achievements & learning
Achievements of the EVO-R call:
- 2021 edition: Market innovations: 14. Supported start-ups: 24. o Start-ups created: 6
- 2022 edition: Supported start-ups: 55. Start-ups created: 14
- 2023 edition (ongoing): Supported start-ups: 25. Start-ups created: 2
The main outputs are the funded innovative projects and its impact in the RIS countries. Some examples of success stories resulting from the 2021 and 2022 editions include the following:
CYRUS
the flagship solution of the company D-Cube, consists of a hardware installation – the smart cage – and a software component. After the profile exits the extrusion press on the conveyor, it enters the CYRUS smart cage, which is installed just a few meters from the press. Here, mounted cameras capture the extruded profile and DCube’s algorithms detect surface defects in less than 50 microseconds. In case of detected defects, the press operator immediately receives an alert with instructions to adapt press parameters. EIT Manufacturing supported CYRUS´ standardization along with go-to-market activities, facilitating its penetration into demanding markets. In this regard, during the EVO-R project, D-Cube established partnerships with two major EU companies and confirmed cooperation with two new customers in Austria and Bulgaria. At the same time, the CYRUS prototype was designed and developed to fit the needs of most press setups with minor adjustments. Moreover, D-Cube finalised the business model, defining the core strategy for profitability through CYRUS, and expanded the development team.
Enforge
is a RIS start-up supported by EIT Manufacturing. Enforge is developing a digital-twin based production planning & control platform for discrete manufactured products. The development of Enforge platform’s core modules were supported through EIT Manufacturing BoostUP RIS competition, EIT Manufacturing EVO-R 2021 Programme and EIT Manufacturing Intrapreneurship Programme in 2022. The startup attended the EIT Digital Venture Program 2021 receiving a price of 10K€ and registered a company with the support of EVO-R 2021 programme. In the end of 2023, the startup has been selected to participate in the EVO-R 2023 programme to launch their Enforge AI assistant product on the market.
UP Catalyst OÜ
an Estonian start-up funded in 2019, participated in EVO-R 2021 programme. They are focused on turning CO2 into valuable carbon nanomaterials and graphite. As a continuation of their journey, this successful start-up won the second place in BoostUp! RIS 2021 in the ACCELERATE category, a competition organized by EIT Manufacturing. In addition, this company was supported by the 6 international partners of GreenMA (Green Manufacturing Accelerator Program) which was a project funded by EIT Manufacturing to support early-stage green tech startups in 2022. The support included a 3-month acceleration program. On the other hand, this successful start-up won the second place in BoostUp! RIS 2021 in the ACCELERATE category, a competition organized by EIT Manufacturing. Finally, they became partners of EIT Manufacturing and now are leading a consortium of partners which was granted 559636 EUR funding through the RIS Open Call for proposals 2022 to develop MoReCCU project. This is a 2-year innovation project (2023- 2024) aiming to improve MSCC- ET technology by reusing the electrolytes by developing a high-temp press filtration and salt regeneration system. As a result of the EIT community and EIT Manufacturing support, the company has recently secured a €4 million seed investment to help it on its mission to revolutionise carbon material production. Having developed innovative technologies to turn CO2 emissions into carbon nanomaterials and graphite, UP Catalyst has become a pioneer of sustainable carbon material production.