SME Innovation Associate pilot: get access to skills and knowledge

Call ID: H2020-INNOSUP-2018-2020, Topic ID: INNOSUP-02-2019-2020

Are you a visionary SME in need of expert skills that are not available or affordable in your own country? This specific grant opportunity enables you to hire an experienced postdoc researcher that turns your idea into an innovation project.

The European SME Innovation Associate – pilot

With the SME Innovation Associate pilot programme, SMEs can employ a highly-skilled experienced postdoc researcher (the ‘innovation associate’) for a continuous period of one year. The H2020 INNOSUP call offers the opportunity to acquire talent from abroad and recruit specialised knowledge on a European level to turn a creative idea into an innovation project.

The following costs are eligible within this grant programme:

  • 100% salary and relocation costs of the selected postdoc researcher for one year;
  • Participation of the selected postdoc researcher in a core training programme on industrial innovation and business management;
  • Implementation of a training and development plan within the SME, specifically designed for the selected postdoc researcher

Interested in applying?

Are you an innovative SME and searching for certain skills that are not available (or too expensive) on the national labour market? The next deadline for proposals is January 15th, 2020. The indicative budget of € 4.5 million is intended to support 80 to 100 proposals.

Success of our support in 2019 | 100% track record

In 2019, Hezelburcht supported two applications in this H2020 pilot. Both innovation projects received funding! The European grant enabled MaxWell Biosystems & Cutiss to recruit post-doctoral research associates from outside Switzerland to help them to turn creative business ideas into concrete innovations.

MaxWell Biosytems AG

MaxWell Biosystems AG (MxW) is a Swiss public limited company (AG) that develops  electrophysiological platforms (hardware-software-bioassays) for basic research and drug testing on nerve cells. MxW’s aim is to develop In-Cytes, a radically innovative electrophysiology platform to assess neural connectivity for preclinical drug discovery for brain diseases.  The recruitment of an Innovation Associate has a significant impact on the business opportunities of MxW by bringing in lacking expertise for the development of In-Cytes.  It is in the interest of the company to continue the employment after the initial year in order to develop the first prototype of In-Cytes into an industrial end product.

Cutiss AG

CUTISS AG is a Swiss start-up company that develops customized human skin autografts (denovoSkin™) for the treatment of large skin defects like burns and malformations. The recruitment of an Innovation Associate will have significant impact on the development of an automated system for the manufacturing of denovoSkin™ (SkinFactory 2.0), enabling production lines at industrial scale and around the world. Successful market introduction of SkinFactory 2.0 will put CUTISS in the forefront of a new, emerging field of automated production of personalized, bio-engineered tissue, which is expected to change medicine radically.

About Hezelburcht | your grant and innovation partner

Our team consists of ambitious and entrepreneurial specialists with high-quality backgrounds. We provide grant advice for fundamental scientific research and commercial R&D. Our consultants speak the clients’ language and their scientific backgrounds match the clients’ sectors. Their backgrounds range from High Tech Systems and Materials, IT and Sustainability to Chemistry & Biobased Economy and Life Sciences & Health.

Are you interested in the H2020 SME Innovation Associate pilot? Or do you like to receive more information about our services in general? Please do not hesitate to contact us.

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Are you interested in the SME Innovation Associate pilot? Or would you like to receive more information, please do not hesitate to contact us.

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