Large industry and EU funded projects are a particular combination. The EU Commission is eager to get them involved in especially Horizon Europe Pillar II projects because of potential big effect that their participation has on impact of the rolling out project results post-project. However, from the face of it large industry rarely needs to funding – they can just pay for the research and innovation and choose the partners they want onboard. And they don’t have to share the results with anybody…

However, it is more complex than that. Because the kind of network and collaboration partners that EU projects offers is hard to find for them elsewhere. And the content of the research and innovation investigations also offers elements that gives incentives for large industry to join. Getting in contact with a large industry partner and then getting them involved in a proposal process can be difficult. Entries are not obvious, decision processes takes time and added value for their product strategy is vital for them in order to join a publicly funded project. Large industry is also difficult to get into a podcast! But I managed to get Agnes Zoller, Founder and CEO of InnoGrant Advisors, onboard who has just recently been working for a large chemical company with the responsibility to get them involved in EU-funded projects.

This episode offers great insights into why EU projects can be important to large industry, what motivates them, what added value it offers them and, of course not least, how to attract them into your proposal.