European research institutions are excellent in conducting research, however, they tend to lose momentum when it comes to transforming research results into innovations and market opportunities. This is why the EIC has a team of experts with a track record in science, innovation strategy and management, the Programme Managers. The PMs pro-actively manage the portfolios of EIC-funded projects to support them in their push for technological and innovation breakthroughs. They identify possibilities for linking early research with emerging or existing market opportunities by fostering the translation from research results to innovation and commercialization. The specific portfolio objectives and activities agreed between individual portfolio projects to be carried out to reach these objectives, are incorporated in the Strategic Plan for each of the EIC Pathfinder Challenge Portfolios. Five of these plans are presented here.
The Plans include portfolio activities at different levels such as, technology, transition of technology to innovation, communication and disseminations, and ethics issues. The Plans may also include activities that contribute to understand better/improve the current regulatory framework, market analysis mappings, discussions on IP management and training activities which would be beneficial to all the projects of the portfolio. The Plans are created based on collaborations agreed between individual portfolio projects. The PMs working together with the Portfolio Steering Committees are responsible for the overall design and development of the Plan.