Fast Track to Innovation (FTI) pilot is testing a new approach to give the development of innovations the last push needed before their introduction to the market. It is the only bottom-up measure in Horizon 2020 promoting close-to-market innovation activities and open to all types of participants.

1. http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/h2020-section/fast-track-innovation-pilot-2015-2016
Claire Skentelbery
Skentelbery & Sons
www.skentelbery.com
claire@skentelbery.com

2. Fast Track to Innovation (FTI) pilot is testing a new approach to give the
development of innovations the last push needed before their
introduction to the market. It is the only bottom-up measure in Horizon
2020 promoting close-to-market innovation activities and open to all
types of participants.
FTI projects must be business-driven and clearly demonstrate a realistic
potential for quick deployment and market take-up of innovations.

3. What it looks like
 Intends to fund last stage close to market
 Increase SMEs and first time participants
 Stimulate private investment
 Proposal starts at TRL 6 (System/subsystem model or prototype
demonstration in a relevant environment)
 3-5 partners (2 SMEs in gp of 3 or 4, 3 SMEs in gp of 5)
 €1-3 million; 70% funded for industry, 100% funded for non-profit.
Minimum 60% budget to industry
 TRL 9 by project end (Actual system proven through successful
mission operations)
 12-24 month projects, max 36
 Maximum time to market 36 months from start of grant

4. Eligible activities
 Validation in end environment
 Pilot phase
 Business model determination
 EU quality level
 Standards setting

5. Deadlines and requirements
 April 29, September 1, December 1
 30 page proposal (Impact, science, implementation)
 Needs to include:
 Market relevance and positioning/IPR position
 Financing requirements
 Return on investment
 Demonstrate that project is significantly beyond the state of the art

6. Evaluation
 4 independent reviewers (commercial & financial expertise)
 No joint discussion
 Aggregation of results
 Thresholds; 12/15 overall and 4/5 for Impact
 Further evaluation on:
 Value of impact
 Size of budget to SMEs
 First time participants
 Industry participants
 Gender balance
 Rapid feedback on below-threshold proposals
 Longer time for proposals being ranked

7. Comments
 Pilot phase will fund 50-70 applications with 100 million in budget
 Likely to be high competition
 Sensible to wait until September to understand proposals selected –
apply to be evaluator
 In life sciences, will get many ‘mid-stage’ technologies
 Need greater differentiation
 A clinical trial will not win any prizes – many proposed elsewhere,
hard to stand out
 Proven delivery of platforms? Late stage diagnostics? Specific
technology with value in market, cross sector?

8. Next steps
 Look into your own business models
 What do you have that would benefit from short, late stage
development?
 70% funding so industry partners need to have interest in exploitation
e.g. large company service provider
 Should be short, sharp and focussed, all major risks already
addressed – risk associated with final validation, scale up,
commercial implementation