Medicen Paris Region, Europe’s leading health cluster, today announces that four SME members have been selected to receive funding from the SME Instrument program. This is an integrated part of Horizon 2020, the European Union’s research and innovation funding program for the period 2014-2020.

Out of the nine French SMEs that were selected for the new SME Instrument formula, only five were elected for funding, including the four Medicen health SMEs. The grants will be provided within the next six months. The program usually finances up to 70% of the project, an amount that varies between €1-3M ($1.2-3.7M) for a period of 12 to 24 months.

Horizon 2020 is provided with €8.6 billion ($10.6bn) for innovative SMEs, SMEs with strong research potential, start-ups and medium-sized enterprises. The SME Instrument program in particular supports SMEs with a high-potential innovation project within the priority themes of Horizon 2020 (industrial leadership and societal challenges) to enable them to rapidly produce and launch their market-ready innovations.
 
The funding program is divided into three phases:

• Phase 1: Proof of concept and feasibility with a lump sum grant of €50,000  ($61.7K) for a 6-month period
• Phase 2: R&D, demonstration of commercial applications with a grant of €1-3M ($1.2-3.7M) for a duration of 12 to 24 months
• Phase 3: Marketing to facilitate access to private financing. No funding but access to opportunities provided and facilitated by financial instrument coaches for SMEs (loans and venture capital)

The four selected projects are:
 

• LiveCODIM: New super-resolution microscope for living cell imaging; duration: 24 months, by Rosalind: Industrialization for the next generation of enzyme-based synthetic DNA; duration: 24 months, by

   “These excellent results show that our healthcare start-ups have talent, potential and are visible at a European level,” said Christian Lajoux, president of Medicen Paris Region. “Throughout the year, we support our members who wish to apply for this type of funding and organize preparation sessions to maximize their chances of success.”
   

  https://ec.europa.eu/easme/en/sme-instrument