A new EU financial instrument and advisory service has just been launched to help firms to access finance more easily. The agreement was just signed by European research, innovation and science commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn on behalf of the EU in Greece.
The goal, over the next seven years, is for InnovFin – EU Finance for Innovators products to make available more than €24bn of financing for research and innovation (R&I).
As Enterprise Ireland CEO Julie Sinnamon said, “Enterprise Ireland welcomes the introduction of the InnovFin financial instruments and associated advisory services. These instruments will complement existing research and innovation funding sources and will provide much needed additional access to finance for innovative Irish SMEs. We now want the Irish banking sector to embrace these new instruments as they will de-risk lending propositions for Irish companies that want to fund R&D in order to gain a competitive edge. This activity is central to boosting employment and growth in Ireland’s economy.”
Geoghegan-Quinn added: “Financial instruments provide an innovative way of investing in growth enhancing companies and activities. The EU lags behind its global competitors in terms of business investment in innovation, so we must encourage banks to lend to these projects and help research-intensive companies get access to this finance. This will help us reach our EU target to invest 3pc of GDP in R&D by 2020.”
