Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• Enhanced development of deep tech^[1] ecosystems around pan-European research and technology infrastructures to generate, scale and deploy breakthrough technologies with market and social value;
• Increased involvement of industry, including SMEs, with research and technology infrastructures to raise the technology level and competitiveness of companies and generate market opportunities, including through the generation of start-up or spin-off companies;
• Improved valorisation of the socio-economic impact of past investments in pan-European research and technology infrastructures from the European Structural and Investment Funds.

Target group(s): Pan-European research and technology infrastructures, industry including small and medium enterprises, clusters, universities, RTOs, business schools, national / regional innovation funding agencies.

Pan-European research and technology infrastructures, as providers of advanced services and procurers of cutting-edge technologies, have an innovation potential related to the development of components, instruments, services and knowledge that could be better exploited to push the edge of existing technologies and lead to their deployment for socially useful or market-oriented purposes. The aim of the action is to explore how to fully utilise and build on the experience and knowledge of existing or previous relevant initiatives ^[2]at pan-European and, where appropriate national or sub-national level, that have exploited the ecosystem-building potential of interactions with industry during the construction, operation and upgrading of research infrastructures. The proposal should pilot the possibility to seed the development of innovation ecosystems around diverse technological areas related to pan-European research and technology infrastructures by providing grants to pilot projects in three to five different technological areas.

The proposals should:

• identify deep tech opportunities related to pan-European research infrastructures with breakthrough potential;
• assess the feasibility and scalability of the identified opportunities;
• suggest a selection and clustering of those opportunities and nascent ecosystems that demonstrate sufficient maturity to provide a clear potential for industrial implementation;
• identify those opportunities with strongest potential towards industrial application with societal or market value;
• run and evaluate calls to provide grant funding to pilot projects in the identified technological areas;
• assess the outcome of the pilot grants.

[1] Deep tech is technology that is based on cutting-edge scientific advances and discoveries and is characterised by the need to stay at the technological forefront by constant interaction with new ideas and results from the lab. Deep tech is distinct from ‘high tech’ which tends to refer only to Research & Development intensity.

[2] For example Horizon 2020 Grant agreement ID: 777222