Pilot version of the European Innovation Council will receive a €300 million boost to its budget, to help it start investing in small businesses.
The European Commission scaled up its campaign to create a new way to fund innovation in Europe, promising a €300 million budget boost to help a planned funding agency start buying shares in small European technology companies as early as this year.
The initiative, to form a European Innovation Council, aims to create more world-scale tech companies in Europe with a budget that will eventually top €1.5 billion a year. It aims to seed “disruptive” innovations – in virtual reality, self-driving cars, new materials and other fields that can make Europe more competitive.
