Session #5 – Deep Tech AEC Funding Opportunities With The European Innovation Council
Speaker
eic.ec.europa.eu
Franc Mouwen is EIC Programme Manager for architecture engineering construction technologies
Franc’s expertise is in technology scouting and venture building for the construction sector of the future. The construction sector faces many tough challenges as well as opportunities in areas such as decarbonization, environmental impact, declining productivity and labor shortages.
After his MSc Mechanical Engineering at TU Delft in the Netherlands, Franc was a project manager responsible for some of the largest and pioneering tunnel boring systems for several major clients in Europe and Asia.
He then boxed his safety helmet and earned a fulltime MBA degree at IMD in Switzerland. Franc has since ventured into climate change mitigation combining technology, innovation and entrepreneurship. He joined and founded several deep technology startups, leveraging his knowhow of and passion for construction.
A “strategic designer” avant la lettre, Franc persistently invests in understanding the state-of-the-science in a wide range of fields, and building bridges to future products, customers and business models, and vice-versa.
Objectives
- Information on new funding activities of EIC in AEC: supporting the entrepreneurial journey and bridging the funding gap between scientific breakthrough and commercial scaling
Session #5 – Deep Tech AEC Funding Opportunities With The European Innovation Council
The European Innovation Council was quite recently set-up as a flagship funding mechanism to support the entrepreneurial journey of deep-tech (i.e. science and technology based) ideas from scientific discovery and proof-of-concept to wider market adoption. EIC activities in core strategic areas are coordinated by 8 Programme Managers. Franc Mouwen joined EIC as „Program Manager AEC“ to shape EIC funding activities in AEC.
In this workshop, Franc will present the EIC and explain the various funding opportunities for scientists and entrepreneurs at various stages of developing their ideas. To illustrate current activities a selection of cases from the EIC portfolio will be shown. Franc will also present the concept and his ideas on targetted „AEC Challenges“ and invites the worksop participants to reflect on these and future AEC Challenges.
In a Q&A potential applicants are encouraged to „elevator pitch“ their idea, and Franc will respond from an EIC perspective. Visionary journeys start with a pitch.
