Project of the Month: Financing projects that benefit science and society

The EU-funded ATTRACT2 project has used public funding to lower the inherent risk that breakthrough technologies and innovations bear as they mature on their way to reaching the market. In such a low-risk setting, they become more attractive to private funders.

ATTRACT2 has succeeded in getting private investment to help commercialise new products and services for society. With investments totalling EUR 28 million, it will finance 36 projects from over 20 countries. Overall, the goal is to develop breakthrough detection and imaging technologies for both scientific and commercial use. These are proven and promising concepts that demonstrate a strong potential for scientific, industrial and societal applications.“Incremental innovation will not be sufficient for addressing the upcoming societal challenges in the next decades,” states Pablo Garcia Tello, project coordinator and leader of the Development of EU Projects and Initiatives section at the European Organization for Nuclear Research. “The ATTRACT project and methodology aim to accelerate the market uptake of breakthrough innovation.”

The proof of concept pool consisted of 68 proposals. Of these, 18 research, development and innovation (R&D&I) projects were selected. Each has received between EUR 500 000 and EUR 2 million each, depending on the maturity of the technology. An additional 18 projects and socioeconomic studies will capitalise on the EUR 28 million.

An open call will manage programmes so that university students can come up with ideas for social innovation based on the technologies developed within the R&D&I projects. Each student programme has received between EUR 80 000 and EUR 240 000. Under another call, eight projects have received EUR 125 000 to perform innovative studies aimed at assessing the current working methods of ATTRACT2 and other European research infrastructures and innovation ecosystems. They will also evaluate their impact on society.

Ending in January 2025, the ATTRACT2 (Breakthrough Innovation Programme for a Pan-European Detection and Imaging Eco-System – Phase-2) project will ultimately develop tomorrow’s scientific tools, co-create business and market products, boost the competitiveness of European companies, and generate more and better jobs for EU citizens.

If you are interested in having your project featured as a ‘Project of the Month’ in an upcoming issue, please send us an email to editorial@cordis.europa.eu and tell us why!