EIC Programme Managers are responsible for developing visions for technological and innovation breakthroughs, the active management of portfolios of EIC funded projects to support these visions, and bringing together stakeholders to put these visions into reality. This means the Programme Managers (PMs) have two overarching priorities:

- Identify potential challenges for emerging technologies and disruptive innovations stakeholder / expert engagement and strategic intelligence. The latter includes trends on research, technology and investments as well as analysis of existing portfolios.

Once challenges are endorsed, the PMs creates awareness among potential applicants through workshop, Info Days, publications and engagement with national contact points. For Pathfinder Challenge calls, PMs play a key role to select together with external evaluators the best set of projects to form a portfolio with common elements for them to collaborate. PMs also participate as active observers in relevant juries for Transition and Accelerator calls selection, to provide specific technical knowledge.

- Pro-active management of selected portfolios and projects. For Pathfinder challenges, the PM develops with the portfolio projects a common roadmap with activities that benefit all, such as data sharing, market analysis and contacts with investors  For Accelerator and Transition calls, and Pathfinder open, PMs may draw relevant projects into portfolio discussions, as well as broker opportunities to accelerate pathways to market, for instance through access to Business Advisory Services, investors and partners as well as additional funding through “booster” grants.

As such, Programme Managers are key figures in this new management approach proposed by the EIC. They are appointed full-time for a period of up to four years within the EIC and must have deep expertise in their field, experience managing multidisciplinary teams, and strong abilities to communicate and influence. Programme Managers come from varied backgrounds, including companies, universities, national laboratories, non-profit and federally funded research centres.

The Commission created an Expert Group to provide advice and assistance on the development of pro-active programme management in the EIC pilot phase (2018-2020). Read more about the expert group.

To support breakthrough innovations, the EIC must itself be an organisational breakthrough in Europe.

Mission: Programme creation, Active Portfolio Management and Transition Activities

The goal of the European Innovation Council (EIC), enshrined in the Horizon Europe 2021–2027 programme, is to position Europe firmly at the forefront of the next wave of breakthrough innovation. (…)To achieve its goal, we believe that the EIC should become a hands-on innovation agency. In our view, to create the EIC way in the European landscape for supporting breakthrough innovation, the main components are centered on the creation of challenge- and thematic-driven programmes, active portfolio management of funded projects, transition activities that bring new solutions to the market and EIC PMs who bind all of this together into complementary practices.

Find out more on their recommendations in the Report: Implementing the pro-active management of the EIC Pathfinder for breakthrough technologies & innovations - Lessons from the ARPA model & other international practices