Overview
The European Innovation Council (EIC), through its Corporate Partnership Programme, stimulates the collaboration between the innovative companies it funds and large firms. The goal is to drive European innovation and support structured partnerships and business deals between EIC startups, EIC scaleups and the largest corporations in Europe.
Developed by the EIC since 2017, the Corporate Partnership Programme has enabled EIC companies to expand their networks and engage with key decision-makers from top European firms.
From 2017 to 2024, the Corporate Partnership Programme organised 72 Corporate Days and Multi-Corporate Days, facilitating 2,493 one-to-one meetings and 92 successful business deals between large European corporations and EIC-backed innovative companies. These initiatives have involved over 100 corporate partners, including Galp, Vattenfall, Holcim, ABB, Airbus, BMW, CaixaBank, CommerzBank, Enel, Ferrovial, L’Oreal , Medtronic, Neste, Novo Nordisk, Roche, Saint-Gobain, Shell, Siemens Energy, Solvay or Telefonica, among others.
During this period, the Corporate and Multi-Corporate Days’ participant pool comprised 1,521 EIC-company representatives and 3,684 corporate representatives, totaling 5,205 attendees and leading to significant business impacts, follow-ups, and deals, often within six months. Additionally, between 2025 and 2026, more than 25 further activities are planned, further expanding opportunities for collaboration between EIC-backed companies and leading European corporates.
What we offer
The European Innovation Council, which is about to organize an additional 31 activities between 2024 and 2026, is open for new collaborations with the largest and most innovative corporations in Europe.
Corporations will have the opportunity to:
- Gain access to a pipeline of over 6,000 pre-selected and EU-funded SMEs in Europe, covering all verticals including health, energy, green, digital, and deep tech: discover.dealflow.eu/EIC/portfolio.
- Present their challenges and select EIC companies to do business with.
There are three different activity formats for the European Corporate Partnership Programme:
- EIC Corporate Days: Exclusive curated business acceleration service bridging the gap between EIC-funded innovators and large firms.
- EIC Multi Corporate Days: Corporate Day that involves several corporations focusing on sector-specific challenges and opportunities.
- Corporate Clients Capitalization: Business acceleration service where the corporations act as intermediaries, facilitating the access for EIC beneficiaries to their commercial networks.
We are looking for large corporations with open innovation spirit, interested in integrating innovations coming from startups and scaleups directly into their business offering.
Want to learn more and discover all opportunities? Dive deeper into our programme with our video playlist:
Criteria for the EIC Corporate Partnership Programme
In order to reach the highest impact for EIC awardees, the EIC looks specifically for:
Size and reach:
- Largest corporations in Europe (cumulative criteria):
- More than 1bn EUR turnover.
- More than 1000 employees worldwide.
- Presence in at least 10 EU27 Member States.
- Investment in startups-scaleups.
Alignment with EIC Portfolio:
- Focus on the EIC portfolio needs. Main topics: Health and Biotech, Energy and Sustainability, and Digital and ICT.
Innovation and investment:
- Corporate investment and experience in “Open innovation” and Corporate Venture Capital (CVC).
Before embarking on a collaboration, we ask corporations to agree with the EIC Corporate Partnership Programme Declaration of intent.
Please, watch the video EIC Corporate Partnership Programme-What’s in it for you? to have better understanding of what the programme is and how it can help your business.
Our next activities
- 9-10 April 2025EIC Multi-Corporate Day with OMV Petrom, Romgaz, Confind, and Bonatti
Bucharest, Romania.
- First week of June 2025EIC Multi Corporate Day Ferrovial, Vinci, Sacyr, Acciona
Madrid, Spain.
- 25-26 JuneEIC Corporate Day with ABB
Bergamo, Italy.
Get in touch
If you have any questions, please contact us through the EIC Community’s contact page with the subject 'EIC Corporate Partnership Programme'.