• Posted 08-Jun-2020

European Commission EU vs Virus Matchathon sets world record: 2235 new partnerships for scaling up 120 innovative projects to tackle coronavirus challenges

Building on the success of the previous EUvsVirus Pan-European Hackathon, a Matchathon to boost the scaling up of creative solutions to coronavirus challenges, took place from 21 to 28 May under the patronage of Commissioner Mariya Gabriel and the European Innovation Council (EIC). It brought together the 120 winning solutions from the Hackathon with over 458 partners including investors, corporates, public authorities, academia and research institutions from 40 countries.

A total of 2235 partnerships were brokered by the European Commission and the multinational team of 600 volunteers who acted as organisers, mentors and matchmakers for the participating projects. These partnerships do not only concern cash contributions and other forms of funding but also business acceleration services, including mentoring, networking, advisory services and access to incubators, inter alia.

Furthermore, all 120 participating teams will be granted access to Business Acceleration Services under the European Innovation Council (EIC).

The goal of the Matchathon was to connect the needs of innovators with the opportunities made available by investors, corporates, public authorities (including hospitals and other contracting authorities), academia and research institutions. Throughout the 7-day Matchathon, teams were able to pitch their solutions before ‘partners’ (investors, corporates and other public and private entities) in order to secure funding and other forms of support. The foremost objective was to enable the scale up and commercialisation of innovative solutions tackling Covid-19 related challenges and contributing to the European and global recovery in the aftermath of the pandemic.

Over 1500 meetings between teams and partners were convened in the weekend of 22 to 25 May, with additional ‘one-to-one’ mentoring and coaching sessions between participating teams and volunteers mentors and coaches taking place in the run-up to the Matchathon and the Demo Day organised on 21 May. A further 200 ‘speed dating’ meetings were organised between 25 and 28 May.

All #EUvsVirus Matchathon projects will be offered to join the EIC Covid-19 platform, a collaborative space based on relevant Covid-19 ‘challenges’. The EIC Covid-19 platform will allow teams to showcase their solutions to these ‘challenges’ to public and private procurers and local/regional/national organisations and agencies, in order to attract additional support and funding.

Source: European Commission Research and Innovation News (https://bit.ly/2AfYPIR)