Cryptographic technologies and encrypted channel communications have become a standard security pre-requisite among government and industry protocols, schemes and infrastructure. Practical quantum computing, when available to cyber adversaries, will break the security of nearly all modern public-key cryptographic systems. Practical quantum computing, when available to cyber adversaries, will break the security of nearly all modern public-key cryptographic systems. Consequently, all secret symmetric keys and private asymmetric keys that are now protected using current public-key algorithms, as well as the information protected under those keys, will be subject to exposure. This includes all recorded communications and other stored information protected by those public-key algorithms, the so-called Harvest Now Decrypt Later (HNDL) paradigm. Any information still considered to be private or otherwise sensitive will be vulnerable to exposure and undetected modification. Once exploitation of Shor’s algorithm becomes practical, protecting stored keys and data will require re-encrypting them with a quantum-resistant algorithm and deleting or physically securing “old” copies (e.g., backups). Integrity and sources of information will become unreliable unless they are processed or encapsulated (e.g., re-signed or timestamped) using a mechanism that is not vulnerable to quantum computing-based attacks. PQ-NEXT will focus on developing a comprehensive framework to facilitate the seamless transition to post-quantum cryptographic standards. This includes creating a catalog of PQC algorithms, maintenance tools, and a quantum programming language with advanced features like high-performance simulation and hybrid quantum-classical optimization, ensuring crypto-agility and security against quantum threats for large-scale pilots, targeting the financial, critical infrastructure, digital identities and telco industries.

BOOST Project aims to ease the access of EIC Awardees (mainly EIC Pathfinder and EIC Transition projects as well as related third parties) to the EIC Booster Grants. BOOST Project will distribute EIC Booster Grants (lump-sum grants to finance innovation and portfolio activities) to at least 100 invited EIC Awardees. The Booster grant projects will receive up to €50,000 following a first-come, first-served schema. BOOST Project will also provide the EIC and EISMEA with data relevant to assessing the impact of such support. BOOST Project will do this by guaranteeing efficient and EC-rules compliant governance, adequate integration of EIC Booster grants within the EIC community support and EIC/EISMEA portfolio management activities, and gathering operative and impact data that will support evidence-based decision-making by the EIC and EISMEA. To ensure effective task execution and maximize available resources, BOOST Project utilizes a compact and agile consortium. This allows up to 83% of the total budget to be allocated to EIC awardees. The consortium includes SPL, entity specialised in cascade funding, as Call for proposals manager, MWCB, especialised in tech transfer, as Booster grant projects manager, EurA PT as monitoring and impact manager, all of them coordinated by FBA as Project Coordinator and FSTP Manager. This streamlined consortium will rely on a high-quality, curated database of over 820 experts (who regularly collaborate with the partners) to support the evaluation and assessment of Booster grant projects. All this ensuring a seamless connection with EIC procedures and practices, as all partners are actively involved in EIC projects.

PhotonQBoost is committed to empowering European SMEs to achieve sustainability, resilience, and global competitiveness by harnessing the transformative potential of Photonics and Quantum solutions. Recognizing, firstly, the challenges SMEs face in accessing and integrating these advanced technologies due to limited awareness and resource constraints, and, secondly, the potential that technology deployment represents to boost the sustainability and competitiveness of European industry, PhotonQBoost aims to serve as a gateway for European SMEs to match their sustainability and resilience challenges with the solutions offered by Photonics and Quantum technologies. This will be done through a comprehensive pipeline of services, comprising advisory-driven innovation support, technology support and sustainability transition activities, complemented by piloting-driven projects funded under three FSTP open calls. More than €3,6 million will be spent on direct support services to the 600 SMEs that will be onboarded into PhotonQBoost service pipeline. These SMEs will achieve improved KPIs in terms of resource consumption, enhanced productivity and derisked supply chain disruptions. The initiative is also dedicated to fostering cross-fertilization across countries and ecosystems, through matchmaking activities and delegation visits, thereby facilitating market access for SMEs and bridging gaps in knowledge, networks and infrastructure. PhotonQBoost is a strong alliance of seven experienced European Photonics and Quantum clusters, four specialised consultancies and two Research and Technology Organisations, spread across nine EU Member States, that gathers a broad array of competencies. Altogether, PhotonQBoost members will help to consolidate an EU-wide Photonics and Quantum technological innovation ecosystem, ultimately contributing to Europe’s global leadership in both fields and to securing its strategic autonomy in critical technologies.

Entrepreneurship is crucial for economic growth and societal progress, yet women remain underrepresented in the field, accounting for less than a third of entrepreneurs in EU. This under-representation not only highlights inequality but also limits EU's potential to tackle pressing challenges, such as the digital, green, resilience transition, and recovery from the pandemic. Deep tech sectors are even less balanced, and investment for women-led companies remains less than 2% of the total To address this gender gap, Women TechEU will bridge collaboration between the European Commission and pan-European deep tech women-led startups to create a more gender-balanced entrepreneurship ecosystem. Built on the exisisting foundations of the EIC Women TechEU initiative, our consortium will scale this iniatiative with a clear perspective towards long-term sustainability We will invest 12M€ in equity-free grants to 160 women-led deep tech companies and additional support services in a programme enhancing current EIC BAS to which we will link The consortium is comprised by partners covering all the expertise and geographies needed to reach over 15000 women entrepreneurs in deep tech from all over Europe. Led by EIT Manufacturing, it is strengthened with the participation of other KICs from EIT like Health, Food and Climate, leveraging the power of their network and landmark events. We also count with the expertise from Sploro in cascade funding programmes. Across Limits will guide the communication and dissemination activities as well as link in the service delivery with Awaken Hub, who will coordinate an effort to evaluate over 1500 experts in 4 different open calls. The consortium is complemented by major networks of investors and women entrepreneurs like EBAN, AFAEMME, or FI Values and purpose driven we will search for sustainability and major impact of the initiative during the project and beyond even proposing a PPP structure to further exploit the project results.

A recent study indicates that women raise funding receive significantly less—a disparity that averages more than $1 million—than men. Corporates are different players compared to Venture Capital firms. Even their investment arms, CVCs do have a different approach to the investment policies. Specifically targeting women-led companies to collaborate with corporates under a “paid-pilot” scheme that can really take women-led startups and corporate collaboration to the next level. Open Horizons proposes a novel approach towards covering the women-led companies funding and corporate network gap, by creating a full programme, from scratch, that relies in the work done by other initiatives (Women TechEU or Empowomen) The consortium aims to invest 1.2M€ in startups and is comprised by an experienced consortium of partners as PEDAL (Reputed consultancy in EU projects also specialised in public procurement), SPLORO (experts on cascade funding) and INNOVX (EIC Partner and leading Accelerator). Corporates are also linked to the proposal as partners like Migros (retail) or associated partners like Siemens Industry Software, Repsol (energy) and Stahl (Manufacturing) and planning to expand up to 10. The project’s structured approach includes identifying and formulating corporate challenges, inclusive talent scouting across Europe, and facilitating the funding and implementation of pilot projects within real-world corporate settings. Post-pilot, the programme focuses on expanding growth opportunities for startups by connecting them with investment channels and helping negotiate commercial agreements for long-term collaborations. This comprehensive strategy not only provides a platform for women-led startups to showcase their innovations within major corporations but also integrates them into a broader corporate and innovation ecosystem, ensuring sustained growth and significant market presence.