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Wednesday 22 June 2022 - Ministers and their representatives, hosted by Portuguese Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education Elvira Fortunato, gathered in Estoril for the Eureka XXVIII Ministerial Conference.

Together, they stressed the importance of Eureka in the global research, development and innovation landscape and recognised its unique role in supporting the development of ground-breaking innovations that are boosting world economies, creating jobs and have real positive societal impact.

Ministers and their representatives reaffirmed their commitment and national support to continue and further the development of Eureka.

Of particular note, Canada and South Korea became full members of Eureka. Chile was reassociated to the network.

The European Partnership on Innovative SMEs, the biggest SME-focused action in the European innovation ecosystems under the EU’s Horizon Europe, was launched by Minister Fortunato and Commission Research and Innovation Director-General Paquet.

Read the full Ministerial Conference communiqué here.

It is commonly known that a broken spine (= paraplegia) will cause loss of some if not all motor functions, due to damage of the bone marrow. In many cases it will paralyse a patient. In the US and EU alone over 480.000 people are bound to wheelchairs, due to their spinal injuries and each year, around 24.000 more people join this list.

In 2021, we launched a series of online sessions held by major corporates as part of our investment readiness programme. Agbar, a multinational water technologies company participated, setting challenges for startups and SMEs. Carlos Montero, Chief Technology Officer at Agbar, told us how the sessions helped Agbar find Dutch infrastructure pioneer, Cittamap.

In 2021, we launched a series of online sessions held by major corporates as part of our investment readiness programme. Enel, a multinational energy company participated, setting challenges for energy sector startups and SMEs. Fernando Sandoval, Manager of Enel’s European Innovation Hub (Hub Europe) since 2017, spoke to us about how the sessions resulted in conversations leading towards a potential partnership with Swiss engineering company, DAES.

A horticulturalist and computer scientist may seem like an unlikely duo, but Green City Solutions’ cofounders, Peter Sänger and Liang Wu, have been driven by a shared goal to create a biotech air filter that reduces air pollution. We learned about their growth together from studying at university to successfully marketing their CityTree and CityBreeze products, which combine dust and carbon dioxide-absorbing moss with internet of things (IoT) technology, creating fresh air zones in many European cities.

Even small quantities of moss can absorb large amounts of harmful dust particles and greenhouse gases, so German Bestensee-based company Green City Solutions are harnessing the power of moss in their internet of things (IoT) CityTree and CityBreeze biotech products to target the most polluted parts of urban areas.

Consumers want all year-round healthy and sustainable fruit and vegetables wherever they live. The pressures are enormous on hard-grafting farmers but Spanish agro technology company Hispatec is showing how agriculture 4.0 can support them to boost productivity and keep environmentally conscious customers happy even thousands of miles away.

This summer has been all about football. Spectators have just about recovered from the nail-biting European Championship final after Italy took the top spot from the England squad on home turf (to the dismay of 60,000 fans baying in the wings).

Now, with football on the brain, we meet Nikolaj Thomassen, founder of the Danish company, Next11 Technologies, which has developed a novel smart football tracking system for individual and team training. It is ready to be launched to the mass market this month.

Will the arrival of Norwegian Brit Helle as Head of the Eureka Secretariat in Brussels herald a second renaissance for the world’s biggest public network for R&D and innovation? 

Home to world-class innovations like the Supertree Grove in the Gardens by the Bay, one of the most iconic green city concepts of the past decade, Singapore is excelling in research, development and innovation. Each Supertree houses a diverse combination of plants and integrated cooling systems and solar panels that mean the structures have a surprisingly positive environmental impact. And just like the Supertrees, the small city state of Singapore is packed with a thriving R&D and innovation ecosystem of its own.

The Eureka network and an engaged and energetic team at the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) overcame COVID-19-imposed obstacles to secure Eureka a place in the European Innovation Area.

Security breaches to internet of things (IoT) devices pose a major risk. Now, a new system uses artificial intelligence (AI) to secure IoT networks and alert users of threats. Luxembourg-based company HITEC Luxembourg S.A. and their R&D project partners are developing this security for a range of IoT applications.

Dr. Jama Nateqi is one of the dynamos behind Symptoma: a world-leading artificial intelligence (AI) symptom checker with a +95% accuracy rate for over 20,000 diseases. We spoke to him to find out how he succeeded in realising a lifelong ambition to reduce misdiagnoses where so many other companies have failed.

Countries in the Eureka network and NEDO announce nine new projects to support businesses to work together internationally on new technologies.

Misdiagnosis could become a thing of the past. With advanced artificial intelligence (AI), 15 years of medical research and perseverance, Symptoma, a world-leading accurate online symptom checker, is reducing one of medicine’s biggest blind spots. One in seven diagnoses are incorrect and eliminating this problem could save 1.5 million lives every year.

New relationship will offer opportunities for SMEs to establish partnerships with corporate venturing teams, in cooperation with the EU-funded InvestHorizon programme.