“Innovation 2030”: Let’s build the France of tomorrow

The International Innovation Competition—implemented by the Innovation 2030 Commission launched, in turn, by François Hollande, President of the Republic of France, on April 18th, 2013—is currently in its first stage of operations. Proposals are now being accepted from creators, innovators, and entrepreneurs in France and worldwide.

The goal of this competition is to encourage emerging talent and future champions of the French economy by identifying and supporting projects that will be carried out in France and that have the potential to make significant contributions to the economy. The government of France hopes that this initiative will encourage talented individuals the world over to come pursue their projects in France.

The 7 Key Areas of the Competition

As part of the Invest for the Future Programme and with the support of France’s Public Investment Bank, the government of France is dedicating €300 million to co-financing for innovative projects. To be eligible, these projects must absolutely deal with one of the following seven strategic issues:

• 1. energy storage,
• 2. metal recycling / reuse,
• 3. exploitation of marine resources,
• 4. plant proteins and plant chemistry
• 5. individualized medicine,
• 6. the ‘silver economy’: innovation in the service of longevity
• 7. big data

All selected projects will focus on one (or possibly more) of these seven areas.

Competition Schedule

The first stage of the competition is a broad call for projects / business ideas. From this first round, 100 proposals will be selected and will receive up to €200,000 to support the initial stages of their development. The main criteria for selection are: the degree of compliance with one of the seven goals, the level of breakthrough of the innovation (technological or otherwise), the technical and/or scientific feasibility, the potential economic benefits, and the ability of the applicant to successfully carry out the project.

The applications must be submitted (in English or in French) before March 31, 2014 on the competition website (https://extranet.oseo.fr/PSIM-amorcage/ ). An intermediate closing date has been established for January 30, 2014.

The second stage of the competition, the research stage, will open on September 1, 2014. More information will be provided later in the year. This stage is dedicated to providing funding for the ongoing development of roughly thirty promising projects. Selected projects will each receive up to €2 million in funding.

Finally, the development and commercialization stage will begin in 2016. In this stage, one or two of the most promising projects in each of the seven categories will each receive a funding package of up to €20 million to finance their expansion and industrial development.

To Enter the Competition

Any startup or SMB from anywhere around the world is eligible to apply.

 For more information about the competition or to submit your application, please visit: http://www.innovation2030.org/fr/