DIVA wins Les étoiles de l’Europe prize for supporting agri food innovation

The DIVA project, funded under the Horizon 2020 INNOSUP-1 action and coordinated by Agri Sud-Ouest Innovation, has been awarded the French Ministry of Research Trophy "Les étoiles de l’Europe." The prize was presented during a Horizon Europe forum in Paris and recognises teams that have distinguished themselves through successful European projects and active engagement with EU funding instruments.

What DIVA delivered

How DIVA worked and where the money went

DIVA operated under the INNOSUP-1 strand of Horizon 2020 which encouraged cross-sectoral cluster partnerships to channel relatively small amounts of EU cascade funding down to SMEs. Cascade funding means an intermediary organisation or consortium receives the programme grant and then distributes smaller sub-grants to multiple SMEs or teams. The rationale is to reach many SMEs quickly and to trigger new value chains by combining complementary competences.

With a total grant of €2.7 million and 134 sub-projects supported, DIVA’s average EU grant per project was roughly €20,000. If spread across the 180 SMEs that participated the average EU support per organisation is closer to €15,000. Those figures are typical for cascade funded programmes which prioritise breadth over large single investments.

Outputs and the limits of headline metrics

The project reports 124 new products or services and 10 patents across the cohort of supported projects. Those outputs signal activity and invention. They do not on their own prove durable market impact, scale up, or revenue generation. Patents are a narrow proxy for innovation and do not guarantee commercial success. Similarly, a newly developed product reported at project completion may still require sustained investment and market validation to reach customers.

Given the scale of the sub-grants, many supported innovations will need additional financing and business development support to move from prototype or early deployment to market scale. This is a structural challenge in European innovation policy where many instruments support discovery and proof of concept but fewer provide follow on risk capital and market introduction at scale.

Recognition and visibility

Agri Sud-Ouest Innovation, the coordinator, received the "Les étoiles de l’Europe" Trophy from the French Ministry of Research. The prize is intended to reward teams' European engagement and to encourage other researchers and organisations to apply for European funding. Such national recognition can help intermediaries and clusters attract partners and public backing, especially in sectoral areas like agriculture and agri-food where regional ecosystems matter.

Broader policy context and next steps

INNOSUP-1 was one strand of Horizon 2020 designed to promote cluster partnerships and SME innovation. Its legacy continues within the European Innovation Ecosystems actions under Horizon Europe and is administered through agencies such as EISMEA. The European Commission and its executive agencies are combining grant support, coaching and networking to bridge gaps in Europe’s innovation pipeline. Recent initiatives under Horizon Europe include actions to better connect regional innovation valleys, to promote scale up hubs, and to mobilise blended finance for deep tech companies.

Implications for SMEs, funders and policy makers

DIVA’s results underscore that cascade funding can generate many experiments and attract some private investment. For policy makers the question is how to convert early successes into sustainable companies and value chains. That requires better linkages between cascade schemes and instruments that support scale up, such as equity co investment, public procurement of innovation, regulatory sandboxes and cluster to market programmes.

For SMEs and start ups looking for support in agri and agri food innovation the practical takeaway is to use cascade grants to validate technical and business ideas, to secure proofs of concept and to build networks. At the same time teams should plan how to access follow on financing and business support if the idea proves viable.

Practical next steps and where to look for funding

Organisations that benefited from DIVA or similar INNOSUP cascade calls should track funding opportunities under the European Innovation Ecosystems actions, the European Innovation Council services, national recovery and resilience grants and regional funds that are aligning with innovation priorities. Agencies and intermediaries can also advise on EIC coaching, seal of excellence signposting and on how to present investment cases to co investors.

Conclusion

DIVA’s award is deserved recognition for a coordinator and a set of intermediaries that managed to channel EU cascade funding to a large number of SME projects in the agri and agri food domain. The project produced measurable outputs and attracted follow on private investment. The challenge ahead for the community is to translate these early outcomes into durable businesses and resilient value chains. That will require careful alignment of small grant schemes with scale up instruments and patient capital.