EIC and ERC first joint workshop on cell and gene therapy

On 29 June 2021 the European Innovation Council (EIC) and the European Research Council (ERC) ran their first joint thematic workshop, focused on cell and gene therapy. The meeting brought together ERC grantees working at the frontier of relevant science, principal investigators involved in EIC projects, EIC Board members and ERC Scientific Council representatives. The purpose was stated as exploring emerging scientific trends and the practical routes by which breakthroughs at the bench could be moved toward clinical development and market implementation.

Why the EIC and the ERC ran this workshop

The event was explicitly framed as an attempt to reduce the gap between frontier, curiosity-driven research financed by the ERC and innovation and scaleup support offered by the EIC. Organisers argued that targeted, coordinated action could help convert EU excellence in fundamental research into competitive technology, companies and health benefits. That framing reflects a widely acknowledged tension in European research and innovation policy: excellent science is necessary but not sufficient for market impact. The workshop was also used to highlight EIC instruments that are intended to support the pathway from idea through demonstration to scaling.

Event outputs — recordings, slides and statements

Recordings of the panels and presentations are available and the organisers have posted the slide decks used by presenters. The programme included plenaries and panels spanning fundamental and translational topics from extracellular vesicles to organoids, genome editing scaffolds and manufacturing platforms. Several senior figures made public statements that were circulated with the event materials.

Selected statements appearing with the workshop materials:

Jean - Pierre Bourguignon, ERC president ad interim, stressed the importance of curiosity driven research in producing future innovation and said the EIC and ERC should join efforts to bridge the gap between frontier research and market translation.

Mark Ferguson, President of the EIC Board, emphasised the EIC’s role supporting transformative technologies and the need to build a continuum of instruments so excellent science can translate into impactful applications.

Iordanis Arzimanoglou, EIC programme manager for health and biotechnology, provided a reflective statement after the workshop noting the strong scientific base in Europe and the recurring obstacles—particularly lack of risk capital and gaps in the ecosystem that he said the EIC should help address.

Presentations — who spoke and on what

The workshop featured a broad set of technical talks. Below is a curated list of slide decks and presenters that were made available after the event. These reflect the range of technical approaches discussed and provide primary sources for those wanting to dig into the science and engineering presented at the event.

All slide decks are downloadable from the EIC pages. The set of talks intentionally ranged from discovery science to practical platform technologies and manufacturing, reflecting the EIC and ERC intention to examine both scientific trajectories and translation barriers.

Technical themes and pragmatic challenges surfaced at the meeting

The technical talks covered many approaches. Below are concise explanations of the most repeatedly discussed concepts. These inlinetitle/inlineparagraph pairs are intended to clarify the terminology used across the presentations and to connect the science with translation challenges.

Across the talks the technical optimism about capability advances was tempered by repeated, practical caveats: manufacturing and quality control at clinical and commercial scales, immune responses to vectors, standardisation and qualification of in vitro models, the difficulty of moving from promising small-scale results to robust clinical grade processes, and the complexity and cost of regulated pathways to patients.

Policy, funding instruments and where these activities sit in the EU innovation architecture

The workshop was also a platform to connect detailed technical themes with the mechanics of EU research and innovation funding. Key funders and instruments were discussed and the EIC used the event to highlight its instruments and associated eligibility rules and evaluation approach.

Below are practical numbers, deadlines and summary selection arrangements pulled from the EIC Work Programme and the call materials published for 2021. These are important for applicants but also indicate how the Commission intends to allocate resources across different stages of translation.

The EIC also launched a dedicated Pathfinder Challenge on emerging technologies in cell and gene therapy. Challenge calls are intended to form managed portfolios of projects that together target specific strategic outcomes and are overseen by EIC Programme Managers charged with active portfolio management.

Selection and evaluation — how proposals are assessed

The EIC uses tailored evaluation approaches for each instrument. The following summaries come from the 2021 EIC Work Programme and the related call documentation. Applicants should always consult the relevant call text for the final rules and thresholds.

Pathfinder evaluation (open and challenge)

Pathfinder proposals are peer assessed by external experts and through an evaluation committee. The three evaluation criteria and thresholds used in 2021 were:

Successful Pathfinder Challenge proposals are also selected in the context of building a coherent portfolio, so the evaluation committee considers not only scores but also how proposals contribute to the Challenge’s strategic objectives.

Transition evaluation

Transition proposals (which must build on eligible Pathfinder, FET or ERC PoC results) are assessed in two phases: an initial remote expert evaluation and, for top-ranked applicants, a face to face interview with an EIC jury that applies a GO / NO-GO decision. Criteria and thresholds used in 2021 included technological breakthrough, business and market fit, team and milestones, with thresholds of roughly 4/5 for the principal criteria.

Accelerator evaluation

The Accelerator uses a short-application screening followed by full applications for successful short applicants. Full applications are remotely evaluated; those passing are invited to face to face jury interviews. For Accelerator selection the jury makes a GO / NO-GO recommendation. The Accelerator criteria mix technology and market assessment, team and investment risk. Important features are:

The Accelerator offers tailored coaching and an AI-based IT platform to help applicants prepare full proposals and to support investor matchmaking.

EIC Fund and blended finance — practical notes and caveats

The EIC Fund handles the investment component of Accelerator blended finance and is responsible for negotiating investment terms after an initial GO decision. In 2021 EIC material stated leverage objectives for Fund investments and claimed the Fund helps attract additional private capital into supported companies. Investment decisions require due diligence and Board approval at the Fund and the Commission retains oversight. Applicants should note several practical points raised in the workshop and documents:

Negotiations and due diligence can extend the timeline. Grant agreements for the grant component may be signed earlier while investment terms are negotiated in parallel. The EIC Fund seeks to crowd in follow-on investors but applicants should not treat the EIC decision as a guaranteed or immediate financing line without understanding the commercial due diligence that follows.

ERC Proof of Concept, ethics and review

The ERC Proof of Concept (PoC) grant is a separate mechanism for ERC grantees to investigate commercial or societal potential of ERC-funded projects. Important features:

Practical items applicants repeatedly asked about

Workshop materials and EIC documentation clarify procedural items that commonly concern applicants. Below are practical details pulled from the 2021 documents:

Data protection, third party processors and retention

The EIC and the Executive Agency responsible for implementation (EISMEA) publish specific data protection notices for the Accelerator. Key operational points that applicants should note:

What the workshop highlighted about the translational gap — a pragmatic critique

The EIC-ERC workshop models a sensible policy approach: match frontier discovery and innovation funding, surface cross-cutting technical bottlenecks and create managed portfolios to align research with later-stage development. The scientific talks showed Europe has deep competence across multiple approaches. But the meeting also made clear that funding alone will not automatically deliver broad clinical or commercial rollout. Practical obstacles repeatedly surfaced:

1) Manufacturing and scale. Several speakers warned that many technologies are promising at small scale but face a step change in complexity, expense and regulatory burden when moved to GMP manufacturing and clinical supply. This is not just money, it is process control, quality systems and trained workforce.

2) Regulatory and evidentiary expectations. Translational plans require early conversations with regulators and realistic timeframes for safety, immunogenicity and long-term follow up. For some modalities, the regulatory path is still evolving.

3) Ecosystem and capital. Multiple presentations and discussants flagged a shortage of patient risk capital and ecosystem connectors in Europe compared with the US. EIC instruments and the EIC Fund aim to address this but investors remain cautious at the preclinical/ early clinical stages.

4) Standardisation and qualification of models. Organoids and organs-on-chip show promise for personalised testing and disease modelling, but the field lacks widely accepted standards and validated qualification pathways for regulatory use or to replace animal models.

Next steps and where to find materials

The EIC and ERC indicated they plan to continue collaboration. The workshop materials — video recordings and slide decks — were published across late summer and autumn 2021 on EIC and ERC websites. Interested researchers and innovators should consult the EIC funding portal, the ERC Proof of Concept pages, and the EIC Work Programme for precise application rules and deadlines.

Readers who want to go deeper should download the individual slide decks referenced in the presentation table above, review the EIC work programme sections on Pathfinder, Transition and Accelerator, and read the ERC Proof of Concept guidance if they are ERC grantees considering commercial follow-up.

Concluding note — promise and realism

The EIC-ERC workshop underscored that Europe hosts a rich ecosystem of discovery and early innovation in cell and gene therapy. The combined approach — aligning frontier science with targeted innovation instruments, active portfolio management and investor engagement — is the right direction for policy makers who want more breakthroughs to reach patients and companies. However, the workshop also reinforced that strategic funding must be combined with investments in manufacturing capacity, clinical development infrastructure, regulatory pathways and ecosystem building to turn scientific promise into sustainable patient benefit and market impact. Policymakers and funders should avoid overly optimistic narratives and instead plan for multi-year, multidisciplinary programmes that link science, process engineering, regulation and capital.

Selected references and where to read official materials

Primary sources for the statements, call details and slide decks used above are the EIC website pages for the workshop and the EIC Work Programme 2021, the ERC Proof of Concept guidance pages, and the EISMEA data protection notices. For grant rules applicants should always consult the official call texts on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal.