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EIC Summit 2025: speakers, sessions and what the programme signals for European deeptech

Brussels, March 13th 2025
Summary
  • ›EIC Summit 2025 takes place on 2 and 3 April 2025 in Brussels with a beneficiaries day and a flagship public day.
  • ›Senior EU policy makers including Commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva and Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen will highlight EU research, startup and digital sovereignty priorities.
  • ›The programme mixes policy signals, pitching, practical workshops and satellite events that target commercialization, procurement and regulatory pathways.
  • ›Multiple EIC-funded entrepreneurs and ambassadors will showcase deeptech cases across water, photonics, biotech, AI and assistive technologies.
  • ›Satellite events include an AI tools training for EIC beneficiaries, an EIC Partners Day and an EIC Pathfinder Challenges Info Day with registration deadlines in March.

EIC Summit 2025: speakers, sessions and what the programme signals for European deeptech

The European Innovation Council Summit 2025 convenes on 2 and 3 April in Brussels at Tour & Taxi. Day 1 is dedicated to EIC beneficiaries and ecosystem partners. Day 2 is the flagship, open event that brings together policy makers, investors, corporates and startups. The published programme pairs high level policy interventions with hands on workshops on topics from IP to procurement and regulatory navigation for health technologies. Several satellite events take place around the Summit on 1 and 4 April.

Event essentials, satellite events and registration

ItemDate and timeLocationAction / deadline
EIC beneficiaries day (Day 1)2 April 2025Tour & Taxi, BrusselsPart of the main Summit registration
EIC Summit flagship (Day 2)3 April 2025Tour & Taxi, BrusselsOpen to all stakeholders
EIC Community Training - AI tools for innovators1 April 2025, 13:00 - 18:30 CESTBrussels, in personExpress interest by 13 March 2025
EIC Partners' Day1 April 2025, 10:00 - 17:30 CET and 2 April 9:00-10:00 CETConvent Garden Floor 25 and Tour & Taxis, BrusselsRegister by 14 March 2025
EIC Pathfinder Challenges Info Day4 April 2025, 09:00 - 13:00 CETAlbert Borschette Congress Center and onlineRegister in person by 25 March 2025

Satellite activity is significant. The AI tools training and Partners' Day are aimed at beneficiaries and the network of EIC service providers. The Pathfinder Info Day follows the Summit and will be livestreamed with an opportunity for remote Q and A.

Speakers from the policy ecosystem and what to watch for

Ekaterina Zaharieva - Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation:Zaharieva will open Day 2 with a short address titled The EIC as a Driving Force for Startups and Scaleups and later moderate the EU Prize for Women Innovators award ceremony. Her mandate emphasises expanding the European Innovation Council and Research Council and proposals such as a European Research Area Act and a European Innovation Act. Expect policy framing on enabling researchers, access to venture capital and the uptake of AI in scientific research. The summit provides a platform for the Commission to signal concrete next steps but not all strategic proposals have funding and legislative detail yet.
Henna Virkkunen - Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy:Virkkunen will join a panel on Scaling European Digital Technologies. Her portfolio includes Digital and Frontier Technologies, AI innovation, an Apply AI Strategy, a proposed European AI Research Council and a European Data Union Strategy. Her presence signals that the Summit will be used to align innovation support with the Commission's digital sovereignty agenda. Attendees should note the tension between promoting rapid AI-led scale up and the governance and enforcement work promised under laws such as the Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act.
Enrico Letta - Dean at IE and former Prime Minister of Italy:Letta joins Carlos Moedas for a fireside chat Europe as a global Tech Leader. Tasked previously with producing a report on the Future of the Single Market, Letta is likely to address regulatory and strategic changes needed to help European champions scale globally. His interventions tend to frame policy rather than give operational details on funding and implementation.
Carlos Moedas - Mayor of Lisbon and former EU Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation:Moedas co-hosts the Europe as a global Tech Leader session. He previously led the design of Horizon Europe, which the programme descriptions cite as a major European innovation instrument. His participation reinforces a narrative that the EU intends to coordinate research funding, regional ecosystems and municipal innovation efforts.

Other senior officials appearing in plenary moments include Marc Lemaître who will give the opening welcome on the plenary stage and Michiel Scheffer, EIC Board President, who appears on Day 1 plenary items. Anita Krohn will moderate the fireside and give an inspirational talk on Day 1.

EIC Business Acceleration Services and corporate engagement speakers

Verónica Orvalho - EIC Ambassador and CEO of Didimo:Orvalho is speaking in a Day 1 workshop on gender and leadership titled Why the infamous glass ceiling cannot be broken by women alone. She has 20 plus years of research and development experience in facial technology and will bring a founder perspective on commercialisation, inclusion and digital humans. Her company has commercial partnerships with large entertainment and tech firms which she will use as concrete use cases.
Yousef Yousef - EIC Board Member and CEO of LG Sonic:Yousef takes part in a workshop that showcases EIC Business Acceleration Services as a complement to funding. His background leading LG Sonic over two decades ties into narratives about scaling green tech internationally. He is also involved in a green-tech scale-up initiative with over 500 members which underlines the EIC focus on sectoral brokerage and networks.
George Brik - CEO and co-founder of Hydrovolta, EIC Ambassador:Brik speaks on procurement and scaling through innovation procurement. As an EIC beneficiary he will present a case study on water technology commercialisation and energy efficient desalination solutions. His involvement underscores the Summit's practical emphasis on public procurement as a route to scale for startups.
Josemaria Siota - Executive Director, IESE Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center:Siota leads a workshop for the EIC Scaling Club on board governance and corporate venturing. His work on corporate venturing and open innovation is a recurring theme across the programme. Expect advice aimed at founders on building boards that support growth and engaging corporates as strategic partners.

Speakers from the EIC beneficiary and Pathfinder ecosystems

Sonia M. García Blanco - Co-founder of ALUVIA Photonics:García Blanco participates in a Day 1 workshop on Transitioning from Technology to Market. Her track record includes academic leadership at the University of Twente, an ERC Consolidator Grant and an EIC Transition grant. ALUVIA commercialises photonic integrated circuits in an aluminium oxide platform, illustrating how Transition funding aims to bridge laboratory IP to spinouts.
Sarah Verhulst - Professor at Ghent University and EarDiTech project coordinator:Verhulst brings hearing technology and diagnostic development experience. Her EIC Transition-backed work aims to move EEG based diagnostics into marketable clinical tests and next generation hearables. The session highlights the recurring theme that regulatory pathways and clinical validation are critical steps that require time and resources.
Martha Sommer - Team Leader & Principal Investigator at ISAR Bioscience:Sommer leads a workshop on EIC Pathfinder breakthrough technologies. Her lab works on GPCR drug discovery tools. Pathfinder stage projects typically address low TRL scientific innovation. Expect technical presentations and discussion of how to nurture discoveries into viable markets.
Cornel Amariei - CEO & Founder of .lumen:Amariei presents on innovation procurement and offers a testimonial on Day 2. His company has developed pedestrian autonomous driving assistive technology and earlier showcased innovations such as Glasses for the Blind. His presence highlights how EIC support is used by founders targeting assistive and mobility markets.

The Summit also features testimonial speakers such as Rachel Armstrong, Christoffer Levandowski and others who will provide on the ground perspectives on EIC impact. Several sessions focus on concrete hurdles including IP, regulation for health products, procurement and accessing research infrastructure.

Programme highlights and session structure

The programme combines plenaries, fireside chats and panels with a dense set of themed workshops on Day 1 aimed at beneficiaries. Topics include IP strategy, corporate venturing, innovation procurement, regulatory navigation for health technologies, ARPA-style management, seed investment strategies, and scaling in Europe and beyond.

DayKey plenary timeslotTopic / speakers
Day 1 - 2 April10:00 - 10:30Opening Plenary on beneficiaries day with EIC Board President Michiel Scheffer and Tech Talk from EIC programme managers
Day 1 - 2 April16:50 - 17:00Inspirational talk by Anita Krohn followed by EIC Impact testimonials and an award ceremony
Day 2 - 3 April10:15 - 10:30Opening speech by Commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva
Day 2 - 3 April10:30 - 11:00Fireside chat Europe as a global Tech Leader with Enrico Letta and Carlos Moedas
Day 2 - 3 April12:30 - 13:00EU Prize for Women Innovators award ceremony moderated by Ekaterina Zaharieva
Day 2 - 3 April16:00 - 16:45Panel on Scaling European Digital Technologies with Henna Virkkunen and industry founders

Concepts and terms explained

European Innovation Council (EIC):The EIC is the EU mechanism that funds high risk, high potential deeptech innovation via instruments such as the Pathfinder, Transition and Accelerator. It combines grants, blended finance and business acceleration services to move ideas from research through to marketable products.
EIC Fund:The EIC Fund co-invests alongside private investors into selected Accelerator beneficiaries. The Summit programme includes sessions on co-investing, deal structuring and how the EIC Fund engages with venture capital and other co-investors.
EIC Pathfinder and Transition:Pathfinder supports early stage, low TRL research. Transition targets maturation of Pathfinder results towards commercially exploitable innovations. Both tracks aim to bridge the long lead time between discovery and market entry but require follow on investment and industry engagement to scale.
EIC Accelerator and TRL:The Accelerator supports later stage deeptech startups, often at higher TRLs, combining grants and equity investments. Technology Readiness Levels or TRLs are used to benchmark maturity from basic research to system demonstration. Many workshops address moving up the TRL ladder and attracting investment.
EIC Business Acceleration Services (BAS):EIC BAS is a portfolio of non-financial services ranging from market access coaching to procurement brokerage and regulatory support. Several sessions demonstrate how BAS aims to complement funding by connecting awardees with corporates, procurers and partner accelerators.
InnoNext, NCP and EEN explained:InnoNext is a talent mobility scheme linking academic talent with startups. NCP stands for National Contact Points who advise applicants. EEN is the Enterprise Europe Network that supports internationalisation and partnership building. Workshops show how these networks are positioned to support EIC beneficiaries.
ARPA-style management:This refers to a project management model inspired by the US Advanced Research Projects Agency: high risk, mission oriented funding with tolerance for failure and cross disciplinary teams. The Summit debates how to adapt that approach in Europe given different funding rules and oversight expectations.

What the programme signals and caveats

The Summit mixes policy ambition with operational support. Senior commissioners and vice presidents use the platform to signal strategic priorities such as AI research, tech sovereignty and improved financing for scale ups. Workshops are practical and cover IP, procurement and regulatory routes which are genuine bottlenecks for deeptech scale up. The presence of corporates, investors and EIC alumni indicates an intent to broker partnerships at the event.

A note of caution is warranted. High level commitments do not automatically translate into faster funding pipelines or simpler regulation. Proposals such as a European Innovation Act or a European AI Research Council require legislative detail and budgets that are not settled by Summit appearances. Founders should value the practical workshops and matchmaking opportunities, while tempering expectations about immediate policy or funding outcomes.

Practical takeaways for attendees

If you are an EIC beneficiary bring specific asks for procurement, regulatory engagement or investor introductions. Workshops on IP, innovation procurement and accessing research infrastructure offer operational guidance and contacts that can shorten time to market. Partners Day and the AI training are opportunities to deepen relationships with service providers but pay attention to registration deadlines in March.

OpportunityBest useDeadline
AI tools training for EIC beneficiariesLearn practical AI applications and network with peersExpress interest by 13 March 2025
EIC Partners' DayMeet service providers and co-funding schemes, speed dating on 2 AprilRegister by 14 March 2025
EIC Pathfinder Info DayGet clarifications on Pathfinder Challenge calls and talk to programme managersRegister in person by 25 March 2025

Final observations

The EIC Summit 2025 is a concentrated showcase of EU ambitions to turn science into competitive industry while asserting digital and technological sovereignty. It offers genuine utility for founders who use the workshops to solve operational problems. At the same time, attendees should be realistic about the gap between political signalling and policy implementation. The Summit is useful for networking, visibility and practical guidance, but systemic change will require sustained legislative and budgetary follow up beyond two days of plenaries and panels.

For full agenda details, workshops and registration links consult the official EIC Summit pages and the EIC Community platform. The organisers explicitly note that published information should not be interpreted as the official view of the European Commission or other organisations.

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