EIC T2M Venture Building: Tech Demo Day on Engineering and the push to turn Pathfinder research into investable ventures
- ›The EIC Tech to Market Venture Building Programme held a Tech Demo Day on Engineering where five EIC Pathfinder and Transition projects entered the first phase.
- ›Two showcased projects were SuperGate, a fully superconducting three terminal transistor, and ZERAF, an intelligent opaque façade for building heat control.
- ›Participants valued expert feedback and one to one coaching for improving investor pitches and clarifying market priorities.
- ›Both featured projects advanced to the Opportunities Exploration phase, where business feasibility guidance will be provided by external experts.
- ›EIC programme managers and external panellists stressed the importance of presentation skills, continuous feedback, and mentorship to bridge academia and market realities.
EIC Tech Demo Day on Engineering
On 15 March 2024 the European Innovation Council Tech to Market Venture Building Programme convened a Tech Demo Day focused on engineering innovations. The session brought together EIC Pathfinder and Transition beneficiaries who pitched their technologies to a panel of external experts and EIC staff. The event is the formal entry point to the programme's first phase where selected projects receive structured feedback and can progress to further venture building support.
Who participated and what they presented
Five promising projects were enrolled into the programme's Tech Demo Days stream. The article highlights two projects that presented during the engineering session and the beneficiaries who represented them. Each project combines deep research with a clear ambition to address an identifiable market need, but both remain at the early stage where commercial viability still needs testing and validation.
What beneficiaries said they gained
Participants stressed the programme's practical value in revealing how outsiders perceive their work. Miren Gutiérrez said the process helped the ZERAF team identify 'main concerns about the innovation for people outside the project' and improved their ability to communicate to different stakeholders. Marco Arzeo noted that expert questions exposed weaknesses and strengths in his pitch and that the individual support session materially improved his pitch deck. Both representatives moved on to the Opportunities Exploration phase where they will receive feasibility guidance from business oriented experts.
What the expert panel advised
The judging panel included industry and investment professionals who framed the T2M programme as an important bridge between research and market entry. Hacer Özmen Yilmaz, R and D Project Manager at TEKNASYON, described programmes like EIC T2M as pivotal for equipping researchers with entrepreneurial skills and networks while supporting technology validation and business model refinement. Mohamed Abdelmomen, Private Equity Technical Advisory Analyst at RingStone, called the programme a gateway to the market and emphasised presentation skills, targeted messaging and mentorship to understand market realities.
Where projects go next in the programme
Following Tech Demo Days, projects advance to the Opportunities Exploration phase. In this step a team of experts with business experience assesses technical and commercial feasibility and provides recommendations for improvement. Later phases of the programme include team creation, recruitment, access to entrepreneurs in residence, and targeted advisory on domains such as intellectual property, finance and human resources.
| Project | Representative | Technology focus | Immediate next phase |
| SuperGate | Marco Arzeo, SeeQC-EU | Fully superconducting three terminal gate controlled transistor for high speed low energy logic | Opportunities Exploration |
| ZERAF | Miren Juriasti Gutiérrez, EURAC Research | Intelligent opaque façade to control building heat transfer and reduce HVAC energy demand | Opportunities Exploration |
Broader programme context and upcoming activities
The EIC Tech to Market Venture Building Programme is one strand of EIC Tech to Market activities aimed at helping researchers supported by EIC Pathfinder and EIC Transition turn research outcomes into investable ventures. The Venture Building stream runs through four main phases beginning with Tech Demo Days and progressing through opportunity assessment, team building and venture support services. The programme provides workshops, mentorship and matchmaking with potential partners. At the time of the event the programme was actively running multiple Tech Demo Days across themes including Health and Biotech. Final events in that series were scheduled for 4 and 5 April and a related Summit session titled 'How to build your future spin off, learn from Pathfinder and Transition beneficiaries' was planned for 19 March.
What this type of support does and what it does not do
Venture building and market preparation programmes can accelerate the learning curve for researchers who have limited commercial experience. They can help clarify value propositions, identify lead customers, and produce better investor facing materials. However they are not a substitute for the structural barriers that deep tech teams will face. Those include the need for subsequent funding rounds, manufacturing and integration challenges especially for hardware or cryogenic systems, regulatory hurdles in construction and built environment technologies, long sales cycles in B2B markets, and the uncertain timelines in commercial adoption. Progress through programme phases improves readiness but does not guarantee successful scaling or investment.
Practical takeaways for researchers and programme managers
Early stage researchers should treat the Tech Demo Day as a diagnostic exercise. Use expert feedback to identify the riskiest assumptions in your business case and design experiments to de-risk them. Invest time in presentation and audience segmentation so that messages are matched to investors, industrial partners or procurement officers. Programme managers should continue to monitor whether advisory support translates into measurable milestones such as customer discovery outcomes, letters of intent, recruitment of entrepreneurial talent and follow on funding.
Logistics and how to get help
The EIC Tech to Market Venture Building Programme offers a helpdesk for beneficiaries. For more information, EIC beneficiaries are advised to contact the EIC Community helpdesk and choose the relevant programme subject when submitting an enquiry. The programme also maintains calls for experts and entrepreneurs in residence to expand its pool of mentors and market experts.
Disclaimer This reporting is based on materials and interviews linked to the EIC Tech to Market Venture Building Programme and is intended for knowledge sharing. It should not be interpreted as the official view of the European Commission or other organisations involved.