EIC Tech Demo Day for Quantum tech and Electronics: from lab pitches to market feedback

On 23 May 2023 the European Innovation Council's Tech to Market Venture Building Programme convened a focused Tech Demo Day for quantum technologies and electronics. The one morning session gathered EIC Pathfinder and EIC Transition awardees who had earlier taken part in collective training and tailored coaching. Innovators presented to a mixed panel of academics, investors, corporate representatives and EIC business coaches and received market-readiness feedback intended to help them move from research towards viable ventures.

What the Tech Demo Day involved

The Demo Day was the first phase in a broader venture building pathway. Participants had attended a collective training session on 2 May 2023 and received individual support between 8 and 12 May. The one-to-one sessions paired a business expert with a technical expert in quantum tech and electronics so teams could refine their pitches ahead of the public presentations. The event format mirrored many accelerator style showcases where expert feedback is used to assess time to market, corporate relevance and investor appeal.

A research spin-off’s perspective

One of the innovators, Marco Abbarchi from Aix-Marseille University represented the NARCISO project. Abbarchi described his work as the large scale fabrication of micro and nano-structures for photonics and biochips. He also noted that the lab team created a spin-off called SOLNIL in 2019 to commercialise these methods. For him the Venture Building Programme was useful for benchmarking what is happening in the field and for getting practical advice on how to present innovations to potential investors.

What the expert panel said

Panel members included business and corporate innovation experts. Two voices captured different but complementary points. Silvia Pérez Díaz, Senior Open Innovation Expert at REPSOL, stressed that breakthrough technologies must still answer concrete industry needs if they are to reach the market. She argued that programmes like EIC Tech to Market help researchers build a solid roadmap covering product and market fit. Andrés Vallés, Managing Director of Koncentriq, praised the diversity of research-backed ideas and called the Venture Building Programme a key catalyst to impart business skills and market insight that are often missing in academic teams.

How the EIC Tech to Market Venture Building Programme is structured

The Venture Building Programme is built around a four phase journey intended to move technology from identification towards company creation and development. The phases are Tech Demo Days, Opportunities exploration, Team creation and Venture support services. The service is free for qualifying EIC Pathfinder and Transition beneficiaries and uses thematic selection to group projects.

Eligibility, themes and access

The programme explicitly targeted EIC Pathfinder and EIC Transition beneficiaries. The Expression of Interest process grouped eligible projects by thematic area and ran on a rolling basis with monthly cut-offs. The thematic areas listed for grouping include quantum tech and electronics among other domains such as advanced materials, AI, energy systems, health and biotech, mobility, space technologies and responsible electronics. Applicants from academic institutions were encouraged to involve their Technology Transfer Office during the process.

Why venture building matters and what it does not solve

Venture building services address known gaps between academic research and market adoption. Training, investor feedback and talent scouting can improve pitch quality and help teams build a business case. They can also surface manufacturing, regulatory and customer integration issues early on. However these services are not a guaranteed path to market success. Deep tech commercialisation remains resource intensive and often requires sustained follow-on funding, long development and validation cycles, access to industry partners for pilot deployment and hiring teams with experienced operational skills. Programmes like the EIC T2M can lower the information and capability gap but they do not remove structural barriers such as limited risk capital for long development timelines or the difficulty of scaling manufacturing for novel hardware.

Practical notes and next steps

For EIC Pathfinder and Transition beneficiaries the Venture Building Programme offered no-cost access to experts and potential talent recruitment. The EIC Community maintained a helpdesk where applicants could select 'EIC T2M Venture Building Programme' as the subject for enquiries. At the time of later public information the EIC Tech to Market Programme indicated pauses and updates to availability of services. Interested participants were advised to consult the EIC Community pages for the latest application windows and calls for experts and entrepreneurs in residence.

The Tech Demo Day on quantum tech and electronics was a compact example of how the EIC attempts to bridge research and market needs. The real test will be whether participating teams convert the feedback and short interventions into credible commercial progress and whether the programme can demonstrate sustained follow-on impact across cohorts.

For more information

EIC beneficiaries seeking to participate or learn more were directed to the EIC Community and Tech to Market pages. The Venture Building Programme also ran calls for experts and entrepreneurs in residence to join its talent pool. For procedural or application questions the EIC Community helpdesk remained the primary contact point.