Inside cohort four of the EIC Women Leadership Programme

Between February and May 2024 the European Innovation Council Women Leadership Programme completed its fourth cohort. Organised by the EIC Business Acceleration Services and run in collaboration with the European Institute of Innovation and Technology the programme brought together 36 women from 18 industries and 18 countries. The initiative mixes weekly training sessions with personal mentoring and business coaching. Participants and implementers emphasised the cohort experience as a space for mutual support and skills development. At the same time the programme is modest in scale and there is limited public evidence so far about long term outcomes.

What the programme provided

Cohort four combined virtual and in person activity. Sessions were timetabled for business mornings and typically lasted two hours per week. The learning agenda covered personal branding leadership styles diversity equity and inclusion negotiation tactics pitching and growth strategies. Participants also received one to one mentoring from experienced entrepreneurs investors and CEOs and access to tailored business coaching to work on concrete business goals such as fundraising and internationalisation.

Voices from the cohort and delivery partners

Public comments from participants and implementers emphasised the cohort as a psychologically safe environment and a space for peer support. Roberta Pellegrino co founder of Ludwig said she valued the programme as a safe space and promised to increase collaboration with other women. Maria Majellaro Chief Scientific Officer at Celtarys described a personal transformation and recommended the programme for those seeking self discovery and growth.

Mentors underlined that the relationship can be reciprocal. Mentor Martin Desmaras said his mentee inspired him while they worked on confidence decision making work life balance and pitching skills ahead of fundraising and internationalisation. Implementers Impact Hub Global and Female Founders called cohort four positive and highlighted that participants shifted their focus from producing a single outcome to valuing community building.

Eligibility and how the programme fits into the EIC ecosystem

The programme is open to women researchers aspiring leaders and entrepreneurs within the EIC and EIT beneficiary communities. The EIC runs distinct cohort tracks. Advanced entrepreneurial cohorts target experienced women leaders including co founders and C suite executives. Researcher cohorts target women in academia and research who want to commercialise technologies and build leadership skills. Sessions combine strategic training networking and personalised support to help participants scale their projects and raise funding.

Scale timetable and next cohorts

The EIC communicated that cohort five started in April 2024. The call for the sixth cohort is scheduled to open at the end of June 2024. The sixth cohort is described as being specifically for entrepreneurial women founders and C suite leaders and is planned to start in autumn 2024.

EIC positioning and headline gender data

The EIC frames the Women Leadership Programme as part of a broader strategy to improve gender balance across its funding and support instruments. The EIC provided snapshot figures for 2024 showing progress but not causation. These statistics are useful for context but they do not prove the programme alone changes the status quo.

Assessment: strengths and limits

Programmes that combine peer support training mentoring and business coaching address several documented barriers women face when scaling deep tech ventures. These include limited access to relevant networks lower investor exposure and the uneven distribution of responsibility that affects time available for growth oriented tasks. The cohort model helps with role modelling and short term confidence building.

At the same time cohort four illustrates the limits of the current approach. With 36 participants the initiative is far too small to shift structural metrics across European deep tech ecosystems alone. Positive testimonials are encouraging but anecdotal evidence does not substitute for robust outcome measurement. If the EIC aims to claim systemic impact it needs to publish longitudinal data on outcomes such as funding raised promotions or business growth among alumni retention of mentors active network engagements and measurable improvements in investor access.

What this means for women innovators in Europe

For individual participants the programme can be valuable as a concentrated professional development and networking opportunity. For the EIC and policy makers the programme is a visible and positive component of a broader gender strategy. For advocates and funders the immediate priority should be to scale interventions that show measurable outcomes and to integrate programmes like this with funding pipelines investor introductions and market access services so that gains in confidence translate into measurable business results.

Aspiring applicants should monitor the EIC Community Platform and sign up to the EIC Business Acceleration Services newsletter to receive alerts when applications open. The EIC directs potential applicants to apply through the EIC Community and to use the programme page for updates and FAQ.