Inside the EIC Programme Manager role

The European Innovation Council has created a hands on, sectoral leadership position to move beyond grant processing and to shape coherent innovation pathways in strategically important technology areas. The Programme Manager or PM title sits inside the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency known as EISMEA. The role is explicitly new and intentionally flexible so that individuals can imprint their own subject matter expertise and management style on how portfolios are developed and steered.

Why the EIC created Programme Managers

The European Commission designed the PM post to give the EIC content leadership. The logic is that public funding for deep tech needs more than transactional grant management. It requires someone who understands scientific bottlenecks, market barriers and the ecosystem actors who can move an idea across the so called valley of death between laboratory prototype and commercial scale. PMs are meant to make EIC funding more strategic, to cohere sets of projects with shared objectives and to broker partnerships that help European technologies scale.

How a Programme Manager spends their time

Francesco Matteucci who leads the EIC portfolio on materials for energy and environmental sustainability describes the PM responsibilities in three complementary activities he calls Study, Steer and Engage. The formulation is intentionally broad because the job was not prescribed in minute detail. PMs are expected to flexibly combine technical intelligence, hands on portfolio management and ecosystem building.

What the role requires in practice

Because PMs are expected to operate across very different stages of technology maturation they need to be comfortable with both fundamental research and commercialisation work. Francesco emphasises that PMs will not only look at early stage research but also at higher Technology Readiness Levels or TRLs. They must be able to translate scientific opportunity into realistic innovation pathways and to prioritise which interventions will produce measurable downstream outcomes.

Experience profile the EIC seeks

There is no single template for a good PM. Francesco’s assessment is pragmatic. A credible candidate needs deep domain knowledge of their sector, strong innovation management experience and familiarity with the full range of actors across research and industry. That typically includes academic research, corporate R&D, technology transfer, start up creation or public private partnerships. Soft skills matter as much as technical skills because the PM needs to convene, negotiate and influence across silos.

The practical and political constraints

Francesco is candid about the difficulties. Producing tangible impact from portfolios is hard when resources are limited and timelines are compressed. PMs must set priorities amid many competing activities. That requires an ambidextrous approach that balances short term actions with longer term strategic bets. Measuring the causal impact of portfolio interventions is also methodologically difficult. EIC insiders say PMs will need to develop realistic metrics and to be explicit about what the EIC can and cannot achieve within its remit.

There is also an institutional challenge. The PM role is new within EISMEA and to some degree the position is intentionally open to interpretation. That gives PMs the freedom to shape how the role operates. It also means results will vary depending on individual background and leadership style. Stakeholders should therefore treat early claims of systemic impact as provisional rather than definitive.

Francesco Matteucci — background and perspective

Francesco joined the EIC as a Programme Manager in October 2020. He has about twenty years of experience in materials science and applied R&D focused on renewable energy production and storage. He has worked as a researcher, a corporate R&D manager, co founded start ups and directed joint research labs. His practical experience includes managing public private partnerships and translating research results into commercial ventures. That combination of academic depth and entrepreneurial experience is the kind of profile Francesco points to as well suited to the PM role.

He finds the work stimulating because it allows him to influence long term trajectories in Europe’s deep tech ecosystem. His day to day involves constant interaction with international experts, learning across disciplines and testing new innovation pathways. The most challenging part for him is turning portfolio level thinking into concrete, high quality interventions under resource constraints.

Who else does this job and where the programme sits in the EU ecosystem

Programme Managers are appointed full time for periods of up to four years. They are expected to have substantial domain expertise and experience managing multidisciplinary teams or initiatives. EISMEA manages the EIC and the PMs work alongside other instruments such as the EIC Fund, national contact points and complementary Horizon Europe programmes. A PM’s role includes ensuring coherence across these instruments and brokering links to national or regional actors.

How PMs interact with EIC instruments

Recruitment and application note

At the time of Francesco’s interview the EIC was actively hiring Programme Managers and invited applications. The micro job market for PMs is competitive because the role combines scientific credibility and practical innovation experience. Francesco encourages applicants who know their sector well and who have experience across the R&D to business spectrum. The 2021 call referenced in his interview had a deadline of 30 September 2021. The EIC later ran subsequent recruitment cycles as the programme scaled up.

Practical caveats and a measured perspective

The PM concept addresses genuine weaknesses in how public innovation funding has historically been administered. It aims to be more strategic and hands on. That said there are limits to what a small group of PMs can achieve from within an agency. Portfolio management can improve coordination and reduce duplication, but broader structural challenges remain. These include fragmentation of national and regional innovation systems, variation in private capital availability across member states and the difficulty of measuring long term impact from short term interventions. Observers should treat early claims of systemic effect with caution and look instead for incremental evidence such as improved cooperation within portfolios, successful investor introductions and clear examples of projects progressing across TRLs.

Final takeaways

Programme Managers are an experiment in bringing subject matter leadership into the machinery of EU innovation funding. The role sits at the intersection of science, innovation management and policy. It can be influential when filled by people who understand technical detail and the realities of commercialisation. Early adopters like Francesco Matteucci describe the job as intellectually rewarding but operationally complex. For stakeholders the sensible approach is to judge the PM function on concrete deliverables over time rather than on aspirations articulated at the outset.

If you want to learn more about the EIC, EISMEA or open calls for Programme Managers consult the official EIC and EISMEA websites and watch for recruitment notices published as part of EISMEA job campaigns. Application processes evolve, and appointment conditions can change as the Agency and the EIC design learnings from the first cohorts of Programme Managers.