Martina Vycudilíková: ELIgnite will bridge the gap between laser research and industry

The European ELIgnite project will offer companies and research teams up to €500,000 to validate new technologies using ELI's laser research infrastructure. Technology Centre Prague will coordinate the selection of projects and help bring the resulting technologies closer to market.

Following the kick-off meeting in Dolní Břežany, the ELIgnite project is now preparing its funding call. The European consortium, coordinated by ELI ERIC, includes Technology Centre Prague, Commercialization Reactor in Latvia and INAM – Innovation Network for Advanced Materials in Germany. Other organisations from academia, industry and the investment community are also involved. We spoke to Martina Vycudilíková, a start-up incubation and technology transfer consultant, about TC Prague's role in the project, how technology teams will be selected and what support they can expect.

Technology Centre Prague primarily focuses on supporting research and innovation, conducting analyses and providing advisory services. What led you to become involved in a project centred on advanced laser research infrastructure?

We have been cooperating with ELI Beamlines for many years. We could see that outstanding research was being carried out there, but translating it into practical applications was far from straightforward. That is why we came up with the idea of a project that would connect the capabilities of the research infrastructure with the needs of businesses and help bring new technologies closer to market.

We bring to ELIgnite our experience in evaluating innovation projects, supporting start-ups and spin-offs, financing innovation and building links between research and business.

The project will offer up to €500,000 per technology project. Who will be eligible to apply, and what can the funding be used for?

We are preparing a single call with a budget of €3 million, through which we expect to support between six and ten projects. Applications will be open to start-ups, small and medium-sized enterprises, larger companies and research teams considering setting up a spin-off. We also want to encourage diversity by attracting women-led teams and companies from Widening countries.

Projects will have to involve collaboration with the pan-European research infrastructure ELI ERIC, specifically its ELI Beamlines facility in the Czech Republic or ELI ALPS in Hungary. This will give companies access to laser and photonics facilities to experimentally validate their technologies.

The call will cover areas including healthcare, security and space technologies, clean energy, semiconductors and artificial intelligence.

Half a million euros is a substantial amount of funding. How will you identify the projects most likely to succeed?

Our task is to design and coordinate the entire evaluation and selection process. We are building an international database of experts from research, industry and the investment community who will assess the proposals.

Importantly, we will not be looking solely at the technological aspects of the projects. We are also interested in their market readiness and prospects for future commercial application.

The evaluation process will not end once a grant has been awarded. During implementation, we will monitor progress against technological and market-related milestones. Funding will be disbursed in tranches, linked to the achievement of these milestones.

So having a promising scientific idea is not enough?

An idea alone is not enough. A project needs to demonstrate how a new technology could work in practice and who might benefit from it. That is why we combine experimental validation with business support.

Each selected team will also receive 120 hours of innovation support services. Depending on their needs, these may include market analysis, testing potential customer interest or assistance in securing further funding. One option will be support in preparing an application to the EIC Accelerator programme.

Space technologies are also among the areas covered by the call. Can you build on existing experience in this field?

Yes. One of the areas covered by the call is Space, Security, and Radiation-Driven Environmental Testing Technologies. At TC Prague, we also work in this field through the ESA Technology Broker project. We therefore have contacts and specialist expertise that we can draw on to identify companies that could benefit from participating in ELIgnite.

Alongside selecting and supporting projects, you are also responsible for developing the European deep-tech ecosystem. What will this involve in practice?

We want to connect organisations that can help technology companies progress from research to market. As part of the project, we will therefore organise six networking events bringing together start-ups, research organisations, companies, investors and public authorities.

We will also bring together the lessons learnt from the project in a publication entitled Deep Tech Playbook. It will explore what works when supporting advanced technological innovation and what could be applied when designing future national or European support programmes.

When will the first applicants be able to apply?

We plan to launch the call in February 2027. Applications will be evaluated at two cut-off dates, in July 2027 and January 2028. We are currently preparing the application documentation, building our database of evaluators and working on the launch of the project website.

ELIgnite has received funding from the European Union's Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement No. 101290656.