Financing innovation

The European Commission and the European Investment Bank (EIB) have joined forces to set up the Risk Sharing Finance Facility (RSFF) to stimulate investment in research, development and innovation (RDI). Since 2007, this instrument has contributed to improving access to finance by providing loans for private sector companies, research centres and public institutions that are working on RDI activities.

The European Commission and the EIB wanted to produce a film presenting this innovative finance mechanism and some examples of concrete projects carried out thanks to the mechanism.

EU-turn therefore filmed in the UK, Poland, Spain, Austria and the Netherlands, carried out interviews and produced the final cuts of the videos. The subjects addressed included:

• Financing a communications satellite in England;
• Developing higher performance and more environmentally-friendly automobile engines in Austria;
• Financing medical research to implant a stimulator to treat patients suffering from diabetes in Poland;
• Investment designed to stimulate synergies between industries, SMEs and universities in the Netherlands;
• Financing a thermo-solar power station in Spain.