André Mão de Ferro, co-founder and executive manager of C2C-NewCap, is one of the Portuguese included in the EIC National Champions list. The nomination rewards R&D and Innovation projects and turns the chosen scientists into ambassadors of the EIC, which aims to identify, develop and deploy breakthrough technologies and disruptive innovations. The National Champions list brings together personalities from academia, industry and civil society in the European Union.
“EIC is a relatively complex organisation that involves many companies, institutes, researchers, coaches, juries, etc., and relies heavily on public awareness”, highlights the Técnico alumnus, who confesses to be surprised by this distinction. However, “after being included in the EIC National Champions list as a representative of C2C-NewCap, I felt that it made perfect sense to disseminate the opportunities provided by the EIC Fund, both for companies and researchers”, stresses André Mão de Ferro.
“This is not a personal distinction, it is a nice way of recruiting EIC experienced members to help disseminate EIC missions and programmes within each member state,” says the co-founder of C2C-NewCap. “Seen in these terms, I think it’s a great idea and I’ll help in whatever way I can,” he adds.
C2C- New Cap was created in 2014 by the Técnico alumni André Mão de Ferro (MSc in Environmental Engineering) and Rui Pedro Silva. The startup is part of the IST Spin-off Community and focuses its work on the development of a truck engine starting.
C2C-New Cap obtained funding from Caixa Capital, InnoEnergy and Repsol Foundation (Entrepreneurs Fund accelerator program). Under the Horizon and EIC programmes, C2C-NewCap won 2 European projects in consortium and 2 individual projects – the SME Instrument phase 1 and phase 2. “These programmes were especially aimed at SMEs, which allowed us to be where we are today, installing supercapacitor modules”, explains André Mão de Ferro.
EIC was created in 2018, as a pilot project. It has supported 5000 projects and 159 start-ups. Officially launched by the European Commission on the 18th of March, the European Innovation Council is one of the great novelties of Horizon Europe. With a budget of €10 billion for the period 2021-2027, the EIC will support startups, SMEs and research teams developing high-risk, high-impact breakthrough innovation, with a particular focus on scaling up game-changing solutions that contribute to the objectives of the European Green Deal and the Recovery Plan for Europe.
In addition to André Mão de Ferro, the list of Portuguese EIC National Champions includes Goreti Sales (professor and researcher at the Department of Chemical Engineering of the Faculty of Sciences and Technology – University of Coimbra), Marta Baptista (transformation engineer at With Company), Miguel Castanho (professor at the Institute of Molecular Medicine – Universidade de Lisboa), Carlos Oliveira (executive president of José Neves Foundation), José Fernando Ramos de Figueiredo (member of the Investment Committee of the EIC Equity Fund).
