The European Commission is awarding €30.5m to 15 innovative projects to help speed up their access to the market.

The funding has been granted under the third round of the Horizon 2020 Fast Track to Innovation (FTI) scheme.

The projects involve some 68 partners in 16 countries and range from the design of intelligent sensor-enabled eyewear and the development of an immunity-based test for early diagnosis of Lyme disease to the production of eco-friendly food packaging that has outstanding barrier properties.

“Through Horizon 2020, we want to give innovative businesses the support they need to fast-track their innovations to market. These latest results bring the total investment to nearly €100m in fast-access EU funding for close-to-the-market innovation activities,” said science and innovation commissioner Carlos Moedas.

The FTI scheme aims to reduce the time between idea and market and to increase industry and SME participation in Horizon 2020. The third round of the scheme attracted 403 project proposals involving 1,700 participants by its cut-off date of 1 December 2015.

A total of 903 proposals have been received since its launch in January 2015, 46 of which have received more than €98.7m in funding. Almost half the project participants (46%) are SMEs.

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