As of today, the European Innovation Council (EIC) has a new President of the Board, Dr Michiel Scheffer. With a budget of €10 billion, the EIC aims to identify and scale up new technologies and scientific breakthroughs. In an interview with Horizon magazine, Scheffer looks at the task ahead, where he feels innovation in Europe is strong and where there is a need to do better.

By  TOM CASSAUWERS

Michiel Scheffer is hardly new to the world of innovation. For 15 years the Dutch national ran an innovation consultancy for fashion and textile companies. And on top of that he served as regional minister in the Dutch province of Gelderland. Now, Scheffer says he’s eager to start his new job in Brussels as president of the EIC Board.

Which of your previous jobs – in academia, industry or politics – best prepared you for the job of EIC president?

Surprisingly, my political responsibilities probably best prepared me. The challenges I encountered there are similar to the ones I will face now. Of course, it’s important to know how academic research works and how startups operate. But politics is what best prepared me.

I used to be a minister for the Dutch province of Gelderland. Fifteen years ago, it sold some government companies, which caused the province to have money. I led the fund that invested this money. I invested €600 million in startups and scaleups, and I’m proud of the work we did there. That’s a smaller version of what I’m about to experience with the EIC.

What about your work as an entrepreneur?

I was born into a textile family. It’s already in my DNA for three generations. As an entrepreneur I helped textile companies in their innovation processes. But I also tried to develop my own technologies through startups. I need to note, though, that all those startup projects failed.

What did you learn from failing?

For one, I myself experienced the problems that startups encounter. You need to have capital that’s patient. At a certain stage you need to scale a technology, which can cost millions of euros. That means you need good sources of capital, which is where some ideas fail. I hope the EIC can help fix this.

A startup also needs to see Europe as its starting market. We cannot just see our nations or regions as our only markets. You need Europe to build a company at scale.

Your focus as a consultant was on the textile and fashion industries. What lessons did you learn from them?

Fashion is a very innovative industry. Every season they need to come up with new ideas and recombine concepts. Which surprisingly is a very useful mindset for European deep-tech innovation, because crossover thinking is key here. Often you combine different fields or industries. For example, new materials are used to build medical technologies. And that’s what the European innovation ecosystem does well. Everything is close to each other.

In the US, Silicon Valley is geographically very far away from, say the Research Triangle [an area in North Carolina with a heavy focus on medical industries]. In Europe we’re better at this cross-sector innovation, something I’m quite familiar with because of my experience in fashion.

What do you think about the so-called European Innovation Paradox, the idea that Europe is a world leader in science and research but that we’re not good at turning this knowledge into startups and economic activity?

The paradox exists, but it’s not an unchangeable reality. There are regions in Europe that have managed to bridge that paradox. They have managed to invest funds correctly and create a network of startups. I’m thinking of cities such as Eindhoven, Grenoble or Tallinn. On a regional level there are success stories.

The US and China, the other two big economic blocs, have much more coherent internal markets and a strong government. Europe has potential, but fundamentally it’s still 27 different member countries. There’s, of course, the single market but, particularly for startups, financing options remain fragmented. The EIC wants to create a single market for venture capital.

What about private investors? Aren’t you pushing them out?

We work by “crowding in” and never go at it alone. When we give equity, we only invest when private investors join us. We want to seduce private venture capitalists (VCs), not compete with them. Public investors de-risk a lot of the work of private VCs. They make a selection and do due diligence, which reduces the work a private investor needs to do. Research shows that companies where public and private investors work together have a higher chance of survival than companies who just get private investment.

Does an EU fund really need to do equity investments?

In every major technological transition of the last 400 years, public investment has played a big role. This can be in the form of equity, or government contracting. You, of course, need to be prudent, but history shows that it works. After the last few neoliberal decades, it might be somewhat new for governments to do equity investments again, but in the long term it’s perfectly normal for us to do this.

On the other hand, do you think private VCs are too risk averse in Europe?

This can happen, but there are plenty of private VCs that take risks. The bigger problem in Europe is that institutional investors, such as pension funds or even family offices [funds that manage and invest the money of wealthy families], invest too little in VCs. The challenge is more to have these bigger funds invest a larger share of their capital into VC, which in turn will give a boost to European startups.

As someone with a PhD, how can we stimulate scientists to also take up entrepreneurship?

We need to stimulate entrepreneurship among scientists. There aren’t enough places for all PhD students at universities. Besides, there are a lot of PhD students who prefer entrepreneurship over academia. That was also the case for me 30 ago. That of course doesn’t mean that entrepreneurship is just something for scientists.

The most successful companies are led by diverse teams. You want to mix scientists with more commercially driven people. This diversity, by the way, should also extend to gender. We see that entrepreneurial teams that also include women are more successful than teams just composed of men. Cross-border entrepreneurial teams also are more successful. Entrepreneurship isn’t about one lone genius, but about diverse teams.

There are suggestions that a recession might be setting in. What role does the EIC need to play in this kind of funding environment?

The EIC needs to work as patient capital. We have a commitment to invest in the long-term. The instrument also needs to exist for a long time. We hope that the Member States will keep supporting it in the next work programme, after 2027. We are faced with very long-term technological transitions, for example, in the area of sustainability, that go up to and beyond 2050. We need financial instruments that can think on these long-term horizons.

As the new president of the EIC, what will be your first actions?

Some regional innovation ecosystems work very well already, yet others are still lacking. I want to spend a lot of attention on countries and regions that need some help. One of my main activities would be to visit different ecosystems. In July, I start with Portugal, which has a very good technological ecosystem. But afterwards I would also like to visit Bulgaria, Slovenia, Croatia and Poland. This is called ‘widening’. We let these regions learn from other success stories, like imec in Leuven, Belgium, or Enterprise Ireland in Ireland.

We also need to steer investments into areas that are strategically important to Europe. One of the strong points of Europe is, for example, agriculture. We should explore opportunities for it to supply us with certain materials or resources used in chemicals and pharmaceuticals.

Farmers could for example supply lactic acid from sugar, which can be used to make plastics. Bio-based industries such as agriculture can in this way be coupled to our search for more autonomy in strategic economic areas.

What tips do you have for prospective entrepreneurs?

An entrepreneur needs critical friends. You need to learn how to tell your story and listen to criticism. Good entrepreneurs also never work alone. Try to join a team, and make it diverse.

A NEW EUROPEAN INNOVATION AGENDA AND THE EIC

A new wave of innovation is underway: deep-tech innovation, rooted in cutting-edge science, technology and engineering, often combining advances in the physical, biological and digital spheres with the potential to deliver solutions to the many global challenges we face.

With the new European innovation agenda, the EU is putting forward concrete new measures to help innovators, including deep-tech startups, to succeed in bringing their innovations to market.

The European Innovation Council (EIC) supports the most promising deep-tech startups in Europe with scaling up their breakthrough innovations through the EIC Fund, a combination of public grant and patient equity investment. The Fund is set to become the largest early stage, deep-tech investor in Europe: leveraging a budget of €10 billion for the EIC to crowd in €30 to €50 billion from other private investors.

This interview was originally published in Horizon, the EU Research and Innovation Magazine. 

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Excerpt: If one assumes a steep, monotonic increase in price for Ethereum, along with a natural expansion of the network across several other countries, the price of Ethereum will likely touch $16,024.42 by the end of 2030.

Ethereum, which is the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, has become a vital part of the decentralized finance (DeFi) and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) environments. Ethereum, with its indigenous currency Ether (ETH), has suffered massive instability and growth over the years.

DeFi and NFTs have earned significant traction and have massively contributed to Ethereum’s valuation. DeFi proposes several financial services while NFT is a class of digital collectibles that represent exclusive ownership of assets. Both DeFi and NFT significantly depend on Ethereum’s smart contract feature, making Ethereum a vital component of the digital markets.

Several factors can change the price of Ethereum. For example, factors such as market demand, regulatory developments, technological advancements, and macroeconomic trends. Below are some of the price predictions for the upcoming years.

Ethereum (ETH) Price Prediction from 2023 -2030

The entire of 2023 will be spent recovering from the crypto winter. Ethereum is estimated to touch $3,277.72, and the minimum price can be predicted at $2,185.15. The average price for the years should hover around $2,731.44. Ethereum is predicted to achieve newer heights in 2024 and present an average price of $4,552.39. In 2025, Ethereum is expected to increase to an average of $6,373.35.

If one assumes a steep, monotonic increase in price for Ethereum, along with a natural expansion of the network across several other countries, the price of Ethereum will likely touch $16,024.42 by the end of 2030. Moreover, the average price of the token will steady itself at $15,478.14. The major bull run over the past five-six years is likely to uphold the market sentiment and hence, the price of Ethereum will rise accordingly.

Several other price predictions for Ethereum in the future are provided below.

Ethereum prediction by Raoul Pal

The Chief Executive Officer of Real Vision Group, Raoul Pal says all things positive about Ethereum. In a recent interview, he estimated that Ethereum would reach $20,000 by the end of 2023, and would be a significant hike from its present price.

Ethereum Prediction by Michael Van de Poppe

According to crypto analyst and trader Michael Van De Poppe, Ethereum could achieve a price between $2700 and $3000 in the next couple of months. His estimates are based on the increasing adoption of DeFi and NFTs along with Ethereum’s incoming upgrades.

Ethereum’s Upgrade and its Impact

Etereum 2.0 is a network upgrade that is focused on enhancing the platform’s scalability, privacy, and energy efficiency. This upgrade is highly anticipated by the blockchain community and hence, can have a massive impact on Ethereum’s price.

Ethereum 2.0 is a series of upgrades curated to make Ethereum more scalable and secure. Essentially, the Ethereum network’s upgrade revolves around transitioning from the current Proof of Work (PoW) consensus mechanism to the Proof of Stake (PoS) model. PoS, which is a way to validate transactions on the blockchain, makes the network more energy-efficient and environment-friendly than the PoW model. This transition has gained traction from several investors and crypto enthusiasts who are environment-conscious and want to use a network that is easy on the planet.

Since the most recent Ethereum upgrade uses lesser gas fees, it shall be assumed as the next blockchain of choice. Moreover, the network upgrades enhance the network’s scalability via the application of sharding and several other optimizations. This will enable more transactions per second while lessening the congestion.

In the future, the price predictions are estimated to be bullish, however, the crypto market has shown its instability over the past few years and nothing can be estimated with utmost guarantee.