Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union

The 9th Forum on “Financing Eco-innovation” is mainly SME-oriented. Discussions will draw on funding opportunities provided by European public funds, by new forms of financial engineering and by innovative cluster strategies.

The Forum will allow business owners to expose their specific needs and share their views. Best financial practices will be illustrated by concrete examples. The participants are industrial players, SMEs and their institutional supporting bodies, policy makers, financial institutions and the civil society.

Eco-innovation is a crucial driver to address major societal challenges, particularly with a view to environmental sustainability. Eco-innovation would help supporting our society over the next 50 years while minimizing the gap between environmental pressures and living standards that feel comfortable for Europe. 
Eco-innovation involves technology, processes, products & services, management tools and – increasingly – systems, addressing the ‘system innovation’ paradigm alongside with societal governance. However the rolling financial and economic crisis drastically reduces financial means available to invest into new eco-products & services and to pursue sustainable innovation efforts of industry and Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).
Addressing the access to finance for SMEs, the Brussels 9th Forum “Financing of Eco-innovation” will explore new forms of funding and creative partnerships to overcome fund shortages.
The Forum intends to offer entrepreneurs to speak about their specific needs and about financial barriers hampering their investment plans. Such barriers will be examined in the context of what governments and EU bodies technically can provide to support the eco-innovation sector.
Field examples of success & failure will be presented. Debates will focus on how SME can access financing their eco-innovation strategy. The intention is to listen to SMEs and to elaborate recommendations for better and more effective policies at regional, national and European levels. Participants will be specific stakeholders together with policymakers, financial institutions, research and relevant non-governmental bodies.