Enterprise Ireland CEO Julie Sinnamon has welcomed the launch of a new generation of EU financial instruments and advisory services to help innovative firms access finance more easily.

The agreement with the European Investment Bank Group was signed by European Research, Innovation and Science Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, on behalf of the EU in Greece recently.

Over the next seven years, it is expected that the "InnovFin – EU Finance for Innovators" products will make available more than €24 billion of financing for research and innovation (R&I) by small, medium and large companies and the promoters of research infrastructures. This finance is expected to support up to €48 billion of final R&I investments.

Speaking during a recent visit by the Commissioner to Enterprise Ireland, the State agency leading Ireland’s participation in Horizon 2020, the EU’s €79BN programme for research and innovation Ms Sinnamon said;

“Enterprise Ireland welcomes the introduction of the InnovFin financial instruments and associated advisory services. These instruments will complement existing research and innovation funding sources and will provide much needed additional access to finance for innovative Irish SMEs. We now want the Irish banking sector to embrace these new instruments as they will de-risk lending propositions for Irish companies that want to fund R&D in order to gain a competitive edge. This activity is central to boosting employment and growth in Ireland’s economy”.

"InnovFin – EU Finance for Innovators" will consist of a range of tailored products – from guarantees for intermediaries that lend to SMEs to direct loans to enterprises - helping support the smallest to the largest R&I projects in the EU and countries associated to Horizon 2020, the new EU research programme for 2014-2020. InnovFin builds on the success of the Risk-Sharing Finance Facility, developed under the seventh EU framework programme for research and technological development (FP7), which helped provide over €11 billion of finance to 114 R&I projects worth more than €30 billion.

Pictured are Julie Sinnamon, CEO of Enterprise Ireland and Máire Geoghean Quinn, EU Commissioner for Research & Innovation