Getting funding is not always easy. Especially when it is not your core business and there is a fierce international competition. To help Dutch SME’s, RVO has been assigned to give support to those who are interested in getting funding from the following European subsidy programmes: SME Instrument, Fast Track to Innovation, Eurostars and GlobalStars.

Based on your idea, RVO checks which programme fits best with your company and stage of development. RVO helps you to define a proposal with the best chance to success and we provide feedback on your proposal for improvements. For the SME Instrument, a part of the evaluation procedure is pitching your proposal to a jury panel. RVO organises ‘dry-runs’ and give as much feedback as necessary to become a winner in Brussels.

A nice example of a company that RVO was happy to support is Prolira who finished first in Fast Track to Innovation for their project DeltaScan. Together with 4 Academic Hospitals, they will revolutionize the care of patients with acute brain failure. Nurses can use the DeltaScan during bedside checks to scan brain activity in order to diagnose acute brain failure earlier. In this project they will perform clinical tests to quantify the concrete benefits of improved acute brain failure care with the DeltaScan. This funding will allow the international consortium to be ready for full-scale scale market launch.

Another example is the companyKhondrion, one of the five Dutch winners of the last round of the SME instrument phase 2 programme. Khondrion is a spin-off of the Radboudumc which received €2.3 million for further development of their drug KH176 to treat mitochondrial diseases. This funding enables Khondrion to perform the dose-finding clinical trial (Phase 2b) in its patient population, reaching essential milestones for investor/co-development financing of the Phase 3 clinical trial for market approval.

RVO also provided support to the company Bambi Medical, who was one of the five winners of the SME instrument phase 2 as well. This company is a rising med-tech company, which developed the Bambi Belt. The Bambi Belt is an innovative wireless and non-invasive system that can measure the vital signs of pre-term babies. With the Bambi Belt sensors are kept in place via an elastic belt that does not harm the fragile pre-term skin, which prevents stress, wounds and possible infections. In addition, the system is wireless and therefore parents are enabled to have more skin-to-skin contact with their child. This will improve the development of the pre-term and will reduce healthcare costs. RVO supported this company during the entire process of applying for the SME instrument phase 2 grant and RVO organised a ‘dry- run’ for their pitch in Brussels (see picture).