When Europe’s highest-potential startups and largest corporates collaborate, we see revolutionary applied sciences fast-tracked into game-changing services.
The European Innovation Council (EIC) is bridging the innovation and collaboration hole between Europe’s cutting-edge startups and established multinational firms with the Corporate Partnership Programme (CPP). Since 2017, the EIC CPP has organised 91 Company and Multi-Company Discovery Days, facilitating 100+ profitable enterprise offers between startups and corporates like Galp, BMW, L’Oreal, Telefonica, and Procter & Gamble. Their most up-to-date report, “Unlocking Innovation by means of Company-Startup Collaboration” presents an in depth overview of EIC CPP actions and a roadmap for efficient corporate-startup partnerships.
On this article, we converse with Lieven Deketele, Director of Open Innovation at Procter & Gamble (P&G), a long-standing accomplice of the European Innovation Council. P&G has been engaged within the EIC Company Partnership Programme since 2018 and 2019, and extra not too long ago joined the EIC Multi-Company Discovery Day in Brussels in October 2025, alongside different main firms. With a long time of expertise in open innovation by means of its well-known ‘Join + Develop’ programme, P&G works carefully with exterior companions to drive sustainable, consumer-focused innovation at scale.
Within the interview, Lieven shares why entry to EIC-funded innovators issues for giant corporates, how the EIC Company Partnership Programme format enabled deeper technical conversations, and what concrete outcomes emerged from the actions. He additionally presents sensible recommendation for different corporates contemplating becoming a member of the following EIC Multi-Company Day.
Welcome, Lieven! Thanks for becoming a member of us. Let’s first speak about P&G’s lengthy historical past of collaborating with startups and innovators. How does this match into your organization’s broader technique?
Innovation is the lifeblood of Procter & Gamble. For over 180 years, our objective has been to serve shoppers world wide with manufacturers, services that make their lives a bit of higher every single day. To proceed reaching this in a quickly altering world, we recognise that we will’t create all the mandatory improvements on our personal. This understanding is the muse of our ‘Join + Develop’ programme, which is a core pillar of our innovation technique. We goal to allow value-creation by means of a broader ecosystem that mixes P&G’s deep client understanding, world scale, and R&D capabilities with the agility, novel know-how, and distinctive views of our companions. By collaboration, we create a robust mixture that leverages an innovation ecosystem. By working with startups and innovators, we will speed up innovation, remedy complicated client challenges in new methods, and entry breakthrough applied sciences that align with our mission of making irresistibly superior and sustainable merchandise and experiences for our shoppers.
Out of your perspective, what’s the largest profit when partnering with EU-funded innovators?
The only largest profit is accessing a curated and de-risked pipeline of high-potential improvements. The European Innovation Council (EIC) serves as a robust filter and an unimaginable catalyst for innovation. The innovators we meet by means of the EIC don’t merely current ideas in slide decks; they’re firms which have already undergone a rigorous vetting and choice course of. Figuring out that an innovator has secured EIC funding provides us confidence of their technological basis, the potential of their group, and their potential for scaling. The EIC’s diligence saves us worthwhile time and permits us to focus our efforts on assessing the strategic match and co-creation potential.
Moreover, the EIC’s Enterprise Acceleration Providers make sure that these startups are sometimes extra ‘collaboration-ready,’ as they perceive the dynamics of working with a big company accomplice. It offers a direct and trusted pathway to among the most promising deep-tech and breakthrough science rising throughout Europe. We hope to see extra startups which have gone by means of this course of.
You joined the EIC’s Multi-Corporate Day at Influence Circle 2025. What motivated P&G to participate?
Our motivation was threefold. First, the exercise was extremely strategic and focused. The EIC labored with us and the opposite corporates beforehand to grasp our particular innovation wants, equivalent to AI-enhanced supplies, sustainable packaging options, and data-driven client insights. This ensured that the startups current have been instantly related to our challenges.
Second, the effectivity of the format is unparalleled and actually worldclass, banking on the expertise and experience of Tomorrowland and Love Tomorrow. In simply a few days, we have been capable of interact in significant, deep-dive conversations with a major variety of pre-vetted innovators. This represents an incredible acceleration in comparison with different scouting processes.
Lastly, the multi-corporate facet is a key differentiator. Addressing systemic challenges like sustainability or provide chain resilience is greater than any single firm. Collaborating alongside revered friends like AB INBEV and Coca Cola creates a novel gravity that pulls the highest-quality startups. It fosters a pre-competitive atmosphere the place we will collectively advance the innovation ecosystem, which is a win for everybody concerned—corporates, startups, and finally, European shoppers.
How did this format assist your group discover new options or establish potential collaborations with the startups the EIC introduced into the room?
The format was instrumental – it strikes past the normal, superficial pitch and permits for real, substantive dialogue. The construction of devoted, targeted periods enabled our cross-functional group comprised of specialists from R&D, Packaging, Provide Chain, Engineering and different knowledgeable capabilities to have interaction instantly with the startups’ founders and technical leads. This direct interplay is essential; it permits us to rapidly get previous the ‘what’ and dive deep into the ‘how.’ Our specialists may ask detailed technical questions, discover the scalability of their options, and collaboratively brainstorm potential use circumstances inside the P&G atmosphere. For instance, in a session with a supplies science startup, our packaging scientist and a product formulation knowledgeable may concurrently assess a know-how and its integration feasibility. This instant, multi-faceted suggestions loop is extremely efficient for quickly figuring out essentially the most promising alternatives for collaboration.
P&G additionally participated within the EIC Multi-Company Day in Brussels in October 2025 alongside different main corporates. What have been the principle takeaways from that exercise, and the way did the method and outcomes differ out of your expertise at Influence Circle?
Each occasions have been extremely worthwhile and complementary. Their success was rooted in months of preparation, the place we engaged internally to distill our key wants and alternatives, permitting the EIC to curate related startups.
Influence Circle is a novel platform for in-depth conversations amongst startups, corporates, and lecturers. Expertly organized in partnership with the EIC, it was designed to handle the strategic wants shared by corporates. The efficient, multi-day format – combining lodge workshops with matchmaking on the pageant website – allowed us to concentrate on particular challenges whereas drawing inspiration from new potentialities. This occasion has already led to the initiation of a number of pilots, which we hope will lead to vital breakthroughs.
The Brussels occasion, in distinction, supplied a extra targeted dynamic. Internet hosting it at our personal services, we benefited from having lots of our technical specialists be part of instantly. This allowed us to conduct detailed technical deep dives to validate particular options in opposition to our core enterprise wants.
What have been essentially the most worthwhile insights or outcomes from the EIC Company Partnership Programme actions, whether or not when it comes to partnerships, discoveries, or inside learnings?
The exercise below the EIC Company Partnership Programme has been extremely productive on all three fronts. By way of partnerships, we’ve got initiated follow-up conversations with a number of innovators to discover pilot initiatives. For instance, we’re taking a look at promising applied sciences to assist our sustainability targets, like recyclable packaging options or upcycled, multifunctional substances. We additionally see nice potential in leveraging AI to boost manufacturing effectivity.
By way of discoveries, the programme offers a unbelievable real-time snapshot of the innovation panorama throughout a number of thematic areas and cohorts. It has been insightful to see the potential of applied sciences in areas like AI-driven formulation and superior biodiversity monitoring.
Lastly, the EIC Company Partnership Programme energises our organisation. It reinforces the worth of our open innovation mannequin and exposes our groups to new methods of considering. Seeing the eagerness and ingenuity of those entrepreneurs firsthand is extremely inspiring and serves as a catalyst for our personal inside innovation tradition.
For different corporates contemplating becoming a member of the following version of the EIC Multi-Company Day at Influence Circle in July 2026, what recommendation or encouragement would you give?
My recommendation is easy: do it. The worth proposition is exceptionally sturdy. However to maximise that worth, I’d provide two items of recommendation.
First, come ready and have interaction early. Be very clear and particular in regards to the enterprise and know-how challenges you are attempting to resolve. The extra targeted you’re in your downside statements, the higher the EIC may be at matchmaking, guaranteeing your time is spent with essentially the most related innovator.
Second, carry the best group. Don’t simply ship solely innovation scouts; carry technical specialists, enterprise leaders, and decision-makers who can actually assess the potential of a know-how and champion a partnership internally. Their direct participation is essential to transferring from a dialog to a collaboration.
How does P&G envision deepening its engagement with the EIC Company Partnership Programme to drive strategic innovation outcomes over the long run?
We view this as a steady alternative to current our strategic innovation challenges to the EIC, aligned with our mission to ship irresistibly superior and sustainable merchandise that create worth. To speed up worth creation, we goal to determine clearer, sooner pathways for our enterprise items to have interaction instantly with innovators, together with startups and scaleups. Moreover, we’re deepening our collaboration with non-competing company friends on shared challenges – whether or not in client understanding, sustainable supplies, or automation. By partnering throughout the complete European innovation ecosystem, we will collectively create larger worth for all stakeholders.
For extra info, please go to the European Innovation Council Company Partnership Programme website and test the open application for corporations.
