France awards almost €46 million to 73 innovation projects

The seventh edition of the i-Nov competition run by the French government sees 73 start-up and SME-led projects winning €45.8 million in eight categories.

There were four ‘green’ topics, including renewable energy, sustainable mobility, tackling green transition issues in industry and agriculture, and water and biodiversity. Another four topics covered deep tech, digital transformation of the cultural and creative industries, health, and proteins and ferments of the future. The winning companies will get up to 45% of expenses covered by grants and recoverable advances.

The first six editions of the prize awarded 462 projects, including those carried out by leading French companies such as Treefrog Therapeutics, a leader in cellular therapies, Vitibot, maker of autonomous wine robots, Exotrail, which manufactures motors for small satellites, and Mascara, which develops industrial seawater desalination solutions.