Since its launch in October 2015, more than 3000 small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) have received the Seal of Excellence, the EU's quality label marking first-class innovative ideas worthy of investment.

The Seal is awarded to those proposals that have successfully passed the stringent selection and award criteria under Horizon 2020, but could not be funded under the available call budget. By recognising the high quality of these projects, the Seal acknowledges the effort of excellent SMEs and serves as a potential route to alternative funding, including ESIF.

Holders of the Seal can benefit from alternative sources of grants and loans that may be offered by those national and regional funding bodies that participate in the scheme. They also have access to targeted advisory services and coaching in order to help them develop their innovative ideas.

One of the many successful cases is of an Italian company developing organic fire extinguishers. Thanks to the Seal awarded for its proposed eco-innovation project, the Region of Lombardy supported this idea with €25.000. And the advanced business plan developed with this support was then awarded a grant for full deployment from Horizon 2020.

To date, more than 140 national and regional funding bodies from different countries(Spain, Germany, Finland, Italy, Romania, Hungary, etc) have been exploring ways of implementing the Seal of Excellence initiative across Europe. As members of the so-called Community of Practice, they come together in Brussels quarterly to exchange good practices, bring new ideas to the table and discuss future possibilities.

Next steps for the Seal of Excellence include further simplification in procedures to tap into the full potential of the initiative and a monitoring mechanism for its implementation and successes.