As the EIC Communities project approaches its conclusion, it leaves behind a concrete legacy for Europe’s innovation ecosystem: three Intelligence Briefs and a Best Practices booklet on matchmaking, capturing these years of structured collaboration across industry, cleantech and health.


The new publications translate dozens of co-creation sessions, workshops and ecosystem exchanges into practical guidance for policymakers, innovators and investors. Together, they reflect the project’s core ambition: to move beyond networking and deliver evidence-based insights that can improve how Europe supports deep-tech innovation.

The Best Practices booklet, “Matchmaking in Deep-Tech: Why it works and how to replicate it,”documents how structured encounters between innovators, corporates, investors and researchers can accelerate collaboration and reduce fragmentation across Europe’s innovation landscape. Drawing on case studies from the three Communities of Practice, it outlines replicable formats, tools and principles to make matchmaking a long-term pillar of innovation policy and practice.

Download the booklet here

Alongside this practical guide, EIC Communities publishes three Intelligence Briefs, each focused on a strategic domain where Europe faces both major opportunities and persistent structural barriers.

The AI in Robotics Intelligence Brief addresses the conditions needed to enable safe, trusted and resilient AI-enabled robotic systems in Europe. Based on co-creation workshops with industry, research and start-ups, it highlights gaps in safety benchmarking, continuous learning testing and shared terminology, and proposes concrete recommendations to strengthen certification, governance and interoperability across sectors.

Download the AI in Robotics Intelligence Brief here

The Carbon Removal Technologies Intelligence Brief focuses on one of the critical pillars of Europe’s path to climate neutrality. It shows how the scale-up of carbon removal is slowed not only by technical challenges, but also by fragmented benchmarking, the absence of centralised testing facilities and the lack of a coherent policy framework. The brief calls for unified protocols, dedicated European testing infrastructures and an EU-level framework to create regulatory stability and unlock long-term investment.

Download the Carbon Removal Technologies Intelligence Brief here

The Women’s Health Intelligence Brief turns the spotlight on an area that remains structurally underrepresented in Europe’s research and innovation landscape. Drawing on contributions from health innovators, researchers and start-ups, it documents how data gaps, low awareness, regulatory imbalances and constrained funding pathways continue to limit progress. The brief proposes targeted actions to improve clinical representation, strengthen evidence on societal and economic impact, and build more effective funding and market pathways for women’s health innovation.

Download the Women’s Health Intelligence Brief here

Taken together, the four publications reflect a shared diagnosis across very different sectors: innovation in Europe is too often slowed by fragmentation. Fragmented standards, fragmented evidence, fragmented markets and fragmented support structures can delay the transition from research to impact even when technologies are ready.

By grounding its outputs in co-creation and real ecosystem experience, EIC Communities offers more than high-level recommendations. It provides a set of practical, field-tested insights designed to help policymakers, programme managers and innovation intermediaries build more coherent, resilient and inclusive innovation pathways.

As the project concludes, these Intelligence Briefs and the matchmaking booklet stand as its enduring contribution: tools not only to understand where Europe’s deep-tech ecosystems are struggling, but to act on those challenges with clarity, coordination and purpose.

More updates and developments are available on the DEEPSYNC platform.



Credits:
Cover image: Photo by SHVETS production


Contacts:
Coordination EIC Communities Project:

• Stefania De Santi (APRE) – desanti@apre.it

• Jessica Bonanno (APRE) – bonanno@apre.it

Communication Officer:

• Cesar Giovanni Crisosto (ICONS) – cesar.crisosto@icons.it

Project website: https://deepsync.eu
LinkedIn: DEEPSYNC