Innovation actions were introduced in Horizon 2020 to help bringing discoveries to the market. Most of them demonstrate the application of new knowledge in real-life conditions. The very first projects started in 2014 and it still is too early for them to produce final results, but a short study was commissioned to look into the projects based on proposal texts (Grimpe, C. et al., Study on Innovation in Horizon 2020 Projects, EC). For this study, 227 Innovation Actions and six innovation procurement actions were selected that started in 2015, most of them in the PPPs such as Ecsel, Clean Sky, Factories of the Future, Energy Efficient Buildings, Clean Vehicle, but also in other calls (FTI, ICT, NMP, environmental technologies, Galileo and others). The texts of the granted projects were analysed using content analysis methodology, based on keywords that indicate four innovation aspects: technological novelty, market scope, ecosystem embeddedness and innovation readiness. The projects were grouped in three categories. 64 out of the 227 innovation actions score high on technological novelty, market scope and innovation readiness, but low on ecosystem embeddedness. These are called 'pioneering' projects. They seem to focus on breakthrough technological results that may create markets. To the contrary, another 58 innovation actions emphasise ecosystem embeddedness and score lower on the other three aspects. These are called 'diffusing' projects that aim at diffusion and exploitation of the innovative solution in the ecosystem. The remaining 105 innovation actions pay only modest attention to each of the four aspects. These are called 'sustaining' projects. The composition of the consortia differs: pioneering projects involve relatively more private companies, esp. SMEs, and research institutions. The diffusing projects have less companies and more public bodies. The sustaining projects are dominated by higher education institutions. It is still too early to characterise these innovation actions and their impacts, but these initial findings indicate that a quarter have a disruptive, market-creating potential, and that companies and research institutions play a leading role in these initiatives. The six innovation procurement projects share many attention allocation similarities with the innovation actions. However, the attention devoted to innovation readiness and market scope is comparatively lower. There is a risk that these projects do not allocate enough attention to the broader market application of innovation beyond public procurement. These conclusions are based on the texts of the projects at their start. The results of the projects are expected in 2018-2019.
