What one achieves, the community supports – EU|BIC Impact in 2025 – EBN

Our 2025 EU|BIC Impact Report reflects a community of business and innovation centres (EU|BICs) driving systemic change. The impact we measured among roughly 100 members speaks for itself: over 29,000 startups and scale-ups supported, 9,000+ jobs created, around €900 million in funding raised, and a 3-year startup survival rate of 84.5%, which is far above the EU average.

As global challenges intensify and innovation disparities widen, EU|BICs are proving that place-based innovation delivers both resilience and scale. In 2025, our community supported nearly 30,000 companies, created more than 9,000 jobs, and mobilised over €880 million in funding. Behind these numbers lies a deeper story: one of ecosystems activated, partnerships forged, and people empowered.

The EU|BIC model turns local action into global progress. Each EU|BIC tailors its approach to regional needs, yet together, they form a continent-wide engine for inclusive, sustainable growth. This Impact Report celebrates their achievements and reinforces our commitment to quality, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

At a time when Europe faces growing gaps in innovation performance, regional inequality, and investment readiness, the EU|BIC community stands as a living model of cohesion policy in action. This report highlights how business support, when rooted in place and certified for quality, can serve as a lever for inclusive growth.

Each EU|BIC tailors its services to its local reality, and yet, their collective impact spans the continent and beyond. What one EU|BIC achieves, the network multiplies: replicable models, shared knowledge, cross-border programmes, and strong partnerships. The community’s strength lies in this balance between diversity of place and unity of purpose.

This year’s initiatives reflect how EU|BICs design pathways for digital and green transformation, by connecting all types of regions with international markets, EU|BICs are setting new benchmarks for innovation excellence. In doing so, EU|BICs show what Europe can be: a connected and empowered network of ecosystems — each thriving on its terms yet contributing to a shared vision of a more sustainable, innovative, and resilient future. They reflect a community with a mission to catalyse transitions, de-risk innovation, and foster scale with purpose. The EU|BIC model is not static — it is evolving, and with it, the definition of what innovation support means in a rapidly changing world.

This impact report also serves as a reminder that in a community, beyond aggregate statistics, there are stories and people. EU|BICs exist because of people; it’s a community that goes beyond its outputs. It’s about relationships, sustained relationships with a community that strives to learn and improve, that collaborates and thrives in doing so.

This report shows that this approach works. The survival rates are higher. The funding is flowing. The ecosystems are more connected. And the values — sustainability, collaboration, inclusion — are embedded in the way business is done. As Europe navigates uncertainty, the role of business support organisations like EU|BICs has never been more vital. They are not just enablers — they are builders of futures.