"S-PEEK delivers immediate, professional and transparent certified credit reports on every company in Europe allowing users to understand and assess the economic and financial reliability of potential business partners, such as suppliers, clients, distributors. The reports come in 3 formats varying in detail and price. The reports are easy to use and apply modeFinance’s Multi Objective Rating Evaluation (MORE) methodology that simplifies the financial data and credit rating into a colour coded scheme that makes decision making via company reports possible for every user. By analysing this information and making it easily available in a simplified format, modeFinance intends to level the playing field for SMEs to make use of financial corporate information, currently used only by large enterprises. Thanks to S-PEEK, SMEs can make decisions based on up-to-date financial data, thereby potentially avoiding encountering problems associated with companies with ill finances, e.g. losing money. S-PEEK also saves vast time for the users, by making available all company reports via the web or smart device application. Previously companies would have to request expensive complex reports from specialised firms or directly from the company. S-PEEK is available in a preliminary release in Italy. The innovation project intends to improve the mobile application robustness and to widen the database to include the company data in economies of United Kingdom, Germany, France and Spain, followed by the rest of Europe. Once commercialised S-PEEK intends to increase the internationalisation of European SMEs by improving the transparency and readiness of relevant company data through the Union. "

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been deep and wide. In spite of unprecedented efforts to understand the COVID-19 disease and its causative virus SARS-CoV-2, months after the emergence of the first local case in Europe (San Matteo hospital, Pavia, 21st February 2020) significant knowledge gaps persist. While social and natural scientists managed to develop new research and shed light on the dynamics of the outbreak and the most effective possible containment measures, governments have been increasingly faced with the need to adopt urgent decisions. Against this background, PERISCOPE plans to contribute to a dramatically deeper understanding of the dynamics of the outbreak, by means of an intense multi-disciplinary research, both theoretical and experimental, and the consideration of different viewpoints: clinic and epidemiologic; humanistic and psychologic; socio-economic and political; statistical and technological. The overarching objectives of PERISCOPE are to map and analyse the unintended impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak; develop solutions and guidance for policymakers and health authorities on how to mitigate the impact of the outbreak; enhance Europe’s preparedness for future similar events; and reflect on the future multi-level governance in the health as well as other domains affected by the outbreak. In pursuing this objective, PERISCOPE sheds new light on the unintended and indirect consequences of the outbreak and the related government responses, with the intention to preserve evidence-based policymaking by collecting an unprecedented amount of data and information on the social, economic and behavioural consequences of the current pandemic. At the same time, PERISCOPE will produce new information on the conditions that led to the impact of the pandemic, the differences in “policy mix” adopted at the national level in EU and associated countries, and the behavioural impacts of both the outbreak and the policies adopted.

Financial Technology (Fin Tech) means "Technology enabled financial innovations". There is a strong need to improve the competitiveness of the European Fin Tech sector, creating a common regulatory field across all countries which, while encouraging innovations in Big Data analytics, Artificial Intelligence, and Blockchain technologies, can correctly measure their risks. Europe is a broad mosaic of regulatory landscapes. Policy makers and regulators must move quickly to establish a new regulatory framework for emerging fintechs, without stifling their economic potential. The FIN-TECH project, under the EU's Horizon2020 funding scheme, aims to create a European training programme, aimed at providing shared risk management solutions that automatize compliance of Fintech companies (RegTech) and, at the same time, increases the efficiency of supervisory activities (SupTech). In other words, we aim at connecting FINancial supervision with TECHnological compliance, from which the acronym of the project: FIN-TECH. The project programme will be built jointly by 24 university and fntech partners that are established experts in fintech risk management, that will share knowledge with with regulators, supervisors and fintech associations and hubs from all 28 European Union countries, plus Switzerland. The goals of the project will be achieved through research activity in risk management models for Big data analytics, AI and Blockchain applications to finance, discussed in three different research workshops; two levels of knowledge exchange sessions: a training level, run at the location of the involved supervisor in each of the 29 countries, to achieve uniformity across Europe; a coding level, centralised at the location of six different fintech hubs. The project will be simultaneously disseminated and validated through a dedicated web site, social network activity, users feedback and validation by established bank, insurance and investment funds.

Improving access to long-term finance for Energy Efficiency (EE) projects is key to achieve the EU2030 targets and aligning the COVID-19 recovery to the European Green Deal. However, the lack of standardized disclosure of EE investments limits firms’ access to EE financing. Further, poor understanding of EE information in ESG ratings increases the risk of greenwashing, thus preventing a smooth development of the sustainable finance market. TranspArEEnS addresses these barriers by mainstreaming a quali-quantitative framework for standardized collection and analysis of firms’ EE and ESG information and the development of a standardized EE-ESG rating. This serves as an EE-ESG filter to inform investment and financial policy decisions with regard to portfolios’ alignment to sustainability. A unique added value of this project is to cover non-listed Small and Medium Enterprises, meeting an important market need. TranspArEEnS’ EE-ESG rating will be tested in pilot case studies and capacity building sessions with leading representatives of the financial industry and supervisors. This allows to understand barriers and opportunities for its operationalization in: i) credit risk assessment, ii) development of long-term EE-financing via securitization (covered bonds, European Secured Notes), and iii) introduction of EE-ESG considerations into monetary policies and prudential regulations. By enhancing standardized disclosure of EE investing, TranspArEEnS will decrease uncertainty in the EE and ESG market, thus promoting the scaling up of new EE financing and investment opportunities in the EU. Moreover, it will help to mitigate the risk of greenwashing thus improving financial stability. An excellent Consortium, composed of leading academic, business and financial experts, with the support of key stakeholders in EE and sustainable finance, ensures the policy and market relevance of the project’s results.